Posted on 09/16/2013 3:17:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
I lay on my back with my teeth clenched and my hands gripping the sides of a hospital bed. A crowd of strangers in white coats filled the tiny room. Waves of pain lapped from my abdomen into my chest as the venom worked its way toward my heart.
An experimental antivenin drug was about to be injected into my bloodstream, and while I waited for the needle to go in, I reflected that if anyone in the world was the right person to be bitten by a black widow spider, I was that guy.
As a professional outdoorsman, I spend a lot of time around things that can bite, claw, stab or otherwise attack me. I have been lucky with snakes and reckless with bears. I have had some close calls with lionfish. It figures that the thing to finally nail me would be living on my own front porch.
The black widow’s graceful form and red hourglass marking have made it America’s most recognizable spider. The Eastern species, Latrodectus mactans, is common from Florida to New York and as far west as Texas.
But despite their fearsome reputation, black widows are surprisingly shy and retiring. Over the course of your life, you have probably walked past hundreds of black widows without even realizing it. Each one packs enough venom to lay out a heavyweight boxer for days, yet globally only a few people each year are killed by widow bites.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I used to work at a golf course outside of Austin in my college days. Setting up the driving range one day, I reached into a cup to pull leaves out so I could put the flagstick in. Pulled out more than leaves ... a black widow was sitting there in the palm of my hand. Dropped her really quickly.
Yeah, it doesn’t take long to look at a Black Widow, does it?
I knew I was going to be sorry for clicking on this thread. And I had to go and do it anyway....
To my knowledge I’ve never seen a black widow.
But we have lots of boots, skates and old shoes that sit in the garage just waiting to have a foot stuck inside.
So... thanks for posting!
Another reason I love my Nike sandals. Besides most comfortable long distance walking footwear, ever.
I worked on the pond of a sawmill during college. When it got cold, we had a floating shack with a nice warm stove which did double duty to dry out our gloves. Every night we’d see half a dozen black widows and brown recluses. The place just swarmed with them. Needless to say, everyone carefully shook their gloves before they put them back on. In forty years, only person got bitten and that was because he quickly jerked on his glove without shaking it out. Even five years later, he still hadn’t recovered complete movement in his thumb.
Ascorbic acid, vitamin C, injected intravenously, will stop the sting and mayhem of a black widow bite (sting). Few doctors know this. If the first doesn’t neutralize it quickly, a second intravenous injection is called for. Google it...
This will also stop snakebite fast.
And none of this is ‘experimental’...it has been used successfully many times by doctors who know.
Both are very bad, I know.
I worked on the pond of a sawmill during college. When it got cold, we had a floating shack with a nice warm stove which did double duty to dry out our gloves. Every night we’d see half a dozen black widows and brown recluses. The place just swarmed with them. Needless to say, everyone carefully shook their gloves before they put them back on. In forty years, only person got bitten and that was because he quickly jerked on his glove without shaking it out. Even five years later, he still hadn’t recovered complete movement in his thumb.
1/2 a second ... that’s plenty for me.
If you don’t like spiders, don’t kill the mud daubers.
Put Adolfs meat tenderizer on the wound. It breaks down the enzymes that are disolving the flesh. Make sure you use the unseasoned kind.
Wish they would have put him in the hospital today where they could give him kick-ass antibiotic IVs.
Those are Black Widdahs
The receptionist at a place where I once worked lost her entire left leg from a widder bite. She almost died.
Or just use a stun gun on the area of the bite quickly after it happens. It works better than the tenderizer method.
manuka wound honey topically applied may help deal with stopping the necrosis.
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