‘Tarantulas’ Invade Assam Town, 2 People Dead

[KTrain]

Jintu Gogoi's neighbourhood in Sadiya, Upper Assam, is no longer friendly. Over two weeks ago, an army of eight-legged freaks invaded it. It all happened in the evening on May 8. Most of the inhabitants of Chaulkhowa Nagaon village had been to a Bihu function. When the programme drew to a close, swarms of spiders suddenly descended from nowhere and started biting the people. The festive mood soon turned into one of panic with people bumping into each other and tripping over empty benches in their frantic bid to egress. Jintu was bitten by one of these critters.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/h...w/13753398.cms

[saskflames69]

What is with this website and its unhealthy obsession with spiders?

[mrdonkey]

[jeffman]

Nuke the town from orbit?

[CaptainCraig]

Napalm

[DropIt]

Why is Tarantulas in quotations?

[Wormius]

Well, I have no idea what country that is, but once I know I will make sure to avoid it.

[dissentowner]

I call total b.s. Look at some of the other stories, it is like a National Enquirer of India. Given my connections with arachnologists I would have heard about this. Pure rubbish.

[ClubFlames]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

I call total b.s. Look at some of the other stories, it is like a National Enquirer of India. Given my connections with arachnologists I would have heard about this. Pure rubbish.

No it isn't.

Its the Times of India, it has the largest circulation among English language newspapers in the world.

As for the story, its true. Your connections have failed you.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

I call total b.s. Look at some of the other stories, it is like a National Enquirer of India. Given my connections with arachnologists I would have heard about this. Pure rubbish.

lol

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

I call total b.s. Look at some of the other stories, it is like a National Enquirer of India. Given my connections with arachnologists I would have heard about this. Pure rubbish.

Roflmao.

Does this make you an arachnapologist? Keep fighting the good fight...

[sharkov]

Looks like the spiders now have a homeland

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by ClubFlames

No it isn't.

Its the Times of India, it has the largest circulation among English language newspapers in the world.

As for the story, its true. Your connections have failed you.

Bull. Find me another source? Any source at all. There is not a spider on the planet that agressively attacks humans, it just doesn't happen. The worlds most dangerous spider is probably the male Sydney Funnel Web Spider and there have been zero fatalities since 1981. As for tarantulas their venom is never fatal and for another fact only in North America do we refer to spiders of the Theraphosidae family by that name. There has never been a case of a tarantula bite causing death, they just don't have a potent enough venom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula
I am very familiar with spiders that inhabit India, the only large ones are from the family Poecilotheria and they cannot kill a person. So in closing a guy is claiming to the paper that a horde of highly venomous tarantulas that must be an entirely new species that was never seen before invaded a village and attacked people? Absolute rubbish! Tarantulas don't even live together, they are solitary animals. Well, there are some Avicularia species who's webs may overlap into eachother that might tolerate one another but those are South American spiders and very very docile. If you knew anything at all about tarantulas or even spiders for that matter you would see how stupid it is to believe this story. It is bullcrap. Maybe some of you should do your homework before believing every ridiculous thing you read.

[dissentowner]

Wait, I found another news site that was willing to carry this story.
http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines...-attack-india/
After reading about the spiders you can read about the Loch Ness Monster being found, Mutant news, and Aliens as well!

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Bull. Find me another source? Any source at all. There is not a spider on the planet that agressively attacks humans, it just doesn't happen. The worlds most dangerous spider is probably the male Sydney Funnel Web Spider and there have been zero fatalities since 1981. As for tarantulas their venom is never fatal and for another fact only in North America do we refer to spiders of the Theraphosidae family by that name. There has never been a case of a tarantula bite causing death, they just don't have a potent enough venom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula
I am very familiar with spiders that inhabit India, the only large ones are from the family Poecilotheria and they cannot kill a person. So in closing a guy is claiming to the paper that a horde of highly venomous tarantulas that must be an entirely new species that was never seen before invaded a village and attacked people? Absolute rubbish! Tarantulas don't even live together, they are solitary animals. Well, there are some Avicularia species who's webs may overlap into eachother that might tolerate one another but those are South American spiders and very very docile. If you knew anything at all about tarantulas or even spiders for that matter you would see how stupid it is to believe this story. It is bullcrap. Maybe some of you should do your homework before believing every ridiculous thing you read.

Well the article did say they didn't think the venom was fatal, just that the two people that died probably had an allergic reaction. (Like many people do to lots of different insect bites and stings).

