We want to destroy hope right from the start: Even though Peter Parker became Spiderman through the bite of a radioactive spider, this story is still fictional (yes, you really have to say that!), and a bite from a Nosferatu spider will make you one Don't make him a vampire either - because the eight-legged friend only gets its name because of its characteristic markings on the front of its body, which is reminiscent of the famous film vampire.

Unnecessary scaremongering

It's not as if current world events are somehow boring and we need a new reason to panic. Nevertheless, some media like to throw a little more coal into the fire:

MIMIKAMA
A panic-inducing post from a newspaper on Facebook

" Caution! This poisonous spider is currently spreading in Germany. “, writes the newspaper on Facebook, suggesting that a new danger is crawling towards us on eight legs.

Behind the link is not an article, but a video with lots of close-ups of the Nosferatu spider to create even more horror (and will certainly deter arachnophobes even more), until after a minute an important sentence is uttered...

The Nosferatu spider has been around in Germany and Austria for almost 20 years

The sentence “The Nosferatu spider is spreading in Germany” is about as informative as “Wasps fly around in the summer” - because Zoropsis spinimana , its scientific name, was only known from the Mediterranean region until about 20 years ago. It crawls but since then around Germany and Austria.

The ever-warming temperatures in this country are not entirely innocent of the fact that spiders, which probably traveled here through freight transport, luggage or in the engine compartments of cars, feel at home here and multiply.

Don't panic about the little crawler - it's not dangerous!

The Nosferatu spider has been appearing in the media every now and then for several years, and it is repeatedly claimed, garnished with close-ups, that it is dangerous and “ as big as a tarantula ” - although of course everyone has pictures of “tarantula”. palm-sized spiders, but a Nosferatu spider is just 2 centimeters long, while the smallest tarantulas in this country reach 3 centimeters.

It can also bite, but this is not a unique selling point, as the common garden spiders, water spiders and the nurse's thorn finger can also penetrate human skin with their bites. And in fact, the bite also injects venom - but it is not dangerous for humans!

You have to make a bit of effort before you get bitten by a Nosferatu spider, because they are by no means as aggressive as wasps, for example. Before she bites, she first threatens properly: the jaw claws are spread, the leg spines and adhesive hairs are raised.

This can be really scary and dangerous if you are about the same size as the spider. But the Nosferatu spider is sensible: If something is clearly too big for a victorious attack, for example a finger that is moving towards it, it will turn around and quickly run away.

But if a bite does occur (which you really have to provoke her to do so that she thinks she is in danger and sees no other way out), it is about as painful as a light wasp sting. However, the redness of the skin and possible swelling lasts for a few days.

Conclusion

If anything, you should be more afraid of wasps than the Nosferatu spider. This does not crawl curiously towards sweet drinks and cakes, but mostly stays in the forest under stones and bark. In houses it also looks for quiet corners from which it hunts insects and other house spiders (yes, hunts: it runs from them after it and then jumps at it, it doesn't build a net).

Of course, it can be annoying that it also reproduces quite a bit: 20 to 50 small spiders hatch from the cocoons that it builds, so it is better to catch them with a glass, for example, and release them outside. Since they hatch on average between mid-August and early September, they are likely to be seen more frequently at the moment.

So:

  • Dangerous? - No.
  • Large? – Maximum 2 centimeters.
  • Poisonous? – Yes, but not for humans.
  • Should I be afraid of them? – No, because they are far more afraid when a large, slow-moving mountain is coming towards them.
  • Can she turn me into a vampire? – BOAH, still NO!

Article image: PNGWing.com
Sources: NABU NRW , Spider Forum Wiki , Natural History Museum Karlsruhe , NABU

Also interesting:

The idea alone should give you a lot of horror: Apparently we eat an average of 8 spiders a year while we sleep.
What do the crawlers want in our mouths? Or will a spider… er… a bear be tied to us? - Bon appetit! Do we really eat 8 spiders a year while we sleep?


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )