# Black Widow Spider



## glamourdog (Apr 17, 2004)

Hey all... 

So this was a very scary thing for me. I was sitting outside in front watching the girls go potty, reading the mail. I sit in a wooden lawn chair that I normally fold up and put by the house when I'm not out there... the girls of course come by and jump up and down from time to time especially when they are ready to go in.

Anyway.. I'm putting the chair away, and I thought I saw something move, I noticed a thick web.. turned the chair a bit and saw a black widow.. I've never seen one before, but there was no mistaking this one... 

I actually captured it in a jar.. then found out they are pretty common here.

Called the vet and the dr. they told me I would see a wound, and the girls would probably not be bitten because of their long hair, but just keep an eye on them and if they act weird, take them to the ER.

Eitehr way... very scary... 

Calling the exterminators tomorrow.


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## Brinkley & Neyland's Mom (Jun 14, 2004)

That is scary! Spiders gross me out!
My sister lives in OK and the house they moved into has brown recluse really bad. They have had exterminators come to control them...but they are still there. They have two tiny chihuahuas and a 2 year old and a new baby yesterday.
They have learned to live with them...look for them etc. I would have to move/burn the house down. YUCK!

At least you or the dogs weren't bitten.
Good luck! Keep your eyes open!


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## Mystify79 (Apr 6, 2004)

:wacko:


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## Brinkley & Neyland's Mom (Jun 14, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Mystify79_@Sep 29 2004, 07:38 AM
> *Spiders freak me out too.. They seem to be really common in Texas, around Lubbock we have LOTS of problems with the Brown Recluse.  Luckily (if you can call it lucky), the only spiders we've seen around here are wolf spiders, which are super scary looking but not poisonous.  Yuck, just talking about spiders gives me the heebie jeebies.  :wacko:
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Yuck! We had those wolf spiders in OK too when I lived at home. 
We were in a neighborhood...but in the boonies...so they would frequently show up on our porch or in our garage. They look like tarantulas...blech!!!!! I have the willies now!!!!

We have some spiders that live in our shed. I am not sure what kind they are b/c I do not get that close! There are LOTS of them...and all the same kind...they are everywhere! Hubby knows that I do NOT enter the shed....not sure where they are and where they are going to come out of. My grandmother says the way I describe them, that they sound like brown recluse b/c they leave their skelatons around and don't really make all that much web. I don't take any chances. 

In the house, we have the pest people come quarterly for a very minimal fee. It helps take care of ants, spiders and any other "pests" that may decide to visit. They also take care of fleas for free if we have problems in between our quarterly sprays. I like it b/c they spray inside and along the outside of the house...gives me some peace of mind anyway.

Black widows usually live outside don't they? Like glamourdog found them...on porches and stuff? I have never seen one in person.


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## doctorcathy (May 17, 2004)

i found a black widow IN the house like a year ago(when we lived in a townhome) and i found a black widow on my moms sliding door like 5 months ago. i hate it. and also i hate mosquitos. and the whole idea of west nile virus freaks me out too. 

OH, and just last week, my mom was walking sprite, and sprite stopped to smell something and my mom was talking to cynthia---cynthia looks down...it turned out to be a RATTLESNAKE! i would've freaked. it started moving its tail and sprite wanted to attack it. so they're not allowed by that area anymore(thank god it wasnt the backyard).


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## mylittlebella (Aug 20, 2004)

A BLACK WIDOW...I would have freaked out. How scary!!! I'm so glad you and the girls are ok. I got bitten by a spider in San Fransisco about 2 years ago. They don't know what kind of spider it was but it started out like a little pimple and then I had an infection in my entire leg (I was bitten in the knee). It was disgusting. I had to miss work due to the infection. I can't imagine if it would have been a poisonous one.


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## Brinkley & Neyland's Mom (Jun 14, 2004)

> _Originally posted by mylittlebella_@Sep 29 2004, 09:53 AM
> *A BLACK WIDOW...I would have freaked out.  How scary!!!  I'm so glad you and the girls are ok.  I got bitten by a spider in San Fransisco about 2 years ago.  They don't know what kind of spider it was but it started out like a little pimple and then I had an infection in my entire leg (I was bitten in the knee).  It was disgusting.  I had to miss work due to the infection.  I can't imagine if it would have been a poisonous one.
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that sounds sorda like a brown recluse bite.


