Ugh..Black Widows under the water trough!

[Ridge_Runner]

Thanks to all of you for the support and commiseration! I didn’t know they lived in Canada too! I guess I’ll just have to get braver and start squishing them. Yuck! God, I really hate all spiders and poisonous ones just are too much! I’d rather have to deal with a snake in the barn than a spider. My Jack Russells would take care of the snake, no problem.

It’s funny but I’ve never found them in the holes in my jump standards yet. I’ll be careful with those too. What is it about water troughs? One of their favorite places by the sound of it. My skin is crawling just writing this!

bgoosewood: a dead mouse in your helmet! Yuck. I had an absolutely disgusting thing happen a month or so ago like that, only a little worse maybe. One night I woke up because the JR’s were growling at each other in the middle of the night in the bed (they sleep with us of course )over what I thought in the dim light was their stuffed toy. You know how JRT’s are…Well, I decided to take the toy and put it on the nightstand so I could get back to sleep. So I grab it and realize it is not “teddy” but something warm, furry, wet, limp, and the size of a rat! I squealed loudly (couldn’t help it) and threw it across the room. My husband wakes up and we have quite a commotion until we get the lights on. Our cats bring all sorts of dead things in the house through the dog door. It turned out to be a dead baby bunny. I was so grossed out! I was just shuddering and a wreck after that. We had to change the entire bed clothes for all the mess. My husband was joking about me needing therapy after that! Thank God the Black Widows stay out in the barn and not in my bed!

You Vermonters can keep your Moose! We got enough obnoxious wildlife here! My horses would take off and never stop if they saw a moose. Whitetails everywhere are bad enough!

The difference between commitment and involvement is like a ham and egg sandwich…the chicken was involved but the pig was committed!

[stasha]

South Dakota has black widows and brown recluses,too. I have never found a black widow, but my friends have. I did find several brown recluses in the grain shed.

There are a couple of other species that freak me out just as much–wolf spiders and those little black-and-white striped, jumping spiders. (I don’t know exactly what they are called, but when they feel threatened, they jump at you!)

My dad found a wolf spider in the kitchen one night, and jumped on the kitchen counter, he was so startled! (Imagine a 6’3" man, about 280 pounds, vertical-jumping onto a kitchen counter. That makes you sit up and take notice!) I caught him under one of those clear/smoke-colored Tupperware juice glasses–and his legs touched the rim of the glass!

I got bit by one of those little jumping spiders–it was on the patio table, and I reached for my drink. It jumped off the glass and bit my forearm! I had a huuuuge lump on my arm!

Four weeks down, two to go…the immobilization brace is off and occupational therapy has begun…After one week, I have half of my normal range of motion back!

I apologize for my typos. But at least I am able to type with two hands again! (Kind of) Thanks for your patience.

[N_B_T]

Whenever you see what appears to be a miniature horse in Florida, be sure to count the number of legs before you offer to pet it!

If you can stand it–hard to do, I agree –they (wolf spiders, not minis ) ARE good at eating roaches and other undesirable insects . IMO, however, geckos and lizards do a MUCH better job. Some may feel the cure is worse than the disease, however…

I once discovered a wolf spider in my apartment so large as to cause me to confine my cats in another room lest the spider take them hostage. And anyone who thinks this is an over-reaction has obviously not seen them when they are moving at warp speed! Must be all those legs–minis are generally slower.

“If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.” --Catherine Aird

[Winglet]

I don’t want to find anything named Olios GIGANTEUS in MY house… or any other GIGANTEUS insects!

If you loan someone twenty dollars, then never see them again, it was probably worth it.

www.geocities.com/winglet18

[This message was edited by Winglet on Jul. 19, 2002 at 05:31 PM.]

[Ridge_Runner]

yd

It was in the alfalfa! Holy Smoke!

The difference between commitment and involvement is like a ham and egg sandwich…the chicken was involved but the pig was committed!

[carribean]

Spider Bite!!!

now if that isnt disgusting— thats a Brown Recluse Spider Bite!!! grossssss eww i screamed when i saw that!!!

anna

[Ridge_Runner]

Does anyone else have trouble with black widow spiders living under their water troughs? No joke. Tonight I drained and scrubbed out the trough and turned it over to get the last little bit of water out and there were several black widows underneath. Yuck! This is not the first time ever but it is the first time I’ve seen any this summer. I absolutely hate them (and fear them) and have had several close calls and was nearly bitten. Once one got in my brush box and I almost put my hand on it when I picked up my brush. Another time, one was in my helmet! Is there anything you can do to get rid of them? Any natural enemies I can buy to turn loose like fly predators? I appreciate any suggestions!

The difference between commitment and involvement is like a ham and egg sandwich…the chicken was involved but the pig was committed!

[Miriam]

I don’t think you can do anything but squish them. Never pick up cinder blocks without looking very carefully. Water troughs, cinder blocks and tack compartments in my BP trailer seem to be the black widow condos in my area. GROSSES ME OUT!

Sometimes I think the so-called expets actually ARE experts.

[orange]

I live in fear of that scenario!!! I found one dead rat in the house (I think that was the work of the cats, though) and now I’m just waiting for the day my JRT, Abby the Vicious Slayer of Rodents, brings one on the bed. I will shriek and carry on like the worst sort of girly girl, I just know it.

