It was a hot day and I was wearing just a T-shirt and shorts to clean a woodpile, stack some plywood, and push R13 insulation between studs of our cottage’s open walls, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when something bit me.
It stung my right upper shoulder; then it itched. Finally, I stopped my work and went to look at the bite in the mirror. It was a small red dot and around it, the tissue had raised into a welt the size of a half-dollar. My imagination flipped into overdrive. Had I been bitten by a brown recluse spider (Loxosceles redusa) or a black widow (Latrodectus mactans)?
Beautiful spider, poisonous bite I saw a black widow spider when we first started the renovation. She was behind a cabinet that we were moving from the garden shed to the house. She looked like a fake spider, with her perfect grape-shaped body adorned with red spots. The bites of the black widow and the brown recluse spiders both release poisonous venom that can hurt humans. I decided to head for the computer and look up information about them.
The black widow, however, is found throughout the state and holds the distinction of the most venomous spider in North America—the bad news. And it gets worse. When she bites, you feel like you’ve been stung by a bee and the symptoms (in response to the neurotoxin in the venom) worsen within the hour—intense cramping of the stomach, labored breathing, dizziness, and possible paralysis of the diaphragm. You might also develop a headache, leg cramps, nausea, and fever. The bite is especially dangerous for the elderly, infirmed, infants, and children. If you are bitten by either, call your local poison control center or the hotline for the National Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222.
Sigh of relief I never learned what bit me, but to my relief the swelling and itching abated by the next afternoon, and I was certain that the bite had not come from a brown recluse or black widow. I vowed to wear a couple of shirts, jeans, work boots, and gloves when working around the woodpile from now on, no matter what the temperature might be outside.
