I Vacuum Venom from the World's Deadliest Spider
2,590,572
Published 2023-06-21
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Huge thanks to the Australian Reptile Park for having us over to film – special thanks to Jake Meney for showing us the spiders and Caitlin Vine for organizing the shoot. www.reptilepark.com.au/
Huge thanks to Dr Timothy Jackson with his help and answering our questions.
Thanks to Seqirus Australia for providing B-roll footage of the antivenom production process.
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References:
Pineda, S. S., Sollod, B. L., Wilson, D., Darling, A., Sunagar, K., Undheim, E. A., ... & King, G. F. (2014). Diversification of a single ancestral gene into a successful toxin superfamily in highly venomous Australian funnel-web spiders. BMC genomics, 15(1), 1-16 - ve42.co/Pineda2014
Isbister, G. K., Gray, M. R., Balit, C. R., Raven, R. J., Stokes, B. J., Porges, K., ... & Fisher, M. M. (2005). Funnel-web spider bite: a systematic review of recorded clinical cases. Medical journal of Australia, 182(8), 407-411 - ve42.co/Isbister2005
Herzig, V., Sunagar, K., Wilson, D. T., Pineda, S. S., Israel, M. R., Dutertre, S., ... & Fry, B. G. (2020). Australian funnel-web spiders evolved human-lethal δ-hexatoxins for defense against vertebrate predators. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(40), 24920-24928 - ve42.co/Herzig2020
Nicholson, G. M., & Graudins, A. (2002). Spiders of medical importance in the Asia–Pacific: Atracotoxin, latrotoxin and related spider neurotoxins. Clinical and experimental pharmacology and physiology, 29(9), 785-794 - ve42.co/Nicholson2002
Fletcher, J. I., Chapman, B. E., Mackay, J. P., Howden, M. E., & King, G. F. (1997). The structure of versutoxin (δ-atracotoxin-Hv1) provides insights into the binding of site 3 neurotoxins to the voltage-gated sodium channel. Structure, 5(11), 1525-1535 - ve42.co/Fletcher1997
Australian Reptile Park. (2022). Snake and Spider First Aid - ve42.co/ARPFirstAid
The Australian Museum. (20 ). Spider facts - ve42.co/SpiderFacts
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Written by Katie Barnshaw & Derek Muller
Edited by Trenton Oliver
Filmed by Petr Lebedev, Derek Muller and Jason Tran
Animation by Ivy Tello, Jakub Misiek and Fabio Albertelli
Neuron animation by Reciprocal Space – www.reciprocal.space/
Additional video/photos supplied from Getty Images, Pond5
B-roll supplied by Seqirus Australia
Music from Epidemic Sound
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, Emily Zhang & Katie Barnshaw
All Comments (21)
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Remember, the cure for an irrational fear of spiders is to simply move to Australia. You'll still be afraid of spiders, but now, it is perfectly rational.
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Out of the top 10 most deadly critters in the world, Australia seems to have 12 of them.
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The fact that no one died of that spider in 40 years, justify this guy's work. Thanks for doing what you are doing.
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shoutout to the Australian Reptile Park for saving lives since 1981
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The fact that no one has died from one in 40 years is pretty amazing
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My friend got bitten by one of these guys. I thought it was weird that a spider biologist would want to randomly bite another person, but people are into weird stuff.
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When I was in primary school (here in Sydney), I remember a boy in my class brought a funnel web in to school in a jar. He was passing the container around amongst the students before the teacher arrived. The boy explained that he'd killed the spider, so one brave kid opened the container. Teacher arrived and went absolutely mad. Boy insisted it was safe as he had killed the spider. Teacher asked him how he killed it and he said he drowned it. Teacher furious out of the sheer fear of what could have transpired yells that funnel-webs can survive underwater for more than 24 hours. Class was left inside and teacher went out to deal with the funnel-web. He came back to tell us that when he'd tipped it out, it was alive and well. Freaky as hell and only once more in my life did I see a teacher that angry. We were so lucky nothing happened to any of the kids. I believe the teacher killed the spider for the safety of the students, but these days we are encouraged to try to catch them safely for this anti-venom program.
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Hey so the spider shown in the clip at 0:30 is a Funnel Weaver spider from the family Agelenidae and are not dangerous at all. The species this video is about is the Sydney Funnel-web Spider (Atrax robustus). They are not closely related. I hope this clears up any misinformation. Don't want people thinking the harmless Funnel Weavers can kill them.
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Used to have these in the swimming pool constantly. Cleaning the pool filter was fun. Alsp jumping into the pool and coming up for air to then see a funnel web sitting on water surface near your face, start swimming backwards and the funnel web getting dragged toward you in your stream of water as you swim away from it, looked like it was chasing you. Childhood memories
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42 years with no deaths is one heck of a success rate! They're doing great work!
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In case anyone wonders: 13 deaths caused by this spider were recorded in total (all before 1981). Most people survive the bite even without antidote. I don’t want to talk bad about this project. Not at all. I just feel like these info were missing for a complete picture of the situation.
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Hey Veritasium, the first images you showed of "funnel weavers" were actually hololena curta, a grass spider. They are funnel Weavers, apart of a large family of spiders, agelinidae. The Sydney Funnel Web spider is a different genus, and is not a grass spider :)
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That’s incredible that not a single person has died in 40 years from a funnel web in Australia.
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That animation of venom spreading through the body was very visceral
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I had no idea funnel-web spiders were so incredibly venomous! The fact that their venom can lead to paralysis and death in humans is truly alarming. It's impressive to see the dedication of the team at the Australian Reptile Park in collecting venom from these spiders to produce anti-venom. This life-saving work has saved countless lives, and it's reassuring to know that no one has died from funnel-web spider bites in Australia since 1981. Also, kudos to Derek for shedding light on this important topic and for promoting BetterHelp, making mental health support more accessible to everyone
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Let's all appreciate the hard work and dedication of the cute little bunnies producing the antibodies! They are the real heroes in this story. Go bunnies! 😍🐇🐰
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Veritasium the only guy who could convince me to sit though looking at spiders for 9 minutes
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My dad once said: "There are some very nasty animals in planet earth, especially in hot areas, exept Australia, which has extra nasty animals."
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7:00 I like how they put this short animation in the video, they don't have to, but they still did it!
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Glad to see a video that's kept pretty to the point, only 9 minutes. I've been watching a lot less Veritasium since so many videos are 20-30 minutes, with lots of just repetition and padding. But this one, much more digestible and still fully informative.
