OMFG - BLACK WIDOWS!!!

[Fierce Critter]

So, I'm cleaning out the lean-to garage connected to the woodshop. Basically a big, open-front garage with a slant roof.

OMFG!!! This thing is SWARMING with black widows!

Yes, I'm being careful - basically cleaned off a 4-foot hoe and am using it to pick stuff up and move it around from a distance. Makes the going slow, and miserable in this humid heat. But no way I'm touching anything with my hands.

Gads, I hate this state. Hmm... seems like only 0.5 seconds since I last thought that...

[Onyx]

They really are as dangerous as rumored too. Be really really cautious, and get to the ER if bitten. They can treat a bite to minimize damage.

It won't usually kill unless you have severe allergies, but if left untreated you can get a really nasty scar (like a crater where you were bitten from the poison's damage) and will feel really sick.

Fortunately they aren't aggressive and won't usually bite unless you threaten them.

[Fierce Critter]

Yeah. If I should get bitten, I'll go right next door and have the landlord take me to the hospital.

No way I'm fooling around with a BW bite.

[Paper Hearts]

Yes, I'm being careful - basically cleaned off a 4-foot hoe and am using it to pick stuff up and move it around from a distance. that...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So you go out and get a 4-foot hoe and have her clean out your garage for you-sweet.

[Fierce Critter]

Yeah - but I was nice enough to clean her off first. She was one dirty hoe.

(I just knew someone was going to pick-up on that and run with it... )

[Paper Hearts]

At least she's short, a tall hoe would take longer to clean.

[Fierce Critter]

Nah. Just grabbed a greasy rag and ran it up and down her a couple times.

Voila - clean hoe. If a bit greasy...

[Paper Hearts]

I know how that is.

[Dollardave]

Black widows are very venomous and dangerous. You be careful around them I seen some nasty cases on Venom ER on animal planet(I love AP).

[Fierce Critter]

Ugh. I completed the left-hand side of the shed. Now to the ultra-cluttered right-hand side.

The center, thankfully, is totally clean, as that's where the motorcycle is stored. But man, that place is a mess on the sides.

Sigh. Ordinarily Jon's job. But he's picked up my slack INSIDE the house enough times, my turn to help him out.

God, it's hot today.

Whine whine whine.

[JaneDead]

yikes! good luck with that one critter. i think i would freak out.

[Vivian]

mmm spider stew... just becareful, i dun want a dead fierce critter. hurry up and move to michigan, so that all u'll have to deal with is snow, construction, and crazy michigan drivers...

[Head Wreck]

glad i'm not there.

i'd bee up there with a flame thrower by now

[Vivian]

i just want to put head wreck in my poket and keep him... flamethrowers.. haha

[Lilith]

I think i would leave the garbage for another day till i could spary something on them and then another day just to make sure.

lilith

[Head Wreck]

fire lillith?

[Fierce Critter]

Ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww ewww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know which was worse. The black widows, other creepy-crawlies, or the unidentifiable wet, gooey SOMEthing that ended up on my hand...

Never again. Fuck doing ANYTHING outdoors down here, work OR play.

EEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!

[DarkVampire]

When I lived in TN I saw one of those in my apartment. I'm not fond of bugs of any kind but I'm more lenient with spiders since they kill other bugs, unless they are inside where I live.

One of many reasons why I like the gooder climate states is no spiders like those.

[Vater Araignee]

QUICK GET A BABY FOOD JAR AND FILL IT WITH ALCOHOL CATCH ME ONE OF THEM BABIES AND PUT IT IN I'LL PAY THE SHIPPING AND COMPENSATE YOU FOR YOUR TROUBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The_Dark]

North American Black Widows are not really all that dangours. You have to corner one and then really piss it off to get bitten in the first place. If bitten, you will get sick for about a week. Hrmmm... Sick isn't the right word. BW venom is a neurotoxin. Expect to get bad cramps.. lots of bad cramps all over your body... On top of the cramps expect some if not all of the following... weakness, sweating, headache, anxiety, itching, nausea, vomiting, difficult breathing and increased blood pressure.

Brown Widows are a bit more dangours, but there are far fewer of them.

What you really need to watch out for are Brown recluse or Fiddler Spiders. These have a necrotic poisen. I think these are what Onyx was thinking of. The poisen of a Brown recluse causes the flesh around the bite to die. This causes it to look like a bulls eye with a black center and red and white rings around it. Then the fun starts... The bite blisters and then when the blister pops you have an ulcer of the skin. Woohooo... then it spreads into the surrounding flesh... all the while you get to experiance fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches and hemolytic anemia (your red blood cells self destruct.)

I'd worry about the Brown Recluse more the the Black Widows if I were you. Outdoor sheds are prime hunting grounds for the Recluse.

[Scary Guy]

QUICK GET A BABY FOOD JAR AND FILL IT WITH ALCOHOL CATCH ME ONE OF THEM BABIES AND PUT IT IN I'LL PAY THE SHIPPING AND COMPENSATE YOU FOR YOUR TROUBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

/me blasts Alice Cooper

I have it on vinyl too, yes with Vincent Price

[Brenda Starrr]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWW

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

[Vater Araignee]

/me blasts Alice Cooper

I have it on vinyl too, yes with Vincent Price

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, we love me,

Love him,

Yes we love him,

Love me,

Yes we love him.

[paradox]

were you wearing gloves?

that would have been my 1st suggestion, even before the black widows were encountered.

[Fierce Critter]

Brown Widows are a bit more dangours, but there are far fewer of them.

I'd worry about the Brown Recluse more the the Black Widows if I were you. Outdoor sheds are prime hunting grounds for the Recluse.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Got plenty of those, too. Jon's seen a lot of the brown widows, which I never knew existed before we moved here.

As for the brown recluse, no comment. I'm done being all about spiders.

Vater - you don't have enough money to get me to go to that kind of trouble. A 4 foot hoe is the closest I cared to come to ANY spider today - and even that was too damned close.

I could get hypno therapy to lose my spider phobia. But you know something? I don't want to like spiders. I don't want to be brave enough to touch them. I don't want to go on fucking Fear Factor and let tarantulas dance on my face.

Spiders suck. 'Nuff said.