Black Widow Spider Attack!

[TubeDriver]

Sunday was spent helping a buddy install his Koni inserts and Ground Control coilovers on his WRX. We noticed his rear passanger side wheel wheel had some sloppy looking spider webs but did not think much about. My buddy is running the strut top around the side of the garage to clean it up a bit when I hear a yell of terror. I rush along to the outside to see a large black widow spider pinning my friend's arms and legs to the ground with it's fangs just inches away from his face! I grap a 1/2' breaker bar and clobber the spider's head repeatedly until it loses consiousness. We then finish it off.


OK, that might be a slight embellishment of the facts. In fact, I heard a cry out and found my friend looking into the strut top at a 1" to 1.25" long jet black widow with the red hourglass marking. Pretty creepy when you consider that we were carring this part around and poking our fingers into it to dislodge dirt and pebbles. Hope it did not lay any eggs in his wheel wheel! Evil looking things with long, skinny legs.

[DragII]

bah, break out the shop vac, and keep going

[terpWRX]

hopefully you guys didn't kill it, right?!

i never kill spiders when i see them in my house. i'll always make the effort to scoop them up and toss them outside.

[TubeDriver]

um, well we actually cooked and eat it for lunch.

Originally posted by terpWRX
hopefully you guys didn't kill it, right?!

i never kill spiders when i see them in my house. i'll always make the effort to scoop them up and toss them outside.

[rogue]

Originally posted by terpWRX
hopefully you guys didn't kill it, right?!

i never kill spiders when i see them in my house. i'll always make the effort to scoop them up and toss them outside.

Black widows are poisonous. I'd rather let the flies run loose.

[terpWRX]

scared? - don't worry the mortality rate from black widow bites is less than 5% nationwide.

[WRX11]

Just checked underneath my work desk. No spiders or anything, I am all paranoid now, thanks a lot.

[ITWRX4ME]

<---- Jittering and jumping and twitching and itching. Blech.

[TubeDriver]

The thing that got to me was 1) size (it's a pretty big spider with long legs) 2) it's pitch black in color like it just absorbes light and 3) it's evil shape. I picture Shelob in Tolkiens book as a large black widow. I wonder if it could have bite through my latex gloves?

[Endlesshine]

Yikes!! I absolutely HATE spiders!! I just had a conversation about them with Gonz when we were doing my brake pad install, and I told him I had seen one or two Black Widows in my garage.. He also said he hated the suckers.

Hmm... Gonz's car was never in my garage though.

Glad everyone's ok. 5% or not, a mortality rate in general just from a Spider bite is enough for me to grab a can of spray paint and a lighter whenever I see a creep crawlly. eeeeeeew.

-Ron

[terpWRX]

Originally posted by TubeDriver
The thing that got to me was 1) size (it's a pretty big spider with long legs) 2) it's pitch black in color like it just absorbes light and 3) it's evil shape. I picture Shelob in Tolkiens book as a large black widow. I wonder if it could have bite through my latex gloves?

it's possible - depending on the quality of your gloves. they only bite if provoked or feel threatened.

just to make you feel even more at ease , here are the symptoms after being bitten:

Widow spider venom is a neurotoxin and acts at the junction between motor nerves and muscles and on the peripheral nerve endings, causing progressive muscle pain and incapacitation including respiratory distress because of severe chest pain. After variable lengths of time, pain may spread to the abdomen. In extreme cases, the abdominal muscles may become rigid, and respiration then becomes thoracic. Other symptoms include restlessness, anxiety, feeble pulse, cold clammy skin, labored breathing, difficult speech, light stupor, and delirium. Convulsions may also occur, particularly in children. Urine retention, shock, cyanosis, nausea, vomiting, insomnia, and cold sweats are uncommon symptoms that have been reported. All acute symptoms of widow spider bites increase in severity for up to a day, then very gradually diminish in severity to extinction after 2-3 days. Some mild symptoms may persist for several weeks after recovery from the acute stage

[TubeDriver]

The only thing spider worse in the US is the Brown Recluse which has some type of necretizing venom that will leave a peach sized hole of rutting tissue where it bites. I wonder who would win in a battle : the black widow or the brown recluse? The recluse looks faster but the black widow looks meaner...

[terpWRX]

if we're talking in the "hypothetical world" i'd have to put my money on the black widow -- assuming that the black widow's venom would actually be effective on the brown recluse.

[WRX11]

This almost sounds like a WWF match. Is it still call the WWF?

[Gonz]

well, I don't remember screaming in terror but that thing sure got my attention. Consdering I was carrying around that top hat, to go clean it, and when I saw the little sucker she was about 2 inches from my finger........ well, it sure got my attention FAST.

At first, just the typical reaction when you see an unexpected spider. I put the top hat down on the ground, and then saw the tell tale markings and the shiny black body, and that's when I probably went into " HOLY SH$T ITSABLACKWIDOW!! " mode

yeah. That had me rattled for the rest of the evening. Not something you soon forget. I was pretty close to a one way trip to the emergency room.

By the way, Ron, I would bet you I picked this little passenger up at your house the night we did your brake pads. My car was parked next to your lawn for 4 hours and now you say you've seen them before in your yard.

