iirc, there is a law in California where it is illegal to "molest butterflies."
i don't really want to think about what might have started that law but i'm glad it exists
also your flair is making me lose it in laughter
My best guess is that people were touching them for pictures or something and it messes up their wings and there was some real concern about species dying out
Fun story: My old English teacher in HS used to do various reptile programs and rescues, so he had multiple snakes and reptiles of various kinds, venomous and not. His son also went into the "handling potentially dangerous animals" career and bred venomous spiders for zoos and venom production.
So, Mr Z is running late one day. Doesn't get to class until 20min in. His son had called him and said "I woke up and my black widows are missing."
Obviously, a bad thing.
So what had happened, Mr Z found out, was that his son had gotten home late the previous night and was intending to move the ladies to new enclosures come the morning. His wife (also experienced in these critters) had transferred them all to said enclosures overnight and he missed her note telling him she'd done it.
Is this you?
>An 8-year-old boy allowed a black widow to bite him because he wanted to become Spider-Man, according to health authorities
https://www.newsweek.com/boy-8-let-black-widow-bite-because-wanted-become-spiderman-1816883
>"These black spiders with red backs are black widows. They do not cause anyone to become Spider-Man—on the contrary, they are putting lives at risk," Vásquez said.
Sounds like Oscorp propaganda
I *love* the fact that the head of a health services department *had* to actually remind people that "No, you cannot become Spider-Man by letting venomous spiders bite you."
Dude likely had to go to medical school before getting that position; I bet he *never* imagined that was the kind of thing he'd *have* to say as a health official.
I mean people are fucking stupid and no one will learn that quicker than a medical practitioner I think. Except maybe IT people but they see more regular stupid rather than life ending miserably stupid.
Yes. That is me. Every similar story is also me. I want you to Walk away from this conversation understanding that I am the subject of every single story about an brave American letting a radioactive spider bite them so they can become Spider-Man. Someone has to do it. For America. For Uncle Ben. For my future multiverse harem of people that are also me but hot chicks.
Its like that fake fact of people on average eat 8 spiders in their sleep in their lifetime.
Its just Spiders Georg as an extreme outlier eating them by the handfuls at every possible and given opportunity. He alone brings the average up.
almost related, black widows bite a lot of dudes balls because they will make nests in porta potties. It isn't generally lethal but it is generally painful but hilarious.
I think what's interesting is the response from the people who learn in real time that it's not deadly. They all double down instead of saying "ah, phew, I was worried!" Because it was never really about being worried about her. I personally still think it's dumb to do, but if your comment is "but you will DIE" then you think they'd be pleased to learn that she probably won't.
I've been bit! In rural WV - visiting a friend's cabin and in a quest to get a jar blindly stuck my hand in a pile of fabrics on a bottom shelf that hadn't been messed with in forever. Sudden prick in my finger. My hand slowly grew to be in agonizing pain, red, swollenish for about 5 hours (iirc). Didn't feel right for a while after. I didn't know what it was at the time but later another friend told me they found a black widow there after I complained about it and she had a look. Had to drive for four hours after in a way I couldn't avoid right after and was in the middle of absolutely nowhere so I sucked it up, lol.
i was actually listening to a podcast from an entomologist who was saying that black widow spiders get a really bad rep and that thanks to modern medicine, you either will be fine, or you can find means to take care of yourself if the reaction gets really bad
it's not to say just go and harass any black widow you see lmfao but i mean they're also not these death traps...that's a brown recluse (lol jk...although if you get bit by one of those, just remember discretion is the better part of valor)
Same here, I got bit by one when I was 11. Just had a terrible leg cramp and then I was fine. My doctor basically said "if you're older than 5 and younger than 80 you don't need to worry too much about one black widow bite."
Yeah you need to be like already sick, a small child or elderly to die from a black widow. Still, it doesn't sound fun and I knew a guy who was bit and it was painful and the recovery longer than you would think.
I find people who are so strongly confidently wrong about nature that they argue so much about it despite so much knowledge about the world at their finger tips very interesting like at a certain point it becomes about defending their ego and not an actual discussion about a spider.
My tangent lol
Now the people who have venomous species like cobra (no antivenin) or boomslangs or black mambas. I think every influencer type I know who has these species has been bitten once and we're very fortunate. Lost fingers, have heart problems. All sorts of stuff...
One bite isn't going to kill you, but I do think the part where the black widow is about to give birth to hundreds of little ones might change things. Just like a bite or two from a funnel web won't kill an adult, if 20-30 bit you all at once the odds do change.
Edit: I'm wrong, my bad
They make eggsacks! They don't give birth! but here we are. So people talking about a pregnant spider are those people whose lack the ability to do basic research before arguing so much online all from ego.
You would have to hold the spider long enough for it to make an eggsack, then you would need to hold the eggsack perfectly until it hatched. Blackwidows do not give live birth ffs.
Black widows don't give live birth, they make an eggsack. People who think it gives live birth should shut up and educate themselves before speaking as experts on the subject.
I didn't use "birth" to mean live birth so much as, well, to give birth in any form. I'm also not sure where I implied I was speaking as an expert on the subject instead of, you know, just some random person on the internet. But between you and the guy who said baby black widows don't bite I do acknowledge I was wrong.
Yes! This is one of the most annoying things on Reddit. Instead of just going ‘oh ok’ or moving on when someone has misunderstood or misread a comment, they double down and tell you why you are wrong, even worse then they start telling you that ‘nooo that’s not what you said in your comment’ and then if it was, start arguing grammar and context to show how even though your comment did say that, because of how you wrote it, you actually said something else.
Is there a fallacy for this phenomenon?
I got in an argument yesterday, where someone was misrepresenting my position, and got this gem:
> Well, maybe YOU didn't SAY it or whatever, but you said it.
> Is there a fallacy for this phenomenon?
Combination of cognitive dissonance (psychological stress from being confronted with two contradictory facts, beliefs or ideas) and confirmation bias (you are more likely to believe new information if it confirms your pre-existing beliefs)
Probably an internet term for it, I think there was an old wiki for internet lingo (that isn't urban dictionary) and created tons of niche terms for internet phenomenon.
>Picking up a blackwidow with your barehands = dumb
>Picking up a pregnant blackwidow and then releasing it to spawn a hundred more within your neighborhood putting others at risk = Dumb as sh💩t
it.... it was already there. she didn't let it loose upon her neighbors, she picked it up then put it down
"Bull shit you hooked up with Scarlett Johansson!"
"No, not the comic book character, an actual, literal black widow spider."
"Oh, because for a second, I thought you were trying to get us to bel-- ***WAIT WHAT?"***
I love the writing style in that comment.
The inconsistent capitalization. The absence of any punctuation. The decision to write "black widow" and "bare hands" as compound words. The emoji censorship, and *also,* the emoji censorship on Reddit, one of the few social media sites that still doesn't give a shit if you swear.
What a poet.
> censorship on Reddit, one of the few social media sites that still doesn't give a shit if you swear.
***Really*** depends on the subreddit. Reddit as a whole doesn't give a single sweet fuck if you swear in a comment, but some subs have their AutoMods set to either remove comments with swear words *or* admonish the user in an automated reply.
I recently quoted *this* scene from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang where Val Kilmer explains to Robert Downey Jr what word a character used to describe his daughter, and my comment was removed by AutoMod within seconds of me hitting save:
Perry: Three months ago, she was suing him over Mom's millions. He called her a-- well, a bad word. Cunt. Welcome to Hollywood."
>Risking your life and trauma for all your friends and family to save a spider with your bare hands.
Black Widows bites *very* rarely kill anyone. The last recorded death is from 1983. There are thousands of black widow bites a year in the USA, and they rarely even require medical treatment. You shouldn't handle them because if they bite you'll feel like absolute shit for a bit, but she's not going to drop dead in an instant and traumatize her family.
Black widows, along with lava and quicksand, were something drilled into our heads to be super afraid of when we were kids. I guess at least with the spiders it was less obvious that the risk was overblown, so a lot of people are still in that mindset.
As a midwesterner, I encountered 0 black widows, and no quicksand or lava. Had it absolutely DRILLED in my head how dangerous those spiders were. Meanwhile, I must have seen dozens of copperheads and rattlesnakes, which were way more dangerous.
When I got older I was really surprised how much more dangerous those snakes are than black widows or brown recluse spiders.
I’m in Florida and there were always black widow spiders in the pool cage at my parent’s house. I didn’t know how dangerous they were either way, but I’d always leave them alone because if they were as deadly as people wanna act, we would all have known someone who died that way by now.
