If bitten by any of the spiders below stay calm and seek medical attention.
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| Dangerous
Spider Identification If bitten by any of the spiders below stay calm and seek medical attention. |
| Redback
Spider: |
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| Distribution: | Found in rural & urban areas. |
| Identification: | The female spider is usually satin black in colour with a distinctive red or orange hourglass strip down her back. |
| Bite: | Extremely poisonous. Redback bites can cause serious illness & have caused deaths. |
| First Aid: | Apply an ice pack to relieve severe pain, do not apply pressure bandage. Seek urgent medical attention. |
| Whitetail Spider: |  |
| Distribution: | All Australian States |
| Identification: | Dull grey to light faun in colour, cylindrical body 1-2cm long, distinctive white spot at the end of the abdomen. |
| Bite: | Poisonous, stinging or burning pain. Local ulceration occurs within days of being bitten. No conclusive evidence of permanent damage. |
| First Aid: | Ice pack may relieve pain. Seek urgent medical attention. |
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Black House Spider: |
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| Distribution: | Found in rural & urban areas. |
| Identification: | Robust spider, 1-1.5cm black to charcoal grey body. Builds a lacy sheet like web with clearly defined funnel like entrance. |
| Bite: | Poisonous, no recorded fatalities, causes local swelling and is very painful. |
| First Aid: | Ice pack may relieve pain. Seek medical attention if pain persists. |
Facts On Flies:
The house fly (Musca domestica) is known to be important in the spread of
disease. Amoebic dysentery, cholera, gastroenteritis, parasitic worms,
paratyphoid, poliomyelitis, salmonella, shigellosis, trachoma, tuberculosis and
typhoid fever are just some of the diseases capable of being spread by flies.
Flies pick up bacteria while they feed. They are attracted to rubbish bins,
excreta (human and animal), partly digested or decaying food and rotting
carcases. Bacteria stick to their vary hairy legs and can be brushed off onto
food. The fly has no teeth and must take its food in liquid form. Before
the fly starts to eat, it vomits a fluid (loaded with bacteria) onto food, and
then partly sucks it up. It may leave behind some fly excrement, also loaded
with bacteria.
Facts On Mosquitoes:
The Blood sucking habit of the female mosquito
(Order Diptera) has claimed untold number of human lives. The more dangerous
diseases transmitted by mosquitoes rely on biological transmission. Here, the
female receives an infected blood meal, the disease-causing organisms multiply
within her body, and at some later stage she injects the disease organisms into
a new host, (animal or human).
The types of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes include: Protozoan diseases eg.
malaria; worm diseases eg. filariasis: and particularly arbovirus diseases eg.
dengue, yellow fever and encephalitis of various kinds.
ROSS RIVER VIRUS (RRV) (epidemic
polyarthritis) is a mosquito-borne virus which is native to Australia in nature
RRV is normally passed backwards and forwards between animal and mosquitoes. The
only way the humans can catch RRV is by being bitten by a virus-carrying
mosquito. The virus cannot be caught directly from another person or wildlife.
RVV is a notifiable disease under the Health Act. This means that a doctor who
diagnoses RRV infection in a patient must inform the Health Department so that
it can take steps to control virus-carrying mosquitoes.