One of the world's deadliest spiders can give you an erection lasting days if it bites you.
For many men who struggle to show their arousal it may sound ideal.
But for those who have experienced it first hand, it has been a traumatising and severely painful experience.
READ MORE:Bloke left with two-day erection after bite from one of world's most venomous spiders
A bite from the Brazilian wandering spider can cause extraordinary pain, increased blood pressure, a racing respiratory rate, blurred vision and convulsions – as well as long-lasting erections.
But how does the bite make blokes hard?
Nitric oxide – which increases blood flow – is produced in the body when the brain senses sexual arousal. This acts as a message telling the body to make an erection.
The spider’s venom has been shown to increase amounts of nitric oxide in the body.
Scientists have been investigating the unusual side effect by looking at different components of the venom and running tests on rats.
They injected the venom-chemical into test rodents to get them erect and monitored the increase in blood flow to the blood vessels inside the penis.
It was then that scientists discovered that the spider's venom increased nitric oxide levels.
Now scientists are hoping that they can put the dangerous venom to good use in the treatment of erectile dysfunction.
Romulo Leite from the Medical College Georgia team told LiveScience: "The erection is a side effect that everybody who gets stung by this spider will experience along with the pain and discomfort.
"We're hoping eventually this will end up in the development of real drugs for the treatment of erectile dysfunction."
The scientists suggest that a combination of a synthetic version of the spider venom with a drug like Viagra would work wonders.
Recently an electrician from Peru opened up about the traumatising experience of being bitten by one of the spiders and getting a long-lasting erection.
He explained: "It just stayed that way for two full days. Only by the third day it started going back to normal.
"Everything was so unbearably painful, that's why I always tell people now to be extremely careful with these spiders."
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