I'm not a spider person....

[darkmavis]

I don't know why i read through this entire thread.

I'm a big baby when it comes to bugs and spiders and things like that. ICK! I feel like there's bugs in my hair now. And I know we do have black widows here, I have also seen them inside where i work. We're having the bug people come today actually to make sure the housefly problem from last week will not happen again (GROSS!!! like the Amityville Horror!).

That said, I try to save and throw outside bugs which I find inside. I even saved an earthworn squiggling on the sidewalk today, threw it in the grass so it wouldn't dry out in the sun. Sometimes though if it's too difficult, then a tissue smash and flush is required. Once when I was at my old job, there was this HAIRY spider crawling on the floor. I was the only one in the office and freaked out, and so I dropped a tissue on top of it, and dropped a phone book on top of it. (so the guts would be on the tissue, not the phonebook!

) I just left it there til someone else came in and made them take care of it. haha!

Oh, and if a spider fell into my chilli, yeah, it would've been dumped. I can't eat that, I'm a vegetarian!!

 

[abbycats]

Originally Posted by calico2222

Again, I have to ask if this was actually a black widow spider, or just a black spider (as in...did you pick her up and look at her underbelly?) The males and juvenilles can't hurt human's, just the females. Either way, I don't blame you for putting a barrier around you house to keep them out!

But, here is a link to black widows:
http://www.desertusa.com/july97/du_bwindow.html

Looks like they mainly are in hot, dry climates although I'm sure some could have migrated up in luggage, etc. There are "false" black widows of the same type but not as poisonous. And, I was surprised to read that a black widow bite will only really kill someone that is allergic to the venom (kind of like a bee sting). How about a brown recluse? That is what we have around here. I know they won't kill you, but they will kill the skin around the bite, right?

Years ago when I was living and working in Colorado, I worked 3rd shift at a data center in inverness park. Outside, they had an infestation of black widow spiders, and yes they were black widow spiders. Black widow spiders are not just common in the southern hot states. We have them here in Nebraska too. Brown recluse spiders are nasty spiders too. They are also very dangerous. Look up what their bites can do to somebody. It's pretty graphic.

 

[nekomania]

Originally Posted by katiemae1277

I'm so glad I live in northern Ohio! no really bad creepy crawlies

Ohhhh are you sure?

I'm pretty sure Ohio has a lot of the same spiders we do.

At least you have both the recluse and black widow, as well as a couple of other nasty biters.

http://www.marion.ohio-state.edu/Spi...ingSpiders.htm




Did you know there is one species of poisonus rattle snake native to Ohio as well? I learnded that at the Toledo Zoo.

 

[pookie-poo]

I can tell you from personal experience, how bad a brown recluse bite is. I was moving lawn furniture out of my shed for the summer, and was bitten on my hand. I missed nearly a month of work, due to the necrotizing flesh of the bite. Here's a picture of it 48 hours post bite. I also suffered systemic effects to my kidneys. My creatinine elevated to nearly 4.5 (normal is 0.6 to 1.0). Fortunately, it returned to normal over the next month or so.

That happened in either 2004 or '05. I now have a type of vasculitis at the site, and irritations, like some lotions, will trigger a painful cellulitis type of reaction.

I now use a bug bomb the night before I go into my shed. Even though Michigan is supposedly too far north for brown recluse spiders...there's no denying that mine was a BR bite.

 

[babz]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

O/T but many years ago I stayed at a friends house. Her older brother was away and she slept in his bed (and rummaged through his stuff...

) with another friend staying over. I stayed in her bed. She had glow in the dark stars and little cardboard cutout planets stuck to the ceiling above her bed. Shortly after turning the lights out something fell on me. I turned on the lights, found it in the covers - it was one of the planets. I couldn't resist the perfect set up - I went to the door of the other bedroom and told her "Uranus fell on me".

It's much funnier when you haven't had any sleep.

OMG!! I can't stop laughing! This is exactly something that I would have said!! You are to funny!!

 

[tigerontheprowl]

Originally Posted by Pookie-poo

I can tell you from personal experience, how bad a brown recluse bite is. I was moving lawn furniture out of my shed for the summer, and was bitten on my hand. I missed nearly a month of work, due to the necrotizing flesh of the bite. Here's a picture of it 48 hours post bite. I also suffered systemic effects to my kidneys. My creatinine elevated to nearly 4.5 (normal is 0.6 to 1.0). Fortunately, it returned to normal over the next month or so.

