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For some people, this room might be

the scariest place on Earth.

Behind these black curtains are deadly spiders.

Hundreds of them.

And what we're gonna do is poke them, make them angry,

and then suction the venom that appears

at the end of their really long fangs.

This is about as close as I ever want to get to a funnel.

And we're doing it for a very good reason.

This is a funnel web spider.

They live around Sydney,

which just happens to be one of Australia's biggest cities.

And they build underground burrows,

which are distinctive because of the funnel shape

of the web at the entrance, hence the name funnel web.

But because they feel safe in dark, cool places,

they can end up having unexpected run-ins with people.

What happens is during the breeding season,

the male funnel web will leave his burrow

and he moves around only at night

looking for the females.

But sometimes he gets a bit adventurous

and he might leave his burrow, go too far from it.

And so in the morning, once the sun starts to come up,

he's too far from his burrow to go back to it.

So he kind of has a little freak out

and has to find somewhere temporary

to hide out during the day.

And so what he'll do is he'll head into a nice, dark,

safe spot like a pile of clothing

or a pair of shoes on the ground.

You'll often see Australians bang their shoes together

before putting them on just in case.

If you are unlucky enough to get bitten,

it'll be painful because their fangs

can be up to one centimeter long.

That's longer than many snake fangs.

And the venom delivered is fast acting and deadly.

We only milk the males

because they are six times more toxic.

So the male's venom actually produces

a higher quality antivenom.

So the fastest time that we've seen an adult die

from a male funnel web spider was about 76 minutes.

So just over an hour.

So it's a very fast acting, rapid venom.

Ideally, you wanna stay calm, still

and apply a pressure immobilization bandage

and then get to the hospital as soon as possible.

The venom contains a mixture of proteins,

notably the Delta hexatoxin.

As it travels through your bloodstream,

you'll begin to sweat, twitch, salivate and get goosebumps.

This is because the venom acts on nerve cells, neurons.

Under normal conditions,

neurotransmitters trigger neurons to open ion gates

and positively charged sodium ions flood in.

The dramatic swing from negative to positive

triggers the release of neurotransmitters to the next neuron.

And then the ion gates close

and the cell returns to its resting state.

But funnel web venom stops the ion channels from closing.

So the neuron unleashes a flood of neurotransmitters

like adrenaline throughout the nervous system.

So muscles normally under precise control

receive rapid chaotic signals,

causing them to tense up or spasm,

which is a big problem for the heart,

which begins to pump faster, raising blood pressure

and spreading the venom further around the body.

And eventually your body runs out of neurotransmitters.

Without them, nerve cells can no longer tell muscles

what to do, so you're effectively paralyzed.

And it's only a matter of time before your heart

or your lungs give out.

Humans are particularly unlucky.

Funnel web venom is not that deadly to most mammals.

If something like your dog or your cat or a rabbit

gets bitten by a male funnel web spider even,

even the male, they'll show very few symptoms.

And then you could also be bitten by the exact same spider

and be in a very severe way.

And that's because the effects of venom

are very species specific.

Delta hexatoxin binds to a specific site

of the sodium ion channels in primates, which causes chaos.

But that same spot isn't there in other mammals.

The lethality of this venom in humans

seems to be an accident.

It only affects invertebrates, which are their prey,

and also primates.

So it's really toxic to monkeys and apes.

And of course we are extremely badly affected by that.

The first people arrived on the continent

around 70,000 years ago.

But this spider evolved 40 million years ago.

And it just happens to be extremely deadly to people.

So it seems like an unfortunate coincidence

that venom originally evolved for effectiveness

against insects turns out to be deadly for us.