And if she hides it under the covers, I may not survive it…

I’ve squished my fair share of black widows at the barn. The barn owner says, “no they eat flies!.” Sorry, but poisonous spiders get the big thump, no matter how many flies they can eat!

[arnika]

We have all sorts of widows. We have them with red hour glasses and orange hour glasses. But then there are the brown ones, and ones with stripes on there legs. We also have all~black ones. I used to get paid 5 cents every time I killed one. (By the end of the week I had $15)

~Lauren

[N_B_T]

arnika is right, there are two OTHER species of widow spiders that live around buildings and farms(at least here in Florida), the brown widow and the south african brown widow (the ones with the striped legs). The egg cases (round and fuzzy) and abdominal markings help with identification. Webs which resist a prolonged full blast with the hose are another tipoff!

Any dark nook or shady area which remains undisturbed for more than a week or so is a good candidate for one of these to set up shop. We found a black widow and nest under the AC cord in our (spotless) feed room, and a south african brown widow and nest under a box containing wash supplies on the wash rack.

We now routinely hose the undersides of everything not nailed down, including bucket rims and plastic chairs!!

There’s just no excuse for these things. They are not endangered and have the entire outdoors to thrive in. ARGH!!!

“If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.” --Catherine Aird

[Janeway]

Thanks for the encouraging words YD! They don’t help one bit

You sound much like me Louise! I warned my new male roomate when he moved in that one of the prerequisites for living with me was dealing with any and all bugs in the apartment! He agreed thankfully

[Shiaway]

I go to college in Vermont and actually there do appear to be brown reculse there. Some people have seen them and I know one person who was bit by one.

It’s not the reaction to the bite. It’s actually the acid they inject into your muscles which hurts.

And I actually like spiders and crawly things (except tics) but injected acid no.

They have a violin on their back I am told. I do not believe they kill you as quickly as a lot of poisonous things do. The acid eats ate your muscles and you get lumps and very ouchy and you can develop blood poisoning and die. Or so I’ve been told by the person who was bit.

[Blue_Devil]

I think there are brown recluse spiders in the hay barn!! Anyone know what those look like?

Spiders can be scary. In our rolltop jump at the barn, I am CERTAIN there is a nice collection of assorted dangerous insects and spiders living in there. Luckily, we haven’t moved THAT jump in a while

Don’t know what to tell you, other than

1. wear thick leather gloves (you know, utility/work suede type gloves) when working in these areas.

2. never work in any of these areas if you are the only person on the property! Let someone else on the property know you’re doing something near the spiders in case you get bitten, etc.

My karma ran over your dogma.
Emily@catchride.com

[Sleepy]

where I try to never go in the summer. I saw one a few weeks ago when I opened a gate. When I got back with something to kill it, it was gone. A good enough reason to never wear sandals to the barn. I worry more about brown recluses. They are fatal while black widows generally aren’t.

[Nikita]

DON’T tell me that! What a scary thought!

horsemad! Here’s your shudder graemlin.

[breezymeadow]

My husband feels that the scene in “Annie Hall” where Woody Allen is going after a spider in Diane Keaton’s bathroom was filmed in our house without our permission - LOL!!

My body is a temple - unfortunately, it’s a “fixer- upper”.

[Ridge_Runner]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Snowbird:
Thank goodness for winter frosts and snow. I remember looking for a cockroach picture in the Encyclopedia once, but it turned out it was a water bug. Still have never seen a real one.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Snowbird, If you’d like me to box up a few cockroaches and ship them up to you, I’d be more than happy to! I find cockroaches revolting but not frightening.

The Black Widows around here are shiney black with red markings on their abdomens. Sometimes it’s the hourglass but I have seen some with red spots too. It’s hard to say for certain as I try not to get close enough to observe their markings in any detail. They are definitely not endangered around here!

I’m actually not completely hardhearted when it comes to spiders. Last year, while cleaning up some lumber, I disturbed a fairly harmless looking, small brown spider (not a recluse, I know what they look like). She had an egg sack she was dragging around. She was so upset by my violation of her nest that she started dragging her eggs to a safer place. She was so devoted to her unborn babies, that I just couldn’t bring myself to squash her even when I thought about all those baby spiders hatching soon. See, I’m not totally hopeless!

On a side note, they said on the news this morning that poisonous snakebites are up in NC from previous years. They believe the snakes are getting thirsty due to the severe drought and are coming up to people’s homes searching for water. Now isn’t that just what we need?

The difference between commitment and involvement is like a ham and egg sandwich…the chicken was involved but the pig was committed!

[Everythingbutwings]

From my recollection, nothing could live in your room

Friendship is Love without his wings
-Lord Byron

[This message was edited by Everythingbutwings on Jul. 20, 2002 at 08:01 AM.]

[breezymeadow]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>I do not believe they kill you as quickly as a lot of poisonous things do. The acid eats ate your muscles and you get lumps and very ouchy and you can develop blood poisoning and die. Or so I’ve been told by the person who was bit. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

So Shiaway, what you are saying is instead of dieing quickly, one can look forward to a slow & extremely painful passing?

And here Breezymeadow thought she was already as frightened and wary of eight-legged beasties as she could be - guess there’s always room for more!

My body is a temple - unfortunately, it’s a “fixer- upper”.