poisonous spider

[henryman]

what would happen if you swallowed a poisonous spider alive?

[Headtime]

You would probably have to 'swallow a bird to catch the spider, that wriggled and tickled inside you'. I suspect that the acid in your stomach would kill it pretty quickly. Whether the spider's poison would harm you, I don't know. But I would get myself down to A&E pretty sharpish. I also imagine that it would be very difficult to swallow it accidently. A lot of the more poisonous spiders are rather large and wouldn't slip down your throat very easily.

[andy hughes]

the spider may bite the inside of your mouth as a reflex action, which may cause problems, but once it reached your stomach, any biting would have little or no effect, the lining of your stomach would probably see to that.

[football]

'Celebrity Get Me Out of Here' was gross also. At least eat things which are dead.

[Mr Bear]

You would have one dead spider.

[Vendsoin]

You would be poisoned by the poison in it's body.... But you probably meant venomous spider. As any creatures swallowed alive they would fall into cataleptic state (would fell asleep) in a dark enviroment in your body, where the oxygen is deficient. Most likely it would be crushed by oesophagus first, though. But can it bite you? Well, if someone unlucky swallows a wasp that person would get in a sting or two, before it reaches the stomach and gets digested. Spiders have a softer body and therefore much greater chance to be crushed, they also move slower than wasps. Practically the only chance to bite you is in your mouth. If it goes in it is food. Still, as you probably swallow it with some other piece of food, and that object just MAY stop it from being crushed there is a theoretical chance for a bite. But if you live in environment where there are venomous spiders on a move the chance of geting a bite from the inside is times smaller than chance to get a bite from the outside.