Black Widow - not the game

[amerish]

Went to do a bit of work on the arcade the other day (loading Lego Star Wars using a usb drive).

Pulled the arcade out and went to plug in the USB drive and what do I see???

A black widow spider that made a home in the arcade.

Well I relieved her of life with a rolled up magazine.

So be warned. Not everything attracted to your arcade is friendly.

[stephenp1983]

Where do you have your cab? Is it in the house or garage type area?

[amerish]

I used to have it in the "formal living room" but apparently the arcade does not match the decor. So it was moved to the man cave.

I.E.  Garage. (along with the pool table and air hockey table).

I think the spider liked the warm air generated by the computer.

[Bluedeath]

Spiders do like humid and warm environments they will die if put in hot and dry places.
If you find live spiders in your cabinet you simply dont use it enough.

[amerish]

The odd thing is that the cab gets used every day. I guess spidey felt safe in the back of it.

[u_rebelscum]

Black Widows like dark, undisturbed spots, like inside wood piles.  They don't mind being just off busy spots, though; think all the rats/raccoons/cats/dogs/etc that run around and over the wood pile.  Some people leave lights on in basements to keep 'em away; you can do the same inside your cab if you want.
 

[shmokes]

No need to worry.  They aren't very poisonous.  They're just scary looking, and also quite aggressive and agile.  But they're not actually dangerous.  Two of my brothers have been bit by black widows.  I've seen at least a hundred of them in my life--they're all over Utah.  And none of us has EVER heard of someone being killed by a black widow.  Ever.  EVER.  Think of how many black widows you've seen in your life, and how aggressive a spider they are, and ask yourself why you don't know anyone who's been killed or even seriously harmed by one.  They're just not very poisonous.

Oh . . . but check this out.  There's a park about 20 minutes from my house where colonies of banana spiders live in the trees.  Hundreds of them.  It's soooooo creepy.  Attached picture is pretty typical of their size!

[Ummon]

I heard the banana spiders in Korea get to the size of a small umbrella spread out.

[Snowblindz]

Aren't banana spiders really dangerous?

[Bluedeath]

I mean if you use the cab for, let me say, less then one hour a day maybe it gets warm but the time not enough to kill the spider for dehydration.
BTW black widows are potentially lethal only for small childrends and hear failure prone or ill people (not a good reason for taking the risk  however). Being bitten is not a thing to be taken lightly anyhow and you can remain sick for days before recover. 

[vidmouse]

A story like this needs some photos... and not of the banana spider..

[Todd H]

Here in Georgia black widows are everywhere. I kill at least 2-3 in my garage every few months (even though I've sprayed my garage more times than I can count). As common as they are, I don't think I've ever known anyone that was bitten by one. They tend to be a bit shy and like dark places. I probalby wouldn't even bother killing them if I didn't have a 16-month old son that will grab anything he can get his hands on.

[DaOld Man]

Here in Kentucky, black widows are fairly common.
My nephew works for the water department, and he had the job of meter reader for awhile.
He said it was pretty common to see them in the meter boxes, that are buried in the ground around here.
he got bit once, it hurt him pretty bad for a few days, he said it was like a very bad wasp sting. But it didnt kill him or have any long lasting effects.
We have a much more dangerous spider here, it's called the brown recluse, AKA fiddler or fiddle back spider.
The fiddler doesnt spin a web like the widow, it hunts its food, which makes it much more dangerous, because the fiddler likes to climb into shoes and clothes to get in the warm dark places.
If you have fiddlers in the house, you must always check your shoes before putting them on, and check the bed covers before climbing in.
The fiddler wont kill you, but the area it bites begins to rot out. It is a long painful journey and leaves some pretty bad scars.

[Todd H]

Yep brown recluse bites are nasty. I've known a few people bitten by them and it didn't look pleasant. Luckily I haven't seen any in my house since it was built.

[Mauzy]

Here in Kentucky, black widows are fairly common.

