Brazilian Wandering Spider VS Funnel-web - WHICH is more DEADLY?

The South American wandering spiders from the genus Phoneutria, and the Australian funnel-webs from the family Atracidae. These constitute arguably the most notorious spiders worldwide, infamous not only within their native lands but across the globe, and people are none-too-slow to point at either of them as justification for the widespread and wildly disproportionate fear of spiders in our general populace.

But to what extent do these, widely regarded as the spider world’s heaviest hitters, live up to their fearsome reputations? Are they aggressive, lethal monsters? Or are they, like so many animals we fear, simply misunderstood, the unfortunate targets of endless internet hysteria? Let's find out.

References:

Music:

Teller of the Tales by Kevin MacLeod

Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Suonatore di Liuto by Kevin MacLeod

Village Ambiance by Alexander Nakarada

[trala]

“These fat fuckers”
That caught me completely off-guard in this extremely well-researched and professional documentary, and I love it 😂

[LFREIF]

As a Braziliian who have to deal with Wandering spiders inside home at the summers (also brown recluses), i can confirm they are big, very mobile and agressive and even a big one can hide in very, very small objects.

Edit: Wandering spiders can kill adults as brown recluse wich i also have to deal with. But local medicine use to be ready to treat if its called soon as you get bitten (same goes to snakes). Its all about reaction time vs poison spread time. This is why i think brown recluse its more risky due to be very small and not have a noticeable bite but yet take some days to actually kills. And i never killed a single one, just making them get in (or attack) a broom or i put a box over them and release in nature.

[antssaar]

Fun thing is, dangerous spiders dont need to be venomous nor agressive. Huntsman has not much of venom nor do they bite often... But they do cause many car crashes and other accidents. My friend visited Australia and crashed rental car because when she opened sunscreen, large huntsman fell on her lap and run all over her. Not only was it jump scare but shes dead afraid even of small spiders...
Police was called by bypassers and they found her bout 800m from car, breathless and in panic close to insanity :) Car was tottaled, spider was found hiding under seat unharmed and she was ok if not count horriffic mental scar and 10x more of arachnophobia :)

Its hard to find statistic and specialy in fatal cases, theres no one to tell what happend. But in google, can find quite few accidents caused by spiders who otherwise are harmless. Theyr ability and likelyness to hide in unexpected places dont help theyr case, lol.

[mxce]

Casually handling a huntsman on the bus is the most Aussie thing I’ve ever seen.

[awetistic]

"Funnel webs are extremely sedentary and reluctant to leave the safety of their burrows." - Spirit animal detected.

[rakitakhan]

I have a BWS preserved in formalin that I captured about 30 yrs ago. It came in with a shipment of bananas at a local Phx grocery store. My wife contacted me immediately because she knew that I was a spider buff. I didn't recognize the species at first. It was VERY aggressive and attempted to bite me thru the plastic cake container it was captured in. Unfortunately, it passed after about a week. I'm glad that I kept it as my sons both would take it to show and tell at school. They were the cool kids because they had a specimen of one of the most venomous creatures on Earth. As cool as it is, I'll stick to tarantulas. As for which is more deadly ? Both have very potent venoms, but the BWS takes the prize, BUT, because of the proximity to humans, the Atrax species typically gets more bites in.

[FunkinFunAsHell]

i think they are both dangerous for there own reasons the funnel web venom is more powerful and can kill you but you are more likely to see the wandering spider and they can see and have better mobility for me its a tie

[Thefufflylord]

Just curious. In regards to the funnel web, I recall reading that one of the reasons the fatality rate of the spider wasn't terribly high, was because the spider tended to deliver a dry bite, using the size of its fangs and the sharp pain of penetration. That always made sense to me, as why waste precious venom on something you can't eat - we've even seen this with your centipede. But you're far more knowledgeable about this then I am, so what are your thoughts on that?

[michaelrussell]

Best thing about both spiders is they live about as far from Britain as you can get

[Hedgewalkers]

People are instantly afraid and thus demonize that which is alien to them; instead of understanding, or at least giving their best effort, they choose to hate. Sometimes I get sick when I think of how much power we possess and how little we have evolved. God forbid we ever meet an off world civilization, I fear for them not us!

[stevenjones]

Nice video. Personally, though, I think when most people talk about how dangerous something is, the encounter is assumed to have happened. There's a difference between "X species is this dangerous to the human species, " and "An encounter with X is this dangerous to the individual encountering it." Mosquitos kill far more humans than polar bears, but everyone would call the polar bear more dangerous to actually encounter than a mosquito. If I run into a polar bear, I'm not going to be like, "Oh, this is rare, so I'm not in much danger."

But I agree that general disposition and likelihood of dry bites and whatnot are part of the common danger equation.

[kimangus]

One thing you overlooked was the size of their laughing gear and the way it is angled. Lived in Sydney as a kid and a friend got tagged by a Funnel-web straight through her toe nail, ended up in hospital of course but she lived. Never was an arachnophobe, but we had trapdoors in the lawn and the occasional funnel-web wander into the house, treated them with the respect they were due.

[karenlee]

Love your style and the factual, clear presentation - missed your videos :)

[minerran]

why would anyone let a spider with seriously medically significant venom, climb on their hand and arm? The video poster might think this is a show of bravado and courage but I think its plain dumb. Apart from that, a great video overall. Well presented and explained.

[sydneyhunt]

I've got two Thailand funnel-web do you know any information on them because there's not much information out there

[matt]

I'm curious...how deadly would a FULL ENVENOMATION bite from a Hadronyche Formidabilis (Northern Tree-Dwelling Funnel Web Spider) be with no access to anti-venom for an adult human?

[DJLucas-xvoe]

I remember that you guys lost a poor young man back to a redback spider in 2016. I'm sorry for your lost guys.

[TheAxelay]

A confrontation between a wandering spider versus a funnel-web would be interesting but probably cruel because both species would never ever meet in real life. I'd like to include the even more enigmatic six-eyed sand spider, but they rarely move too much yet they're extremely agile as hell...So interesting this.

I didn’t want to see a BORING comparison……I wanted to see these 2 spiders fight with each other…..To see which one is most dangerous ….

[johnfoster]

Finally, someone who appears to have some idea of what they're talking about. This bloke has submitted his review based on scientific data, NOT personal opinion.