You're obviously knowledgeable on the subject but did you bother to read the article through before you went off on it?

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Well the article did say they didn't think the venom was fatal, just that the two people that died probably had an allergic reaction. (Like many people do to lots of different insect bites and stings).

You're obviously knowledgeable on the subject but did you bother to read the article through before you went off on it?

Yes I did and it is still rubbish. There is no way that swarms of tarantulas swooped into a village and just started attacking villagers. It is ridiculous. I concede it would be possible for two people to die from tarantula bites if they had the most severe allergy to spider venom ever known to man. They would be the first two confirmed deaths from a tarantula bite in history. Why are the science publications not picking this up? This would be a historic finding, a species of large spider that hunts in packs and agressively targets people. It shoud be headline news. Also, even with a severe allergy it would still take a pretty long time for a tarantula's venom to kill you. It can be immediately treated with anti-histamine which can be found at any medical facility.
Here was a guide I found to India's venomous animals, under spiders it states they have not had any fatalities in years, probably not since modern medicine times.
http://billericky.hubpages.com/hub/P...iders-in-India
This story sounds more like a horror movie than anything remotely realistic.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

NSFW!

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Yes I did and it is still rubbish. There is no way that swarms of tarantulas swooped into a village and just started attacking villagers. It is ridiculous. I concede it would be possible for two people to die from tarantula bites if they had the most severe allergy to spider venom ever known to man. They would be the first two confirmed deaths from a tarantula bite in history. Why are the science publications not picking this up? This would be a historic finding, a species of large spider that hunts in packs and agressively targets people. It shoud be headline news. Also, even with a severe allergy it would still take a pretty long time for a tarantula's venom to kill you. It can be immediately treated with anti-histamine which can be found at any medical facility.
Here was a guide I found to India's venomous animals, under spiders it states they have not had any fatalities in years, probably not since modern medicine times.
http://billericky.hubpages.com/hub/P...iders-in-India
This story sounds more like a horror movie than anything remotely realistic.

Well the article stated that most of the people didn't go to the hospital. They went to local witch doctors and healers, and that could have been a factor. Plus allergies to insect bites and stings can kill you pretty quickly, I know some people who have to carry around epee pens for just that reason. You've never heard of people dying from bee stings or spider bites before? It's not terribly uncommon. I'm not sure where your getting your facts from that people don't die from being allergic to insect/spider bites.

As well the article did state that yes the spider behavior in the story is very strange but not unprecedented. Spiders can swarm if environmental conditions are against them. As for the aggressiveness, that is also very weird, but I don't know. Says they are looking into the case.

As for what the spiders are doing there, they also state that it doesn't appear to be a spider that they knew was native to the area. It may have been transported there from somewhere, perhaps even already bred with a local species to create a new one. Like the Africanized honey bees in North America.

Lastly I don't know why the story isn't more widely spread, there could be lots of reasons. Maybe it will be in the weeks to come.

I'm not saying your wrong, it's just your first posts didn't really do much to challenge the article, it didn't even seem like you read it. Everything you say here was already covered in the article so it makes me wonder if you bothered to go through it or you just jumped at the headline and the post.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Well the article stated that most of the people didn't go to the hospital. They went to local witch doctors and healers, and that could have been a factor. Plus allergies to insect bites and stings can kill you pretty quickly, I know some people who have to carry around epee pens for just that reason. You've never heard of people dying from bee stings or spider bites before? It's not terribly uncommon. I'm not sure where your getting your facts from that people don't die from being allergic to insect/spider bites.

As well the article did state that yes the spider behavior in the story is very strange but not unprecedented. Spiders can swarm if environmental conditions are against them. As for the aggressiveness, that is also very weird, but I don't know. Says they are looking into the case.

As for what the spiders are doing there, they also state that it doesn't appear to be a spider that they knew was native to the area. It may have been transported there from somewhere, perhaps even already bred with a local species to create a new one. Like the Africanized honey bees in North America.

Lastly I don't know why the story isn't more widely spread, there could be lots of reasons. Maybe it will be in the weeks to come.

I'm not saying your wrong, it's just your first posts didn't really do much to challenge the article, it didn't even seem like you read it. Everything you say here was already covered in the article so it makes me wonder if you bothered to go through it or you just jumped at the headline and the post.

He has a passion for arachnids, so he likely wasn't happy to see this story.

[Yasa]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

I concede it would be possible for two people to die from tarantula bites if they had the most severe allergy to spider venom ever known to man.

I wouldn't consider this to be that much of a leap, considering peanuts can kill us.