Where in Kentucky? I have quite a bit of family back in them hills...

I live in Illinois. If any of you have ever been to Illinois, you'll see one of two things as far as the eye can see: bean fields or corn fields. Its hard to escape the corn fields. I live right on the edge of one. We get TONS of wolf spiders, but I've never seen and black widow. Im surprised I don't see black widows in the summer. It gets really hot and really humid in the summers. We also have to worry about brown recluse up in the attics. Haven't seen one yet.

[wbassett]

I've only ever seen one.

When I was in the military and stationed in Virgina my supervisor told me to go to our supply shed and get some cable for work we were doing.  I was moving things around and came across a web and saw that red hour glass and it scared the hell out of me!  I knew they are only deadly to small children or sick people, but that is a scary looking spider and its reputation definitely preceeds it!

I booked it out of there and the bossman was like "What?  You're scared of a little spider?"  He went out and was immediately back in calling Public Works to get an exterminator out.  The shed was infested with them.  They weren't all in one spot, but were all throughout the shed.

Spiders to me are like Indiana Jones is with with snakes!  Well maybe not that bad but I definitely stay away from them!

[ChadTower]

Every time someone around here complains about the New England winters I think about crap like you guys are describing... and scorpions... and rattlesnakes... and think I like ice a whole lot more than I like poisonous snakes and spiders.

[HaRuMaN]

Today, it's 72 degrees F and sunny... I'll take a few creepy-crawlies and some snakes over subfreezing weather and 4 ft snowdrifts, thankyouverymuch...   

[DaOld Man]

Where in Kentucky? I have quite a bit of family back in them hills...

I live in Illinois. If any of you have ever been to Illinois, you'll see one of two things as far as the eye can see: bean fields or corn fields. Its hard to escape the corn fields. I live right on the edge of one. We get TONS of wolf spiders, but I've never seen and black widow. Im surprised I don't see black widows in the summer. It gets really hot and really humid in the summers. We also have to worry about brown recluse up in the attics. Haven't seen one yet.

I live in the small hills part, about 55 miles directly north of Nashville, Tn.

[ChadTower]

Today, it's 72 degrees F and sunny... I'll take a few creepy-crawlies and some snakes over subfreezing weather and 4 ft snowdrifts, thankyouverymuch...   

Yeah, yeah.  My cousin has a house in SD that is huge and gorgeous.  Huge back yard.  Kids can't play in it because it's full of rattlesnakes.  Worst thing you'll find in my yard is turkeys.

[wbassett]

Don't have to be down south or out west for those nasties!

I grew up in the corn belt farm country of PA and it gets pretty cold there too in the winter and we had rattlers and copper heads all over the place.

Spiders though...  When I was living in Virgina my wife called me at the base one time, she was frantic.  She said she killed a spider and said it was a tarantula or something.  My three year old daughter said it was a 'monster'.  Anyway, she said she clubbed it with an empty 2ltr soda bottle.  I laughed and asked if she heard it 'crunch' and she said no.  I explained it wasn't dead then.  When I got home she showed me where she threw a news paper over it and 'clubbed him to death'.  Of course when I lifted the paper nothing was there.  I basically gaffed it off.

A couple of weeks later I was sitting at my desk and I saw something out of the corner of my eye scurrying along the baseboard and go up into the area around the dish washer.  It was pretty big and I assumed it was a mouse. 

We called the exterminator and he pulled the dishwasher out and went looking around and man did he come out of the cubby fast!  It was the spider I saw not a mouse!  He killed it and then told us it was about to have babies!  Nice!  I still don't know what this thing was, it wasn't a tarantula (as far as I know they aren't native to VA) but it was almost as big as my wife's hand!

I HATE spiders!

[ChadTower]

Okay, I lied.  From time to time you find ugly, nasty, filthy, Atari project cabs in my yard. 

