Black Widow

[Fly Rod]

Auto mechanic a couple of towns from here almost dies from a black widow bite!!! Black widows are not commom around here!!!<br /><br />Mechanic while working on a car from California unknowingly disturbs a big nest of them critters and is bitten in the process. Starts feeling ill drives self to hospital and passes out. Had to be air vac to boston for treatment.<br /><br />Meanwhile exterminator called in to kill the nest!! <br /><br />All is well!!!

 

[12Footer]

Re: Black Widow

And I thought I had a bad day!!

 

[Parrott_head]

Re: Black Widow

We get them pretty often out in the shed. They tend to keep the scorpians from getting out of hand. So far haven't found anything that will take care of the rattlesnakes but they keep the skunks run off.

 

[ndemge]

Re: Black Widow

Note to self:<br /><br />Don't go wherever the heck Perrothead lives!

 

[Parrott_head]

Re: Black Widow

ndemge,<br /><br />With a six pack of beer and a long string on a stick you can have a whole evening of fun with the critters. Just have to do it before the snakes eat, they are to sluggish to be much fun after that.<br /><br />Oh, and if a badger shows up all bets are off.

 

[DC698]

Re: Black Widow

And people think we have it bad here in New England with the slush, snow, sleet and ice....I think I'd rather take my chances with that than deal with scorpions and black widows. (Note to self: Do not buy any cars/boats from california!)

 

[rolmops]

Re: Black Widow

We kept vipers away with our pet mongoose.The biggest problem with snakes is that many people try to kill the ones they see.These are mostly the non poisonous snakes that need daylight to hunt.Any non poisonous snake's favorite food is a poisonous snake,because they are relatively slow and fit nicely in a snake stomach.The common non-poisonous snake will catch and eat up to 37 poisonous snakes yearly.You kill the non-poisonous ones and you will see a dramatic increase in poisonous ones in your yard.That is just the way it goes.You can catch a non poisonous one and stick him under your house, feed them some milk every 2 or 3 days and your trouble with mice and rattlers will be over.

 

[Bassy]

Re: Black Widow

Ah heck. You're afraid of a little scorpion and black widow? They're like family here. We just give each other space and we get along just fine. Just take things real sl-o-w. No hurry when you're taking down the dinner plates for dinner. Yep, had that happen before. Little scorpion on the plate. That's what mountain life is all about. Fun, fun, fun.<br />Bassy

 

[JB]

Re: Black Widow

Hmmmm. <br /><br />Got lots of black widows here, scorpions, too.<br /><br />Definitely poisonous. Been bit twice and stung once. Much prefer the sting, but never in any danger of dying from the bites. I guess it depends on your biochemistry and level of panic. Some people die from a wasp sting.<br /><br />Got a few copperheads. There must be some rattlers around but haven't seen one in 14 years. Most of our snakes are big gopher snakes. Lots of roadrunners and hawks, which really like to eat snakes. Coyotes are the main danger to the big ones; they like snakes too.<br /><br />Mud dauber wasps are the main predator of black widows here. They will paralyze most any spider and stick it in a nest along with an egg.<br /><br />Interesting how we all get used to the natural dangers in our particular environment and don't worry much about them but freak out when the unusual pops up.

 

[18rabbit]

Re: Black Widow

I like the part about calling in an exterminator to kill “the nest!” First of all, black widows don’t nest. When the babies are born…they immediate spread. And they don’t resemble the parent spiders. The babies are all white with little bitty black spots on the body and legs. And second, to “exterminate” you push down with the tip of your finger. They are so tiny they can’t bite back.<br /><br />JB – met a lady that had been bitten twice. She said it was no big deal…said she curled up in a fetal position, puked and thought she was going to die. After 3-days, it’s all over. She said it was kind of scary the first time, but knew what to expect the second time.<br /><br />Anyone in California that has a house on a raised foundation has black widows living under it. They are everywhere. No big deal…except for the New England sissy’s here on iBoats. <br /><br />Fwiw, our black widow spiders ain’t got nothin’ on what they have in Australia. They have a spider will kill you if it just looks at you. Don’t look in its eyes! Australia has more critters that will kill you than all the rest of the planet put together.