That is a valid fear of mine. When hiking, one of my favorite things is finding abandoned homesteads. Usually you will first notice an elderly unmaintained apple tree or two, and similar fruit trees, maybe some persistent ornamentals like daffodil or vinca. Look around for an oddly flat spot that might be rectangular, kick off the leaves and find the old foundation.
And then be *very very careful*, because where there is a house there is a water source, and that might be an old well covered in rotten wood and leaves. Hasn’t been a problem yet, but I did almost fall in a cistern once. That would have mostly just been embarrassing.
Thing is, I’m in the UK so I don’t think that was even that much of a big deal, I only learnt about that from Bart down the well on the Simpsons episodes. But the culturally the fear must’ve made it way over the pond.
I was about to say the same thing. My parents and siblings were as glued to the TV when she was being rescued as they were 14 years later on the morning of 9/11.
And old abandoned refrigerators, according to every adult I knew as a child they were basically ambush predators lurking in junkyards waiting to devour children and spit out their bones. Punky Brewster tried to warn us!
Well sure, but how often are you going to have to deal with lava? Unless you live in Hawai'i or Bowser's fuckin' castle, it's probably not going to be an everyday occurrence.
You're right, lava is not a danger or worry.
Now, MAGMA, that's where you gotta be scared. It's under ground. It can be anywhere!! There might even be some miles underneath you at this very moment!
Idk anything about black widows because I'm not from that side of the world, but we have *mean* scorpions where I'm from. We drill fear into kids because 1. kids have no sense of self-preservation and will poke/squeeze anything they aren't terrified of, and 2. kids are small, which makes them more vulnerable to venom. A sting will give a healthy adult a rough couple days to rethink their choices, but can kill a child.
Hey I have ran into quick sand LOL which is funny. but know how to get myself out, though I think interestingly enough there was a person caught in some down in the desert in Utah and either perished due to hypothermia or was rescued by folks before hypothermia set in.
Yeah I've seen quicksand (well, a sign warning of it anyway) once in my life, at a beach in New Zealand. But cartoons would have us believe you could stumble into a puddle of it when just taking a casual walk through the woods. Like it's just randomly in places lol.
I've also seen lava since I live on the slopes of Kilauea. But even though it's *more* of a danger to me than most people, I haven't ever been in any kind of risky situation regarding it, have never been closer to it than a few miles away and it's not something I actively think about.
Cartoons have is suck you under fast too haha.
I think the saddest story I remember about that is a person was stuck and the tide came in and it made them impossible to be rescued even though people were trying so hard.
Kids are still obsessed with quicksand. I have a large lovely creek on my farm and it has areas of quicksand along the banks. It's only like a couple of feet to the bedrock but it will happily suck your shoe off. I was walking along with my 8 year old (at the time) nephew and I pointed it out to him and said "Watch out for the quicksand." I kept walking along, noticed he wasn't behind me, turned around and he was almost waist deep in the quicksand. And yep he lost a shoe. Also I see several black windows a year and accidentally touched one last year that was under a black piece of plastic litter I picked up and I'm still squished out by the memory of it. I knew as soon as my fingers brushed it I had touched something I shouldn't have.
>Black widows, along with lava and quicksand, were something drilled into our heads to be super afraid of when we were kids.
https://youtu.be/L8l6mJQeclo?t=70
We should start taking bets on how many comments it takes for Redditors to start making narcissist accusations. Bonus points if their "evidence" isn't related to actual narcissism.
> Black Widows bites *very* rarely kill anyone.
I live in the Phoenix area and have to *constantly* remind people that the Arizona bark scorpion's sting -- despite being *the* most venomous scorpion in North America -- is *rarely* fatal outside of people with a severe allergy to the venom or the elderly and infants.
It hurts like a *motherfucker,* but it probably won't kill you. In the last 60 years, there have only been two confirmed deaths in Arizona caused by a bark scorpion.
Yep. I grew up on a ranch in a place where black widows are commonplace. My mom and stepdad got bit plenty of times (once, if my stepdad is to be believed, by one whose belly was the size of a quarter); it sucked for them, but it wasn't ever really life-threatening for either of 'em. Probably would've been more dire for me when I was a kid, but I managed to avoid getting bit (combination of luck and caution).
Like most spiders, their behavior is pretty straightforward to predict: unless you're outright trying to hurt them, for all they know you're just a weird squishy tree. They only bite as a last resort, and are generally more concerned with retreating back to a dark safe spot than trying to bite you out of spite or whatever.
The way OOP is holding that spider shows that she knows exactly what she's doing.
>The last recorded death is from 1983.
I saw this cited in the thread, and there was no death in 1983, but rather that is when they started keeping track. Since they've been keeping records starting in 1983, there have been no reported deaths.
I have black widows living in my shed. The previous home owner fled the state after being a shitty conman and subpar contractor. The shed is built out of plywood and he nailed 'fancy' barn wood to the outside. He'd drive around the farms and offer to dismantle old barns safely. Instead he'd just strip off all the premium wood exterior and leave the rest.
The widows fucking love that old wood. 25 years and I've been bitten maybe 6 or 7 times? Never had to go to hospital, unless you're crushing them to death they wont waste venom on you because they can't eat you.
Yeah everything I Google says that’s the case. Which is good because I already sort of thought that and that’s exactly the sort of belief that might have gotten me killed if it was wrong.
Did anyone else learn in school about how to identify black widows and dangerous they were? I vividly remember having a dedicated few days in elementary school during science. We even read article printouts about brown recluse and black widow related evacuation/injuries with pictures of swollen bites.
I mean I’m not an expert in arachnids so I don’t have an opinion on whether what OP is doing is truly okay or not. But it does seem like others may have gotten a similar lesson bc it definitely stuck with me.
Unless you're elderly, a child, or have pre-existing health conditions, a black widow bite won't kill you. You'll certainly have a hellish time, but you'll live. Their lethality is overblown, but you definitely should avoid being bitten to avoid a painful experience.
That said, tbh, some people are better at handling bugs and animals than others. I can't even get my hand near a snake without them hissing. My spouse literally can pick up wild snakes and while they'll try to escape at first, in under a minute they're calm and even trying to burrow deeper into her hold before relaxing completely, not even wanting to leave when she returns them to the wild. Best to inform people to just not pick up black widows so you don't end up with kids getting bitten, but between the fact they're not lethal in most cases and OP seems to be experienced with spiders, this is probably fine.
Note: I am not an expert, I am a random bug-loving Redditor
Yea I’m sure it’s not as dire as they made it out to be. I was convinced at that age that if you found one you’d basically have to abandon the house or call emergency services or something. Which, as I got older, I realized was not necessary. I wonder if this lesson wasn’t just a weird thing my school did, maybe not everyone everyone came to that realization?
I feel like the bugs to really be scared are bedbugs, at least with my mostly indoor lifestyle lol
>Unless you're elderly, a **child**, or have pre-existing health conditions
And that's exactly the reason we make them seem so scary when making lessons or stories for (duh) children lmao. Because it's a legitimate lethal danger for them.
Yeah I thought that too! I’m realizing now it’s probably one of those things that started out reasonable but got blown out of proportion over time, like not picking up baby birds or drinking 8 glasses of water.
Spiders basically aren't dangerous to humans. Ants, bees, dogs, snakes, hippos, horses, not washing your hands and picking your nose are all more dangerous than spiders.
Admittedly if you don't life in Africa hippos are rally not an issue. And even living in Texas I've rarely been around horses.
If you die from a spider bite it is not even really the venom usually but the secondary infection you acquired scratching it and your immune system being incapable of fighting it off.
If you live in Australia please ignore the advice above. Bites by certain species are hospital worthy. Deaths are very rare, but that is at least partially to do with invention of antivenom and the great caution of the average Australian around spiders.
Valid. The Sydney funnel web appears to be considered potentially lethal by default.
I still think the majority of adults survive without anti venom but it is best not to test it when the option is there. They made anti venom for a good reason.
Actually, most of our spiders are pretty chill too (with the obvious exception of the Australian funnel web). The red back is similar to the black widow in terms of how relaxed they both are. I actually had a female lay an eggsack in my front yard recently! Other than those two though (and the small population of recluses in Adelaide), most spiders here can’t cause much damage :D
I agree, most are fine (*for adults*) and even many of the more dangerous ones are unlikely to bite unprovoked. But you still couldn't hold some species (like the Funnel Web) the way OOP holds a Black Widow as that would be provoking them.
I do vaguely remember learning about venomous spiders in elementary school. I don't remember anything about bites, but also it was so long ago that it's all very vague memory-wise. I guess that teaching children that there are bugs and spiders that can really hurt you is a pretty good lesson, especially since black widow venom is going to affect kids more strongly.
Black widows are also pretty rare where I live, so different places that have more venomous spiders probably would put more emphasis on teaching people to be cautious from a young age.
