Black Widow Spider
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Written by Jim on August 4th, 2007 with
213 comments.
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To keep black widows from getting in your bed, make sure your bed is not on the ground. Put sticky fly paper traps around the bottom of the bed post and make sure your blankets are NOT touching the floor ( now you can sleep in peace )
Creepy little girl. She went and hid before I could get a picture of her next to a ruler or something to verify her size. I’d say she is an inch and a half long including the legs. Enjoy!
I also live in New Mexico about 40 minutes north of Santa Fe and was bitten by black widow spider two times five days ago. I was bitten while sleeping. I think the spider was hiding in a quilt that I was trying to pull up. It bit me on the elbow and the inner arm.
I woke up because the arm hurt so much it felt like it had been broken or seriously injured. The bites looked like little gnat bites. I thought I had been bitten by a gnat on my funny bone and that’s why it hurt so much. I went into my daughter’s room to sleep, thinking for some reason, that I would be more comfortable. I was up all night because I could not find a comfortable position and no matter what I did, my arm felt as if it had been broken or severely sprained.
My thinking was muddled all morning, and I felt confused and groggy. I went out to run errands but each time I got to where I was going, I forgot why I was there and didn’t complete the errand. I went grocery shopping and came back with six boxes of ice cream and nothing else. I was very clumsy. My hands were shaking and I kept dropping things. My legs felt weak and I was tripping a lot. My knees hurt and gave out a few times for no apparent reason. I didn’t connect any of this to the troublesome “gnat” bite, although I was talking to people about how funny it was that a gnat could hurt so much if it bit your funny bone. In short, my brains were severely addled by this bite.
My daughter decided to investigate and found a black widow in my bed. By this time, I was sick to my stomach and in severe pain everywhere. It felt as if I had broken my arm and both legs. My back, neck and head ached too. I went to a private urgent care across the street from the hospital, as it is much cheaper than the ER. They said they couldn’t do much. They gave me a shot they said would be effective for sic hours, and some lortabs, and kept me an hour for observation.
The lortabs did almost nothing for the pain. I was completely bedridden for three days. Yesterday was my first day out. I went to Rosh Hashonah services but the soles of my feet felt like they were being stung by bees and I was so tired I could barely make it home. I am staying home today and plan to return to work tomorrow. I feel normal except for my feet which are really hurting. Nothing seems to help other than baths.
Also, I have developed an extremely uncomfortable yeast infection possibly because the lortabs changed my ph balance. I’ve been to the doc twice now, and he said that the yeast infection symptoms are the only symptoms I’ve named that are not typical of black widow bites. He checked for necrosis (there was none) and said that most of the “spider bites” he sees are actually MRSA but that this appeared to be a spider bite.
Oh yeah, a big black bruise suddenly appeared on the inside of my arm. It turned out to be one of the bites. I don’t like using poison but I have seen several black widow nests in my yard, one just outside the bedroom door. I usually spray once a year. I have two dogs, three cats, two kids and a hubby so I called the exterminator.
To the lady above from Albuquerque who thinks her neighbor may have planted a black widow in her car…it’s possible, but they really are ubiquitous in New Mexico. They especially like to come inside in the fall when it gets cold. And in response to Jim, the bites look less threatening than mosquito bites…except for the one with the bruise. I was genuinely puzzled by my response to a “gnat.”
I had two babies without anaesthesia. This pain was comparable to childbirth. Really nasty experience (the spider bites, not childbirth) and I would not care to repeat it.
Wednesday, Oct.1,2008, was tearing down a shed and saw a Black Widow, killed it and proceeded. That night, while sleeping, got a cramp in my left calf muscle. It wasn’t too bad but in an unusual place, as mostly my cramps appear in thighs.
Thursday was normal.
Friday morning I couldn’t hardly walk on my left leg. The calf muscle was very sore to the touch and the muscle feels drawn and would not flex to take a walking stride. It feels like walking with a peg-leg with no flexibility. The muscle almost feels pulled away or detached. Have been cold all day and can’t seem to get warmed up. Friday evening, used a TENS massage unit on calf muscle to try to loosen it up, but had no results.
Saturday morning same as Friday (muscle stiff and sore, cold). Visualized a red spot about the size of a green pea just above sock area on back of leg (calf area).
This may not have any relation to a bite at all, but wandering what happened to my leg made me think of the Black Widow we saw and if there were more overlooked. Surfing on the web and reading the posts this site, makes me believe that’s what happened and I’m having a very mild or beginning reactions.
I”ll bookmark this page and keep you posted as I find out more.
I had just moved from Michigan to Virginia. Once I moved down here I noticed the vast amount of spiders compared to Mich. I am deathly afraid of black widows. So just to overcome my fear I caught one and want to keep it as a pet or actually more of a look at and feed spider, and just leave it alone at all other times. I have been looking all over the internet and cannot find out how to take car eof a black widow. Will someone please help me out. Right now I have it in a 3 inch height, 5 inch long and 2 inch wide clear container. I have had it for three days. What should I have it in, what should I put in the tank with it for enviroment, what should I be feeding it, and how much/ often should I feed it?
Email me at superm054 @ msn.com
I am very curious about this and want to take care of it the right way without putting myself in any SIGINIFICANT danger even though I already am by have one. It is also female and about the size of a half dollar. Thank you.
I just want to warn everybody about the black widow spider bite. I was bitten two nights ago. I was sitting outside on a porch chair when i felt something crawling on me, and a slight feeling of a bite on my foot. The bite felt like less than that of an ant, until about 30 minutes later. I had thought nothing of the bite, and went inside to watch more football. All of sudden, my foot was on a fire, as if a whole mound of fireants were underneath my skin. I scratched and scratched, and went into the bathroom to look at the bite. The whole top of my foot was red and swollen, and I tried my best to ignore it. I looked back outside, and underneath my porch chair was a black widow on her web, guarding her eggs. Great, I thought. I better look this up on the internet. I was relieved to find that the majority of black widow bites are not deadly, only for little kids and elderly adults.
About 30 minutes later the swelling had gone down and the pain on my foot was not as bad. I noticed two small fang marks, with half of a red circle to the left of the fang marks. I decided to go to bed, and try to forget about the bite. That’s when the real pain started.
At first, my foot started to hurt again. Not too bad of pain, just enough to be annoying. Then the pain began to shoot up my leg. It just felt very achy, and I tried to ignore it and go to sleep. I had dozed off, and woke up to, from what I have read since, would be a typical reaction to a black widow bite. My foot and leg hurt, my abdomen hurt and my abdomen muscles were extremely tight. I had the chills all over my body. It felt like I had the flu, with very painful muscular aches. I took a couple tylenol. The chills seemed to go away, but the pain was still there. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t. I eventually made it to the doctor the next morning… and he blew my symptoms off because there was no major swelling or bruising on my foot, only slightly red areas and two fang marks in the middle of those. He only gave me antibiotics, and said to take them just in case my foot gets real swollen.
He seemed to not belive me that my body was in pain, based on the fact that my bite site did not look like it was having a very bad reaction to the bite.
My advice to anyone that gets bit, is to go to a doctor or ER immediately. Tell them that you want some pain medication, it doesn’t have to be narcotic, and some muscle relaxers. The two main symptoms for me were extremely tight muscles in my abdomen, shoulders, and lower back. This causes a lot of pain because it just made me feel like I was so stiff, as if bracing myself for a car accident.
I also want people to know that you will not necessarily have a huge welt at your bite site, but you will probably see the two fang marks. Unfortunately, not every doctor is educated on spider bites.. and apparently this one thought that any painful reaction in the body to a spider bite must be confirmed by a huge welting site where the person was bitten.
I hope nobody reading this here gets bit by a black widow and has to feel like I felt. It was very painful, and now it is two days later and the pain has gone away for the most part, but I still feel very exhausted and lathargic, like I have the flu.
HI:
Back in 1995-1996; I was a victim of a black Widow Bite. However, part of the information is correct. I didn’t know I wasbit, as i didn’t feel it. It was approx. at night time, when I was with my ex-wife then.
However, the other informatio is questionable. It should be stated, that feeling abdominable pains, is based on the persons body weight, and immunity. I never suffered these symptoms. BUT, it went from a small red rash, to a large burning ring. At first i thought it was a bee sting, and just ignored it.
Then, it went fro the burning ring color, (and it burned bad every day when I went to put pants on;) to an even larger size, jet-black spot on my leg. At that time, it burned slightly; and was hard when tapped on. But hurt when tapped on. I was worried, and I went with the (now ex-wife) to the emergency room; explaining everything, and tat I had suspicions of a spider bite; but not certain.
The first thing they did, was take a syringe, and penetrte thehard black spot like shell on y leg. It burned sooo bad, they had to give me a pain killer, cause of the burning sensation that followed, after some work of the needle tip penetrating the black shell like top layer.
The hen the took it to the lab, and the rest of the pus, came out a yellow-green color. They came back, gave me a penicilan shot, and prescribd some anti-venom meds for the next 2 weeks. They stated that the lboratory confirmed i was BLACK WIDOW bite.
And, that it was in stage 3; of the infected area. I waslucky, cause at stage 4- it is gang green. Thus, with a rotting leg; they stated they would have to amputate the leg just belw the knee, but about 8-10 inches above the foot.
Present day, I have a scar, where only a ti-pinky finger size of flesh, is missing. I thank God for making the decision when I did to get to the emergency room. Or, I would have a prosthetick foot and leg now.
For any and all reders; if you think you were bit by a spider; any species: DO NOT WAVE OFF, even if like me, you think it might have been a bee sting. Chances are you might be right…But, what ifyour WRONG?!…I almost learned the hard way.
my roommates and I just found a black widow living on the outside of our California duplex that measured almost 4 in. leg span. It was a MONSTER!!!
Hi All,
for Lilliana and those with black widow spiders under a house or in garage, I used to use holiday bug foggers with great success in killing them. First time I used one in my garage there were 11 Black Widows hanging dead.
