After a recent case of a fiddler spider attack in Ibiza (that of Jennifer Vicenti Dálvez, who was saved from amputation), more people who have been bitten by the insect have told La Voz de Ibiza about the nightmare they lived through.
One of them, a 40-year-old Ibizan woman, says she was bitten in the belly by a spider in August 2023. She was not aware of exactly where, how and when the bite occurred. She went to the doctor when her abdominal area began to swell at a dizzying rate.
Although they did not confirm that it was the fiddler spider, everything would indicate that it was: blackened area (sign of the necrosis process, which causes the venom of this spider) and something characteristic of the loxosceles rufescens: unbearable burning sensation.
In addition, the victim had another common symptom: fever. She was treated with heavy doses of antibiotics and corticosteroids to prevent necrosis from reaching the point of gangrene, tissue death.
Fiddler spider in Ibiza: another person saved from amputation
Like Vicenti Dálvez, Andrea Valverde (Madrid, 1996), a 28-year-old marketing and communications professional who has lived in Ibiza since 2011, also narrowly escaped losing a limb, in her case, a toe.
Valverde explains that it happened almost two years ago, in January 2023. She did not feel any sting and the first thing she noticed was that the third toe of her right foot started to become red, itchy and swollen.
“I think the spider must have been in the sock,” thinks Andrea. It is worth noting that hiding inside socks, shoes or in other dark places is typical of the fiddler, also called the Mediterranean brown spider or, for the aforementioned, corner spider.
First she went to the emergency room at the Vila Health Center. They thought it might be fungus, hesitated, and finally gave him an antibacterial ointment. They also insisted that he might have hit himself.
There began a long search for a diagnosis, for months and months. He also went to the Can Misses hospital and to private doctors. He was given three different types of antibiotics, ibuprofen and even tramadol, a very strong painkiller.
“I didn’t sleep, it felt like my toe was on fire, the pain spread to the rest of my foot and leg, and it wouldn’t go away with ibuprofen,” he recalls.
He spent the first month on sick leave because he could not walk. The analytical tests (which he had to insist to have done), he was apparently fine. He had to start using crutches. She began to lose weight, between the stress, the anguish and how much the medication was affecting her.
She went to the emergency room every day: “At 4 o’clock in the morning I was there, sedated so that the pain would go away, but of course at 12 o’clock in the morning I was already feeling everything again. It was constant, a burning that felt like my whole body was on fire”.
Finally, with the blackening of the finger and the lack of improvement, she was told that it was necrosis and was scheduled for surgery. Faced with the imminent amputation, Andrea decided to travel to her hometown, to the family home, and make a last attempt rather than resign herself to losing her finger.
There he went to eight hospitals and saw more than 40 specialists. Once in Madrid, he was told that it was probably a spider bite. “A dermatologist told me first. I was impressed by that, that in Ibiza nobody realized it was a spider.” Later they confirmed that it was a necrotic venom spider.
Finally, a foot physiotherapist was the one who, only in July, managed to save his toe. He performed a test that had not been done before, to see the degree of irrigation of the area (since necrosis prevents blood flow) and after an infiltration, his toe began to improve.
Of course, he then had to deal with the consequences. He had developed plantar fasciitis and weeks of rehabilitation followed: “I had to relearn how to walk.
