Help!

[nosoup4you]

Not sure if fish digestion works the same way as human digestion, but wouldn't the venom just be broken down by the digestive enzymes in the stomach?

 

[drobbyb]

Not sure if fish digestion works the same way as human digestion, but wouldn't the venom just be broken down by the digestive enzymes in the stomach?

Yes.

 

[Corleone]

I stand corrected. There I go believing what I read again. The article you cite, which has no references either, would say I should have called them venomous rather than poisonous. I concede that is true. It does not say they are not venomous but that a brown recluse are more venomous.

It has four references down at the bottom, but they're print references, some of which you might have to dig up by microfilm.

Mythbusters did get Adam bitten by them quite a few times, without any ill effects. Spiders have venom for hunting and defense - few spiders have the ability to seriously harm (let alone kill) a much larger animal than themselves, and those that can are generally equipped to deliver it.

http/spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html

Daddy-longlegs (Opiliones) - these arachnids make their living by eating decomposing vegetative and animal matter although are opportunist predators... They do not have venom glands...So, for these daddy-long-legs, the tale is clearly false.

Daddy-longlegs spiders (Pholcidae) - Here, the myth is incorrect at least in making claims that have no basis in known facts... there are no toxicological studies testing the lethality of pholcid venom on any mammalian system... Some have defensive secretions that might be poisonous to small animals if ingested.

What about their fangs being too short to penetrate human skin? Pholcids do indeed have short fangs,... Brown recluse spiders similarly have uncate fang structure and they obviously are able to bite humans.

So, there it is. The bolded part may be of more interest in this case than any danger they might pose to humans.