Think how many were up in the rafters that I didn’t see. I don’t know if Holiday still makes a fogger but any bug fogger should work, I used black flag fogger last time. You have to do it again in a couple of weeks to get babies that hatch since the foggers don’t seem to kill the eggs. Oh, be sure to read the usage on the foggers, you can blow up your house if you fog in an area with a pilot light. We have a lot where I live. The are usually only out on their wierd web at night. I avoid going outside at night and never walk close to anything since the spiders usually are on the web off of some vertical structure 1 foot off the ground. Wasp sprays usually do a good job of individual kills. Last time I had nothing so I grabbed a clorox bathroom cleaner spray bottle and used it. It worked because I checked on subsequent nights and they were all gone, and I saw one dead on the ground.
One of my classmates is a mechanic and has been bit 5 times from the black widows under the cars. This is easy to believe when you look at all the webs on old cars that have been parked for awhile. He says each bite has been less tramatic – the last two he didn’t even go to the hospital. My Aunt was bit in the 60’s and my mom says she had a low grade fever for 6 months. There probably wasn’t antivenom then.
I was bitten by a black widow three days ago. I actually took it with me to the ER and it’s body was as large or larger than a penny. The bite itself was barely noticeable within two or three hours but the effects were horrible. The first trip to the ER was mainly concerning the pain were the spider had bitten me. I was bitten on my lower back (I had actually rolled over on it in my bed). It began as a small whelp and then a red-rash spread around the site. The pain was intense and I was given morphine at the ER to help with the pain. Within an hour I was released to go home but had to return about four hours later due to intense muscle spasms. The spasms were in my lower back and legs and were so bad that I could not walk. The pain was worse than labor pains of having a child. I was kept in the ER for almost five hours enduring a tremendous amount of pain and vomiting. Now three days later I am still experiencing pain in my legs and feet and am very tired. I can not do a lot without having to sit and rest. The bite from a black widow has been an experience I will not forget.
i live near augusta, ga. I was bitten by a black widow yesterday about 3pm ( not realizing what had happened as i thought it was a pricker bush). about fifteen minutes later i felt a burning, numb sensation. I left work about five pm and drove home with this burning sensation when i looked at my left upper thigh it had a 4″ red circle with a hard center about the size of a quarter. it continued to burn and i went to bed about 9pm. at about 2 am i woke up with stomache cramps, muscle cramps, general weakness, and chest discomfort. i was a little freaked so i drove to the er. when i talked with the doctor he was sure it was a black widow as they see this quite often. he said that it would not effect me long term and he updated my tetnus and gave me a prescription for muscle relaxer and pain. he told me that most adults have to just go through the symtoms where small children and the elderly are affected much worse. as i write this i have slept about 2 hours since leaving the er 14 hours ago. i feel like the symtoms are starting to break. earlier i felt as if i was going to die with the worse flu like symtoms i have ever had. right now my legs, buttocks and feet are the most painfull. hope this will help someone, by the way i could never see any fang marks at the bite location.
Felt like I was dying… I’m an extremely healthy 33 yr old woman, former model, very athletic. Never had a thing medically wrong with me. Spent a day at the Palms pool on Las Vegas. ( was staying with a friend a block north of the Palms Hotel) I woke up the next morning with a nickel-sized “water” blister on my backside. I stuck a pin in it to drain it. There was zero pain at the site. That morning I had incredibly scary abdominal seizures, reminiscent of when I’d pulled rib muscles years before. I had a very hard time breathing, and was pretty much knocked on my butt every time these seizures consumed my body… every 10 minutes for about 5 hours. In the days that followed, it felt like someome was grabbing my liver/stomach/pancreas/diaphram and squeezing. I sweated profusely the 4 nights thereafter, taking only shallow breaths, being I felt as if I were having some sort of heart attack, like a stack of 30 books were balanced on my chest. This heavy, dull but firm pain continued for 3 weeks. Then was just… gone. The scab/blister/whatever it is is still there, 6 weeks later. Looking exactly the same as it did from day 2. It will not heal!! Probably a black widow. I’m stuck with a big welt on my butt. People… if you see a spider resembling black widow or brown recluse… KILL IT!! They are not your friend! And it will not rain if you step on one!! (Old superstition)
I live in Arizona, and one day my aunt caught a little light brown spider with the same body type of the black widow (she put it in a jar). It had dark brown marks on the legs and two white stripes on both sides of the abdomen with a white stripe running through the middle; it also had a white hourglass on the abdomen. I told her I suspected it was a baby black widow spider, she didn’t believe me. So I used Google images and used the search term “baby black widow spider” and found a picture that matched the spider. I showed my aunt the picture and she proceeded to freak out. The spider now is dead and preserved in a jar of alcohol in the 7th grade science teacher’s classroom. (I’m in *th grade and intrested in spiders)
I have been seeking information with respect to a bite and found this site interesting like others have. A month ago, I was sitting in my hot tub on our patio of our Phoenix home in the late evening. I didn’t feel anything immediately but noticed a small red area on the top of my right index finger with a very small black spot in the middle. (Sunday Morning) I didn’t think much of it but the next morning (MOnday) this site was much larger ( a couple centimeters) and was now an open wound.
A rash was also developing on my body on my hands, part-way up my arms, on my chest and back, and on my legs. I contacted a doctor through my medical provider and he didn’t seem particularly alarmed – though my blood pressure was elevated. He wrote me a prescription for antibiotics and asked me to return Friday. When I returned, my blood pressure was really spiking and he sent me to the emergency room of a local hospital where I was admitted immediately. I was in from Friday to Sunday. I’m on a bunch of medications right now (4 weeks later) and my rash is fading but still there. The wound site has healed but has left a substantial scar. I thought it was a brown recluse but now think it might have been a black widow. Doctors that I have met don’t have a clue. They took a culture from the wound site but I haven’t heard any conclusions. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks!
I don’t know where you lucky people live, but my mother and I once found a female black widow spider with an abdomen approximately the diameter of a penny (it was not, of course, perfectly spherical). Not that that size was common, but it was quite rare to find any with abdomens as small as peas.
well i dont know what this is…there is a spot on my rabbit with no hair and a deep hole and i just seen it today (dec 15 mon 2008) and i dont know what it is..ive been trying to figure it out can u help me???
I’m curious, my brother was bitten by a spider this morning. By early after he was so very uncomfortable, he went to the er. He showed the doc the bite, and questioned if it was related. His symptoms were nausea, achy back, pain and swelling of the bite area. The bite is the two distinct fang marks. On the ride to the er, he was having chest pains and difficulty breathing. In the past 9 hours, they have done a multitude of tests,including 3 ekg’s and determined he has blood in his urine. X-rays do not show kidney stones, etc. Could the bite also cause the blood in urine?
I live in SW Washington State,and have seen a smaller black widow about 3 years ago. We took it to a pest place to have it identified,and they said that Western Washington does have them, but not nearly as many due to the colder and wetter temperatures here. Has anyone else that lives in WA or OR seen them? If so, get them identified by a professional. I have 3 small children, and a hubby who has severe reactions to even a house spider bite.
My name is Timothy Williams and I currently live in Corpus Christi, Texas, but spent much of my growing life in Edmond,Oklahoma. I was in the Boy Scouts as a Life Scout and First Aid Chief in my troop. Around my house I would commonly lift a shovel or an ice chest and come about that close to being bitten by a black widow. One of these incidences was due to me being an extraordinarily dim witted individual. I had already seen the spider and knew she was there, and that her bite if this occured would be very serious. But I seemed to be quite enchanted by her beautiful appearance. Shiny jet black with a crimson hourglass mark. Good thing I came to my senses in time in ceased the operation of trying to touch the mark with a stick. I did learn something from this, however. Just because a black widow bite is dangerous (yes #1 it is extremely dangerous), does not mean freak out. She will do everything in her power to escape and evade rather than bite. Imagine for a moment that you were just waking up and going out for your paper and you stumbled onto a giant (which is what we are to spiders). Would you be more likely to fight the giant or run?
When I was on a camping trip with the scouts I stumbled onto what at first appeared to be a black widow, although closer inspection told me she wasnt. She was indeed a female widow spider, but not black. This was a female BROWN widow spider (twin sister to the black widow except brown with a light orange hourglass), which is just as poisonous as her sister and rather common to gas pumps wich gives her the common name “gas station spider”. I sprayed her with a can of spray paint I was going to use in a sign I was making. Spraying a highly toxic liquid or gas substance directly at a spider will kill it instantly, just a relieving fact for you there.
Sorry but I dont have any bite pictures but I’ll do my best. My dad is a Paramedic so maybe he can help. Anyway, I hope this helps. Best of wishes to you all.
about only 1/200 spider bites are poisonus maybe. the males are harmless maybe. I am having a phobia of them.
my dad was bit by a black widow and he died on my moms birthday!!!!
As i was walking out my back door i noticed in the corner by my door a black spider that was going down to the ground by its web…i freaked out and tried to catch it to kill it…i knocked it down and was able to get it into a container to get a better look…it wasn’t moving…so i dumped it out on the ground to stomp on it and it took off running…do black widows play dead?? i’ve never seen one here and i live in Illinois…i’m so scared and hate spiders especially having small children at home….any advice on what i should do…what if there are more or what if there is a nest…how can you tell a black widow nest from a regular spiders nest…please help so that i can sleep at night!!!!!!!
these spiders are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I live in London, Ontario, Canada. (Between Detroit & Buffalo. We have Black Widows here. I’ve seen many in my mothers garage, however quite small 1/2 inch diameter (including legs. I just wanted to share that as all the sites I’ve seen so far say nothing of the black widow being in the northern usa and Canada.
We have dozens of black and brown widows in our back yard – in the middle of the summer I can guarantee to find at least ten within a few minutes of looking under things. I got bitten on the arm moving boxes around last summer and although the bite itself wasn’t painful, I had a lot of cramping in my back for about 24 hours. If you mess with them you’ll get bitten, so the moral of the story is leave them alone – they’re not aggressive and will try to hide rather than attack you. They keep bugs down so they’re not all bad.
Hey #8 Are you still alive?
I had the misfortune of picking one up, that wouldn’t go away. It started webbing me right away, so that each time I brushed it off, it actually was able to come right back to the same place over and over again, well after the venom was exhausted, and continued to bite me. A friend had laughingly gone insane watching this spider continue to fight me off, and volunteered to smash it with a napkin. The spider quickly webbed him as well, spinning and jumping in the air until it was back to where it had first landed on him. Biting his finger each time he tried to smish it until he started crying from the excitement screaming this spider just ate my lunch. Tables and chairs were knocked over, as he ran wildly about the lunch room, still swatting at the spider.
