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(Image: Dibarugarh University)
BY STACEY WELSH ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN
It sounds like a horror movie. The Times of India reported Sunday deadly, unidentified
spiders have invaded a town called Sadiya. One man told the paper spiders like these,
that look like tarantulas, swarmed dozens of residents as a local festival came to an
end in early May. Within the next few days...
“...scores of people arrived in the Sadiya civil hospital with spider bites, some even
carrying their tormentors to the hospital.”
The Times of India also reports two people died after complaining of spider bites. WTTG
reports:
“Local officials are considering using DDT to try to kill those spiders. So far, they
haven’t even been able to identify the species of spider. Ugh.. wow!”
TIME reports the spiders could be a whole new species or black wishbone spiders.
“If that’s the case, the spiders’ venom would not be deadly but could, in some individuals,
cause severe allergic reactions that may result in death.”
But there is some indication the spider invasion might be a hoax. Residents gave researchers
samples of the spiders when they came to investigate. CNN reports one researcher only confirmed
that the spiders actually bit two people who complained of spider bites in the town. In
the case of the two who died...
“...he believed the man might have died from a snake bite, while the boy might not
have suffered any bite at all.”
That researcher added the man’s relatives may have taken him to a spiritual healer instead
of a doctor, making his condition worse. The Daily
Mail reports the spiders might not even be poisonous. A local hospital...
“...had not administered an antidote as they could not be certain the spider was venomous
at all, pointing to the treatment by witch doctors as a possible factor in the two recorded
deaths.”
The Daily Mail also reports researchers don’t think the spiders are native to the area.
The two people who allegedly died from the spider bites were cremated before officials
could investigate what killed them.