Dr John A. King got bitten by a redback spider at a pool in Australia's Northern Territory, where temperatures hit 104°F. He shares stories of eastern brown snakes driven by wind and a colleague who found one coiled on his truck at night. King brown snakes aggressively defend territory and deliver lethal bites.
The weather's been arse-sweatingly hot, you know, 104, 105, 106. Cools down at night to about 89. Bloody unbelievable, with like a million percent humidity. So the missus and I today took us down to, uh, Tennant Creek Luxury. The pool is bloody brilliant. It's absolutely wonderful place to come down and do laps. And just enjoy it. It's a great way to start the day. So we found ourselves a little spot of luxury. Got a bite the other day. I think it's probably a redback spider bite on my left thigh, and just swelled up, and just, it got all, uh, the skin got all red, itchy, and bloody irritated. I'm glad it was just a redback. And, uh, so where I was at camp the other day, and an eastern brown, which are deadly. And apparently the blackfellas were telling me the eastern brown, you can always watch it because the wind pushes them. That's what they say, they call it the wind pushes the east brown, it goes with the wind. So, you know, instead of enjoying the wind anymore, I'm looking around going, oh, what the fuck, where's the eastern brown? I was talking to a fella today at a course. He and a mate were out on a job sleeping in a swag. Swag is just a canvas thing with a little bit of screen, and often you don't do the screen up. So he hears this growl and this hiss, growl, and he goes, well, what's that? What's that? What's that? Put on his headlamp and let's— looking, looking, looking, turned around and this brown snake is up. He said before he knew what had happened, both of them were up and sitting on top of the Hilux ute. Which I just— and the next day the black fella was in them, had caught this thing. And this thing— so this fella is about 6 foot 1, 6 foot 2, and he's holding this thing up above its head. I mean, king browns, their territory— if you're in— if they're blind, if you're in their territory, they will— they rear up and they chase after you, and they'll catch you and they'll kill you. So you don't cross their territory, and, you know, get pretty calm around them. But anyway, so bloody redback spider at the pool. I got bit at the bloody pool by a redback.