My husband works for a phone utility company and is always opening up what they call phone peds(we live is Mississippi)there are always spiders and nests in them when opened. One week ago today my husband was bitten by a spider but did not realize it until about 15 minutes later, he has been in terrible pain since have been to Doctor he thought he was having a heart attack did a EKG, stress test this has cost us over $3000.00 and still getting worse-If you think you have been bitten by a spider go to the ER as a regular doctor is not able to handle the problem. We use to be in the extrermination business and he had never been bitten by Black Widow But Now He has. Don’t wait as we have done get to the ER as you never know what type of reaction you are going to have. Don’t know how long symptoms will last but being off work from a Nasty Widow Bite sure does hurt the pocket book.
I lived in Las Vegas growing up til I was about 9. I got bitten many MANY times by the Black Widow. They are poisonous, and it’ll make you really sick. Fever, vomiting, etc….but I never got treatment for it. It really isn’t that bad…now I wouldn’t want to go up against some of the other spiders out there. my brother lives in Australia and the Sydney Funnel Web chased him across the room of his apartment. the video his wife took of it is funny…but the thought of getting bitten by a SFW…not so funny. Another brother of mine was stationed in Hawaii. When they took guard at night, they got live ammo to take on the Banana Spiders.
PEOPLE…. start saying where you live so it is easy to identify better.. I live in chatt, Tennessee and we have caught 2 black widows in 48 hours from back yard.. We have and eye clops( 50 dollar toy that magnifies anything up to 200 xs) so we have played around with the idea of how we could somehow observe these creatures..
we have frozen one in the freezer which worked alright but as it thawed,, it drew up… we also dipped the other one in a polyurethane which worked good too..
Black widows DO play dead.. both of these spiders did and did it very well.. be careful not to get bitten
I live in Mobile, AL. Last night my son was closing the curtains looking out into the front yard. He noticed a black widow in the window between the glass and screen, the hourglass shape was so “perfect” that it literally gave us both chills. I went to the window on the opposite side of the picture window and sure enough there was a second one. This is not a dark area, I have lights in my yard that make it look like daylight in the dead of night.
After seeing this, I know that I have a infestation problem, because black widows lay so many eggs and they are not scarce. I am currently at work. My son is at home spraying (the sprayer sprays 18-20ft) around the outside of the windows and I have called an exterminator. My house has lots of windows and is surrounded by trees although I am not in a wooded area. I will be leaving work shortly and will go home and carefully go through my house and check the insides of all of the windows. Just thinking about it give me chills again.
I have grandchildren that visit and I will not let them come back until I “believe” that the problem is under control. I just thank God that none of us has been bitten thus far. I pray that He be with me while trying to take care of this problem. I am a Cancer survivor that went through a lot of pain and I really don’t want to go through anything that some of the readers have described.
Hello all,
I am an entomology student studying at the University of CA, Davis and would like to make a few contributions to this page, in particular some of the misconceptions/questions here.
The widow family (Latrodectus) is a worldwide spread group of spiders, found on every single continent besides Antarctica. therefore, if you live in the U.S., Europe, or virtually anywhere else in the world, chances are you will run into a widow or its cousin sooner or later.
The appearance of the widow is different based on the species, but generally speaking they all universally have a shiny round dark body with red or orange markings either on the back or underside. the Western and Southern U.S. widow spiders are the ones most commonly recognized with the hourglass. The Northern U.S. cousins have it too, but may also have markings on the back as well. As a rule of thumb, if it’s shiny, round, and is black and red, leave it alone.
The bite is not generally fatal, but prompt medical treatment is recommended as the reaction to the bite can vary greatly from individual to individual, as well as from spider to spider. The venom injected, place of bite, etc. all are important factors. It is a cocktail of neurotoxins (Affect the nervous system) and hemotoxins (affect the blood), mostly the first. This is why widow bites cause severe muscular spasms yet leave almost no tissue damage at all. As an addendum, the venom of a widow ranges from 6 to 16x the potency of rattlesnake venom.
Tips for avoiding widow infestation:
-Widows prefer dry, dark places. Airing out garages, sheds, etc. and allowing regular sunlight to enter will do wonders.
-Removing widows is safest with a vacuum or hand-held vac. There are pesticide sprays that are designed for widows as well.
-If you suspect that a large building is heavily infested (A barn, etc.), I suggest hiring an exterminator to be on the safe side.
Hey Kathleen #112, I was bitten by a Black Widow spider close to 10 years ago when I lived in Tennessee. My husband at the time, was doing leaf and yard cleanup. When he came in I shook out his coveralls that he had on. I believe that is when the spider got on me and crawled up my leg. I was bitten on the top part of my butt right in the middle of the “crack”. I started feeling really bad and he took me to the emergency room. I told the nurse that I had a small insect bite on my butt, she never informed the doctor that was on call about the bite. By the time I went in to see him I was already out of it, writhing in pain and couldn’t talk. My husband didn’t tell the doctor either about the bite. They probably thought I was exaggerating. The doctor said I had the flu and gave me a shot fot the pain and some pain pills and sent me home. By the time I got home (only 10 minutes away) the pain shots had worn off. I spent the next 2 weeks in bed in the most excruciating pain I ever felt. I though I was going to die.
After I recovered I got on the internet and started searching under insect bites to find out what really happened to me. All my symptoms were a classic case of a Black Widow bite and the pictures confirmed it.
NOW TO GET TO THE REAL FACT OF MY STORY, Ever since I was bitten, I get a rash flare up about the size of a quarter at the same place I got bitten, coming back every few months for almost ten years now. It is kinda blistery, oozy and itchy. I spray Benadrill on it and it will clear up in a few days. I just told my new husband about all this yesterday and he wants me to go our doctor and have it checked out. He said I might have to have the area dug out to get rid of it once and for all. I will let you all know how I make out. Also has anyone out there had a similar reaction like me????
Interesting site, it has been very helpful. I was bit by a Northern Black Widow 2 weeks ago. I live in a log cabin and was reading at night before bed. I must have drawn her in to my pillow. Did not now what was wrong with me in the morning, thought my neck was out of alignment. Pain was horrible. I thought by night maybe sinus infection, maybe my lymph gland is going to explode. On the second day I knew that I was wrong when 4 tiny marks appeared on my neck and swelling. By night of the 2nd day breathing became constricted. I live in a remote area and had to rely on ourselves. I had Benadryl, aspirin, cold compresses and a calming yogic breathing that I believe saved me that night. By the third day bruises on my neck and severe muscle pain. Felt like acid being poured down my neck, then followed by complete numbness. This has continued for two weeks now. The more active I try to be, the more it stirs in my muscles again. One night I thought my knee and stomach were melting. A few nights it was around my heart. Had to sit up and practice a calming breath, felt like a possible heart attack. I would like to add that I am early 40’s and snow board all winter so I am in good shape, but I am a small person. I weigh 110 in winter months.
I have seen a friend who is a retired doctor. She thought I am very lucky. I do too!
Thank you for this site. Everyone reacts differently and unfortunately for me I had
just gotten over a lung flu and my resistance was low. Not to mention being bit over a lymph gland. She must have gotten caught between my hair and neck roll pillow. Funny, I grew up in the deserts of Arizona and had never been bit by a Rattle snake, scorpion, or spider (encountered many). Now that I live in snow country, one almost took me out. I lived to tell the tale!!!
I hope this might help someone whether through research or a fellow sufferer.
I will let everyone know when I fully recover. My advice is too stay calm, and breath. It will save your life. Thank you for this site!
Sorry no photos, the marks were too small for the camera.
This is so sick why did you even put this i did not get
bit by spider before but i got bit by a mosquito a lot of times and i wish they would go away and i know why they have to be alive it just bothers me.
Today I smooshed a Female Black Widow Spider. I lifted a log bench in my yard to clean it offf with the hose, and there is was! Tucked in the corner. This really got me thinking…. what if one of my children had sat on the bench or my infant pulled up on it! Do these spiders come in numbers? Or are they solitary? Sinc emoving here, we recentl;y got the house sprayed for bugs, ants and spiders outside… does this kill black widows? Do they easily come inside? How worried should I be?
i was riding my dirt bike in the woods when i saw 2 people walking around with gloves and a tank looking for an escaped tunnel web spider. I knew they only lived in Australia so i kinda laughed and ignored them. right after i went through some trees i felt some pain in my back almost as if i got shot with a slow bullet. i fell of my dirt bike and remained motionless until moments later i gained consciousness and i awoke in a hospital. Ive never been more scared in my life.
after about 6-7 months i resumed riding my dirt bike and in the woods i saw a black widow spider while i was taking a short break. of course with my luck of spiders i was petrified from the tunnel web spider incident so i didn’t go near it. as a prank my friend flung it at me and of course i was bit in the back of the neck. i got rushed to the hospital a second time and never rode dirt bikes ever again.
Guess we caught a world record black widow today in our office. It’s abdomen was the size of a nickel and with its legs out, it was as large as a 50¢ piece. (Maybe it was loaded with eggs………)
We captured it in a glass and checked that it did, in fact, have the distinctive red hour-glass on it’s underside.
We assumed our co-worker was taking it outside to kill it, but instead, he let it go in a vacant lot across the street from our office! What an idiot!
Had I known that most Black Widows are much smaller, I would have taken a photo of it.
I’m from southeast Wyoming and I used to catch black widow spiders when I worked on the railroad under the rails between railroad ties. Best time at night where the sun doesn’t shine much around storage tracks. The females bodies get much larger than 2 cm. It was not uncommon finding them twice that size. The easiest way to find or identify black widows is their thick silky webs and of course their shiny appearance with the famous orangish redish hour glass on their stomachs. I stopped “spider hunting” after being bit and yes they are very painful. Easily identified by two small fang punctures and feeling like you have the flu for a couple days. Just thought I’d share my first hand experiences with black widows thanks. On a further note I didn’t go to the emergency room or doctors office and I lived through it just fine after a couple days of flu like symptoms and a painful bite.
i need to know if i will die because i was sitting on my sofa when a black widow crawled into my pants and another website said that you don’t feel the bite, if you were bitten, and i don’t want to die.
