Death by Spider Bite

I like to use scary medical things in my books and for some reason, Poison (my second novel), was probably the creepiest because of the involvement of spiders.

But Poison is not that far from medical fact.

Brown recluse and black widow spiders tend to cause the most problems in the US. Evidently, a Florida man was bitten on his neck while renovating his house. The problem with a brown recluse spider bite is the venom necrotizes (or eats away) the tissue.

In this man, it rotted out one of his vertebrae and eventually caused his demise.

Death by spider bite is rare. As this news piece states-- the most common cause of death related to spider bites is anaphylaxis-- a severe allergic reaction your body has to the venom.

Brown recluse or fiddle back spiders have a characteristic marking on their back that looks like a violin. For more information on this deadly arachnid check out this link.

 Have you ever used insects in an unusual way in your novels?