Last April, a red-backed spider told off a 21-year-old Australian tradesman by biting where it hurt him most - on his penis. It happened because he did not examine the portaloo in Kogarah before he eased his body on the toilet bowl.
Why didn't he learn from his mistake, messaged the furious spider, when another red-backed spider bit him on the same spot again last week, when he went to the toilet.
The tradie did have some defence. He said that he wasn't even going to go near one, and generally kept away from portable toilets. However, the one he visited that day was cleaned, so safe to use, he thought. In fact, he actually peeped under two toilet seats to ensure that there was no spider before he sat down.
"I was sitting on the toilet doing my business and just felt the sting that I felt the first time," recalls the tradesman. "I looked down and I've seen a few little legs coming from around the rim," he adds.
The spider wasn't buying his argument, and "seems like it got a better shot at it this time," said the man to Kiis FM Radio.
The redback spider species, quite common in Australia, is known to bite 4,000 of the victims who never looked before they sat.
He was in great pain but became the laughing stock of all his fellow tradesmen when they took him to Blacktown Hospital in north-west Sydney. The nurse at the hospital goggled when she saw a patient for the same bite the second time, and giggled when she remembered that it was the same victim. "Everyone was laughing, calling me the unluckiest man in Australia," he rued. He had happened to land up in the wrong place at the wrong time!
One thing he's going to ensure in future is not just about checking where he eases himself. He wants to see to it that he does not visit a public toilet at all!
"I think I'll be holding on for dear life, to be honest," he said.
On Tuesday, he took his course of anti-venom and tetanus shots.
About 250 of such patients need anti-venom shots, which was created in the 1950s. Though the shots have pulled back every Australian from death, the bites cause "intense pain, swelling and nausea."
