Columbia, SC (WLTX) - A post that’s gone viral on social media has people wondering if there’s a new deadly spider in South Carolina.
On Facebook there's been a post shared more than a million times claiming there's a new deadly spider. According to the post, it was first seen in South Carolina and has spread to other parts of the county. The post also claims five people have died from being bitten by the spider.
News 19 wanted to verify if the spiders in the post were real or not.
Doug Wood with the South Carolina Forestry Commission says the picture is actually a woodlouse spider.
"This Facebook, social media post is definitely a hoax. We're not aware of any newly discovered species of woodlouse spiders. It's a fairly well-known spider to those who work in forest health. There's no such threat from this particular spider," said Wood.
Vicky Bertagnolli with Clemson Extension says while the post claims the new spider can kill people, it simply isn't true.
"It is not a spider that’s going to kill people," explained Bertagnoli
Bertagnoli says these hunting spiders can be found under logs, rocks, leaf litter, mulch, and other landscape. She says they’re bites only cause minor pain that can last up to an hour. She says the spider that's shown in the photo in the post is harmless to people.
Since a new deadly spider has not been discovered in South Carolina and the picture in the post is actually a woodlouse spider, we can verify that it is false that there's a new deadly spider in South Carolina.