I live in the desert and black widows are everywhere, along with scorpions, mili/centipedes and all kinds of other lovely creatures. We have recently been in the lovely predicament of having an egg of black widows hatch somewhere around/in my house. Honestly they are not aggressive at all and run from anyone or thing that is bigger than them. They are not scary in the way that most people think. My 3 year old knows what they look like and to come and get me if he sees one but not to touch or go near them. I have lived in the desert for appx 10 years and neither me or any of my family has ever been bitten or hurt by these spiders my entire family 30+ people. Just be careful and squish them they won’t create problems for you either.
hey my girlfriend got bite a few days ago by a black widow and she didnt relize it was a black widow untill the following day when she went to the hospital and got all these shots and stuff but the doctor said she still gonna die andybody got any tips for me and my girl the Dr. said that its in her heart and they said she has 2-3 days to life she had a mini heart attack yesterday and she felt like she gonna pass out today so any tips would be helpful thank you
My Chihuahua/Cocker (20 pounds) just got bit 3 days ago by a Black Widow. I too live in the NM desert, where we have tons of them. She must not have seen it because she is very desert smart and warns me of snakes & scorpions. For the last 3 days it’s been a touchy situation! Several times I thought I was going to lose her. Couldn’t afford the antivenin shot ($150) even if our vet had it on hand. Been giving her Children’s Benadryl for her breathing and aspirin for her pain. Her appetite is still good, once the aspirin kicks in and she can walk! This is a scary experience with a dog, let alone have a person get bit. I feel for you who have! Been stung 2x’s by scorpions but that’s nothing compared to what I’ve read everyone who has been bitten has been or is going through. I will definitely be getting the house and yard sprayed asap!! Good luck all!
i live in southern indiana. last summer i kept finding huge black spiders in my garage. all summer i killed them and destroyed the egg sacks. they’re no longer in my garage, but today i killed two and a sack on the outside of my house. thanks to this site i found out that they’re black widows. should i be freaking out for the safety of my family now?
I am a Los Angeles Firefighter/Paramedic and was bitten by a black widow spider on my toe. At 2AM I was barefoot in my garage at the time checking a circuit breaker. The bite felt like someone touched a cigarette to my skin. I witnessed the large black widow gripping my toe and aggressively biting. I smashed it. I applied betadyne and ice pack to the wound site. The pain relieved somewhat but I was unable to sleep all night.
The pain began increasing and traveling up my leg. The bite causes “tetany” or severe contraction of the muscles. If you are bit below the waist, it causes severe abdominal cramps. If above, it causes respiratory distress due to the diaphram/chest muscle tetany. Mine began causing severe abdominal pain. Repeat: SEVERE PAIN.
After 6 hours of increasing pain, I drove myself to the local emergency room with the spider’s remains. They knew me there and I explained the situation. The resident said they normally only observe a patient, but with my accurate history and the spider visible they began IV Calcium Gluconate which is infused at a slow rate. (This is cheaper than antivenin). Immediately I had relief from the horrible cramps pain and my muscles relaxed. I feel asleep for 8 hours.
I’m now an expert on Black Widow bites at my work.
My 5 year old son was bite by a black widow . The symptoms started at the bite site on his left thigh. With in 5 min his groin hurt then his stomach down to his legs and knees. He couldn’t stand any more and he was screaming in pain. Took him to the doctor they gave him Motrin and Tylenol and sent him home. He was still screaming in pain. I took him straight from the doctors office to the hospital. They gave him morphine to relieve the pain and he was admitted the first night in the hospital his pain was controlled but his face began to swell his eye lids and his lips. They wanted to give him prednisone . I was told that prednisone lowers the immune system. I decided against it due to the fact he was trying to fight off the venom of the black widow. Instead they gave him benadryl the swelling did not get worse but stayed the same. He was in the hospital for three days before the Motrin and Tylenol with codeine was enough to control the pain so he could come home. it has been 6 days and he still has pain on and off. but he is able to stand now.
I was bit 13 days ago in MA.
The bite probably occured while I was working in my gardent hat day. I did not see it bite me, but noticed a welt on my knuckle that looked like one of my many mosquito bites I was dealing with. However, this welt was painful to touch and did not itch. The next day it was a blister and two days after I noticed tthe bite, the blister popped. I did not know it was a spider bite at the time and just washed it with soap and cold water and put a bacitracin and a band aid on it.
Four days after being bit two things happened that I did not put together. First I was extremely exhausted and I was having terrible back aches. It was the time of the month for me, so I assumed that it was lower back pain radiating up.
The second thing that occured was that I developed a red circle around the blister that had popped that was about 1/2 inch around the permiter of the blister. It was a Saturday, so I decided not to worry about it until Monday.
By Monday, the bite was burning, painful to touch, my back pain continued and I began to feel clammy with slight fever and chills and a terrible headache. Eventually developed nausea and dizzyness and almost fainted twice. Then fever and chills went away about 7 hyours later and I FINALLY called my doctor that night.
In short, I am an idiot. He saw me the next day and removed the necrotic tissue from the bite, verified that it was indeed a bite and not MRSA (as that was my first thought), and put me on a round of antibiotics. He then explained that I should have paged him on Saturday when my symptoms started. I have never felt more dreadful than I did in those days initially following the bite, but I kept brushing it off as a cold, flu or typical monthly cramps. Don’t make the same mistake if this happens to you and see your doctor RIGHT AWAY.
We have no idea as to what kind of spider bit me, and at this point it is so late in the game that it doesn’t matter anyways.
13 days later and I still have waves of nausea and incredibly achy muscles in my back and headaches. The bite is finally starting to scab over, but it is a deep pit on my knuckle and will not be healing very pretty. I am heading back to his office tomorrow and I get the feeling that this will not be the last I will have to deal with.
How can something so darn small cause so much trouble?
I have been keeping a black widow for the last 6 months or more and shes grown to about 1.5-2 inches in length. I feed her mostly flies and other bugs i find around my house and its great to watch. i was thinking about feeding her a pretty large wolf spider but i am worried that she might get eaten herself. I would be sort of bummed if her dinner ate her instead so if anyone could tell me which spider typically eats the other i would appreciate it.
Thanks
if you get bit by a widow does it mean certain death and what are the statistics of a bite and being bit
i was bit on the foot well the spider was in my shoe and i put on my shoe with out socks i was diving home from a visit with family about 20 miles into the drive my left foot and leg hurt then i felt the pain go up my left leg then down my right leg by the time i got home the pain was going up my stomach so i checked my shoes and found the spider it was very big we live in so cal so i see them all the time.pain meds at the hospital in icu o i had a hmo and they would not admit me so after 1 night the sent me home with a perscription for pain meds i couldnt drive home or get the meds due to the pain.i was wondering if anyone that has been bitten has had effects years after thier bights,i was bite in 1988 have had bone pains in legs,depression
seemed to happen years after but wonder if related?
I just want to say that the bite doesn’t have to be felt to exist. Neither does it have to be horrible looking to the eye. It could simply be a small prick with a white center and red ring around it- something that looks kind of like a pimple.
I believe I was sleeping when I was bit. Over the period of the night, the venom was being carried through my body on its way to my nervous system.
The next morning, I was minding my own business when a powerful contraction suddenly registered in my upper mid-back. I have been in back labor while giving birth, so I would liken the feeling to back labor of the upper back. If I dared move, the pain would shoot through my back and take a triangular path up my neck to the top of my head then down to my left shoulder and across to my back again. That triangle region was beginning to feel somewhat paralyzed, but I couldn’t tell if it was because I was terrified to move, or because I couldn’t. I was nervous about taking a deep breath but I had to- it was very difficult to breathe without sending my back into contractions all over again. As I was trying to process what in the heck was happening, I began to feel ssstrange; disoriented, tingly, light headed, and nauseous. I was sure my spine had become misaligned and sent my body into shock. I didn’t know what else to think. My friends with me were prognosticating and hovering around me knowing I was in much distress. One friend suggested that I had been bit and pointed to a mark on my neck. She also mentioned some discoloration in my arms- like poor circulation. When she did, I remember feeling a bit of panic over the thought, but the only bite I could conjure was that of a bee or wasp or hornet, all of which I have been stung by before and never this severe reaction. So I shrugged that off. For a moment I considered 911, but no one else seemed to be as worried as I was, so I thought maybe I was overreacting and that perhaps I had thrown my back out or pulled a muscle like another suggested. All though…I was sitting still when the reaction struck me, so a pulled muscle seemed ridiculous. Plus I am 29 and in great shape. I teach dance for a living and have never pulled a muscle in my life. Next time I will go with my instincts: when something feels that wrong- it most likely is.
Over a period of maybe 6 hours and with a couple extra strength ibuprofen taken with benadryl, the contractions subsided- yet the pain was still there in my back and shoulders like I HAD pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve. I continued to feel strange.
Then I went home and slept really bad that night, itching all over the place and with my neck, left shoulder and back hurting me.
It is now a week later and I am dealing with bad pain in my left shoulder emanating from the bite on my neck, which under inspection, turned out to be a small red bump with the white head in the middle. I also have a similar looking bump further down my neck onto my back.
These two bumps and the pain in my shoulder is what led me to google spider bite, and without much research, I landed here and pegged it as the black widow. I was indeed in a place where they thrive, and the night before this chain reaction struck I had slept on an air matress right between a sliding glass door and a couch. It was a pool house, and I have read that pool houses are a nice environment for them. I personally think it was in the pillow my friends drug out of the closet for me to sleep on, or perhaps underneath the couch or in the sliding glass door. I was in Jacksonville, FL- where they are quite prevalent, so really it could have been anywhere.
I don’t think I will go the doctor unless it gets worse. I have read that the symptoms will finally cease over days, weeks or uncommonly, over months.
I wish I had gone to the hospital that day. For future reference to all readers do not hesitate to go the emergency room if you have any kind of systemic reaction or if you see that you have been bit.
Better safe than sorry, or dealing with weeks of strange burning and deep muscular pains.
