Inspired by Jackson Landers’srecent piece on disgraceful widows at The New York Times , It ’s Okay to be Smart ’s Joe Hanson decided to relate the story ofhis own agonizing encounter with the iconic arachnid . “ It ’s all true , ” he write . “ This bechance fifteen years ago , and I remember it like it was yesterday . ”
Hanson ’s piece is part story , part structural biochemistry , part toxicology — and all extremely entertaining . We ’ve include the intro here , butyou’ll need to maneuver over to IOTBS for the whole shebang .
Hanson begins :
This is not the black widow that bit me .
The spider that morsel me is now spinning webs in the sky . Or wherever dead spiders end up . Unlike click , I have a substantial suspicion that they do not all go to heaven .
I killed her . I did n’t do it on function , but she ’s dead . We had a miscommunication about the ownership of a sleeping bag , and it got ugly . First for her , when I rolled over and slop her , and afterwards for me . Before she went , she made sure I would n’t enjoy my stop for long . In that last twinkling of wanderer life , she bite me . I would n’t have a go at it that any of this drama had take spot for a couple hours , of course . But I would emphatically fall to lie with it . I would follow to jazz it so hard . ( This is a foresighted story , so I spared you splashboard lector . Click through to study the gory detail )
It had been a nice day . I was about a mil south of Junction , Texas , a one - night campground stop on my way to a Boy Scout backpack trip-up through the mountains of west Texas . I was excited to see them , if only to test to myself that such terrain be in a DoS where the top of your driveway might be the highest gunpoint for miles . The dark was clear and coolheaded , the form of night that makes you make up one’s mind not to pitch your tent , so you could be closer to nature . So very close to nature .
Black widow woman spiders are in reality several species , all part of the genus Latrodectus . They are unremarkably jolly timid . If you live in North America , they ’re probably in a gloomy nook under your house right now , not bothering anyone . ease mentation , eh ? They really do n’t want to bite you , though . But they will , if they are cornered , or smooshed .
Males are lowly and brown ( you may see a distich in my photo above ) , and do n’t compact much lick . But the females , oof . They are protuberant and sinister , and each outwear a firebrand in the shape of a red hourglass on their belly , a salad dressing of toxic couture to mask the harm inside . The most infamous spider on Earth .
About an time of day after I fell deceased that nighttime , I woke up with a start . My right arm was numb . No biggie , that happens all the meter . I hustle over and wait for blood to fall back into my arm , wash away those spiny pins and needles with a cool wave of notion . But it did n’t go away . And why could I still move my hand ?
Continue reading atIt ’s Okay to be Smart .
BiologyBlack WidowScienceSpidersZoology
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