Britain's most dangerous spider bites 5-year-old girl (6 photos)

Lily Hodgson didn't know she was the victim of a false black widow. The girl complained to her mother that her ankle hurt and it was painful for her to walk. By evening she was covered in a terrible rash.





When Lily broke out in an itchy rash, her parents thought she had a food allergy and gave her an antihistamine.

“I woke up at 3 a.m. when Lily felt hot next to me. I turned on the light and almost screamed. She was covered in a strange rash literally from head to toe. The next day her ankle hurt and she couldn’t walk,” says mother Jenna Hunt.



In the morning, the woman and her child went to the pharmacy. The pharmacist looked at Lily and said that she was probably having a reaction to the bite and advised her to see a doctor immediately.

Doctors confirmed that the patient was bitten by a false black widow.



Known as Steatoda nobilis, these arachnids arrived in Britain from the Canary Islands in banana boxes in the late 1800s and then slowly spread north.

"We have no idea when our daughter was bitten," says Jenna. "She was at my parents' house that day, playing indoors, walking three minutes to our house. Lily was already taking antibiotics and antihistamines for tonsillitis and an ear infection, and We were advised to continue treatment."



Brave Lily coped with the disease. The rash went away after four days, but the girl was upset that she did not have superpowers like Spider-Man.



But the experience has made Hunt vigilant, and she wants to warn others: "If you get a rash, especially one like Lily's, please see a doctor."

Despite their bad reputation, false widows are unlikely to attack unless provoked or pinned between clothing and skin.