You, my frienc, have a black widow spider INFESTATION.

Sleep Well..........

[terpWRX]

This almost sounds like a WWF match. Is it still call the WWF?

dunno, but we could arrange a "grudge match" by throwing both of them into an aquarium tank and see what happens!

[TubeDriver]

You screamed like a little girl J/K There was a fair number of webs in your wheel well, I wonder if that was the only one? Hope it did not lay an egg because then you could have several dozen black widows living in you trunk and back seat Man if I was you I would spray the wheel wells with a hose and vacuum up the trunk and interior. Ron lives at the house of horror with wolfs and black widows.

You know, getting bite by the black widow could have possible helped with my hangover, God knows it really could not have got any worse.

Originally posted by Gonz
well, I don't remember screaming in terror but that thing sure got my attention. Consdering I was carrying around that top hat, to go clean it, and when I saw the little sucker she was about 2 inches from my finger........ well, it sure got my attention FAST.

At first, just the typical reaction when you see an unexpected spider. I put the top hat down on the ground, and then saw the tell tale markings and the shiny black body, and that's when I probably went into " HOLY SH$T ITSABLACKWIDOW!! " mode

yeah. That had me rattled for the rest of the evening. Not something you soon forget. I was pretty close to a one way trip to the emergency room.

By the way, Ron, I would bet you I picked this little passenger up at your house the night we did your brake pads. My car was parked next to your lawn for 4 hours and now you say you've seen them before in your yard.

You, my frienc, have a black widow spider INFESTATION.

Sleep Well..........

[TubeDriver]

Cool, now we need a black widow and a brown recluse. I know were we can get black widows (Ron's house which also has wolfs). Anybody know were to find a brown relcuse? I would put my money on the faster looking recluse.

Originally posted by terpWRX


dunno, but we could arrange a "grudge match" by throwing both of them into an aquarium tank and see what happens!

[WRX11]

I'd just put some stickers on the windows that say "protected by Black Widow".

[ITWRX4ME]

Originally posted by TubeDriver
The only thing spider worse in the US is the Brown Recluse which has some type of necretizing venom that will leave a peach sized hole of rutting tissue where it bites. I wonder who would win in a battle : the black widow or the brown recluse? The recluse looks faster but the black widow looks meaner...

I remember see some documentary on those. They showed some people that had been bitten. Really gross.

[plunk10]

Do black widows move really fast?

I used to workout on a home gym in a cold humid, shed/basement when I was younger. There were always these huge spiders in there that moved so fast. You would try to stomp on them or hit them with something, and they'd always move out of the way quick enough. I always wondered what kind of spiders they were.

[DrunkenMonkey]

Originally posted by Gonz
Consdering I was carrying around that top hat, to go clean it,

Well theres your problem...that things prolly been in your closet for years! Considering not to many people wear top hats anymore.. but..in admiration of bringing back a style, I'd tip my hat to you sir...but I havent got a hat.

DM

[Endlesshine]

I really feel like I should defend myself in this thread,but I just can't hold back the urge to laugh long enough to get defensive.

Gonz, my car has been parked in my garage for 2 and 1/2 years, and despite having seen 2 black widows in the 3+ years I've lived there I've never once seen one in or around my car nor have I had a close encounter.

You know, what.. you probably brought those damn buggers with you the first time you came over to install my hellas. HA! That's gotta be it! Gonz is the originator of my infested house and he will be the originator of everyone else's whom his car is unfortunate enough to habitate. He's like the queen bee of Black Widows.

Hey Gonz, try washing your car more than once a year

-Ron
(and I will admit, the wolf infestation isn't as bad)
(Pete, I forgot about your hangover. Well, not that I knew about it, but I didn't doubt for a second that you'd be suffering. So what time did you all start anyway?)

[Endlesshine]

What scares me most about Black Widows is that they seem to be impervious to pesticide. One time I saw one climbing up the door frame to my parents house so I went and grabbed a can of ant/spider killer. I sprayed that sucker till it turned white with foam and he was still scurrying, seemingly unaffected, right up the wall. I still don't know if he ended up dieing, but damn, any other spider woulda dropped at the first taste of that spray. THat's why I go for the flame thrower effect, you just gotta be careful not to burn your house down.

I don't know much about either, but from what I understand, black recluse spiders are jumpers. For instance, if you lift up a rock, and the sucker is underneath, he could launch himself right at ya.. where as a black widow would probably try to find cover at first instinct, but watch out, it'll spray ya right in the eyes!!!

In Tucson I used to get huge, hairy wolf spiders crawling into the sink from the drain. They were nasty huge, like tarrantulas and it was a wicked wake up call first thing in the morning to walk all groggy to the bathroom, turn on the faucet and see this big, fat, harry 8 legged freak trying to climb up the walls of the sink.

eeew...I feel sick,
Ron

[terpWRX]

Originally posted by ITWRX4ME

I remember see some documentary on those. They showed some people that had been bitten. Really gross.

i took an entomology class when i was at university of maryland and among the things we studied were spiders. we saw some slides that depicted the aftermath of a brown recluse spider bite. pretty nasty stuff.

equally as gross were the hissing cockroaches that our professor brought in.