An eight-year-old boy was bitten by a deadly funnel web spider after he mistook the live creature for a fake plastic toy.
Brayden Martz, from Saratoga on the Central Coast of New South Wales, was trying to scare his 11-year-old brother Ryan by picking up what he thought was a fake spider.
But the live funnel web bit into his finger and would not let go.
‘So, basically I tried to shake it off, but it wouldn’t come off, so I had to flick it off,’ Brayden told The Central Coast Gosford Express Advocate.
Brayden’s mother Anne Martz told the paper she heard Brayden screaming before her 15-year-old daughter told her Brayden had been bitten.
‘Ally started a compression bandage and kept Brayden calm I rang the ambulance,’ Ms Martz said.
The family waited about 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. It was not until he reached the hospital that he showed symptoms and his mouth began watering, after which doctors gave him an antivenom.
His mother, who had previously lived in the bush and had read about funnel web spider bites, knew to make a compression bandage for the bite which she did with frozen peas.
‘I think it is really important for parents to know what to do,’ Ms Martz said.