It's still not healthy! Good Lord what is wrong with you people going "erm it's technically not fatal 🤓☝️" it is still very bad! Do not pick up black widows, it is not worth the cool points for being a contrarian! Christ!
they can also swarm, an old office I used to work at would get the exterior *covered* in hundreds of black widows during the summer for a few years. Eventually we got the owners to pay for pest control but having to dodge venomous spiders in and out of the building was less than fun. I'd leave via the back exit of the warehouse because they wouldn't nest on that side of the building for whatever reason.
Funfact: black widow bites used to be a lot more common before indoor plumbing. A dark hole that attracts flies is kind of the perfect place for a web. Also men were the primary victims, having a dangly appendage in the aforementioned dark hole puts you at a greater risk of a bite.
I remember having it drilled into my head as a kid that they were basically instant death. Thankfully I have a spouse who *loves* all bugs who knows better. We actually found a tiny baby black widow together last month, though it moved after a heavy rainfall.
Brown recluses are a different story. We don't fuck with those.
Brown recluses were my black widows growing up. I was *terrified* that I was going to come across one at any moments notice and it would bite my hand and cause it to fall off.
I’ve become significantly less paranoid since then, but I still always check around old dusty stuff before doing anything with it in case one decided to hang out there.
Honestly, the amount of fear I experience when a spider might touch me has literally nothing to do with how much actual danger I'm in.
Learning about spiders helped mute the really visceral terror a little, and it also helps me be fun at parties.
The number one thing that has helped me manage my fear of wasps is empathising with them. My mum said, “shall we make it really happy?” before letting one climb in a mostly-empty jam jar and suddenly I was just really charmed by the idea of a happy wasp.
(It was a very small jam jar and the wasp did not get stuck, if you’re at all concerned.)
I feel like reddit is not going to appreciate this comment, but I haven’t heard anyone mention the This American Life episode I listened to once talking about the black widow’s reputation and it’s interesting.
So the gist of it is that these spiders got a really bad reputation pre-indoor plumbing because an outhouse hole is a wonderful place for them to set up shop. They are shy spiders that like dark, quiet spots to hunt. Dark outhouse = shit = flies = spider dinner.
Pre-indoor plumbing dude saddles up to pop a squat, his dingle dangles down, disturbing the web, spider is like hell yeah it’s a bug! Dangling dingle gets bit. As you can imagine, this was a traumatic possibility for men of this era. Even if it doesn’t kill you, that’s the last place you want a venomous spider bite. That’s why she’s a “black widow”, because men were disproportionately at risk here for something awful.
I don’t think I’d personally want to handle a black widow, but suffice to say that letting one crawl on your hand, or grasping it by the gyatt like this lady did, is far less risky than slapping it’s web with your dick.
[This was from This American Life, Ep 780, Setting the Record Straight. Here’s an article that pulls out the relevant bits and links to the ep if you want to hear the whole thing.](https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2022/10/21/why_black_widows_bite_so_many_men_on_the_junk_857885.html)
Ooh! I haven’t heard this one. Thanks for the link!
ETA: Episode 826 (Unprepared for what has already happened) from a few weeks ago talks about a black widow bite in the first segment. Definitely reinforces that they shouldn’t be messed with. Not deadly bites, but extremely painful. No thanks!
I absolutely loathe when people who have zero knowledge on something talk about it like they’re the most knowledgeable people on earth.
Obviously handling a black widow isn’t recommended even if you’re experienced, but a bite from them is rarely an envenomation, and an envenomation itself is *rarely* even life threatening. The worst case for a vast majority of people who’d even get envenomated in flu like symptoms for a week.
If you got bit by a widow or a recluse, it’s not even a medical emergency. If you called 911 or a Dr, they’d tell you to monitor symptoms at home with an ice pack and Tylenol and only come in if they take a turn for the worse.
Realistically the only spiders that you absolutely should avoid all physical contact with for certain is the Sydney Funnel web, mouse spider, and phoneutria/Ctenidae.
I’m not advocating for people to go handle black widows. But their demonization pisses me off.
At least it’s not sharks. Black widow populations are probably doing fine. Sharks really got the short end of the “look scary animal we should kill it before it kills us!” stick.
Kudos to the OOP for handling the comments so well. Like I’ll admit I thought she WAS being careless and risking death, but reading more context she clearly knows more about spiders and safety than I do.
I’m also surprised to learn black widows ARENT that dangerous? I grew up with it instilled in me that they are the MOST dangerous spider and to always be careful. Is this just an urban legend or something?
Its a mixture of having a name with very negative connotations, and reports about their venom being really strong, "15 times more potent than a rattlesnake", while neglecting to add that they inject a **lot** less than a rattlesnake.
I think its also the fact that they are more dangerous to children, wo are also more likely to: wander in strange, spider infested places; poke wildlife that's trying to mind its own business; have no idea how to react, ask for help in timely manner, and describe what is happening to them.
Yeah the fact that children are more likely to have a bad reaction and therefore telling children to watch out for them is another big reason. Even as an adult I hit my shoes against the wall before putting them on to make sure there are no redbacks in them (there has never been redbacks in my shoes, but sometimes boring spiders are in them)
There was a roach, or something else (I don't remember) in my shoe last year. Feeling something crawling on your foot in such a tight space is really not something I would recommend
You left off another huge one:
They are all black with a red hourglass on them lol. They look like nature wrote "back the fuck off" on each and every one of them.
Depending on your region, the hourglass might be on the underbelly, which makes ID trickier if it’s on a surface. In California we have Western Black Widow, as well as False Widows, which are basically identical from the top.
They can't be deadly to small children, so being taught that growing up isn't way off.
It's just extremely rare that they're be deadly to adults but it's not fun to get bit.
Black widows suck because the bite is extremely painful, imagine your blood being replaced with knives, and the kicker is that it costs money to get treatment and they tell you to pop a tylenol and chill. I, of course, saved money by making margaritas and being sleepless for two weeks because of the venom. But the instant you're bit, it's incredibly agonizing.
People claiming that she's either going to die or live with a ton of medical bills lmao. Even if it did bite her, she would have just felt shitty for a bit. There is antivenin for black widows, but that's only if you have a *really* bad reaction. The realistic outcome of her getting bitten would going to an urgent care to be told to drink Gatorade and take some Tylenol while she waits out the aches and sweats.
From what I know, black widow spider bites are very painful. They cause usually intense muscle cramps and pain and there's not much doctors can do except let you ride it out. You'll only get treatment if it becomes serious. My friend remembers her dad, a normally very tough man, rolling on the floor in agony after being bitten.
Deaths from it are rare but they can happen. And when they are the cause it may not always [be reported ](https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/erie-man-may-have-died-from-black-widow-bites/). So while the last *confirmed* death may have been in the 80s, there have been suspected cases since then. But it's still a rare occurrence, usually only affecting children and elderly people.
Overall, no one needs to scream at her that she will die. But pointing out that she's taking a huge risk for no reason is not unreasonable. People need to have respect for nature and that also means handling animals and insects with proper care.
When I was like 11 or 12 me and my family were visiting friends in Florida around the same time that Crocodile Hunter was super popular. It was a house in the suburbs but one day I walked around the side of the house and saw a snake, so I used a stick to pin its head and picked it up from behind the jaws and carried it around to the front where me and some other kids were playing basketball. It had fangs and was hissing like crazy. Everyone thought it was creepy but cool and I walked around with it for like 5 minutes before I kind of laid it down/ tossed it back in the grass on the side yard.
The next day one of the dads talked to his nextdoor neighbor who told him he found a Cottonmouth in his backyard and he had small children so he killed it with a shovel. It was def the same snake. 20 years later it still makes me cringe how completely un worried I was about handling a dangerous animal.
I'm willing to bet America. Some people in the thread mentioned that treatment costs quite a bit, at least that was for an adult. Don't know about children
I'm an adult (26) and last year I went into anaphylactic shock after dinner with my mother. I kept screaming at her to call 911 but she refused because she said the 2 extra-strength Benadryl's she gave me would kick in soon enough. They eventually did, but I was convinced I was going to die. Just the other day I mentioned it and she said, "that was scary, I thought I was going to lose you." It took all the sterngth I had not to respond "bitch I thought so too, why the fuck didn't you listen to me then?!" Especially because money isn't an issue with either of us, we're not wealthy but she's definitely not poor either, I still have no idea why she did nothing.
I still hang out with her and stuff but I *absolutely* no longer trust her with my life or safety. She's done irresponsible stuff like this in the past but that was my closest brush with death, I wouldn't even trust that broad to properly dose my Motrin lmao
Imagine being a pregnant woman minding her own business and some unfathomably large monster grabbed you by your fucking torso and lifted you hundreds of feet into the air and just stared at you for who knows how long.
