It seems dreadfully counterintuitive that bites from a tiny creature such as a recluse or black widow spider can have disastrous, even lethal consequences for far larger creatures, like humans. How is this possible, given the seemingly insignificant volumes of venom in question?
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All that needs to happen for a venom to be lethal is for it to inhibit the body’s vital systems. If it paralyses your lungs, you die. Stops your heart, you die.
Muscle relaxers come in tiny pills, but a few extra pills can relax the most important muscles like the heart or lungs. Also, some venom can make blood clot.
The human body is an immensely complicated biochemical machine that runs on thousands of different proteins and depends on them interacting correctly. A toxin can interfere with the functioning of some vital part of this machine by mimicking or complementing the structure of some proteins. It’s like the way how even a small amount of gasoline mixed into the tank has the potential to completely wreck a diesel engine, because it interferes with its proper working.
There is a very common biochemical occurrence called a cascade. This means that one small trigger, such as a hormone, can cause a massive amount of reaction in other parts of the body. Your body uses these cascades all over the body to get things done and certain things like venom can stop these processes from happening or make new cascades happen themselves.
Other people have given good answers as to how exactly venom can kill a person. I’d like to add that the seemingly small amount of venom you describe is actually incredibly potent and concentrated. Less venom needed to kill your prey means you have to make less of it, too.
in addition to the biochemical-machine explanation, notice that most of the creatures with the most lethal venom are small, fragile invertebrates: fr. ex. the box jellyfish, the cone snail, and the blue-ringed octopus. these are creatures who prey on animals who could easily injure or kill them if they’re not taken out instantly. so they need that potent venom to kill their prey before they have the chance to struggle. this can take many forms, of course, and not all of them are lethal to humans (or at least not so lethal that you can’t save the victim with quick action). but it doesn’t take a lot of venom to kill even a large mammal if it’s potent enough and has the right *kind* of potency.
Even a small venom can coagulate your blood. A small clot that reaches your heart, lung, or brain is very dangerous.
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