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## Mystify79 (Apr 6, 2004)

Talking about spiders jinxed me because I just killed a daddy long legs in the bedroom.. YUCK! I'm highly allergic to insect and spider bites and every time I've had one it became a huge horrible infection and all yucky, I've almost always had to go to the doctor to get some kind of shot to make the swelling go down. Now I'm all freaked out about spiders :wacko:


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## ilove_d&m (Apr 7, 2004)

When ever Daezie and Maya find a spider in the house they always play with it. one time i found them playing with a wolf spider and the spider was missing 2 legs from one side of its body. Maya and Daezie, with their buts up in the air, kept starring at the spider just waiting for it to move and paw it. I thought I was kind of funny-- now I have to be very careful since i know they like to make friends with insects. :lol:


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## Toby's Mom (May 7, 2004)

:lol:


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## Brinkley & Neyland's Mom (Jun 14, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Mystify79_@Sep 29 2004, 11:19 AM
> *  Talking about spiders jinxed me because I just killed a daddy long legs in the bedroom.. YUCK!  I'm highly allergic to insect and spider bites and every time I've had one it became a huge horrible infection and all yucky, I've almost always had to go to the doctor to get some kind of shot to make the swelling go down.  Now I'm all freaked out about spiders  :wacko:
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If it makes you feel any better..I don't think daddy long legs are really spiders...heard that somewhere...BUT-they are supposedly the most poisonous insect bite there is...BUT...they cannot bite you b/c their mouths are so teeny tiny.


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## Toby's Mom (May 7, 2004)




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## ButterCloudandNoriko (Aug 26, 2004)

I forgot what the name of these spiders are, but they have that fiddle on their backs. EWWWW. I can see it's web outside my kitchen window. My bf killed one, and then saw another one in the same spot! My dog likes to nibble on bugs too. YUCKI! I don't want kisses after that!


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## LexiAndNikkisMom (Apr 13, 2004)

> _Originally posted by tlunn_@Sep 29 2004, 12:40 PM
> *If it makes you feel any better..I don't think daddy long legs are really spiders...heard that somewhere...BUT-they are supposedly the most poisonous insect bite there is...BUT...they cannot bite you b/c their mouths are so teeny tiny.
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I heard that on Myth Busters. I can't remember if it was true or not.


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## LexiAndNikkisMom (Apr 13, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Nichole_@Sep 29 2004, 12:08 PM
> *Okay all this talk give me the willies.  You know though, everyone always complains about the north and who would want to live in the north 'cause it is too freakin' cold and blah, blah, blah...  Well, let me say this as a positive to the north.  We have none of that stuff!
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Isn't the midwest great! I hate spiders but if I'm the only one around I can eventually get up the courage to kill them. Luckily we only have small harmless ones around. Otherwise I'd be screwed! I'd have to go knocking on my neighbors' doors to find someone to kill it. The only wild snake I've ever seen is a gardner snake, but that was once when we were out in the woods. As for tornados, I've never been in one. There have been some with in 50 miles of me but I think I've only had to go in the basement maybe 5 times in my life.


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## Caesar's Mommie (Apr 8, 2004)

Geez! Thats scarey. Spiders scare me to death, I wont even kill them I scream and have my husband come smash them, they just creep me out!


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## Mystify79 (Apr 6, 2004)

> _Originally posted by ButterCloudandNoriko_@Sep 29 2004, 01:01 PM
> *I forgot what the name of these spiders are, but they have that fiddle on their backs.  EWWWW.  I can see it's web outside my kitchen window.  My bf killed one, and then saw another one in the same spot!  My dog likes to nibble on bugs too.  YUCKI!  I don't want kisses after that!
> <div align="right">index.php?act=findpost&pid=10293*


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 The ones with the fiddle on their backs are Brown Recluse so be extra super careful around those.. their bite is really bad and can cause the flesh around the bite to start to decay and make a pit around the bite, they are super poisonous.


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## Mystify79 (Apr 6, 2004)

I just looked the daddy long legs online and here's what I found



> The Daddy long-legs spider, also called the cellar spider or house spider, is a true spider and not a harvestman. Daddy longlegs is a name that is used for several unrelated arthropods with extremely long and thin legs, including these spiders, the harvestmen and tipulid crane flies.[/B]





> There is an urban legend stating that this family of spider is extremely venomous to humans. Although there is no conclusive proof of this, the venom of the Pholcidae has been found to cause severe neurological problems in lab mice. In 2001/2, Discovery Channel's Mythbusters set out to test this myth and, on mice tests, Blackwidow venom was significantly more toxic. One of the show's hosts was bitten, and the bite produced little more then a mild shortlived burning sensation.
> 
> Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy_long-legs_spider"[/B]


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## triste (Aug 30, 2004)

ahhhh spiders. I wanted to share a bit of info with you all about the black widow. I am an Animal Planet freak...and love watching Venom ER. They talked about black widow bites. You WILL get sick from it but it WON'T kill you. It's teeth or whatever it injects it's venom w/ is not long enough to penetrate your skin far enough to inject a large amount...now aren't you just feeling much better now?