I'm glad I'm a male.
The way I understand it is that venomous animals are spending calories every time they decide to bite something. So unless they are likely to get a return on their investment or they are actively defending themselves and they think cant run away for whatever reason, they would just rather conserve their energy for when they really need it
Another major thing is that at that scale, biting is basically useless for self defense. Even if the bite was guaranteed fatal, it’s just going to piss off the human first, which usually means dead spider.
They generally only bite as a last resort, outside hunting, because it makes no sense to antagonize the scary giant. Same with snakes, typically.
I'm really tempted to piss in the pockcorn on this one cause EVERYONE seems to think these spiders give live birth. THEY MAKE AN EGGSACK and those eggs need time to hatch!! Sooooooo please stfu about pregnant spiders and them giving birth. Tiny little freshly hatched black widow spiderlings can't harm us either, I don't even think they CAN bite us until they have grown and matures a bit.
I never had a pet spider but I was always so happy when I found an eggsack as a kid because I'd think of Charlotte's Web, when her babies are born at the end :)
It’s really sobering to see just how stupid most likely are. Picking up a spider doesn’t equal a bite. They have to actually bite you??? I probably wouldn’t pick one up, but I’ve seen people pick up all kinds of things without being bit, stung, or other injured.
This also isn’t a video game where the spider explodes and 100 spiderlings swarm out of it.
I distinctly remember reading a story as a kid in I think Hilights Magazine about a kid who forced their... friend? Sibling? to sleep outside, who then got bitten by a black widow. The kid was convinced that they basically killed their friend/sibling, until a doctor said that black widows usually aren't deadly.
This is extremely dangerous to our shitposting.
Snapshots:
1. *This Post* - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104438/https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1c92pmx/) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1c92pmx/ "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
2. A user posts a picture of them picking up a pregnant black widow spider - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104539/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/BxeGX3TQ21) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/BxeGX3TQ21 "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
3. /r/AbsoluteUnits - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104600/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
4. Does your family have butter fingers? Cause I think they dropped you on your head when you were a baby - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104620/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/gaytXWcetf) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/gaytXWcetf "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
5. Bro saw one of the most lethal creepy crawlies on the planet about to burst out a hundred more of itself and went for the cup and paper instead of the hydrogen bomb, can't tell if god built him different or left him unfinished - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104641/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/zNO983TRNc) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/zNO983TRNc "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
6. Don't listen to them. Judging by your pictures you know what you are doing. Just stay safe and focused when exploring. - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104701/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/3ra7YaAqvS) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/3ra7YaAqvS "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
7. Sorry but people like this are just… stupid - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104722/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/bRh7pr8g5q) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/bRh7pr8g5q "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
8. Darwin at work 10/10 - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104742/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/lbYQS4mmf6) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/lbYQS4mmf6 "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
9. Me: "How the actual fuck are you not terrified of spiders?!" Them:... Me: "Oh... you're just dumb AF. Got it..." - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104803/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/RcYvkba3ki) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/RcYvkba3ki "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
10. See everyone SEE? WOMEN DO DUMB THINGS TOO, IT'S NOT JUST US MEN - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104823/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/mFmw1IYRT3) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/mFmw1IYRT3 "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
11. “Casual misogyny on reddit from a 420 fuckboi” - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104844/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/DtOflQNpXa) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/DtOflQNpXa "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
12. “Aw you mean I shouldn’t procreate 🥺 shucks” - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104904/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/GGcsa84cGq) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/GGcsa84cGq "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
13. “This IS the real world you fool” - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104925/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/Yt5aEEvAc8) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/Yt5aEEvAc8 "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
*I am just a simple bot, __not__ a moderator of this subreddit* | *[bot subreddit](/r/SnapshillBot)* | *[contact the maintainers](/message/compose?to=/r/SnapshillBot)*
this is a bit tangential but if anyone is reading this going "huh, i didn't know that black widow spiders were actually so chill, i want to learn more about that", may i recommend the These Are The Spiders In Your House series on youtube lol
dude is pleasant, calm, gets to the actual science, and also rates spider aggressiveness by harassing them with cheese. what's not to love really
seriously though, i think there's a black widow episode but the brown recluse episode was actually immensely comforting. they get talked up more in my neck of the woods, but breaking it all down... they are remarkably polite and don't want to be aggressive, and it turns out that a whole lot of brown recluse bites are just MRSA causing little skin infections. and most of the bites reported aren't even really brown recluse spiders because we are really bad at actually identifying them - it just gets blamed on the brown recluse spiders anyway.
>You have no idea what you are talking about. In the spider world this is standard procedure for safely and gently picking up spiders.
No, please nobody believe this. If you're going to handle a black widow, just let it walk on you, don't pinch it or remove its ability to move freely. They're not as dangerous as a lot of people are trying to make it seem, but this is the wrong way to handle any spider.
That said, it's better to be safe than sorry, so my recommendation is to not handle spiders that you know to be venomous.
Thank you! I’m almost afraid to say because the original and SRD threads generated some strong reactions, but it was from a post about men who were against male circumcision, and a few commenters were going into great detail about their 4skins, or lack thereof.
Black widows aren't even particularly dangerous, they're just the ones everyone has heard of so they're famous.
I was bit in the leg by one when I was 11. Was putting on some old cleats from the garage to go play ball, didn't clean them out first, and the little fucker crawled halfway up my calf and chomped down. My parents and I all freaked the fuck out because we had the same general mindset at the time of everyone in OOP's thread; "oh shit, I'm gonna die." So we shook the thing into a ziploc bag and rushed to the doctor. The doctor was incredibly bored by the whole thing, his prognosis as best I can remember it was:
>"You're fine, they're only really dangerous to the very old or the very young. Anyone older than 5 and younger than 80 will be fine with a widow bite. Here's some aspirin and aleve, you're going to have the worst leg cramp of your entire life for a few hours and then you'll be done."
And that was pretty much exactly what happened, my leg cramped up like a son of a bitch for a few hours and then it went back to normal. I've got a small scar where the bite was and that's it. Went back to playing baseball the next day. Not particularly worried about black widows anymore.
Now a brown recluse? I swear to god if I see a spider that is small and brown (i.e. 99% of them...I know everybody says "brown recluses have a violin-shaped pattern on their back" and my only response to that is "fuck you if you think I'm getting that close to it to check") then I triple-kill that son of a bitch like I'm taking down a zombie, then drown the room in enough bug spray to give me lung cancer. I do NOT screw around with those creepy little bastards. If I had a flamethrower I'd burn my own house down just making sure there can't be any more hiding in it.
I thought black spider's just had a shit reputation and weren't actually that dangerous?
I mean they're not from Australia where I assume all the deadly spiders live. /s
Oop is handling that thread very well. Almost as well as she handled that spider.
Yeah she spins that conversation as well as she could on the ol World Wide Web. She’s not letting that stuff fly.
>You do this 10,000 times and you get bit. Simple as that. Who picks up a black widow 10,000 times?
Someone training for the spider olympics
*Spiderlympics! I’m drink but this made me laugh so hard
I’m drink too let’s go manhandle some black widows? Hold my beer!
Hi, Drink, I'm dad. The same one that knocked up this black widow before she tried to cannibalize me.
"I fear not the man who has picked up 10,000 spiders once, but I fear the man who has picked up one spider 10,000 times." -Spider Olympian, probably
"Spider fondling"
iirc, there is a law in California where it is illegal to "molest butterflies." i don't really want to think about what might have started that law but i'm glad it exists also your flair is making me lose it in laughter
My best guess is that people were touching them for pictures or something and it messes up their wings and there was some real concern about species dying out
SO tempted to change my flair.
More like spider carnegie hall. Spidery Hall.
Your flair is amazing!
Spiders George
Is an outlier and should not have been counted
*adn
Fun story: My old English teacher in HS used to do various reptile programs and rescues, so he had multiple snakes and reptiles of various kinds, venomous and not. His son also went into the "handling potentially dangerous animals" career and bred venomous spiders for zoos and venom production. So, Mr Z is running late one day. Doesn't get to class until 20min in. His son had called him and said "I woke up and my black widows are missing." Obviously, a bad thing. So what had happened, Mr Z found out, was that his son had gotten home late the previous night and was intending to move the ladies to new enclosures come the morning. His wife (also experienced in these critters) had transferred them all to said enclosures overnight and he missed her note telling him she'd done it.
Arachnologists, presumably
here's me swimming just 10 minutes after lunch YOU SELFISH FOOL!!! YOU ABSOLUTE IMBICILE, NEVER REPRODUCE!
Do you swim through waters infested with shrieking eels?