Hey Marion (133),
I was bitten 4 or 5 years ago, behind the knee while I was napping on my couch. I never felt the bite, but the spot was obvious, with 2 little bite marks, itching and redness. The area around the bite started to turn blackish, and the redness started creeping up my thigh. At the same time, I became sick with what I thought was the flu – I had body aches, trouble breathing, a fever, sweats… I tried to stick it out, but one day my boss took one look at me and sent me to the doctor. I felt stupid for going, as I thought I was starting to feel better. When I got there, they told me I had a fever of 102. I thought maybe I was coming down with strep, because that is the only thing that has ever made me groggy and muddled to the point of passing out (which I was now). I was told by the nurse practitioner that it definitely was not strep. She didn’t know what it was, but asked me not to give it to her. I was given antibiotics – something I’d never heard of that they generally only use in hospitals – codeine, and something else. I hadn’t mentioned the bite, because I didn’t know about the particular spider at the time. I went home and stayed home for a week. When I woke up from another nap on the couch, I saw a black widow fleeing the scene, trying to get back across the living room to get behind a wooden bookshelf I have. I felt better after the week of bedrest. My leg has never been the same in that spot. The skin feels loose over the area that had turned black and under the skin, it feels lumpy. Last year I asked my mother to take a look, because it seemed to me that it was slowly getting worse. She said there’s definitely something wrong – it isn’t anything at all like my other leg, and the area is darker still. I don’t know what happened recently but something triggered a reaction at that spot and the itching is starting up again. There is a welt in the area (possibly from me scratching) and every now and then a pain starts to creep its way back up my leg – mild and not long lasting, but following the same path as the original bite made. My hand also swole up the other day and got all itchy. The hand is back to normal, but the leg is still insanely itchy at the bite spot. I’m wondering if being bit by something else could have set off a reaction in that area again.
Anyway, my point is – it’s been several years, and like yours, my bite area has never been the same and even seems to be causing some symptoms now. I’m glad to hear that someone else has had the same problem!
On July 12th 2009, I believe I was bit by a Black Widow, on my shoulder closer to my neck. It is now one week later, and I’m feeling great. July 19th 2009.
I don’t have proof that it was a Black Widow. But I was working in my back yard and I saw a couple of Black Widows as i was working moving things around that whole day. I was actually pouring some concrete for my back yard planter box and used a leaf blower to clear things up.
But later that evening I had what felt like a mosquito bite on my shoulder.
No appetite.
And it was a bigger mosquito bite, a little more swollen than the average mosquito bite. I really didn’t think nothing about it for a couple of days maybe itching the bite when I had time. And the bite never really got any worse than what it originally was. By Thursday night 4 days later, After I got home from work I was a little more irritable than usual. Figured I was just really tired. When I went to sleep Thursday night. I had bad dreams all night long very cold and my feet and legs felt like they were trying to cramp I woke up many times.
By 4 A.M. I figured I better get up and take a hot shower and try to warm up. “by the way,it was 79 degrees in the house and I’m freezing my @!@ off”"I live in southern California, I was in the shower for an hour trying to warm up and never got warm.
I had to be to work by 7 A.M.
My home came home from work at 6:30 A.M.
And found me huddled into a huge ball on the couch cause I had three winter coats on and three blankets. To make a long story short.
My symptoms:”it took me 4 days before I started feeling these symptoms”
1) Shivering cold, And had no fever my temp was 98 degrees. But felt
as though I had a typical bad fever.
2) After the cold came Super sweating.
3) Headache that lasted 2 days.
4) Very weak 2 days
5) Felt like I had to go #2 but couldn’t, I had that feeling for 2 days
6) legs and feet wanted to cramp, that feeling came and went for
2 days.
7) Restless sleep and weird dreams.
I never went to the doctor, I grew up around black widows and have always been told that they are poisonous. But no one has ever said
that if you get bit by a black widow that you need to go to the e.r.
I always figured I might feel a little flu like symptoms like I did and get over it in a couple of days. And I did, I was sick for 2 days.
And don’t think that you don’t have to go to the doctor because I didn’t !
My advice is, if you know you got bit by a black widow go see the doctor a.s.a.p.
Everyone’s immune system is different. I probably would have gone to
the doctor if I could afford it. But I would have gone anyway if I felt any worse or if my symptoms lasted longer than the two days.
this page is immensely valuable for the comments… as the symptoms, physical reactions and timing vary so much per person and additional variations due to factors from the actual spider. i didn’t want to go to the ER right away (due to $) but have a good idea of what to monitor throughout the day and secondary symptoms which may occur later.
thank you so much!
I live in spring hill fl. I have a lot of black widow spiders!!!! What I want to know is how to get rid of them. Please tell me!! shawn3233@ earthlink.net
To Nathan:
That’s exactly what my bite looks like! Has yours gone away yet? Mine is almost 3 wks old and still hasn’t gone away- still looks exactly like that.
I’m not sure what kind of spider this is, can you tell me what is this species and if its venomous? It looks a lot like a Black Widow, is that what it is?
Right now he is in a plastic box with some more black widow like spiders but they have white markings on their backs.
I was just bitten I saw the spider on my right arm just above my elbow. And brushed it off. As I did the thing bit me though it was maybe 30 seconds till the pain started to come from the bite. I noticed the spider had some red on it as I brushed it away and grabbed a plastic cup and traped it. My Dr. Was glad I did because I took my “proof” with me to the ER. The pain is bad I would liken it to the pain that comes with chemo. Along with the feeling of an acute asthma attack. I’m still on the morphene and I was bit three days ago. Though its much less painfull my body and my muscles are exhausted. My bite never grew larger than a us quarter. But it feels raw the the touch, like all the flesh has beed rubbed off with steelwool. I have fought cancer and passed a kidney stone and this pain is there equal.
I was in Palm Springs visiting job site where yard is torn up for remodel. Woke up about 4 in the morning with a pinching feeling behind upper right thigh – couldn’t see in mirror. reached down and felt liquid on my leg. searched bedroom for bug scorpions and widows common here. found nothing at first. searched web for symptoms/remedies. wasn’t feeling to bad though gland near bite in groin area was tender which made me suspect a bite. One recomendation was a bath which i took. when i went back in room i saw the dead black widow on the ground belly up with red hour glass. not a very big one _ I’ve seen plenty growing up in So. Cal.
I called urgent care and told them my current symtoms and askedif I should come in and when realizing people do react differently to insect bites. I had been bitten twice by bees – no incident. Also been bite about 15 times by fire ants – mild but annoying reaction. anyway urgent care said if I started cramping up especially in abdomin i should come in. Well i had a couple of meetings at 8. mild abdominal cramping but nothing major. this has been 4 hours or so so I’m thinking I’m over the worst. About 8:40 or so my right then left hips began aching. Then both knees in short order. found it was hard to bend over. Then excruciating pain in toe joints like being stabbed with ice pick. Also knees getting worse. The contractors i was with decided they were taking me in to urgent care. it was getting difficult to walk. Nurse saw 3 distinct bites. My wife who is an R.N. also confirmed the 3 bites when I got home along witha few otherskin irritations nearby. urgent care hooked up some IV’s and deliberated sending me to ER. Pain was getting worse and worse, not quite like flu but similar – aching all over. labored breathing .trying to remain calm but pain is hard to deflect. they released me to go home after about an hour. by the time i had to sign medical forms i was writing like someone with Prkinsons disease – all shaky.
After another hour back at the house pain is becoming unbearable. Can’t find any comfortable position. guys decide to take me to ER. when i get there i go right past waitng area and am given immediate attention thankfully. i was having labored breathing tight chest and writhing in pain. that usually gets you right in! I beg them to just put me to sleep. Unfortunately they don’t but quickly get IV’s going. Blood pressure not bad like 140 over 90 or so. It felt worse. i was there for an hour or two and pain did subside some thankfully but not alot. They release me and I am driven home to the coast.
Next 2 days no relief from muscle pain. Constantly moving around to find a comfortable position. Doctors had me on Valium, Percocet and a couple antibiotics. Felt like a zombie for about a week. It is 2 weeks today and i have been back to work though i am hitting a wall every afternoon. had to start anther round of antibiotics as bites began infection. at first no problems. Still feel lethargy and muscle pain in afternoon> probably feel abou 80% healthy. I guess it takes awhile for toxins to clear? been drinking alot of fluids.
i need pics of bad black widow spider bites for a year 8 assignment
I have a black widow living under our mailbox unit at an apartment complex; saw her again this morning and shes beautiful but missing a leg. Nice size, on her abdomen top white stripes with red to complement her underside hourglass.
Do you know of anyone in the Huntsville, Alabama area that needs these spiders for antivenom or research? Would be happy to have them come and get it before someone gets bit or simply squashes her.
Anne
My husband and I bought our Son a sandbox to play in this Summer. He’s had it most the Summer but never thought to check it for spiders or anything else. But yesterday we cleaned the back yard and mowed. I told my husband we needed to start checking his sandbox for spiders because after cleaning it out I found some webs in there and on his toys. It really got me to thinking. So this evening he asked me if he could go play in his sandbox.
My Son is only 3 and I worry about him often. So I took him out and opened the lid. Sure enough, there was a new web in his tractor toy. Upon lifting it I saw a horrifying sight. 2 black spiders. I was almost certain it was 2 black widows. I took it to the light and sure enough that was what they were. One was dead but after spraying them with a bug killer the other ran out. It was huge! I figure the dead one was the male that she had killed. The spray took effect in about 4 minutes.
I thank God for giving me the knowledge to check my Son’s toys and sandbox. He’s allergic to many things. I never want to find out he is allergic to a black widow or a brown recluse. Happy to read everyone elses stories too. They were very informative.
I live in the Memphis area and was watering our garden which is bordered with rocks and was bitten by a widow spider on my toe. It’s been two weeks and I’m still feeling like I have the flu, aches and tired, with a fever and abdominal pain. It’s much better than last week and the serum sickness from the venom should fade away soon I hope. The sting was like a wasp, quick, then didn’t bother me much until the next day, feeling crampy and sick with nausea and headache.
