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Austrians Pumped Up Over Spider

We think of Austrians as pretty tough folk--their skiiers are hardcore, for instance--but they are currently whipped into a tizzy over the Yellow Sack Spider. The creepy crawler is causing mass panic across the Alpine nation; this week 190 people visited a hospital in Linz, although only eight of them actually had symptoms resembling a spider bite.

It's fine that the Austrians are practicing spider safety, but the arachnid isn't poisonous--the bite is similar to that of a wasp's sting. As creatures terrorrizing a nation go, it's not the same as Bruno the Bear, but we could see how intensive media coverage of the spider could cause people to fly off the handle. As for us, we still think the scariest thing from Austria is, and always will be, Ah-nuld.

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·   Austria gripped by fear of spider [BBC]