Heather McDougal, who writes about curiosities and wonders of nature on her blog Cabinet of Wonders, has a good essay about black widow spiders, which have infested her new trailer.
Heather McDougal on black widow spidersUnlike brown recluse spiders, whose venom is cytotoxic, meaning it is meant to slow down the prey, partially digesting the tissues and making for failure of the prey's systems, the black widow spider's venom is based on a neurotoxin, which I would much prefer. In mammals, when they are bitten by a spider with cytotoxic venom, it means the tissue surrounding the bite turns necrotic (dies) and is often unable to heal afterwards. There are some truly horrific pictures on the Internet of brown recluse spider bites several months on, which I would rather not contemplate.
The venom of a black widow, being a neurotoxin, has a more widespread effect, entering the bloodstream and being deposited at the nerve endings where the endings insert into the muscles. This causes intense, painful cramping and muscle spasms, and is very painful. It lasts a few days and then disperses, leaving only a few minor symptoms - spasms, tingling, nervousness and weakness - to remember her by. For me - though I would not want to encounter a black widow bite - the biggest fear has been for my children, because the smaller the body mass, the more likely the venom is to cause shock to the system and death.
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My brother gets some of these and puts them into acrylic for belt buckles and necklaces. They are really neat to look at up close without all the danger associated with this type of arachnid.
I always thought the brown recluse's venom was just a hemotoxin. Learn something new every day.
Lots of black widow bites in my area. If the bite is near a joint, you can have pain and stiffness in the joint for years. Kill em. Kill em all.
They are nasty to kill, though. The big ones are just one huge, bloated, squishy abdomen filled with slimy spider guts. I vastly prefer having scorpions to having black widows.
Heather needs to burn her trailer.
Black widows and brown recluses apparently do not compete for food, living comfortable alongside one another. This I know from first-hand experience, as my dad's rural attic is filled with both. I ran some cable up there for him one day and in the process, my helper and I had to keep brushing them off each other as they would fall upon us. I was shuddering for days afterword and am still a little freaked out from the experience years later.
Another time, out at granma's place in the country while having a family gathering, we noticed a bunch of black widow nests hanging from the house. Since there were toddlers roaming below, we went around and took them all out. There were 13 in all (active!) It is a normal one-story house.
Anyone want to come down now and enjoy the 105 degree heat of the Texas summer?
It was 113° here on the weekend. 105° sounds downright refreshing.
I haven't encountered the brown recluses yet but as a Texas resident have found both black widows and scorpions. For some reason the scorpions bother me more on a gut-reaction level, even though the ones around here (Austin) have stings that supposedly are only about as bad as a bee sting.
I generally try to leave spiders alone when I find them on the assumption that they're eating things I find even more unpleasant. But the black widows must die, primarily for the safety of my kids.
I have been bitten by a black widow; it was only really painful for a day or two but left me too physically weak to do any real work for a couple of weeks.
My best friend was bitten by a brown recluse, and eventually recovered full use of his hand - after a couple of decades.
I am totally not an insect person, But I do know about the hobo spider which looks very much like the brown recluse. Its bite is extremly serious and should not be taken lightly.
Heather should relax, a little. According to calpoison.org no one has died from a Black Widow in the past 10 years.
Of the author, as she states she does not live in the Central Valley, or she would feel differently about Black Widow spiders. That, and they get really huge here- must be the heat.
1. They are aggressive. I've had several come racing at me with their front legs in the air, nippers moving at a rapid rate.
2. They are very social. They will live closely together in nests. They will coordinate movements to a large central food source.
3. They will bite multiple times. I was bitten 5 times by one, and nearly died because I hadn't sought emergency room treatment (but was taken there, got shots, and lived).
4. Foggers are about the only way to do them in short of smushing them. Raid just makes them angry.
Thank god I live in a country too cold for any kind of spider capable of causing more than a tiny red spot with a bite (if that).
When I can't get at widows with a hammer or a pair of heavy gloves, I use a butane torch to nuke them from orbit. Only way to be sure.
Beautiful spiders, but not on my turf. Recently I came home to my house, only to discover a half dozen widows had set up camp ringing the front door.
NIMBY
@#5, Antinous, maybe we can meet somewhere in the middle? Michigan is about 55 right now. I think I need to remind her it's JULY!!
I will say, TG for no poisonous thingies up here. I guess there's a benefit to cold winters. I think there are brown recluse around here, but they are extremely rare, tending toward the south end of the state.
There is actually a Black Recluse the releases a homotoxin or hohotoxin.
This reminds me of an old Alice Cooper song (with Vincent Price, no less!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZy5MX_kBto
I've had both in my house over the years. The brown recluse spiders seem to be far more prevalent in this area, though, and if given a choice, I'd rather not be bitten by either, thanks. Excruciating pain versus gangrene? Kill 'em all.
