Girl, 5, left covered in rashes and unable to walk after being bitten by ‘Britain’s most dangerous spider’

A five-year-old girl has been left unable to walk after waking up covered in a rash “head to toe” following a bite from a noble false widow spider.

Lily Hodgson complained of a painful ankle before her face became itchy by bedtime.

Her mum Genna Hunt thought it was a reaction to food and gave her antihistamines.

But during the night Hunt woke to find her daughter covered in rashes.

She said: “I woke at 3am as Lily felt hot next to me. I put the light on and nearly screamed at her poor face.

“I woke her up and she was covered in this strange rash literally head to toe.

“The worst it got was when the itchy rash was in her hair and all the way down to her toes, which was 24 hours later. Her ankle did hurt the next day and she did refuse to walk on it.”

Hunt took her daughter to their local pharmacy in Eastleigh, Hampshire.

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The 34-year-old added: “I did mention her ankle hurt – by this point, she wasn’t walking on it, but it wasn’t swollen.

“He said he suspected it was a bite reaction rather than a food allergy and that he would like her to be seen by a GP urgently.”

She continued: “We were taken into a room with an on-call paramedic who covers at the practice.

“He got out a magnifying glass and said ‘yep it’s a false widow spider bite.’ He said he hadn’t seen many cases where they had a reaction like Lily’s before.”

The noble false widow, also known as Steatoda nobilis, is thought to have arrived from the Canary Islands in banana boxes in the late 1800s before spreading northwards.

Hodgson’s rashes cleared up after four days but she says she is mostly disappointed that her bite didn’t bring her superpowers “like Spider-Man”.

Her mum added: “I’m now extra paranoid of any spiders in the house. Lily has been told to come get us if she sees any spiders in her room and to not pick any of them up.

“Honestly if you have any type of rash, especially one like Lily’s, then please get it looked at.”