It got worse after 48 hours with leg cramps, the bite was on my inner toe and my leg eventually went numb. I saw the doctor who confirmed the bite, which didn’t look that bad, and he gave me antibiotics. I take Tylenol for fever. Be careful if you work outdoors as this isn’t fun and was scary at first. It can be deadly if you have a bad reaction.
we found a black widow tonight in out grill. I really am freaking out here. im afraid they are going to be in the house. We just moved here (AZ) and I still have so many boxes packed with stuff, they will stay until we move out of here and back to where we came from. will a pest control work? I have read everyones posts, are we talking about 1 or 2 spiders every so often, or are people seeing spiders every day? im going nuts, I keep feeling stuff crawl on me, I keep seeing things out the corner of my eye help!
This is in response to Cynthia’s comment about how long can the poison stay in the body. One thing that occurred to me is that pain killers block pain from being recognized by your body, but having been around a number of close family members who have become addicted to pain killers, I realize that a lot of that pain is more or less stored to be dealt with later. I think that is what the body recognizes as withdrawal and what plays a large part in creating dependence. When one stops using pain killers your body will mimic the pain that was felt and initially prompted the person to take the medication. You can even notice this with something we think of as mild as Advil. I took advil almost everyday for headaches and as my body built up a tolerance or dependence for the medication I was convinced I had headaches everyday. I decided it was no good for my liver or kidneys to be taking advil each day so I decided to detox. A couple weeks later I was flabbergasted to find out these chronic headaches did not return.
I think maybe it could be similiar in reference to the pain killers to stop the pain of a black widow bite. It creates almost a flashback for you the moment you aren’t taking the pain killers. But watch out that pain may be your body tricking you all the way to addiction. It can be a very slippery slope.
Hey I think my son may have EATEN a Black Widow spider! What would that do to him? It was an adolescent black widow, not fully developed. Not sure if he ate it, but it was in some food he was eating, and we can’t find it. He is 13. Hope you answer me soon, I really should call the poison control, but I am not where he is, so I don’t know how he is acting. Do I need to get him to a hospital?
I wish I had taken a picture of my bite since many people asked about what a black widow spider bite looks like. It was just a round area about the size of a nickel at first with a single bite mark in the middle and redness around the bite. Two days later the redness had spread to about the size of a half dollar. The pain at the site was like a burning sensation or like the skin was chafed. I woke up and was achy, and had this irritated feeling on my inner thigh, and then I found a dead black widow spider on the pad under my sleeping bag. Although I had never seen one live, I had a recollection that a bad spider had a red hour glass on its underside, which the one I found did. I got increasingly achy, especially my back, rib cage and legs, it was such a relief to get pain medication from the ER, I kept taking pain meds for 3 days, went to work for 2 days, and came home with chills and achiness the 5th day after the bite. Now it is one week later and I’m still feeling very achy…like the flu…and have very little energy. Its tolerable…but barely. I hope this doesn’t last much longer.
Whew! Reading these stories on this site has really gotten to me. I work in an outside lawn and garden area of a store. I’ve only been in this position for 3 weeks and yet I’ve found 10 black widows. Other store personnel brush this off by saying it just goes with the territory but I don’t agree.
To allow an infestation in a customer use area is insensitive to the extreme. Its interesting to read the listed symptoms on other sites having to do with widow bites. I’ve been growing complacent due to shrug off comments by co-workers and by the symptoms list that makes the bite sound like the flu with some cramping. The stories on this site bring the chilling reality of what its like being a bite victim to the forefront. 90% of our customers are seniors and that statistic a they would be most vulnerable to extreme symptoms.
Four of the widows were guarding egg sacks and were not about to run away and 4 of the 6 were located in product areas where customers would generally place their hands. Thanks for sharing your way to close encounters with widows. I’m going to go on a campaign at work to alleviate these critters so that I won’t have to write later a widow bite horror story for this site.
Sorry i don’t have photos…. In October of 1996 my dad was bitten by a Black Widow spider from South America. It along with its nest arrived in a shipment of ink. He thought he was bitten by something but really paid no mind….that night he started having flu like symptoms. It was Oct. 9. A week later he went to the hospital because he was passing out. When they drew his blood he crashed..They revived him and he became necrotic in all the soft fleshy areas. He was in septic shock.
This led to DTs and reliving Vietnam so they sedated him. He went into renal failure and then ARDS (Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome). He actually recovered from most. He would have been on dialysis forever and they wer going to remove the necrotic areas. While he would have thought the prosthesis were cool he would not have wanted to live in that condition so with heavy hearts we removed life support. He live for 21 hours on Agonal Respirations which is basically the brain screaming for air. He passed Oct 20. His 50th birthday was the 12th and he wasn’t even aware…..
The South American Black Widow is twice the size of its North American cousin and its venom is equivalent to that of an Asp. Due to the spider protecting its nest it is now loose and breeding with its North American cousin. BEWARE Black Widows are not toys and should be considered deadly!!!
I live in Las Vegas and have a pool with a bunch of palm trees around it. Lately I have notice alot of webs between the trees and on the pool furniture. Every few days I knock them down and within a day or 2 they are right back! When I let my dogs out tonight of course they ran between the trees and pulled down the webs which had a big female black widow on it and I was lucky he was not bitten. Enough, how do i get rid of these things for good? I usually live and let live but I cannot chance one of my pets being seriously injured by one of these things when I’m not around. I also have friends with kids over my house often for pool parties and would feel horrible if one of them was bit. My house is sprayed every other month buy our bug guy so why doesn’t that work? No bugs, just crickets and LOTS of black widows…I need to do something but don’t have alot of disposable income and don’t want to waste it on something that will not help.
My bite occured this week on the back steps of my house in Southern CA. I was playing baseball with my son and I noticed a black widow running quickly away from the area where I had just taken off my shoes. I killed it and within seconds my toe started hurting. I assume it had bitten me and ran off in fear. It may have been in my shoes the whole time.
I am 12 weeks pregnant so immediately I started to worry. My legs started cramping up and the site of the bite started hurting badly, like pins and needles. I called my husband and he picked me up and we went to the ER. I wasn’t concerned about the pain as much as I was about the tiny baby I was growing inside of me.
At the ER I was taken back pretty quickly. My right leg was mottled (splotchy white and purple) and my thighs were cramping. They offered me morphine, which I refused because of the pregnancy. Slowly the pain moved up my leg and into my back and abdomen. My uterus was having contractions and I worried for the health of the baby. An ultrasound showed the baby was okay. Heartbeat was normal and baby moved around. However, I was still worried because I didn’t want to lose the baby. After a few hours the pains seemed to subside and I went home.
Within a couple more hours the pain kicked into high gear. I was experiencing body cramps and sharp shooting pains in my feet, breasts, and back. To make matters worse, I was also having a bout of shingles that week and it flared up and started to itch really badly. Ugh.
I sent my husband to the store to get Tylenol and Benedryl so I could try and take the edge off the pain and sleep but nothing touched it. It felt like my nervous system was on overdrive and the best sleep I could get was lying in the warm bath. The next day was also very painful and the next night I also couldn’t sleep well. I wasn’t able to walk and my husband had to wait on me hand and foot as I was completely laid out. The following day it got a little better but it seemed like the sharp shooting pains had localized to my feet and breasts (yay). I was able to hobble around and do a few things. I still didn’t sleep well last night.
I came across this forum and had to share my story. Being pregnant this was a very scary experience. I also had almost no options for pain control whatsoever so I really suffered a lot. I highly recommend that if you have issues with black widows to take care of it. We knew we had a lot of them in our backyard, garage, and front yard but we ignored the problem in hopes we could just avoid them. I was bitten in midday without knowing I was anywhere near a black widow. I had just killed one not an hour before that was hiding under my son’s toy car.
The other thing I want to add is that not all black widows are 100% black on the top of their abdomen. Young black widows can have red spots on the top of their abdomen. That is what I was bitten by and the doctors were skeptical of it being a black widow spider bite. When I researched it later I found it was, in fact, a young black widow.
Actually langrish, The Brazillian Wandering Spider is the most poisonus spider in the world as of 2007.
A week ago today, I was driving without shoes and socks, and twenty minutes later was itching the top of my foot by the toes. The itching increased, then it was very painful. A few minutes later the pain was in my groin/upper leg area, intense. My leg felt funny. My boyfriend and I switched positions. Then the stomach cramps began, they hurt soooo bad. The pain went between my stomach and low back. I was writhing in pain, as my boyfriend kept driving, as we were two hours from anything. Having no insurance I didn’t want to go to the ER, but when we got there (just in case) I was like “let’s go”. I couldn’t walk- he had to shuffle me in. Fortunately the doctor was familiar with spider bites and identified it, gave me three different pain meds via IV as well as calcium. The pain meds took the edge off, but the pain never went away. On a scale of 1-10 I went from a 9 to a 5. Pain, but tolerable pain.
The next day I could not walk either. The stomach cramps were very bad. I threw up once. I was very weak. Eating wasn’t appealling and I had no appetite. Major night sweats.
The following day I could walk, finally. I drank broth and ate jello. I couldn’t sit for long, as it was exhausting to hold myself up at all. The stomach cramps were still bad. Major night sweats.
The third full day I tried eating oatmeal. The problem for a few days was after eating, or later at night for about five hours, my stomach would cramp up- but different than before. I could feel little bubbles moving around and passing gas helped. But it really hurt. Pressure and heat helped. I was still weak. Major night sweats.
I thought I’d be fine after that, but no. It’s a full week later and I still find myself easily short of breath, after a 10 minute walk or a shower. I have a rash that moves around- it’s on both feet and ankles, abdomen, outer elbows, and inner right elbow. I still feel overall weak. My ability to think is still diminished. I get hot and cold. My knees really hurt and hot baths and Aleve do not help.
I stopped the pain meds after the third day as the pain was manageable by then.
That was my experience. I just wonder how long until I don’t feel the symptoms anymore… it’s not in any of the informational sites that I’ve seen.
PS Going to the ER was the best move, as I thought I was going to die from the pain.
i was cleaning out my shed (witch is located in my back yard) and came across a couple of black spiders about the size of a quarter maybe a little bigger.i live in new york city and dont know much about spiders,i want to know what kind of spider it is because the kids play back there and i dont want them to get hurt.pls help..it was black about the size of a quarter,did not jump it just walked nice and slow,and i found it behind/under a piece of wood in my shed that has not been cleaned in about ten years..thanks
Hi, my name is Janette and I have 3 dogs and 2 cats in Las Vegas, NV.