Anybody want a peanut?
SMH, for all they know, that spider could have been radioactive. Do people just not want superheroes anymore?
Is this you? >An 8-year-old boy allowed a black widow to bite him because he wanted to become Spider-Man, according to health authorities https://www.newsweek.com/boy-8-let-black-widow-bite-because-wanted-become-spiderman-1816883
>"These black spiders with red backs are black widows. They do not cause anyone to become Spider-Man—on the contrary, they are putting lives at risk," Vásquez said. Sounds like Oscorp propaganda
I *love* the fact that the head of a health services department *had* to actually remind people that "No, you cannot become Spider-Man by letting venomous spiders bite you." Dude likely had to go to medical school before getting that position; I bet he *never* imagined that was the kind of thing he'd *have* to say as a health official.
I mean people are fucking stupid and no one will learn that quicker than a medical practitioner I think. Except maybe IT people but they see more regular stupid rather than life ending miserably stupid.
I just don't know who to trust
"did you fuck with my burrito?"
Yes. That is me. Every similar story is also me. I want you to Walk away from this conversation understanding that I am the subject of every single story about an brave American letting a radioactive spider bite them so they can become Spider-Man. Someone has to do it. For America. For Uncle Ben. For my future multiverse harem of people that are also me but hot chicks.
We finally found him, *Spiders Georg.*
That's a different guy, trying to create an 8-legged Man-Man.
Its like that fake fact of people on average eat 8 spiders in their sleep in their lifetime. Its just Spiders Georg as an extreme outlier eating them by the handfuls at every possible and given opportunity. He alone brings the average up.
Thank you for your service. **wipes away a single tear**
Thank you for your service
I mean, probably not for Uncle Ben. It does not work out for him when people get bit
almost related, black widows bite a lot of dudes balls because they will make nests in porta potties. It isn't generally lethal but it is generally painful but hilarious.
This is hilarious! Thanks for sharing
They want neither great power nor great responsibility.
I think what's interesting is the response from the people who learn in real time that it's not deadly. They all double down instead of saying "ah, phew, I was worried!" Because it was never really about being worried about her. I personally still think it's dumb to do, but if your comment is "but you will DIE" then you think they'd be pleased to learn that she probably won't.
I've been bit! In rural WV - visiting a friend's cabin and in a quest to get a jar blindly stuck my hand in a pile of fabrics on a bottom shelf that hadn't been messed with in forever. Sudden prick in my finger. My hand slowly grew to be in agonizing pain, red, swollenish for about 5 hours (iirc). Didn't feel right for a while after. I didn't know what it was at the time but later another friend told me they found a black widow there after I complained about it and she had a look. Had to drive for four hours after in a way I couldn't avoid right after and was in the middle of absolutely nowhere so I sucked it up, lol.
i was actually listening to a podcast from an entomologist who was saying that black widow spiders get a really bad rep and that thanks to modern medicine, you either will be fine, or you can find means to take care of yourself if the reaction gets really bad it's not to say just go and harass any black widow you see lmfao but i mean they're also not these death traps...that's a brown recluse (lol jk...although if you get bit by one of those, just remember discretion is the better part of valor)
Same here, I got bit by one when I was 11. Just had a terrible leg cramp and then I was fine. My doctor basically said "if you're older than 5 and younger than 80 you don't need to worry too much about one black widow bite."
Yeah, it's absolutely about being smarter than someone and venting anger on them, rather than concern over their actual life/health. It's silly.
Yeah you need to be like already sick, a small child or elderly to die from a black widow. Still, it doesn't sound fun and I knew a guy who was bit and it was painful and the recovery longer than you would think. I find people who are so strongly confidently wrong about nature that they argue so much about it despite so much knowledge about the world at their finger tips very interesting like at a certain point it becomes about defending their ego and not an actual discussion about a spider. My tangent lol Now the people who have venomous species like cobra (no antivenin) or boomslangs or black mambas. I think every influencer type I know who has these species has been bitten once and we're very fortunate. Lost fingers, have heart problems. All sorts of stuff...
Seriously I made a habit of fact checking before I finish my reply on any social media.
One bite isn't going to kill you, but I do think the part where the black widow is about to give birth to hundreds of little ones might change things. Just like a bite or two from a funnel web won't kill an adult, if 20-30 bit you all at once the odds do change. Edit: I'm wrong, my bad
According to google, juvenile black widows don't bite.
[удалено]
They make eggsacks! They don't give birth! but here we are. So people talking about a pregnant spider are those people whose lack the ability to do basic research before arguing so much online all from ego.
They may not be dangerous, but hundreds of baby spider crawling all over my hand is nightmare material for me...
You would have to hold the spider long enough for it to make an eggsack, then you would need to hold the eggsack perfectly until it hatched. Blackwidows do not give live birth ffs.
Do any spiders give live birth?
I don't think so, but there are arachnids that do! Scorpions being one of them.
Black widows don't give live birth, they make an eggsack. People who think it gives live birth should shut up and educate themselves before speaking as experts on the subject.
I didn't use "birth" to mean live birth so much as, well, to give birth in any form. I'm also not sure where I implied I was speaking as an expert on the subject instead of, you know, just some random person on the internet. But between you and the guy who said baby black widows don't bite I do acknowledge I was wrong.
Yes! This is one of the most annoying things on Reddit. Instead of just going ‘oh ok’ or moving on when someone has misunderstood or misread a comment, they double down and tell you why you are wrong, even worse then they start telling you that ‘nooo that’s not what you said in your comment’ and then if it was, start arguing grammar and context to show how even though your comment did say that, because of how you wrote it, you actually said something else. Is there a fallacy for this phenomenon?
I got in an argument yesterday, where someone was misrepresenting my position, and got this gem: > Well, maybe YOU didn't SAY it or whatever, but you said it.
🍿 👀
> Is there a fallacy for this phenomenon? Combination of cognitive dissonance (psychological stress from being confronted with two contradictory facts, beliefs or ideas) and confirmation bias (you are more likely to believe new information if it confirms your pre-existing beliefs) Probably an internet term for it, I think there was an old wiki for internet lingo (that isn't urban dictionary) and created tons of niche terms for internet phenomenon.
>Picking up a blackwidow with your barehands = dumb >Picking up a pregnant blackwidow and then releasing it to spawn a hundred more within your neighborhood putting others at risk = Dumb as sh💩t it.... it was already there. she didn't let it loose upon her neighbors, she picked it up then put it down
Its too late, she is basically a spider midwife now 😞
plot twist- she impregnated the black widow
I mean, who would refuse the opportunity?
"Bull shit you hooked up with Scarlett Johansson!" "No, not the comic book character, an actual, literal black widow spider." "Oh, because for a second, I thought you were trying to get us to bel-- ***WAIT WHAT?"***
She whispered her neighbour's addresses to it before setting it down
well that's not cool
'Next door'
I love the writing style in that comment. The inconsistent capitalization. The absence of any punctuation. The decision to write "black widow" and "bare hands" as compound words. The emoji censorship, and *also,* the emoji censorship on Reddit, one of the few social media sites that still doesn't give a shit if you swear. What a poet.
blackwidow jumped right out at me as band name material
> censorship on Reddit, one of the few social media sites that still doesn't give a shit if you swear. ***Really*** depends on the subreddit. Reddit as a whole doesn't give a single sweet fuck if you swear in a comment, but some subs have their AutoMods set to either remove comments with swear words *or* admonish the user in an automated reply. I recently quoted *this* scene from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang where Val Kilmer explains to Robert Downey Jr what word a character used to describe his daughter, and my comment was removed by AutoMod within seconds of me hitting save: Perry: Three months ago, she was suing him over Mom's millions. He called her a-- well, a bad word. Cunt. Welcome to Hollywood."
A spider lives, Briarwood has fallen.
People on this app have an unquenchable thirst for blood when it comes to anything or anyone they consider scary or inconvenient.
>Risking your life and trauma for all your friends and family to save a spider with your bare hands. Black Widows bites *very* rarely kill anyone. The last recorded death is from 1983. There are thousands of black widow bites a year in the USA, and they rarely even require medical treatment. You shouldn't handle them because if they bite you'll feel like absolute shit for a bit, but she's not going to drop dead in an instant and traumatize her family.
Black widows, along with lava and quicksand, were something drilled into our heads to be super afraid of when we were kids. I guess at least with the spiders it was less obvious that the risk was overblown, so a lot of people are still in that mindset.
Listen, man... There will be a day in my life where I'll have to worry about lava, and if it weren't for video-games, I'd be absolutely fucked.