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Black Widow

Thanks for the reminder. <br /><br />Oh, by the way, a string of garlic worn around the neck cancels out the killer eyes thing.<br /><br />Aldo<br /><br />edit: 1 post to go rabbit.

 

[Skinnywater]

Re: Black Widow

Blackwidows are as common as any other spyder here. They're everywhere and I'm absolutely certain there are several under all our vehicles. As well as the garage, mailbox, sheds, barn... I ignore them and they scatter from any probeing. Some of the techs in our shop use spray carb clean on them. Of the 16 techs in our shop, only one has been bit in 15 years. He was the only person that I've ever met that has been bit mutiple times in his life. This bite didn't requier medical attention.<br />One theory is that certain individuals have something about them, a scent or way about them that prompts a bite. All I've ever experienced from them is an immediate withdrawl and they hide. <br /><br />Poison control says it's very rare for a successful penetrating bite. A symptom of a successful bite is cramping at the least and respritory difficulty at the worst. A few have alergetic reactions.<br /><br />If one ever was to come at me, I'd squash it like the bug it is.

 

[Kiwi Phil]

Re: Black Widow

Down under where I live, the women never complain about the guys leaving the dunny seat up. <br />It allows them to check the dunny out at a glance before they drop the seat to sit.<br />We live about 20 minutes drive from The Crocodile Hunter, Steve, and believe me we got everything.<br />The most common are redback spiders, and under or around everything.<br />Cheers<br />Phillip

 

[ehenry]

Re: Black Widow

We got the black widows and brown recluse spiders here along with venomous snake too. Granddaddy and I were fishing one when I was kid and was bitten by a Cotton Mouth. All he did was rub a little Dr. Tichenors on it and laid down. He said he got a little sick to his stomach but that was all. The only time I can ever remember him going to the doctor for anything was when he got hit by a car in town one day he was 87 then. The accident broke his leg and the doctors told him then that he had the bones of someone 40 to 50 years younger than he was. He lived to be 98.

 

[Carphunter]

Re: Black Widow

Wow, pretty scary. We have them Black Widows around here too. Not too common, but occasionally, if your really looking, you can find one.<br /> <br />Seems we get more Brown Recluse spider bites around here.<br /><br />We have Copperheads, and a few Timber Rattlers too, but again, not too common.<br /><br />......What you really gotta watch, are those Indiana women...................very venomous.

 

[tylerin]

Re: Black Widow

What you really gotta watch, are those Indiana women...................very venomous. <br />

I think your safe

 

[gaugeguy]

Re: Black Widow

Originally posted by Carphunter:<br />......What you really gotta watch, are those Indiana women...................very venomous.

Was there a couple weeks ago and I found those Indiana girls to be quite hospitable <br /><br />When I was in CA, we caught a tarantula and a scorpion one day. We threw them both in the same shoe box to see what would happen. They battled like a scene out of a Japanese horror movie. They both ended up expiring from their wounds.

 

[JoeW]

Re: Black Widow

Black Widows are always easy to detect, even when you don't see them. Their webs are about as strong as a fishing net. I agree with Skinnywater, they tend run and hide at any sign of humans. We have em all where I live, black widows, scorpions, rattlesnakes and tarantulas. Most will run away given half a chance.

 

[18rabbit]

Re: Black Widow

All spiders are venomous. Most don’t have fangs big enough to break your skin or venom potent enough to matter. Tarantulas do have big fangs and are potent enough to make some people sick if bitten. A bigger threat than the black widow is the wolf spider. They occupy every corner of the earth. The poison from these ugly, fuzzy, big fanged spiders is so mild it doesn’t matter…but the bacteria on the exterior of the fang is also pressed into the body when they bite. There is no known cure for the bacterial infection that follows. A few cases of the lethal skin-eating bacteria were contracted through wolf spider bites. No other spider is known to have this bacterium.

 

[ChrisMcLaughlin]

Re: Black Widow

18rabbit,<br />Have you ever been on "Millionaire"? You know a lot of stuff.