I went outside in my backyard over to one of those fan things that most houses have, and I saw a black widow, (This was at night) and Im 100% SURE it was a black widow because it had a orange hourglass on its adomben so its a female right?
Well theres also a Praying Mantis patrolling the fan so should I be worried if the spider will get into my house?
if it helps I’ve told my mom and she doesnt seem to paranoid, but I just want to double check. ALSO. I haven’t seen it around there anymore so did the Mantis eat it? Or should I spray around there or…?
I live in suburban Los Angeles and lived in happy ignorance of the presence of black widows for many years. One day, an A/C repairman told me that they liked to hang out in A/C units. I thought he was kidding but he assured me they were very common. We had a weathered (few cracks) Rubbermaid bin with a lid that we used for an outdoor toy box (squirt guns, balls, etc) that was on the porch. It had a very strong spider web silk thread attached to it that I had tried to swish down a couple of times but stayed up. Suspicious, I decided to dump out the contents to clean it out and take a look. Something told me to fling the lid on the grass first. Good thing I did because a large black widow crawled out from it.
I sprayed it and everything else with strong bug spray, then soaked it with the hose. Then I remembered the kids’ hard plastic wagon that had been sitting under the cypress trees gathering leaves for a while. I took my bug spray and water hose and kicked it over. At least a dozen widows and juveniles (light brown) ran out. There were several egg sacks. Another day, one crawled out of our Rubbermaid hose rack on the other side of the house. So, heads up to all the parents: widows love those hard plastic toys, racks and boxes for their nests so be sure to check them thoroughly and rinse them out before your kids use them if they are left outside. I have also seen the spiders/webs under picnic tables and benches in the park so be careful sitting on them.
I wanted to post a follow up as I just found and killed what I believe was one in our bathroom. It was shiny black but didn’t get close enough to confirm the red dot. My point is this. When you confirm you find one make sure you wipe out the nest. The milky white egg sacks. We didn’t initially and we have had a garage filled with these creatures. I believe we had the garage door open and this bugger crawled into our bathroom yesterday. In the last 3 months, because we didn’t wipe out the egg sacks we eventually killed about 10 in our garage. They like the area right around garage door opens, the hinges and such. If this doesn’t do the trick I am going to get some bug foggers, make sure to turn off your pilot lights, and eradicate them. The pros and cons of living next to open space.
I just noticed 2 black widow spiders outside of our deck. Now I’ve seen 2 Baby black widows one one the deck and one in the house. Is there any way to get rid of them?
so recently my friend and i found a female black widow and it was a bright day. we poked it a few times with a stick and then it curled its legs and played dead.since we had never seen a spider do that we thought it was insanely cool.we poked it a few more times and then it just sprang up really fast and came towards us.we ended up killing it because that scared us!
I HATE SPIDERS. I was bit by a brown recluse 1 month ago My scar is still barley healed. Im a moron and prefer to sleep on the floor in my living room just cause I love laying near my heat vents from my central air. I think im done with it now.I was sitting on the floor in front of my couch watching tv for 2 hours. I picked my blanket up which had been next to me the whole time I even moved it a couple times, as soon as i picked the blanket up to wrap it around me to lay down out falls a huge black widow about 1.5 inches with legs spread. Of course I sat and took pictures of it lifting its front legs up at me until I crushed it with my shoe with pure anger because of the ordeal I went through from the bite i am just getting over. Now im paranoid my favorite resting place in my house is tainted. It amazes me I have lived in this house for 15 years I keep my yards trimmed clutter gone from around my house and im being invaded by the most poisonous of everything. Im waiting on a copper head to surface next since its the next thing that comes to mind. Im trying to find some humor in all this.. Just my little story since i immediatly found this site after killing the black widow..
I have read a lot about Black Widows, it says that they usually leave really red helps on your skin and your whole body stays red for a couple of weeks at a time until you get sick or you have problems breathing.
They are weird and creepy and black widows can kill you that’s the only reason i hate them and what the bad thing was about it was that one of my friends kids got bit by one and she is only 3 and she got really sick so they took her to the hospital to see what they can do for her. They could not do nothing she didn’t live to see the next day =(
I got bit by a black widow Monday night. I had tucked my three year old daughter into bed and was lying in the dark next to her toddler bed holding her hand while she drifted off to sleep, when I felt something on my left shoulder. I thought it was a fly, and was really annoyed, and vaguely thought as I brushed it away that it’s awful cold for there to still be flies around, let alone in the house. A moment later, I felt it on my right shoulder. I was wearing a tank top, and it had crawled across the cloth to my other shoulder.
I realized it wasn’t a fly, tensed up and brushed at it again, quickly, and it fell onto my daughter’s quilt. As I brushed at it the second time, I felt how large it was, and rushed to turn on the light. When I saw the huge spider crawling across my daughter’s blanket, I started screaming for my fiance. He came in, grabbed the blanket, and dragged it down the hall, telling me as he went to get a jar. We got it in a jar and he asked if I’d been bit and what happened. I said “No I don’t think so” and then glanced at my left shoulder where I had first felt it crawling on me. I had what I thought looked like a rather ordinary looking spider bite. He knew what it was and packed the whole family in the car to go to the ER with our spider in the jar. Really strange to me still that I never felt it bite me.
As another poster pointed out, taking the speciman with you, if possible, is the best thing you can do, though I have to say while I was terrified and waiting for the doctor to come tell me I wasn’t going to die, every nurse in the ER barged in to my room to look at it, and me, in awe, which was a little unnerving and annoying; I just wanted to know if I was going to be okay..
At first I felt nothing but pins and needles in my shoulder and in my left arm. It started in the joints and then the whole arm started to feel dull and heavy and numb, like I’d slept on it. Then the muscle spasms, which actually weren’t bad at first, but became excruciating in the following hours and days. Dizziness, headache, body ache, muscle spasms and constant, unremitting nausea. The doc gave me Lorazapam for nausea and stomach cramps and oxycodone for pain, I gave up on the Lorazapam after the first dose- a med for nausea which has a side effect of….nausea? I’ve taken the pain killers cautiously, but when I don’t I feel like I have the worst case of anemia and/or flu plus horrible, horrible muscle spasms. Sometimes I get feverish, and I am hungry, but every time I eat I regret it. The cramping in the back of my legs and thighs is the worst.
Yesterday, Thursday, I finally felt pretty normal. Today I feel like a total rag doll and finally (after midnight) have taken some pain medication. I want it to go away, and have been trying to figure out how long it’s going to last. It seems like every person has a different reaction, so I don’t really know what to expect. God forbid this lasts for months as I’ve read here and there. I didn’t even get a big dose of poison, if the site of the bite is any indication.
The spider that bit me (I sitll have the dead spider in the jar) is the classic inky black spider with the red hourglass on it’s belly- but I’ve read that this species is a Southern black widow, and I live in Eastern Washington. I’m curious about that.
The one thing that I am endlessly grateful for, is that I got bitten and not my daughter. If it had appeared (out of nowhere, as it seemed to!) just a few minutes later, I would have not been in the room, and she could have brushed at it in her half-sleep state and been bitten, and I would have never known. It could have been fatal for her. The idea scares the hell out of me. Tonight is the first night I’ve let her sleep in there since it happened. I’ve swept out the ceiling, cleaned the room from top to bottom, and I’m still terrified that there’s another one in there.
The whole thing has been very traumatic. One of the worst effects is that I am now very afraid of bugs and spiders, and I never ever have been in my life. I was always the tomboy growing up that had no problem handling them- my 10 year old son is terrified of spiders and I always go into his room when he starts screaming to laugh and remove them. No more. I’m totally freaked out. Tonight I bought a bunch of spinach (since I felt so weak, I thought maybe I should have some greens- didn’t help- it’s the neurotoxin). I took the spinach home and cleaned it, and cleaned it and cleaned it like I have OCD or something. For some reason I was terrified it had some kind of bug in it and that I was going to bite into it. I made a huge salad out of it but couldn’t eat it all because every time I took a bite I cringed and braced myself for a bug. One night (I think Tuesday) I got the creepy-crawlies really bad- but I thought it might be a side effect of the pain killers and not just me.
All in all, not a good experience, and I wish I knew when the neurotoxin will work it’s way out of my system so I can go about my business like a normal person!!!
Are black widows in Florida? If so anybody live in flordia and ever see one?
My family and I moved to VA four months ago. Our house was built in 1836, obviously old, and drafty, with all sorts of nooks and crannies for creatures to hide in. I am personally scared immobile by spiders, I even refuse to look at drawn pictures of them. Knowing there was the possibility of encountering them, I wear shoes all the time. Thus said, about four to five weeks ago my husband, myself, out infant daughter and our 4 yr old woke up and went to our main floor living room. We have a canvas cover over our fireplace (behind it is a steel bolted cover as we don’t use it) and as our son meandered into the living room he began to yell “spider! Spider!” He even walked up to it and was about to put his face up to it for closer inspection. I yelled at him to back away but didn’t think anything of it as my husband walked in with a small pint sized Gladware container. He scooped the creature up and handed it to me. I almost fainted but was to afraid to go unconscious, lest I drop the container and it get away. It was a black widow at about the biggest that they get roughly an inch and a half. And she was AGGRESSIVE. She was lunging at our fingers and racing to the top of the container feeling at the threads of the top. We stuck her in the freezer because there’s no way the lid was ever coming off.
We made an apt. with the Orkin man.
Five days later, in the evening, in our hallway off of the living room, we found another Black widow, scurrying across the floor. Thank goodness my husband had just arrived home, our infant was less than four feet away and it was coming in her general direction, with her two brothers laying on the floor of the dimly lit living room, watching movies and eating snacks. This one to was tossed in the freezer.
That next week the Orkin man arrived and inspected the home. He was horrified with the spiders and highly suggested a spider treatment. They arrived six days later. They treated every possible place and laid traps to find migratory paths.
Six days later………again, my husband finds a good sized black widow, waltzing from the top of our basement stairs, heading for our mainfloor bathroom. This one too, was tossed with the other two, into the freezer…..and the Orkin man returned to spray again.
