*WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT* Woodhouse man bit by a false black widow spider

Matt Clarke, 31, was bitten by a '˜false black widow' spider last year as he was lying in bed.

The spider delivers a similar bite to its antipodean cousin, which can kill within hours, but is not deadly. However, these horrific pictures show the state of the 31-year-old’s leg.

He said he woke up one night in November a “tingly sensation” and a spider on his leg. Not thinking much about it, he brushed the spider off his leg and went back to sleep, Matt told your Chad.

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He woke up with a burning sensation in his leg that got unbearable throughout the day forcing him to visit A&E.

At A&E Matt was treated for a spider bite and thought that was the end of it.

However, the burning sensation didn’t go away and a few days later he”felt a liquid dripping” down his leg, which he said was the liquid coming from the bite which had burst open.

He also said that the pain that followed it made it impossible for him to even walk and he was left with “a hole he could see his muscles through”.

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He said: “I didn’t understand why the bite wasn’t healing so I tried to find answers. I researched spiders and my symptoms, and I realised I had been bitten by a ‘false black widow’.

This was then confirmed by a doctor and Matt had to return to the hospital where he was given an x-rays. Medics then told him his bite was toxic and needed constant monitoring.

Doctors advised him to draw around the outskirts of the infected area to check for the spread of infection.

Matt is now on the road to recovery but said he found the injury ironic.

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He added: “I’ve been in the Army for ten years, I’ve been all over the world and slept next to more dangerous spiders and never got bit, but I got bit in my own bed.”

A Mansfield Woodhouse man has described how he was bitten by a spider which delivers a similar venom to the deadly black widow.

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