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Fact check: Viral photos show trapdoor spider whose venom isn't toxic to humans

Bayliss Wagner
USA TODAY

The claim: Photos show a spider whose venom can kill humans within five minutes

Commenters have dubbed a spider in a viral Facebook post an “Oreo spider” for the flat, brownish disc on the end of its abdomen. Despite the innocuous nickname, the user who shared the post warns beachgoers this “Oreo” can be deadly.

“For those of you who are going to the beach, please beware of this,” reads the caption on the Oct. 27 post. “Don't try to pick it up thinking it's a work of art. It's a very poisonous spider. If it stings you, you will die within 5 minutes.”

That post was shared more than 88,000 times in just over a week. For at least a year and a half, the photos have popped up all over the world in French, Arabic, Spanish and other languages.

However, the venom of the spider in the photos poses no health risk to humans, and you are unlikely to find it on a beach.

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“Nearly all spiders have venom, but very few of those are toxic to humans,” Jason Bond, an arachnology specialist and insect systematics chair at the University of California-Davis, told USA TODAY. “Cyclocosmia is one of those spider groups that has no known toxicity to humans.”

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment.

Spider's venom isn't toxic to humans

Characterized by an abdomen ending in a hardened disk, Cyclocosmia is a genus in the family of cork-lid trapdoor spiders. 

Scientists have identified 10 species of Cyclocosmia spiders, two of which have been found in the Southeast United States. They've also been spotted in Mexico and southeast Asia, including in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and China.

The photos in the Facebook post were taken by nature photographer Nicky Bay, who posted them on Flickr in 2019. In a Twitter thread, he said he took the photos of the spider in captivity in Thailand.

"It is actually a very docile spider with medically insignificant venom," he wrote in February 2020. "It would also much rather hide than go chasing after anyone."

Cyclocosmia spiders use venom to attack their insect prey. But a bite does not pose a health risk to humans, according to Bond.

Even if it did, it's unlikely you'd encounter one in the wild – especially not on a crowded beach.

Cyclocosmia spiders live in deep, subterranean burrows that they cover with hinged silk "doors" to trap prey.

“Most people have never seen (Cyclocosmia spiders) because you really have to go out and look for them,” Bond said. “They're not incredibly common, and then, of course, you'd have to dig one out of its burrow to even get bitten by it.”

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The spiders are also not naturally aggressive.

“(In) all my years of collecting and working on trapdoor spiders, the only time any of us have ever gotten bitten by one was in the lab, when we were trying to photograph them,” Bond said. “For most spiders, you have to provoke them, you've got to grab them, you have to do something to make them really defensive to get them to bite you.”

In that rare situation when a trapdoor spider bites, Bond said, you might feel the pinch of tiny fangs, but “you don’t really feel anything from the venom.”

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that photos show a spider whose venom can kill humans within five minutes. Experts say the venom of Cyclocosmia spiders does not pose a health risk to humans.

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