They ARE here in Indiana b/c my son's scout troupe went to Camp Maumee and one of the boys had one in their cot! I hate spiders as well....oh oh I forgot to mention One of the scout boys told me that daddy long legs are NOT true spiders b/c TWO of their legs aren't really "legs" they are feelers for food...*shrug shoulders*...interesting eh?


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## Brinkley & Neyland's Mom (Jun 14, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Triste_@Sep 29 2004, 07:04 PM
> *They ARE here in Indiana b/c my son's scout troupe went to Camp Maumee and one of the boys had one in their cot! I hate spiders as well....oh oh I forgot to mention One of the scout boys told me that daddy long legs are NOT true spiders b/c TWO of their legs aren't really "legs" they are feelers for food...*shrug shoulders*...interesting eh?
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That it what I thought I had heard...but Mystify's information dis-proved that...LOL...

Anyway...they all gros me out and give me the heebie jeebies!!!!!!!!!!!!!! h34r:


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## Toby's Mom (May 7, 2004)




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## Mystify79 (Apr 6, 2004)

Well.. I did some more researching and apparently Daddy Long Legs is more like a nickname for any bug/spider/whatever that has super long legs. I don't want to freak anyone out so I'm just posting the links, but here are pictures of the two kinds of Daddy Long Legs... I'm thinking the one I killed was the Opiliones one. Both are classified as Arachnids.

Opiliones

Pholcidae



> The creatures most correctly called daddy-longlegs are in their own separate Order which is Opiliones. Common names for this Order are 1) daddy-longlegs, 2) harvestmen and 3) opilionids. They are characterized by having one basic body segment which shows segmentation on the posterior portion, at most 2 eyes and all 8 legs attach to the pill-like body segment. They are usually found under logs and rocks, prefer moist habitat although they can be found in the desert, often have long flexible legs (in the temperate Northern hemisphere but there are also short-legged daddy-longlegs) and they do not produce silk so therefore they are never found in webs unless they are being eaten by spiders. Because they are found under logs and other stuff which people most often are not turning over, most folks don't run into daddy-longlegs very often.
> 
> Another creature often called daddy-longlegs are actually spiders. These long-legged spiders are in the family Pholcidae. Previously the common name of this family was the cellar spiders but arachnologists have also given them the moniker of "daddy-longlegs spiders" because of the confusion generated by the general public. Because these arachnids are spiders, they have 2 body basic body parts (cephalothorax and abdomen), have 8 eyes most often clumped together in the front of the body, the abdomen shows no evidence of segmentation, have 8 legs all attached to the front most body part (the cephalothorax) and make webs out of silk. This is most probably the animal to which people refer when they tell the tale because these spiders are plentiful especially in cellars (hence their common name) and are commonly seen by the general public. The most common pholcid spiders found in U.S. homes are both European immigrants. Pholcus phalangioides is a uniformly grey spider with rectangular, elongate abdomen and is found throughout the U.S. Holocnemus pluchei also has a rectangular, elongate abdomen but has a brown stripe on the ventral side (the belly side - which is typically directed upwards since the spider hangs upside down in its web) which covers its sternum and is a stripe on the abdomen. These spiders are very common along the Pacific Coast. and into the southwest deserts.[/B]


Oddly enough, I'm not feeling as scared of them after looking at all those pictures... I say that now, but I'm sure I'll scream the next time I see one anyways h34r:


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## Toby's Mom (May 7, 2004)




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## Brinkley & Neyland's Mom (Jun 14, 2004)

The daddy long legs that we have around here...are the Opiolones type from the pictures...I say smush them anyway!


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## Mystify79 (Apr 6, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Nichole_@Sep 29 2004, 11:56 PM
> *I see it and smoosh it!  I don't bother to examine it!
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Me too! Part of me wants to know what kind of spider it is.. like if it's a brown recluse or something.. but I'd much rather smoosh it into dust so there's not spider remaining.. h34r:


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## saltymalty (Sep 14, 2004)

Spiders don't give me the heebie geebies as much as other pests...they keep other insects in control, so if they are outside, then you may want to thank them! 

My brother lives in AZ and for the longest time, he had scorpions in his new house! He lives in a brand new development...he was one of the first to move in...on a golf course and I guess the scorpion's were there and decided to stay. He even got stung by one! He said it was like a really really bad bee sting. He exterminates once a month and hasn't had any in over a year. He also had a baby rattlesnake in his garage. Too much nature for my tastes. I'm with the other poster....I'll take the Northeast winters over that any day!


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