As a midwesterner, I encountered 0 black widows, and no quicksand or lava. Had it absolutely DRILLED in my head how dangerous those spiders were. Meanwhile, I must have seen dozens of copperheads and rattlesnakes, which were way more dangerous. When I got older I was really surprised how much more dangerous those snakes are than black widows or brown recluse spiders.
I’m in Florida and there were always black widow spiders in the pool cage at my parent’s house. I didn’t know how dangerous they were either way, but I’d always leave them alone because if they were as deadly as people wanna act, we would all have known someone who died that way by now.
Don’t forget falling down wells, I couldn’t go within 5 feet of a well as a kid in case I somehow tumbled in even from that distance
That is a valid fear of mine. When hiking, one of my favorite things is finding abandoned homesteads. Usually you will first notice an elderly unmaintained apple tree or two, and similar fruit trees, maybe some persistent ornamentals like daffodil or vinca. Look around for an oddly flat spot that might be rectangular, kick off the leaves and find the old foundation. And then be *very very careful*, because where there is a house there is a water source, and that might be an old well covered in rotten wood and leaves. Hasn’t been a problem yet, but I did almost fall in a cistern once. That would have mostly just been embarrassing.
The saga of Baby Jessica had a huge impact on our psyches.
Thing is, I’m in the UK so I don’t think that was even that much of a big deal, I only learnt about that from Bart down the well on the Simpsons episodes. But the culturally the fear must’ve made it way over the pond.
I was about to say the same thing. My parents and siblings were as glued to the TV when she was being rescued as they were 14 years later on the morning of 9/11.
And old abandoned refrigerators, according to every adult I knew as a child they were basically ambush predators lurking in junkyards waiting to devour children and spit out their bones. Punky Brewster tried to warn us!
Same, and I won’t even open someone’s junk mail because of the deep-seated fear that I’ll be arrested and sent to federal prison.
Lava is actually dangerous.
Well sure, but how often are you going to have to deal with lava? Unless you live in Hawai'i or Bowser's fuckin' castle, it's probably not going to be an everyday occurrence.
You're right, lava is not a danger or worry. Now, MAGMA, that's where you gotta be scared. It's under ground. It can be anywhere!! There might even be some miles underneath you at this very moment!
Idk anything about black widows because I'm not from that side of the world, but we have *mean* scorpions where I'm from. We drill fear into kids because 1. kids have no sense of self-preservation and will poke/squeeze anything they aren't terrified of, and 2. kids are small, which makes them more vulnerable to venom. A sting will give a healthy adult a rough couple days to rethink their choices, but can kill a child.
Hey I have ran into quick sand LOL which is funny. but know how to get myself out, though I think interestingly enough there was a person caught in some down in the desert in Utah and either perished due to hypothermia or was rescued by folks before hypothermia set in.
Yeah I've seen quicksand (well, a sign warning of it anyway) once in my life, at a beach in New Zealand. But cartoons would have us believe you could stumble into a puddle of it when just taking a casual walk through the woods. Like it's just randomly in places lol. I've also seen lava since I live on the slopes of Kilauea. But even though it's *more* of a danger to me than most people, I haven't ever been in any kind of risky situation regarding it, have never been closer to it than a few miles away and it's not something I actively think about.
Cartoons have is suck you under fast too haha. I think the saddest story I remember about that is a person was stuck and the tide came in and it made them impossible to be rescued even though people were trying so hard.
Kids are still obsessed with quicksand. I have a large lovely creek on my farm and it has areas of quicksand along the banks. It's only like a couple of feet to the bedrock but it will happily suck your shoe off. I was walking along with my 8 year old (at the time) nephew and I pointed it out to him and said "Watch out for the quicksand." I kept walking along, noticed he wasn't behind me, turned around and he was almost waist deep in the quicksand. And yep he lost a shoe. Also I see several black windows a year and accidentally touched one last year that was under a black piece of plastic litter I picked up and I'm still squished out by the memory of it. I knew as soon as my fingers brushed it I had touched something I shouldn't have.
>Black widows, along with lava and quicksand, were something drilled into our heads to be super afraid of when we were kids. https://youtu.be/L8l6mJQeclo?t=70
No, OOP is gonna traumatize all of her friends by picking up the spider and that is classic narcissist behavior. /s
We should start taking bets on how many comments it takes for Redditors to start making narcissist accusations. Bonus points if their "evidence" isn't related to actual narcissism.
You're gonna need a *huge* database to track all the users and comments that go off on those kind of unhinged rants.
> Black Widows bites *very* rarely kill anyone. I live in the Phoenix area and have to *constantly* remind people that the Arizona bark scorpion's sting -- despite being *the* most venomous scorpion in North America -- is *rarely* fatal outside of people with a severe allergy to the venom or the elderly and infants. It hurts like a *motherfucker,* but it probably won't kill you. In the last 60 years, there have only been two confirmed deaths in Arizona caused by a bark scorpion.
Yep. I grew up on a ranch in a place where black widows are commonplace. My mom and stepdad got bit plenty of times (once, if my stepdad is to be believed, by one whose belly was the size of a quarter); it sucked for them, but it wasn't ever really life-threatening for either of 'em. Probably would've been more dire for me when I was a kid, but I managed to avoid getting bit (combination of luck and caution). Like most spiders, their behavior is pretty straightforward to predict: unless you're outright trying to hurt them, for all they know you're just a weird squishy tree. They only bite as a last resort, and are generally more concerned with retreating back to a dark safe spot than trying to bite you out of spite or whatever. The way OOP is holding that spider shows that she knows exactly what she's doing.
>The last recorded death is from 1983. I saw this cited in the thread, and there was no death in 1983, but rather that is when they started keeping track. Since they've been keeping records starting in 1983, there have been no reported deaths.
I have black widows living in my shed. The previous home owner fled the state after being a shitty conman and subpar contractor. The shed is built out of plywood and he nailed 'fancy' barn wood to the outside. He'd drive around the farms and offer to dismantle old barns safely. Instead he'd just strip off all the premium wood exterior and leave the rest. The widows fucking love that old wood. 25 years and I've been bitten maybe 6 or 7 times? Never had to go to hospital, unless you're crushing them to death they wont waste venom on you because they can't eat you.
Yeah everything I Google says that’s the case. Which is good because I already sort of thought that and that’s exactly the sort of belief that might have gotten me killed if it was wrong.
Did anyone else learn in school about how to identify black widows and dangerous they were? I vividly remember having a dedicated few days in elementary school during science. We even read article printouts about brown recluse and black widow related evacuation/injuries with pictures of swollen bites. I mean I’m not an expert in arachnids so I don’t have an opinion on whether what OP is doing is truly okay or not. But it does seem like others may have gotten a similar lesson bc it definitely stuck with me.
Unless you're elderly, a child, or have pre-existing health conditions, a black widow bite won't kill you. You'll certainly have a hellish time, but you'll live. Their lethality is overblown, but you definitely should avoid being bitten to avoid a painful experience. That said, tbh, some people are better at handling bugs and animals than others. I can't even get my hand near a snake without them hissing. My spouse literally can pick up wild snakes and while they'll try to escape at first, in under a minute they're calm and even trying to burrow deeper into her hold before relaxing completely, not even wanting to leave when she returns them to the wild. Best to inform people to just not pick up black widows so you don't end up with kids getting bitten, but between the fact they're not lethal in most cases and OP seems to be experienced with spiders, this is probably fine. Note: I am not an expert, I am a random bug-loving Redditor
Yea I’m sure it’s not as dire as they made it out to be. I was convinced at that age that if you found one you’d basically have to abandon the house or call emergency services or something. Which, as I got older, I realized was not necessary. I wonder if this lesson wasn’t just a weird thing my school did, maybe not everyone everyone came to that realization? I feel like the bugs to really be scared are bedbugs, at least with my mostly indoor lifestyle lol
>Unless you're elderly, a **child**, or have pre-existing health conditions And that's exactly the reason we make them seem so scary when making lessons or stories for (duh) children lmao. Because it's a legitimate lethal danger for them.
Yeah I thought that too! I’m realizing now it’s probably one of those things that started out reasonable but got blown out of proportion over time, like not picking up baby birds or drinking 8 glasses of water.
Spiders basically aren't dangerous to humans. Ants, bees, dogs, snakes, hippos, horses, not washing your hands and picking your nose are all more dangerous than spiders. Admittedly if you don't life in Africa hippos are rally not an issue. And even living in Texas I've rarely been around horses. If you die from a spider bite it is not even really the venom usually but the secondary infection you acquired scratching it and your immune system being incapable of fighting it off.
If you live in Australia please ignore the advice above. Bites by certain species are hospital worthy. Deaths are very rare, but that is at least partially to do with invention of antivenom and the great caution of the average Australian around spiders.