[shmokes]

I'd wager that icy roads kills an order of magnitude more people per year than all the creepy crawly things in the country combined.  And driving in a blizzard makes me infinitely more nervous than the random possibility of coming across a poisonous snake.  And god knows I've ran into more blizzards in my life (more than I can count) than poisonous snakes (exactly two, and they were babies--only about 18" long).

Also worth noting, I see no reason why New England would have no hobo spiders, black widows or brown recluses.  All of them live the mountain west where we get lots of snow and sub-zero winter days.

Speaking of scary critters, they're not always small.  I've seen alligators and crocs hanging out on my school's campus at least a dozen times. 

[ChadTower]

I'd wager that icy roads kills an order of magnitude more people per year than all the creepy crawly things in the country combined.  And driving in a blizzard makes me infinitely more nervous than the random possibility of coming across a poisonous snake.  And god knows I've ran into more blizzards in my life (more than I can count) than poisonous snakes (exactly two, and they were babies--only about 18" long).

While that's true, I have never actually known anyone who was killed due to icy roads.  People here get killed by crappy driving on icy roads but they also get killed by crappy driving in July.  Crappy driving knows no seasons.  I don't count someone going 70 in a snowstorm as being killed by the conditions.  They're being killed by their own stupidity.

Also worth noting, I see no reason why New England would have no hobo spiders, black widows or brown recluses.  All of them live the mountain west where we get lots of snow and sub-zero winter days.

I've lived in trash apartment buildings, a couple houses, a mobile home... never seen a spider bigger than a nickel here that wasn't a daddy long legs.  My kids and I do tons of hiking, too, so they don't seem to be in the woods either.  We do have lots of ticks, though.  Gotta be really careful about lyme disease.

Speaking of scary critters, they're not always small.  I've seen alligators and crocs hanging out on my school's campus at least a dozen times. 

Only thing like that around here I've seen are snapping turtles.  Big ones.  They won't kill you but they'll take a BK Whopper sized chunk out of your flesh if you get too close.  Turkeys will get aggressive and try to eff you up but you can give them a swift kick in the giblets and they go away.   

[amerish]

I was so going to take a picture but the memory card in my camera was full and I did not want the spider to crawl under the arcade.

Well on the bright side, the wife said that the arcade can come back into the living room to help keep the kids safe while playing it.

Of course this means I need to break it down completely and inspect for any more "friends" before I bring it it.

Now I just need to figure a way to get the pool table and air hockey table into the home.... Perhaps I can get rid of the dining room table...

[DaOld Man]

They make a spider bomb you can set off in your garage thats supposed to kill or chase away all spiders. But I dont know how well they work.

[Mauzy]

Where in Kentucky? I have quite a bit of family back in them hills...

I live in Illinois. If any of you have ever been to Illinois, you'll see one of two things as far as the eye can see: bean fields or corn fields. Its hard to escape the corn fields. I live right on the edge of one. We get TONS of wolf spiders, but I've never seen and black widow. Im surprised I don't see black widows in the summer. It gets really hot and really humid in the summers. We also have to worry about brown recluse up in the attics. Haven't seen one yet.

I live in the small hills part, about 55 miles directly north of Nashville, Tn.

Ah. My dad's side of the family is a bit north of you spread out over Ohio and Daviess counties.

[shmokes]

never seen a spider bigger than a nickel here that wasn't a daddy long legs. 

Just a little fun fact for you.  Daddy longlegs are not spiders.  They are arachnids (8 legs) but not spiders.  Scorpions also fall into this category.  Spiders have distinct heads and bodies, where the two parts of a daddy longlegs are attached in such a way that they appear to just be one oval.  Also, daddy longlegs have no venom glands .

[pinballwizard79]

Once you are bitten by a brown recluse you will never be the same.

I was playing in a barn in Missouri @ age 12 & somehow one bit my ear.

After a day & a half it turned a nasty purple (um maybe it was dieing tissue?), started crusting over & after visiting urgent care they gave me some weird injection of an antibiotic of some sort & then drained the bite.

From that day forward I made sure to stay inside & play video games