Claim: The venomous 'two-striped telamonia' spider lurks beneath toilet seats in public restrooms.
Examples:
[Collected via e-mail, 1999]
Don't forget to look !!!
This is really scary ...
According to an article by Dr. Beverly Clark, in the Journal of the United Medical Association (JUMA), the mystery behind a recent spate of deaths has been solved.
If you haven't already heard about it in the news, here is what happened.
3 women in Chicago, turned up at hospitals over a 5 day period, all with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis, and finally, death. There were no outward signs of trauma. Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood. These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common. It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same restaurant (Big Chappies, at Blare Airport), within days of their deaths.
The health department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down. The food, water, and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail. The big break came when a waitress at the restaurant was rushed to the hospital with similar symptoms. She told doctors that she had been on vacation, and had only went to the restaurant to pick up her check. She did not eat or drink while she was there, but had used the restroom. That is when one toxicologist, remembering an article he had read, drove out to the restaurant, went into the restroom, and lifted the toilet seat. Under the seat, out of normal view, was small spider.
The spider was captured and brought back to the lab, where it was determined to be the South American Blush Spider (arachnius gluteus), so named because of its reddened flesh color. This spider's venom is extremely toxic, but can take several days to take effect. They live in cold, dark, damp climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere. Several days later a lawyer from Los Angeles showed up at a hospital emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away on business, had taken a flight from New York, changing planes in Chicago, before returning home. He did not visit Big Chappies while there. He did, as did all of the other victims, have what was determined to be a puncture wound, on his right buttock. Investigators discovered that the flight he was on had originated in South America. The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from South America, and discovered the Blush spider's nests on 4 different planes! It is now beleived that these spiders can be anywhere in the country.
So please, before you use a public toilet, lift the seat to check for spiders.
It can save your life!
And please pass this on to everyone you care about.
[Collected via e-mail, 2002]
WARNING: From the University of North Florida
An article by Dr. Beverly Clark, in the Journal of the United Medical Association (JUMA), the mystery behind a recent spate of deaths has been solved. If you haven't already heard about it in the news, here is what happened.
Three women in North Florida, turned up at hospitals over a 5-day period, all with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis, and finally, death. There were no outward signs of trauma. Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood.
These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common. It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same restaurant (Olive Garden) within days of their deaths. The health department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down. The food, water, and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail.
The big break came when a waitress at the restaurant was rushed to the hospital with similar symptoms. She told doctors that she had been on vacation, and had only went to the restaurant to pick up her check. She did not eat or drink while she was there, but had used the restroom. That is when one toxicologist, remembering an article he had read, drove out to the restaurant, went into the restroom, and lifted the toilet seat. Under the seat, out of normal view, was a small spider. The spider was captured and brought back to the lab, where it was determined to be the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata) , so named because of its reddened flesh color. This spider's venom is extremely toxic, but can take several days to take effect. They live in cold, dark, damp climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere.
Several days later a lawyer from Jacksonville showed up at a hospital emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away on business, had taken a flight from Indonesia, changing planes in Singapore, before returning home. He did not visit (Olive Garden), while there. He did, as did all of the other victims, have what was determined be a puncture wound, on his right buttock.
Investigators discovered that the flight he was on had originated in India. The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from India, and discovered the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata) spider's nests on 4 different planes!
It is now believed that these spiders can be anywhere in the country. So please, before you use a public toilet, lift the seat to check for spiders. It can save your life! And please pass this on to everyone you care about.
Officer Sylvia Steele
University of North Florida
Science Dept
4567 St. Johns Bluff Road, South
Jacksonville, FL 32224-2645
Origins: This
entertaining scare story, which first surfaced during the summer of 1999, was fairly easy to identify as a hoax by the slightly-altered and obsolete real names used to give it an air of authenticity. Thus Chicago's O'Hare airport became "Blare Airport," the Journal of the American Medical Association became the "Journal of the United Medical Association," the name of the Civil Aeronautics Board was invoked even though that organization was dissolved in 1984, and an apocryphal genus/species classification of "arachnius gluteus" (i.e., "butt spider") was assigned to the star of the legend.
In October 2002 new life was breathed into this hoax when it was circulated anew with many of its details changed, even though the text of the warning barely shifted at all:
The three women hospitalized in Chicago over a five-day period became three women hospitalized in North Florida over the same space of time.
The spiders' ground zero (Big Chappies at Blare Airport) became an Olive Garden at an unspecified location.
The "South American Blush Spider" (Arachnius gluteus) became "the Two-Striped Telamonia" (Telamonia dimidiata), which is a real type of spider found in Asian rain forests.
The Los Angeles lawyer who had taken a flight from New York City that changed planes in Chicago became a Jacksonville lawyer who had flown from Indonesia, changing planes in Singapore.
The spider-carrying flight that investigators discovered had originated in South America became a flight said to have originated in India.
A year later, in October 2003, yet another version surfaced, one that again changed a few details here and there but for the most part left the previous text untouched:
This time the three women who had to be hospitalized were in South Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
The eatery named in the account changed to Hart's Family Restaurant.
The spider remained unchanged, once again described as "the Two-Striped Telamonia spider" (Telamonia dimidiata).
The lawyer responsible for bringing the spiders into the country was now said to be from Scranton, Pennsylvania, and to have taken a flight from Clarks Summit, changing planes in Wilkes-Barre.
Investigators were said to have discovered the flight had originated in Binghamton, NY, yet the next line has "the Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from India."
No one has been bitten by "blush spiders" lurking in airline toilet seats. Although some spiders prefer dark, cool places and can sometimes be found under (usually outdoor) toilet seats (as evidenced by Slim Newton's 1972 song about the Australian Redback Spider, "The Redback on the Toilet Seat") an airliner toilet would be quite an inhospitable abode for a spider due to the chemicals used in them. Of all the precautions you might want to take when traveling by air, checking under the toilet rim for spiders should be given a very low priority.
Additional information:
Blush Spider Arachnius Gluteus Is a Hoax (University of California Riverside)
