Close Call with a Black Widow

I just felt a sense that there may be a danger under the latch of an ammo can that I was going to open. So I used gloves and a tool to open it and I was right...



I had one bite me earlier this year on my arm and it was very painful.

I've only seen one in my life in a park just outside town. It was an impressive sight.

Given the web all over the place, I can imagine why you were nervous to open the can.

I grew up on the northeast side of San Antonio, never saw a black widow till i was in my early 20's and my parents bought a property in south texas. We kill them at the ranch all the time.

I moved to the southeast side of San Antonio, about 25 miles from my childhood home. The first year after we built our garage i was cleaning up for my son's birthday party and i killed 8 of them in the garage.... i treat it regularly now and dont put on gloves/welding mask/hat etc. without giving it a look first!

I hate those things. Snakes don't bother me but venomous spiders do.

My wife kills several a year.....I usually just move them where they won’t bother anyone

That's why you're weird.

Kill em all. I hate them.

I’ve been called worse.....if I can move something to no longer be a threat I try to go that route.....

Wasps and scorpions around the house don’t get a pass. Can’t relocate wasps and they kill spiders so that’s two strikes against them.

Have had to many bad experiences with scorpions.....

HunterSteve what did you do for treatment?

I thought Buzz was going to be involved with this story.

About once per summer we have tiny ants coming in the house looking for water. I go around the foundation with pesticide for the ants. When I do I also spray around the baseboards in the garage under all the junk, etc. I always find dead Black Widows the next day in the garage. That is in addition to all the others we find here and there and kill.

The deal I have with spiders is if they are outside they can live and work there and I won't bother them. However, if due to an amazing lack of judgement they come inside it's game on. Scorpions get wacked no matter where I find them.

I went to the back to make coffee this morning at the office and the floor looked like the centipede version of the Kentucky Derby. Don't know what's up with that.

Ortho Home Defense has kept them out of my garage.

I've been bitten by scorpion - hurts, goes away

brown recluse - hurts, swelling for several weeks, goes away

black widow - hurts, goes away

wasp/hornets - hurts, swelling, crater in skin; goes away

bees - throbbing pain, very unpleasant feeling - this is the one pain that I hate the most of all experiences

I learned a painful lesson from a scorpion and since try to never put my hands where I can't see what is lurking, and/or wear gloves most of the time. Got hit by a hornet a couple of weeks ago, and it only hurt for a bit, but my arm was swollen for a couple of days. While in school I got bitten by a fiddleback - that was NOT a good experience. Very painful, I ran a fever for a while, and my arm became swollen to the point it had to be lanced - deeply. Still have a scar.

If inside my shop or house or a blind, all pests are eradicated.

That would make a huge mess when smashed.

a buddy of mine got bit on the tip of his finger. Said he iced it and took some Tylenol and swelling only went to the first knuckle luckily.

Dang you have some back luck!!!!

No Thank you.

I had a deer stand covered inside them once. Multiple nests and black widow spiders everywhere. I killed MANY of them that hunt. I had never seen that many in one spot before. Now I spray the stand a week or so before season starts.

I had a pop up blind become a black widow incubator once. Bowhunting, went to get in the blind and there were HUNDREDS of them in there. Probably 20-30 females and hundreds of males. The entire inside of the blind was covered. I truly hate spiders, all spiders, so needless to say I didn't hunt that morning. That was the last time I ever left a pop up blind up long term (it was up/brushed in for a couple of weeks).

Gas, a match and different huntin’ spot

What's crazy is we had to move some concrete blocks that are 2'x2'x6'. We stacked them, and then had to move them again. I killed 5 brown recluses and didn't kill everyone I saw unfortunately. It's crazy how they magically appear.

We got a ton of them at our lease in west Texas