Black Widow Spiders

My last post mentioned the Black Widow spider, so in tribute to my long standing fascination with them I thought I'd make a post. I've always been eerily drawn to things that frighten me, and once I saw a program on tv about the worlds most dangerous spiders. Most of them lived in the Jungle or in Australia, so I was safe. But Saint Louis's little buddies, and Sydney's best friend both stayed in my mind. I still remember the contents of that tv show, so deeply did it impress me with its cheesy slow-mo and creepy music (I was a young and impressionable 7 year old! Alone in a house!)

• Sydney Funnel Web's hide in holes in the ground. They are the worst, but they Stay in Australia where they belong. Yay! They can't touch me... until Shelob (half a lifetime later), that is!
• Brown Recluses, for an inexplicable reason, never bothered me all that much. They hide in dusty workrooms and the like, and in the pockets of clothing. The only part that bothered me where they were concerned was there habit of getting stuck in bathtubs. To this day, I briefly scan the floor of the bathtub before I get in. But that's a good idea anyway! Otherwise your sister may have left tons of slippery conditioner there!
• Black Widow's. Now these were the ones that scared me. They were the perfect textbook spider, with their beautiful, deadly, swollen black abdomens. Across the back, a series of red dots that confused the unskilled into thinking they were the less deadly males. Across the stomach; the hourglass in red. Mostly, they hang out in the woods. So I was safe at home. I thought I was safe period. They don't like people. Then the last line. "The Black Widow's favorite haunt is in outhouses, under toilet seats."

Now I prefer woods to an outhouse anyday, and I claim its for the smell, but theres more than that, really... :P

Ooohh... Theyre neat little spiders! They're called Black Widow's for that nasty habit of theirs for eating their mates after... mating. Theyre the most venomous spider in North America, and their venom is 15 times as toxic as that of the rattlesnake. Their silk is also nearly the strongest of any spiders. (My guess is the orb weavers and the tunnel webs have them beat, though) Symptoms of a bite include extreme pain, abdominal cramping, and paralysis of the diaphragm. Fun, eh?

Scary, but beautiful in their own creepy ways. The only thing I really and truly have a morbid fascination with.