Bees don’t attack unless they feel threatened.
Shutterstock
While bee sting deaths are rare, bees cause more hospitalisations than any venomous creature.
Echis , also known as the saw-scaled viper, dominates snakebite statistics and kills more people annually than any other.
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Indian-made antivenoms, common throughout Africa because they are affordable, showed little-to-no neutralisation of the African Echis venoms.
An eastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis ) in characteristic defensive posture. Orange spots on the snakes underside are a distinctive feature of brown snakes.
Matt Summerville
There has been at least one fatal bite from a very small brown snake in Australia. But now we know that venom is different in adult and baby brown snakes.
Scientists usually use the word “venomous” rather than “poisonous” when they’re talking about snakes.
Flickr/Sirenz Lorraine
If one venomous snake bites a mouse and injects venom into it, you can then feed that same dead mouse to another snake. The second snake won’t die.
Kit Korzun/Shutterstock
Venom from lizards such as the Komodo dragon has the potential to treat heart attacks, strokes and blood clots.
Bites from brown snakes like this one were the most common, followed by
tiger snakes, then red-bellied black snakes.
Matt Clancy/SunOfErat/Wikimedia Commons
Don’t hold back. Performing CPR on a snakebite victim who has collapsed can save their life, however imperfect your technique.
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The best cure against a snakebite is to avoid being bitten at all. Here is what you need to know about snakebites, antivenom, and what you need to do if bitten.
A reconstruction of Euchambersia with its venomous and ridged fangs.
SimplexPaléo/Alex Bernardini (alex-bernardini.fr)
CT scanning allows scientists to observe and “dissect” fossils digitally using computer software - and to uncover secrets that are hundreds of millions of years old.
Gone are the days when we were told to suck out a snake’s venom. So what’s the current treatment and how have treatments changed over time?
State Library of NSW/Hood
Snake bite treatments have changed remarkably over the past 200 years. But most, if not all, made sense in their historical context.
Just another of Australia’s creepy crawlies… but will it kill you?
Flickr/
Australia’s snakes, spiders and other venomous critters tend to strike fear in many people. But is Australia’s reputation as a nation of deadly creatures deserved?
The black mamba is one of the most notorious venomous snakes in the world.
Flickr
One way to tackle the snakebite antivenom crisis may be through biotechnological innovation to make antivenoms more cost-effective, easier to produce, and more efficacious against snakebites.
The national flower of Zimbabwe, the Glory Lily, is also found in Queensland where it’s more famously known as a noxious weed that’s highly poisonous to humans.
JohnSkewes/Flickr
It’s not just Australia’s animals that can be deadly, there are plenty of dangerous plants too.
The blue-ringed octopus is just one of many venomous creatures found in Australian waters.
Amber Hansen
From stingers to swans, Australia’s oceans are full of (potentially) deadly wildlife.
Inviting, but don’t go in.
Stinger sign image from www.shutterstock.com
Despite a fearsome reputation, it seems Australia’s wildlife doesn’t scare away tourists.
A tiger snake is milked for its venom.
Snake image from www.shutterstock.com
Your guide to the cocktail of deadly chemicals in animal venom.
Is Australia really the most lethal nation on earth when it comes down to it?
The Conversation
There’s a simple reason why Australia isn’t the most lethal nation in the world.
As a generalist predator, spiders, like this Western Rough Wolf Spider, help limit the number of insects in your garden.
Jean and Fred/Flickr
Only two Australian spiders can kill you, but the rest are a pretty fascinating bunch.
Spiders such as this funnel-web (Hadronyche infensa) will only bite if threatened.
There are more than 45,000 species of spider, but only a handful are potentially dangerous to humans.
Stephens’ banded snake is one of Australia’s few arboreal (tree-dwelling) venomous snakes.
Timothy Jackson
Most people avoid venomous creatures, but they can also teach us a lot about chemical reactions that take place outside of the body - or exochemistry.
A red herring in some respects.
Michael Tyler
Autumn is the time when people typically notice spiders in their houses and there is usually an increase in the number of media stories suggesting that spiders – particularly the false widow spider – may…