Sometimes they suffered from uncontrollable erections...

Remember all the stories about how the black widow spider venom could cure erectile dysfunction? Well for those who don’t, recently Ukmedix News reported that the deadly black widow spider’s venom was being used in clinical trials to see if it could work on men who suffered from erectile dysfunction. The reason for these trials was that it noted that when men came to hospitals with mild black widow spider bites sometimes they suffered from uncontrollable erections and scientist felt this phenomenon needed to be investigated further.

Well now it appears that the black widow spider venom research has uncovered another potential benefit for men as it appears that the venom could also work as a contraceptive. Interestingly though the only the specific black widow type found in the southern region of Chile has these spermicidal characteristics and not other black widow spider venom from different parts of the world. The scientific name for this particular black widow spider is Latrodectus mactans.

Dr Fernando Romero leading the team of scientists that has been looking at the black widow spider venom for over seven years now said that this new finding was incredibly exciting and could mean that the spider venom would not only be useful for erectile dysfunction but also as an effective contraceptive meaning that it would have more than one market.

In Chile the properties of the black widow spider venom have been known for many years and while the black widow spider is very much feared as its bite can kill young children and the elderly, in strong men it causes days of permanent erections and men claim that after they have recovered from the painful effects of the spider bite they feel sexually more virile and physically stronger.  In fact there is an expression in Chile to describe a man with good sexual energy as a “spider bitten”.