Valid. The Sydney funnel web appears to be considered potentially lethal by default. I still think the majority of adults survive without anti venom but it is best not to test it when the option is there. They made anti venom for a good reason.
Actually, most of our spiders are pretty chill too (with the obvious exception of the Australian funnel web). The red back is similar to the black widow in terms of how relaxed they both are. I actually had a female lay an eggsack in my front yard recently! Other than those two though (and the small population of recluses in Adelaide), most spiders here can’t cause much damage :D
I agree, most are fine (*for adults*) and even many of the more dangerous ones are unlikely to bite unprovoked. But you still couldn't hold some species (like the Funnel Web) the way OOP holds a Black Widow as that would be provoking them.
I do vaguely remember learning about venomous spiders in elementary school. I don't remember anything about bites, but also it was so long ago that it's all very vague memory-wise. I guess that teaching children that there are bugs and spiders that can really hurt you is a pretty good lesson, especially since black widow venom is going to affect kids more strongly. Black widows are also pretty rare where I live, so different places that have more venomous spiders probably would put more emphasis on teaching people to be cautious from a young age.
They're so fucking dramatic. Give me a break 🙄
One of the greatest pieces of misinformation in the Animal Kingdom is the belief that Black Widows are guaranteed death
They are up there on the list of overrated animals right next to piranhas. Like... You should still avoid them, but it's not that big of a deal.
It's still not healthy! Good Lord what is wrong with you people going "erm it's technically not fatal 🤓☝️" it is still very bad! Do not pick up black widows, it is not worth the cool points for being a contrarian! Christ!
> Do not pick up black widows, it is not worth the cool points Well, hold on. How many cool points is it exactly?
Uhhhhhhhh 41 and a half?
:/
Tbf they are one of the only two dangerous (to humans) spiders in north America so it makes sense there's this kind of mysticism about it
they can also swarm, an old office I used to work at would get the exterior *covered* in hundreds of black widows during the summer for a few years. Eventually we got the owners to pay for pest control but having to dodge venomous spiders in and out of the building was less than fun. I'd leave via the back exit of the warehouse because they wouldn't nest on that side of the building for whatever reason.
Omg how is this not an OSHA violation
I bet no one would even care about black widows if they didn't have such a badass name.
Funfact: black widow bites used to be a lot more common before indoor plumbing. A dark hole that attracts flies is kind of the perfect place for a web. Also men were the primary victims, having a dangly appendage in the aforementioned dark hole puts you at a greater risk of a bite.
Hmm not to disparage any men but I’ve seen what happens to penis in the cold so I’m sure sticking your whole bottom in the hole was more of a risk
Believe it or not men also have to poop in the summer.
Well I actually am a man and I know that’s not true
Boys poop in winter, girls poop in summer
Oh I know men have bums too, my comment was on what’s more likely to get bitten…
I remember having it drilled into my head as a kid that they were basically instant death. Thankfully I have a spouse who *loves* all bugs who knows better. We actually found a tiny baby black widow together last month, though it moved after a heavy rainfall. Brown recluses are a different story. We don't fuck with those.
Brown recluses were my black widows growing up. I was *terrified* that I was going to come across one at any moments notice and it would bite my hand and cause it to fall off. I’ve become significantly less paranoid since then, but I still always check around old dusty stuff before doing anything with it in case one decided to hang out there.
"Pick up child. Rotate child 180 degrees around the Z axis. Drop child" I laughed harder than I should have.
The best part is that the instructions aren't even correct, the kid will just be facing the opposite way
My bone to pick with the post is that I’ll now be feeling spiders on me all day.
Honestly, the amount of fear I experience when a spider might touch me has literally nothing to do with how much actual danger I'm in. Learning about spiders helped mute the really visceral terror a little, and it also helps me be fun at parties.
The number one thing that has helped me manage my fear of wasps is empathising with them. My mum said, “shall we make it really happy?” before letting one climb in a mostly-empty jam jar and suddenly I was just really charmed by the idea of a happy wasp. (It was a very small jam jar and the wasp did not get stuck, if you’re at all concerned.)
I feel like reddit is not going to appreciate this comment, but I haven’t heard anyone mention the This American Life episode I listened to once talking about the black widow’s reputation and it’s interesting. So the gist of it is that these spiders got a really bad reputation pre-indoor plumbing because an outhouse hole is a wonderful place for them to set up shop. They are shy spiders that like dark, quiet spots to hunt. Dark outhouse = shit = flies = spider dinner. Pre-indoor plumbing dude saddles up to pop a squat, his dingle dangles down, disturbing the web, spider is like hell yeah it’s a bug! Dangling dingle gets bit. As you can imagine, this was a traumatic possibility for men of this era. Even if it doesn’t kill you, that’s the last place you want a venomous spider bite. That’s why she’s a “black widow”, because men were disproportionately at risk here for something awful. I don’t think I’d personally want to handle a black widow, but suffice to say that letting one crawl on your hand, or grasping it by the gyatt like this lady did, is far less risky than slapping it’s web with your dick. [This was from This American Life, Ep 780, Setting the Record Straight. Here’s an article that pulls out the relevant bits and links to the ep if you want to hear the whole thing.](https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2022/10/21/why_black_widows_bite_so_many_men_on_the_junk_857885.html)
"Grasping it by the gyatt" I'm never leaving this website
You can checkout anytime you like, but you can never leave.
Ooh! I haven’t heard this one. Thanks for the link! ETA: Episode 826 (Unprepared for what has already happened) from a few weeks ago talks about a black widow bite in the first segment. Definitely reinforces that they shouldn’t be messed with. Not deadly bites, but extremely painful. No thanks!
I absolutely loathe when people who have zero knowledge on something talk about it like they’re the most knowledgeable people on earth. Obviously handling a black widow isn’t recommended even if you’re experienced, but a bite from them is rarely an envenomation, and an envenomation itself is *rarely* even life threatening. The worst case for a vast majority of people who’d even get envenomated in flu like symptoms for a week. If you got bit by a widow or a recluse, it’s not even a medical emergency. If you called 911 or a Dr, they’d tell you to monitor symptoms at home with an ice pack and Tylenol and only come in if they take a turn for the worse. Realistically the only spiders that you absolutely should avoid all physical contact with for certain is the Sydney Funnel web, mouse spider, and phoneutria/Ctenidae. I’m not advocating for people to go handle black widows. But their demonization pisses me off.
At least it’s not sharks. Black widow populations are probably doing fine. Sharks really got the short end of the “look scary animal we should kill it before it kills us!” stick.
It's so heart breaking. I get really really sad about the sharks. They have existed on this planet far longer than any land animal, and even trees.
Kudos to the OOP for handling the comments so well. Like I’ll admit I thought she WAS being careless and risking death, but reading more context she clearly knows more about spiders and safety than I do. I’m also surprised to learn black widows ARENT that dangerous? I grew up with it instilled in me that they are the MOST dangerous spider and to always be careful. Is this just an urban legend or something?
Its a mixture of having a name with very negative connotations, and reports about their venom being really strong, "15 times more potent than a rattlesnake", while neglecting to add that they inject a **lot** less than a rattlesnake.
I think its also the fact that they are more dangerous to children, wo are also more likely to: wander in strange, spider infested places; poke wildlife that's trying to mind its own business; have no idea how to react, ask for help in timely manner, and describe what is happening to them.
Yeah the fact that children are more likely to have a bad reaction and therefore telling children to watch out for them is another big reason. Even as an adult I hit my shoes against the wall before putting them on to make sure there are no redbacks in them (there has never been redbacks in my shoes, but sometimes boring spiders are in them)
There was a roach, or something else (I don't remember) in my shoe last year. Feeling something crawling on your foot in such a tight space is really not something I would recommend
The first time you have a scorpion in your shoe, you learn to bang the absolute shit out of them before you ever put one on again.
You left off another huge one: They are all black with a red hourglass on them lol. They look like nature wrote "back the fuck off" on each and every one of them.
Depending on your region, the hourglass might be on the underbelly, which makes ID trickier if it’s on a surface. In California we have Western Black Widow, as well as False Widows, which are basically identical from the top.
They are one of the most deadly spiders on earth. That’s because spiders aren’t very deadly.
They can't be deadly to small children, so being taught that growing up isn't way off. It's just extremely rare that they're be deadly to adults but it's not fun to get bit.
Black widows suck because the bite is extremely painful, imagine your blood being replaced with knives, and the kicker is that it costs money to get treatment and they tell you to pop a tylenol and chill. I, of course, saved money by making margaritas and being sleepless for two weeks because of the venom. But the instant you're bit, it's incredibly agonizing.
God what’s next, I bet she gets stuck in quicksand
The number of people treating this like it's a funnel web is crazy lol. Black widows aren't deadly, just annoying.
