Dangerous spiders in Tenerife and the other islands are part of the insects that must maintain balance on the island.
We don’t just worship Tenerife as a sun god; we also see everything through rose-colored glasses… everything is beautiful and appealing, nothing is ugly and despicable. Well, almost nothing. The fauna is rich, the flora is flourishing. And it’s precisely in this setting that a snag lies hidden, or rather, a little spider lurks in the underbrush. Various species of spiders live in the Canary Islands, and two of them are dangerous: Latrodectus and Loxosceles.
Their prey
Spiders are arthropods and are particularly useful in nature, clearing up a large number of insects, especially flies and mosquitoes. They come in various forms, colors, and sizes. Some tropical species grow larger and sometimes have bright colors, a distinctive body shape, or characteristic protrusions. However, most spiders have good camouflage. Some spiders are so well camouflaged that they are no longer recognizable as such. Their hunting techniques can vary greatly. They eat what they catch, usually with a web, while others hunt for invertebrates ‘on foot’. Their prey must be fresh and caught by themselves; a found dead fly is left untouched.
Arachnophobia
Spiders are often mistakenly considered insects by many. However, there are quite a few differences to note. Spiders have four pairs of walking legs and not three pairs like insects. The body consists of only two parts, whereas that of insects consists of three parts.
Pedro Oromi, professor at the Faculty of Biology at the University of La Laguna and a specialist in arachnology, states that there are 975 arachnids living in the Canary Islands, of which about 500 are spiders, and that a spider has never attacked a human.
So, it’s understandable if you shudder while reading this article; being afraid of spiders is not surprising. Five out of ten people on this planet suffer from arachnophobia or fear of spiders and are already scared at the mere thought of them.
Not Deadly
In the Canary Islands, there is no spider present that can kill a human, although a bite from two dangerous spiders in Tenerife can cause some unpleasant consequences. One belongs to the family of widow spiders, and the other to the family of recluse spiders. They answer to the names Latrodectus tredecimguttatus and Loxosceles rufescens. The former is better known as the ‘black widow’.
Recluse Spiders
Loxosceles rufescens
The Loxosceles rufescens comes from the family of recluse spiders and lives in dark corners, where it weaves dense and strong webs. Its bite causes a necrotizing effect on the skin tissue around the bite, potentially leading to acute edema. An additional danger of this spider’s bite is that injected bacteria can lead to gangrene in other parts of the body. For instance, there was a case of a man bitten in Gran Canaria whose resulting blood poisoning led to the amputation of both feet. Conversely, a woman in Tenerife was bitten without further consequences, thanks to appropriate dermatological treatment.
Latrodectus tredecimguttatus
The Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, sometimes called the Mediterranean black widow, causes less trouble at and around the bite site but affects the entire body.
Its neurotoxic venom, with few local effects at the bite site, causes heart disorders, fever, abdominal rigidity, and involuntary muscle contractions. Not deadly, but at the very least, a severe affliction. This spider is found in large numbers on El Hierro because it particularly enjoys a beetle that lives there. The spider owes its name to its color and the fact that it eats the male after mating. Males are generally more conspicuous than females because they use their color pattern to entice females to mate.
So, there are indeed dangerous spiders in Tenerife. People with fear or phobia of spiders often tend to overestimate the size of these eight-legged invertebrates. It is scientifically proven that they prefer looking at butterflies rather than spiders. Interestingly, arachnophobia is significantly less common among indigenous peoples than in Western society.
There are several species of spiders present on Tenerife and the other islands.
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