It was at this time he informed us that the highly concentrated spray and the window dusting, beads around the house had virtually NO impact on the spiders itself. Black Widows are equipped with pads on the bottom of their feet that protects them as they walk throughout the chemicals. Furthermore, black widows do not clean themselves as roaches, ants, and community based bugs (spiders in general do not groom themselves) do. This means that they do not in fact ingest the poison until they eat a bug that had the treatment, dust, etc. on them, or groomed themselves and subsequently has ingested the poison, or when the spider feeds off of a dead bug that has died due to the poison. My peace of mind flew right out the window. (Not enough to stop out 500$ year long contract with Orkin)
Learning all this I have realized, I will continue to randomly not sleep or have recurring nightmares as long as we live here. My solice comes from knowing this is a temporary, three year living situation. My family is from the MN/ND area, where things die in the winter. We have decided as a family our next move MUST have snow. I’ll email my pictures of the spiders, hopefully for all to see.
But really, if you see a bug, KILL IT. I know of no American bugs on the endangered list, and Black widows can lay 200-700 eggs in their lifetime. The odds are in their favor.
I was bitten on the arm by a Widow about 8 weeks ago. I was cleaning up fallen
branches and she fell into my glove and bit me. It initially felt like a pin prick,
but later as my arm swelled up, became slightly painful. My abdominals became
somewhat stiff,and I was very achey. I captured the spider in my glove, and went
to the ER, where after a short anti-venin tolerance test, gave me the antivenin.
I felt bad for a week, and the bite site became a necrotic spot about 1/2 inch diameter, that while not painful, eventually had to debrided, with necrotic tissue
excised. I was given Cipro, an antibiotic, and told to drink lots of water.
I am fully recovered, and except for the scar on my arm, OK.
I am 61 years old and in relatively good health.
I found a shiny black spider never seen any like this before and i live in the UK, anyone knows what it is?
I believe Black widows are plain misunderstood. Yes there sometimes large and jet black and very intimidating but! If you have ever taken time to watch a Widow who’s had a nest for any length of time you will notice how many bugs beetles flys etc they devour. Like any other spider they are a plus in garden areas and even around homes.
When I was young I was most frightened of them so bad in later years it actually affected my job in some cases. That was when I decided to study them and understand them more.
My conclusions were astounding. Widows are not out to attack humans and frankly there afraid of them. Back in the late 80s my oldest daughter and I would hunt them at night and we found they would always run into there hole or nearest hiding place, and another fact I learned was believe it or not, after time some of the Widows would actually begin to recognize us and not run. Now believe that if you want. The bottom line is, if they have a nest or otherwise commonly known as an egg sac, leave them alone. Yes they will attack, I’ve seen it. Like any mother there just protecting there off spring. Also if there in your way sure, use common sense
I could go on and on and I realize some of this does sound crazy but after I finally faced my fear with them i’m all right. Just respect them.
A big thank you to this site and all the helpful comments. I was camping in central Ontario last July and didn’t see what bit me but from doing much research have concluded it was some variety of black widow. I felt a very sharp pinprick/pain on my left temple, then numbness almost like novocaine on the left side of my face for maybe 20 minutes. Didn’t think too much about it because I camp a lot and get bitten by various critters without severe symptoms.
That afternoon and for the next few days I had a bad headache and flu-like symptoms, but as I have fibromyalgia and am 57 thought I must just be overtired. Two weeks later I had whole-body symptoms, very bad cramping in my arms, not as severe in my legs, and it took some thinking to connect that bite with the symptoms. Went to my doctor to get her opinion, and from her and other medical folks was pretty sure I was right, especially after finding the Ontario Outdoors website which confirmed the presence of back-widows where I was.
I am still suffering from muscle cramps in my arms, and very tired from all these months of discomfort and trouble sleeping,etc. Have been enough better the past month or so that I only need painkillers at night for sleep. The symptoms seem more or less random now, sometimes my lower back, sometimes legs, but always arms.
Reading all these comments gives me the most reassurance that I will get over it eventually. Thanks!
Ok I just want to get a few points straight. As you are obviously reading countless variations what the bite of a widow is like and other things, I hope you will believe this. I spent many years of school using my free time to hunt and study Black Widows and my science teacher happened to know a great deal about arachnids (The family that includes spiders. They are not insects).
The Female black widow spider (Latrodectus Mactans) is a small to medium sized spider. It can be tiny but not always and I have yet to spot one tarantula size. All though I have seen widows big enough to make me run like hell. She is shiny jet black with a small thorax and a corrispondingly huge abdomen. It is usually ball shaped but I have seen some that were more like an arrow head. She is always shiny black and will always have a marking on the lower underside of her abdomen. Usually blood red but sometimes kind of burnt orange like the brown widow. It wont always be a solid hourglass. Sometimes two arrows pointing towards each other. Sometimes two spaced out horizontal bars.
She will USUALLY do whatever she can to escape danger and not attack, for fear of being crushed. But if she is guarding her egg sack (several tiny silky spherical shaped web pieces at the back of the web) YOU BETTER STAY BACK AND KEEP YOUR FINGERS TO YOURSELF! If she does attack her venom is deadly and she is extremely fast. I have been bitten and it is extremely painful and I wanted to die.
People please do not post information on black widows based on your opinion. Your opinion is not going to save anyone’s life if they are bitten. Please make sure your posting proven fact. To bite victims reading this, the information published on here can mean their life or death. People if you are bitten by a spider that meets the above description, get to an emergency room IMMEDIATELY.
The reason some people only get a red dot at the bite site from a black or brown widow bite is because these spiders will commonly start with a “warning bite” meaning that it will only inject a mild section pain and spasms ect. If you disturb her and tiny amount of toxin into the bite which will cause only enough to alert you to back off. There will likeasspain ly be none of the symptoms commonly associated with latrodectus bites. If the spider is forced to assault a second time which is rare, she will inject a full dose of her triple acting neurotoxin which is what causes the extreme pain and such
I keep reading online 2 things that are very wrong one is that Black widow can not bite through the hair or a bog or can and 2 that they are shy. My great dane was killed by a black widow and it bit her on the ankle as they are one of the most aggressive spiders I have ever seen. We had many in our home in the mountains of Colorado you could not pick up a rock without finding one. I had one chase me across a room when I was moving a dresser.
They also play dead for hours. I had one in a cup over night as I was trying to make sure what it was and I kept flipping it in the cup as I was doing online research to insure that is what it was. After I confirmed it I place the cup on the refrigerator with a book on top to show someone the next day. It was still on its back like I left it but when I shock the cup it sprung to life.
Many people mistake black widow because they don’t see the red hour glass but what they don’t realize is it in on the underside of it. From the top it is shiny black and looks as if some one has pushed a ball point pen into to points on the body, leaving 2 tiny divots. If you have them in your home you need to treat your house and around it because as I said they are highly aggressive and if you are close enough they will strict with the speed of a rattle snake. The ones we had are exactly like the ones picture above. While spiders have their benefits so do snakes but it is foolish to have them in your home.
Blessings,
Jennie
Throw a pan of boiling water on black widow spider. It’s quick, 100% kill, and there’s no poison like with insecticide or carburetor cleaner as I saw one suggestion.
Obviously my recommendation is for outdoors and only when the spider is near ground level, which most are. You would never throw boiling water UP where it could splash back down on you.
Last Tuesday, I think I may have bitten by a Black Widow. I was working in and around a storage facility that day. My left wrist started almost as an itch and progressed within an hours time to extreme pain and an inability to bend or rotate it at all. There was some swelling especially of the veins and blood vessels around my wrist and even up my arm and in my hand. However there was no real noticeable redness. The pain was extreme and even made me feel nauseous and took my breath away periodically. I finally gave in and went to the Hospital ER. X-rays and blood samples came back negative. They gave me a shot of Motrin in the arm and within 20-30 minutes I felt stupid for having gone in. I hadn’t suspected a bite until the gal drawing my blood said, “you must have gotten bitten by something…” On the top of my hand I remembered removing a small black spec in a small scratch about an hour or so before I felt that first itch. I shared this with the Doctor and nurse. They sent me home with a wrist splint and pain pills. Literally, my wrist felt 99% within 24 hours. I never saw a spider, though have seen a Black Widow on several occasions in the past. I’d like to to put this incident to bed. Does this sound like a Black Widow bite? I’m assuming even if it was, I would not need to follow up at this point. FYI I’m middle aged male with above average health.
Facinating Spider to Watch. I Kept one in Chattanooga in a small plastic terrarium that she seemed to love. (If she has a spot to hide in darkness) The fascinating thing about the widow is to watch her work at mobilizing the prey. She does whatever she has to do. If the prey happens into the web when there is an egg sac, Mom makes sure that death is quicker; somewhat unnerved, she tends to make repeated bites– Haven’t seen an insect linger too long when Mom’s been guarding, as it seems to turn into more of a defense thing, than a food issue. I’ve seen her actually subjugate larger beetles with pinchers by going for the legs first. A web is enmeshed around the end of the legs where the two claws are, the leg shaft just above the claw is bitten, and a generous dose of venom “spittle”(yellowish)is introduced like dew all around the web that has surrounded the claws. Since its not a direct bodily dose, the toxin is thus able to progressively enter the cut. Easy when you know how.
As far is how dangerous this spider is, all I can say is that she seems just as shy and retiring as any house spider. Except if she has an egg sac, and you begin pulling up the web– I had to do for the purpose of cleaning the rain water out of the bottom of the terrarium– she’ll become so incensed that she’ll run up the stretching web into the direction of the upheaval (in this case my hand) and…. well, I didn’t let it get that far. I placed an inanimate stick between her and me! If I didn’t, I’m sure when her palpii reached flesh and blood, there would have been more than one bite. . . . .
Bottom line is the Widow is not going to run off the web or away from a threat when the sac’s there. I guess that’s her “Raison ultra plus” you might say. But how many people inadvertently find themselves so delicately blundering, especially since outhouses have been gone for so long
Except, of course, when the spider has insinuated itself in domestic situations. No offense to those who have here been bitten
I live in Hawthorne Nevada and there are three different species here. The standard gloss black you all know and love(or hate) the white faced which looks like it has a white smiley face on the front of the abdomen and one very similar to the red back of Australia.
I also kept and bred these spiders and had one that could remember what time she was supposed to be fed at 6:00 every three days so it is possible for them to recognize humans and recognize them as a threat to their survival .