I had a bite that looked like it came from a brown recluse. Right near the groin area. My inner thigh from where it meets the pelvis almost to my knee was a giant swollen lump. On top of that was another red, hot swollen lump probably 4 inches in diameter. On top of that was a large, blackened blister with two holes in the top, probably from the fangs. Hurt like hell. Made me sick. The doctor I saw refused to deal with it. He said it should be seen by a surgeon. It was a Friday on a holiday weekend, and no one was available as it did not seem life threatening.
My wife ended up cleaning the thing out and bandaging it. I have to tell you, it's a little unnerving to smell rotting meat, and know it's your own leg making that smell.
From what I've read, the majority of black widow bites used to happen in outhouses.
Antinous: Where are you? -In the Mojave Desert?
I've got black widows around my house and probably in my garage. From what I understand, they are very, very shy, and go out of their way not to bite you. Although I'm creepeed out when I see one, I've never gone out of my way to deliberately exterminate them.
We get a bunch of brown widows in our backyard. I didn't even know they existed until I moved into our new house. Never saw one of them when I lived 20 miles away, but in our new place, they love to build webs in the crevices of our deck chairs. When I first saw one, pale brown body with a yellow hourglass, I thought it was some sort of albino black widow. But apparently they moved out to California from Florida. I'm a pretty live-and-let-live person when it comes to spiders, but not so much with these in my backyard. I have a young daughter who loves to explore.
Palm Springs. Our weather is almost identical to Riyadh, except a little drier.
Black widows in CA are mostly encountered in outdoor wood piles. Wear gloves when bringing the wood indoors.
The black widow in the outhouse was treated in literature in the John Nichols novel "The Milagro Beanfield War.
Antinous: I have been to Palm Springs in the summer. You win! ;P
When I was younger we used to live out in Mesa, Arizona. Mom says that the black widows used to make their webs in the water heater closet and sometimes across the back door. Her method: can of hair spray and a lighter.
These things are aggressive, and there's a ton of them here in the Sonoran Desert. One time my neighbor thought it'd be a good idea to feed a black widow living near my front yard. After a few months this thing was the biggest black widow I'd ever seen in my life. It's rear end was the size of a large acorn when I killed it.
It totally freaked me out when I went to kill it, because it was creeping on the ground (not normal behavior). And I kid u not, it was coming right for me as I bent down to give it a quick squirt of carb cleaner. Near instant death, it flipped over on it's back from it's legs curling up so fast.
Black widows seek water (unlike scorpions, who avoid it), so they commonly hang out around the house. If you're not on slab, the concrete foundation is popular, as are the circuit box, hose bibs, pool filter box, etc. Of course, they also come inside, but so do the scorpions, tarantulas, solfugids and rattlesnakes.
Here in the NW we don't have many poisonous things to worry about, but we do have black widows. They are interesting because their webs are so tough, you can toss a good sized twig in them and they'll hold it and not break. But I admit I do kill the spiders when I see them. They are mostly out in the barn, I have never seen one in the house.
A few years ago my dog was bit by something out in the pasture. I saw her yelp, but didn't find anything when I examined her. A couple weeks later she had developed a 2 inch scabby area on her side. Because she was fluffy it had gone unnoticed. When the vet examined it he got her into emergency surgery, and ended up removing a huge piece of skin on that side, about 4 x 6 inches, that was necrotic. Luckily she healed up fine. The vet felt it was probably a spider that bit her, because there isn't much else in the area that could cause that kind of damage.
Very interesting post on a very scary little creature!
This comment thread makes me never want to set foot outside the northeast again.
I can personally attest that my insecticide-less bug-spray of choice (soapy water in a spray bottle) will kill Black Widows handily. Dr Bronner's is my first choice because it mixes with water so well and I think the peppermint oil helps a little bit with the mixture's effectiveness. I probably never go stronger than 24-to-1 for bug spraying. Just be aware that it kills bugs at different speeds–some will die immediately, some take a minute or two.
Anyway, last summer I had a Black Widow who built a web on my back porch and the spray killed her in about a minute.
Actually, it's been great. I used to have arachnophobia and shriek when I saw a little spider on the ceiling. Now I scoop the tarantulas up in some tupperware and release them in the neighbor's yard. I'm completely immune to creepy crawlies.
My grandmother recounted the story of being bit by a brown recluse (unknown by the small community at the time as being quite so lethal). She bandaged it with a family remedy salt-water pack (disinfects everything and draws out the venom). Finally went into town to the doctor after a week, since it had turned red, then blue, brown, and finally black. He pulled out a dime-sized sphere of necrotic tissue, and remarked that it was the smallest damage he'd seen.
Methinks I see someone who's about to get stung by our moderators.
