Warning: Gross Pet spider kills its owner

[Edwin]

Quote from the article:

A police spokesman said: “It was like a horror movie. His corpse was over the sofa.

“Giant webs draped him, spiders were all over him. They were coming out of his nose and his mouth.

“There was everything there one could imagine in the world of reptiles.

“Larger pieces of flesh torn off by the lizards were scooped up and taken back to the webs of tarantulas and other bird-eating spiders.”

Link:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004092008,00.html

[Matt_K]

I was just listening to the radio and heard this story on there, so i started searching for it online so i could post it, im glad someone found it though.. Thanks for posting it ;)

Police broke in to Mark Voegel’s apartment to find spider Bettina along with 200 others, several snakes, a gecko lizard called Helmut and several thousand termites had gorged on his body.

Are they saying that the gecko tore of parts of the man???

[drewlowe]

Originally posted by Matt_K
Are they saying that the gecko tore of parts of the man??? [/B]

You mean you didn't see the pic of the gecko with a napkin around his neck and had a mini fork and knife.

[djc3674]

damn...that sucks....(no pun intended)..seriously.

[Edwin]

I am more concerned about how the animals escaped. The article mentioned that the heat elements exploded... how could that happen?

[Matt_K]

How could it have happened without him noticing before the animals escaped??

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Thats weird. They make herps sound so aweful too. I hate them animal authorities.

[Jamie]

Personally I like the little blurb under the picture of the cobra..."Danger ... he kept snakes". Why would they put a picture of a cobra when it was mentioned that he had a boa? People are strange

[rwg]

As horrible as that is, there's one part of that article that is absolutely hilarious. See the picture of the cobra with the caption "danger...he kept snakes" Yes "snakes" are very very dangerous. Kill them on sight, or better yet, run for your lives.

Sounds like the guy kept a lot of things fre-roaming. Bad press we dont need.

rg

[Gregg M]

Yeah and you need to watch out for those human eating spiders......LOL...... And termites are not gonna eat on you unless you have a wooden peg leg........LOL....... I think this story was alittle exagerated.......

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Definetly!

[djc3674]

According to this site...Black Widow Spiders do not inject enough venom to kill an adult human being.

http://www.desertusa.com/july97/du_bwindow.html

[Cruciform]

I was reading that the number of black widow fatalities dropped significantly with the implementation of indoor plumbing in their habitat ranges.

It seems that men were much more likely to die than women when bitten as well.

The reason given was that virtually all bites occured in outhouses, and men bitten on the testicles or ***** were much more likely to suffer fatal effects due to the amount of blood flowing near the surface of the skin.

People stopped using outhouses, and bites became much less common :)

[Matt]

hmmm, this story is a little weird....doesnt make complete sense to me!

[Matt_K]

seems to me that the guy was likely already dead..

[Slannesh]

I especially love this quote

"A post-mortem will be carried out in the next few days. But authorities believe Bettina alone was responsible for Voegel’s death."

So they're just assuming that the black widow bit him 7-14 days ago and that's what killed him? Even though there were nearly two weeks of scavenging action going on? Come on... and i'm sure his extra vicious gecko was just gorged on human flesh.

Sounds like blatant sensationalism to me.

[meow_mix450]

thats just stupid:p

Meow

[M_surinamensis]

The Sun is the British "Original" that newspapers like the Weekly World News are modeled after... It's the online edition of a grocery store checkout format. If you look long enough in their archives, you can find the more traditional Vampire/Bigfoot stories too.

It's all a joke, I suggest enjoying it like one.

[Matt_K]

This story has been spreading all over the news today.. On some pretty reputable stations, including CNN.. I'm not sure how much of a 'joke' it is..

[Invictus]

It's not a joke... what it is is bad press for our hobby. But frankly, if he was that irresponsible and he had free-roaming tarantulas and snakes in his "zoo", he got what he deserved. As for the black widow killing him, I'd like to just add that a MOSQUITO can kill me. Why not a black widow? (Some people have allergies... let's not forget that factor.)

[marisa]

There have INDEED been deaths attributed to the Black Widow! Rare but definitly has happened. Like Invictus mentioned, it really depends on the person. If you are sensitive to things like bees and what not, I am sure you are more at risk.

On the other hand, my mother has been bitten by a Black Widow in the face. It got her in the middle of the forehead. She didn't feel all that great and had a nasty wound for some time. But she is also slightly allergic to bees. So it really depends.

Marisa

[TheRedDragon]

I'm just shaking my head...... that is such a tragedy, but, such bad press for reptiles and inverts.

[blazinreps]

wow that story is insaine the should really get more info before rtiing something like that its may to exagerated it doesent make sense that spiders would carry hunks of meat to there webs. iv never heard of a spider doing that before and i doubt a gecko lizard could tear human flesh or would even want to. and the last thing i dont think spiders would be inside the body i just dont see y theywould be. storys liek this make me so mad becuase then ppl judge herps and the ppl that keep them.

[JonD]

She said: “He had spiders so aggressive they are the equivalent of a pit-bull in the animal world.” LOL:D

[creepiecrawlie]

To me that seems like the beginning of Eight Legged Freaks you know where he gets bit by the Tarantula and dies (fake!) Then the spiders eat him.