Spider-bites in Europe (and AKL?!)
I'm generally a mosquito magnet, but I've been bitten twice in as many months in different hemispheres and would love to know the cause!
The first was in the beer garden (?!) of the Hyatt in AKL where I felt a sharp pain just above my ankle bone .The next day my ankle was severly swollen, itchy red raw with a a clear welt or blister over the bite site. Over the next few days I lost all visible contact with my ankle bone and the horrendous itchy site resulted in a shiny red- deep dark purple-black area.
I assumed this was some local native nasty, then to my horror, after an evening walk recently in Vienna,(just 5 weeks or so later) I experieneced the same symptoms again on the top of my foot ...serious, painful itchyblister followed by 2-3 days of a black-blue inflammed area. Is this a spider bite? I didn't think we had any biting spiders in Europe. I took copious amounts of anti-histamines and also dosed the affect site with Benadryl topical cream, slight relief.
All symptoms subsided after about 7 days in both cases, though curiously I'd never experienced anything simililar before despite travelling extensively world-wide in the last 5 five years. It's quite peculiar that both sypmtoms were almost exactly the same, and yet, having spent plenty of time in both locations in the past and spoken to numerous locals, no-one seems very knowledgible on the cause (by the way I've no known allergens).
Advice appreciated!
WC