@22 - Our backyard (Southern California) is infested by brown widows too. With my young kids playing back there my live and let live goes out the window and they die on site.
Antinous / Moderator #33:
...Now I scoop the tarantulas up in some tupperware and release them in the neighbor's yard. I'm completely immune to creepy crawlies.
If you're completely immune then why get rid of them at all? Do you just like freaking out the neighbors?
Very interesting post on a very scary little creature!
some semi-apocryphal black widow folk wisdom: men should always give the seat in rural, widow infested outhouses a good, solid kick before sitting down to a jolly read of the Farmer's Almanac. Apparently bites on dangly bits are Not Fun.
Fortunately for her, she will never have to worry about brown recluses, as they do not live in CA.
Also, most Brown Recluse bites never become necrotic. I think it's under 1%, , with most of that 1% being minor, and I also believe there's some debate in the scientific community as to whether or not their venom is at all toxic. Most arachnologists, from my reading, seem to agree that most reported bites are not in fact brown recluse bites at all. This explains the massive discrepancy between brown recluse range and the range of recluse bite reports. Their range is quite small and nowhere near the West Coast, but there are hundreds of reported Brown Recluse bite's in CA each year. Go figure.
I've been bitten twice by Brown Recluse's and received a pesky, itchy sore that lasted a couple weeks. Black Widow's, however, will provide with the worst everywhere-pain, that you will ever experience. It think if she knew better, she'd restate her preference.
And to another poster's misconceptions, both spider's are incredibly timid, even the large West Coast versions of black and brown widow's. If they raise their legs in aggression it's likely because they've been prodded or poked. They will never run in this posture, so you're likely recalling your memories with some fear bias. They will never chase you, only run away, but in the wrong direction. Their senses have an effective range of a few centimeters at best. Most bites from either spider come from when the spider is trapped between the victim and some other object. I don't think anyone's been hunted down by these spiders. :)
I just found a black widow in my basement and collected it in a stick. I then brought the spider to the ground, it did happen to run away (in my direction). I stomped on it with my steel toed boot.
All the people on here have given great info, about their experiences. Thanks.
Just a couple days ago I went to the pressure regulator to turn the pressure down. there was a black widow inside the cover.
I wrestled with my conscience- I don't wish death on anything. In the end, I let her live, but I took her two egg sacks and burned them with a Bic, because she's right outside my son's room, and I don't need another thousand widows looking for a home in his room. Should I leave her, to look for another husband? Was killing her eggs worse than killing her too?
I usually carry unwanted bugs outside, but allow a few Daddy Longlegs, and the occaisional mosquito vulture. I like bugs.
A couple of years ago we had a bit of a problem in our attic with a couple of shoggoths - I won't go into it here as it's not really relevant, but suffice to say getting rid of them was no walk in the park. But I think I'd rather have a repeat of that than have to deal with a poisonous spider festival keeping me up at night.
...suddenly roaches seem cute and cuddly.
sounds like some places should have some proper Australian spiders imported. You know, the kind that strut across the room in broad daylight and then charge you with a broken bottle if they notice you. Why did they ever call it "funnelweb" anyway? How about "eight-legged Rottweiler" or something?
When I was a kid (also Mesa, Arizona) I used to catch Black Widows and keep them in jars on my window sill and feed them flies. It was interesting to watch them eat the flies. They are actually very elegant and beautiful.
Ahhhhh, all this talk of weird beasties and bugs makes me glad to be in Scotland... The worst thing we have to deal with are midges XD
This year we're having tons of BWs! (I live north of Los Angeles) In fact, it's so bad that we haven't been using our backyard in a few weeks.
I've been spraying windex, hairspray and other stuff I found around the house that wouldn't kill me first (like the ortho stuff), but I'm not sure if it really works. These suckers are hard to get and too big to squish :0
Anyone have any good ideas on how to control them?
ugh... spiders. a good smash works, althought the little bastrds will chase you if theyre on the ground. burn'n em works beautifully no matter what.
We have bought 1o acres in Northern California w/ a barn that has living quarters on top, all very neglected! As we have begun to clean and clear we are finding Black Wodows and the sacs everywhere! Any suggetions on products to use to exterminate? I have heard that most over the counter spider products don't work on the Black Widows, is that true?
Sidney in Somerset CA
Just found one on my grill in Central AZ. One of us does not have much time.
The park I go to is now infested with brown widows! They are brown and tan and have a black and white hourglass. They are larger than typical spiders and seem more aggressive. I thought these spiders were tropical. Guess not.
i was bit by a black widow and it hurt for a while i was bit by my elbow it hurt a bit i couldn't get up to do anything for a week and I'm only 14 so it was quite a shock that nothing actually happened to me. i was scared to death cuz i thought i was gunna die but its really not that bad.