That happened in either 2004 or '05. I now have a type of vasculitis at the site, and irritations, like some lotions, will trigger a painful cellulitis type of reaction.

I now use a bug bomb the night before I go into my shed. Even though Michigan is supposedly too far north for brown recluse spiders...there's no denying that mine was a BR bite.

Oh yes the infamous brown recluse. There are only 2 spiders in the world that I want to avoid. One is the brown recluse, the other is the Sydney Funnel Web. Anything else, I'm fine with. Especially black widows. Sure they're dangerous, but they rarely bite. 90% of the time they bite because they feel trapped (in your clothes, in your boots, etc.). If you have a black widow on a table, you could just swat it with your hand and it will just try to get away instead of bite. Think of the Goliath bird-eating spider. It's the biggest in the world and most people are scared of it just because it's so big, but in reality, it's one of the tamest spiders in the world. You could do basically anything short of ripping off its legs, and it won't attack. It's the same thing with black widows. People are scared of them mainly just because of their reputation, but if it's out in the open there's nothing to worry about.

 

[jcat]

Originally Posted by Pookie-poo

I can tell you from personal experience, how bad a brown recluse bite is. I was moving lawn furniture out of my shed for the summer, and was bitten on my hand. I missed nearly a month of work, due to the necrotizing flesh of the bite. Here's a picture of it 48 hours post bite. I also suffered systemic effects to my kidneys. My creatinine elevated to nearly 4.5 (normal is 0.6 to 1.0). Fortunately, it returned to normal over the next month or so.

That happened in either 2004 or '05. I now have a type of vasculitis at the site, and irritations, like some lotions, will trigger a painful cellulitis type of reaction.

I now use a bug bomb the night before I go into my shed. Even though Michigan is supposedly too far north for brown recluse spiders...there's no denying that mine was a BR bite.

I got bitten by one in Nebraska when cleaning the doors out to my mom's deck, and my arm looked like your hand. The tissue around the bite turned red, and then black, despite immediate treatment, and I was on heavy-duty antibiotics for half a year. I still have a bruise-like mark and some tenderness in the spot, although it's been well over a year. I think I'd prefer to take my chances with a black widow if I get bitten again.

We found a tarantula in our basement when we lived in Philadelphia. Hubby didn't believe me when I told him it was a tarantula, although my brother had had a pet one. It turned out that our neighbors' son's pet had escaped.

 

[nurseangel]

Originally Posted by calico2222

Again, I have to ask if this was actually a black widow spider, or just a black spider (as in...did you pick her up and look at her underbelly?) The males and juvenilles can't hurt human's, just the females. Either way, I don't blame you for putting a barrier around you house to keep them out!

But, here is a link to black widows:
http://www.desertusa.com/july97/du_bwindow.html

Looks like they mainly are in hot, dry climates although I'm sure some could have migrated up in luggage, etc. There are "false" black widows of the same type but not as poisonous. And, I was surprised to read that a black widow bite will only really kill someone that is allergic to the venom (kind of like a bee sting). How about a brown recluse? That is what we have around here. I know they won't kill you, but they will kill the skin around the bite, right?

I didn't see the spiders personally, but have seen black widows outside at my work and

once on my front porch.

I am so afraid of spiders that I notice the tiniest one. I especially hate their clingly little feet, becuase that's what makes them so hard to knock off when they jump on you.

 

[nurseangel]

Originally Posted by Pookie-poo

I can tell you from personal experience, how bad a brown recluse bite is. I was moving lawn furniture out of my shed for the summer, and was bitten on my hand. I missed nearly a month of work, due to the necrotizing flesh of the bite. Here's a picture of it 48 hours post bite. I also suffered systemic effects to my kidneys. My creatinine elevated to nearly 4.5 (normal is 0.6 to 1.0). Fortunately, it returned to normal over the next month or so.

That happened in either 2004 or '05. I now have a type of vasculitis at the site, and irritations, like some lotions, will trigger a painful cellulitis type of reaction.

I now use a bug bomb the night before I go into my shed. Even though Michigan is supposedly too far north for brown recluse spiders...there's no denying that mine was a BR bite.

Bless your heart. Bad enough to get bit (that would scare me to death) but then to have to deal with it years later. I know someone who had a bad bite on his hand and he still has numbness at that location.

 

[chinacat]

I really don't like spiders and after reading this thread I'm so glad I live in the UK, not many big or poisonous ones here.
I can't kill them though, if there's one in the house I trap it & let it go outside. The cats tend to deal with most of them though!