Just Jaunting Round

The black widow spider

Page 2 of an article by George F. Knowlton entitled, "The Black Widow spider," issued as Leaflet no. 57 by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. Utah State Agricultural College, Logan, Utah, April 1935

paper reports of individuals in nearby parts of the Rocky Mountain West becoming 11l asresult of having been bitten by black widow spiders Many black widowswerecollected in dimly lighted places such as in barns garages basements outhouses sheds deserted hous under stones on webs across the mouths of deserted rodent burrows and on clumps of low dense brush funnel-shaped tube or retreat is oftenpart of the irregularly built web of this spider from this funnel retreat the black widow comes out to attack Insects or other trospassers which becomo entangled in the web During oss-laying soveral females may at times be found in webs near to each other in favorable locations The black widow fs particularly aggressive In attacking its insect prey and it seems to bo excited into biting largely due to movement The aggressiveness with which the black widow will attack almost anything which causes moderate disturbance of its web helps to explain the readiness with which it will attack people under certain conditions Most of the more serious cases of arachnidism reported have been those persons who have been bitten upon the genitals while sitting upon outdoor tollets The black widow appears to attack people more readily than any other web-spinning spider commonly present in Utah The California Indians are reported as fearing this spider some of them dipping thelr arrows into the mashed bodies of black widows The spider appears to havemost effective paralyzing effect upon its arthropod victim and it depends less upon wrapping up its ensnared prey inmass of Webs than upon the effectiveness of lts venom in subduing its vietim Usually it bites its insect prey uponleg and then waits nearby until its vietim becomes quiet Spiders of several species belonging to the genus Latrodectus occur in various parts of the world all of these specibeing regarded as poisonous and dangerous The malo black widow appears to be much less dangerous than the fomale haviiig small cheliceral fanks and less tendency to bite people Baerg allowed mature female black widow spider to biteihim on the inside of the third finger for about seconds the sensation becoming paintul sharp and plorcing as the poison was injected The surrounding area turned white at first then red followed byslight swelling In about 15 minutes an aching pain developed in the tendons of the shoulder In two hours the pain had extended to the hand and chest later it reached tho hips and then the legs At the end of four hoursdoctor advised the patient to g0 to bed breathing and speech were rather forced and irrcgular After nine hours the patient was taken to the hospital hot bath gave some reliet to the body but the arm pained greatly and caused restlessness and allowed no sleep second hot bath at the end of about 24 hours gave considerable relief and ater nearly 36 hours the first food wag taken Another hot bath gave temporary relier but when the patient dozed off he became delirious hot bath at about 48 hours again Bave temporary relief The experimenter was at work on the fourth day but felt rather miserable he felt normal on the fifth day One to two degrees of temperature accompanied the fllness produced by this spider bite Kellogg describes another case in which symptoms were somewhat similar On September 1934 4t Logan Utah mature female black widow Baers The Black Widow Its Life History and the Effects ofthe Fiison 1w Sei Montnly 17 538 54T 1055 Kelloge Spider Poisoning In Jour Parasit 107-11 1916 Digital image 2003 Beckwith Family Al rights reserved