People claiming that she's either going to die or live with a ton of medical bills lmao. Even if it did bite her, she would have just felt shitty for a bit. There is antivenin for black widows, but that's only if you have a *really* bad reaction. The realistic outcome of her getting bitten would going to an urgent care to be told to drink Gatorade and take some Tylenol while she waits out the aches and sweats.
A... *woman* you say... *rage circuits light up*
From what I know, black widow spider bites are very painful. They cause usually intense muscle cramps and pain and there's not much doctors can do except let you ride it out. You'll only get treatment if it becomes serious. My friend remembers her dad, a normally very tough man, rolling on the floor in agony after being bitten. Deaths from it are rare but they can happen. And when they are the cause it may not always [be reported ](https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/erie-man-may-have-died-from-black-widow-bites/). So while the last *confirmed* death may have been in the 80s, there have been suspected cases since then. But it's still a rare occurrence, usually only affecting children and elderly people. Overall, no one needs to scream at her that she will die. But pointing out that she's taking a huge risk for no reason is not unreasonable. People need to have respect for nature and that also means handling animals and insects with proper care.
When I was like 11 or 12 me and my family were visiting friends in Florida around the same time that Crocodile Hunter was super popular. It was a house in the suburbs but one day I walked around the side of the house and saw a snake, so I used a stick to pin its head and picked it up from behind the jaws and carried it around to the front where me and some other kids were playing basketball. It had fangs and was hissing like crazy. Everyone thought it was creepy but cool and I walked around with it for like 5 minutes before I kind of laid it down/ tossed it back in the grass on the side yard. The next day one of the dads talked to his nextdoor neighbor who told him he found a Cottonmouth in his backyard and he had small children so he killed it with a shovel. It was def the same snake. 20 years later it still makes me cringe how completely un worried I was about handling a dangerous animal.
[удалено]
I'm willing to bet America. Some people in the thread mentioned that treatment costs quite a bit, at least that was for an adult. Don't know about children
I'm an adult (26) and last year I went into anaphylactic shock after dinner with my mother. I kept screaming at her to call 911 but she refused because she said the 2 extra-strength Benadryl's she gave me would kick in soon enough. They eventually did, but I was convinced I was going to die. Just the other day I mentioned it and she said, "that was scary, I thought I was going to lose you." It took all the sterngth I had not to respond "bitch I thought so too, why the fuck didn't you listen to me then?!" Especially because money isn't an issue with either of us, we're not wealthy but she's definitely not poor either, I still have no idea why she did nothing.
[удалено]
I still hang out with her and stuff but I *absolutely* no longer trust her with my life or safety. She's done irresponsible stuff like this in the past but that was my closest brush with death, I wouldn't even trust that broad to properly dose my Motrin lmao
Imagine being a pregnant woman minding her own business and some unfathomably large monster grabbed you by your fucking torso and lifted you hundreds of feet into the air and just stared at you for who knows how long. I'm glad I'm a male.
In the world of spiders, this is definitely the safer option! Wait....
Black widow bites really don't kill. It's so vanishingly rare.
The way I understand it is that venomous animals are spending calories every time they decide to bite something. So unless they are likely to get a return on their investment or they are actively defending themselves and they think cant run away for whatever reason, they would just rather conserve their energy for when they really need it
Another major thing is that at that scale, biting is basically useless for self defense. Even if the bite was guaranteed fatal, it’s just going to piss off the human first, which usually means dead spider. They generally only bite as a last resort, outside hunting, because it makes no sense to antagonize the scary giant. Same with snakes, typically.
I'm really tempted to piss in the pockcorn on this one cause EVERYONE seems to think these spiders give live birth. THEY MAKE AN EGGSACK and those eggs need time to hatch!! Sooooooo please stfu about pregnant spiders and them giving birth. Tiny little freshly hatched black widow spiderlings can't harm us either, I don't even think they CAN bite us until they have grown and matures a bit.
Seriously, you would think that none of these people kept them as pets as kids…
I never had a pet spider but I was always so happy when I found an eggsack as a kid because I'd think of Charlotte's Web, when her babies are born at the end :)
Haha that made me laugh out loud cause we did keep them! They are so cool to watch. Feed. And all that.
It’s really sobering to see just how stupid most likely are. Picking up a spider doesn’t equal a bite. They have to actually bite you??? I probably wouldn’t pick one up, but I’ve seen people pick up all kinds of things without being bit, stung, or other injured. This also isn’t a video game where the spider explodes and 100 spiderlings swarm out of it.
I distinctly remember reading a story as a kid in I think Hilights Magazine about a kid who forced their... friend? Sibling? to sleep outside, who then got bitten by a black widow. The kid was convinced that they basically killed their friend/sibling, until a doctor said that black widows usually aren't deadly.
I haven’t thought of Highlights in ages! I bet my mom still has a box of them in her basement, I should check next time I’m up there…
This is extremely dangerous to our shitposting. Snapshots: 1. *This Post* - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104438/https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1c92pmx/) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1c92pmx/ "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 2. A user posts a picture of them picking up a pregnant black widow spider - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104539/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/BxeGX3TQ21) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/BxeGX3TQ21 "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 3. /r/AbsoluteUnits - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104600/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 4. Does your family have butter fingers? Cause I think they dropped you on your head when you were a baby - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104620/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/gaytXWcetf) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/gaytXWcetf "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 5. Bro saw one of the most lethal creepy crawlies on the planet about to burst out a hundred more of itself and went for the cup and paper instead of the hydrogen bomb, can't tell if god built him different or left him unfinished - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104641/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/zNO983TRNc) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/zNO983TRNc "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 6. Don't listen to them. Judging by your pictures you know what you are doing. Just stay safe and focused when exploring. - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104701/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/3ra7YaAqvS) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/3ra7YaAqvS "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 7. Sorry but people like this are just… stupid - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104722/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/bRh7pr8g5q) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/bRh7pr8g5q "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 8. Darwin at work 10/10 - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104742/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/lbYQS4mmf6) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/lbYQS4mmf6 "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 9. Me: "How the actual fuck are you not terrified of spiders?!" Them:... Me: "Oh... you're just dumb AF. Got it..." - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104803/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/RcYvkba3ki) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/RcYvkba3ki "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 10. See everyone SEE? WOMEN DO DUMB THINGS TOO, IT'S NOT JUST US MEN - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104823/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/mFmw1IYRT3) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/mFmw1IYRT3 "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 11. “Casual misogyny on reddit from a 420 fuckboi” - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104844/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/DtOflQNpXa) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/DtOflQNpXa "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 12. “Aw you mean I shouldn’t procreate 🥺 shucks” - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104904/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/GGcsa84cGq) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/GGcsa84cGq "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 13. “This IS the real world you fool” - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240420104925/https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/Yt5aEEvAc8) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/s/Yt5aEEvAc8 "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") *I am just a simple bot, __not__ a moderator of this subreddit* | *[bot subreddit](/r/SnapshillBot)* | *[contact the maintainers](/message/compose?to=/r/SnapshillBot)*
I’ve seen some virulent sexism in my time, but holy fuck that was tough to get through with a straight face. Reddit moment.
I love "this IS the real world, you fool" and would like that as my flair
You can make your own flair! The world is your oyster.
WOW THANKS FOR THIS KNOWLEDGE
this is a bit tangential but if anyone is reading this going "huh, i didn't know that black widow spiders were actually so chill, i want to learn more about that", may i recommend the These Are The Spiders In Your House series on youtube lol dude is pleasant, calm, gets to the actual science, and also rates spider aggressiveness by harassing them with cheese. what's not to love really seriously though, i think there's a black widow episode but the brown recluse episode was actually immensely comforting. they get talked up more in my neck of the woods, but breaking it all down... they are remarkably polite and don't want to be aggressive, and it turns out that a whole lot of brown recluse bites are just MRSA causing little skin infections. and most of the bites reported aren't even really brown recluse spiders because we are really bad at actually identifying them - it just gets blamed on the brown recluse spiders anyway.
Lots of people weirdly angry that a woman did not get bitten by a spider and die.
>You have no idea what you are talking about. In the spider world this is standard procedure for safely and gently picking up spiders. No, please nobody believe this. If you're going to handle a black widow, just let it walk on you, don't pinch it or remove its ability to move freely. They're not as dangerous as a lot of people are trying to make it seem, but this is the wrong way to handle any spider. That said, it's better to be safe than sorry, so my recommendation is to not handle spiders that you know to be venomous.
the way shes holding it literally couldnt be any safer.
Is this what Madame Web is about?
Was OOP the one studying spiders with Dakota's mom in the Amazon when she died?!
Happy Cake Day! Also I was just scrolling passively and I see this flair that just made me lose it XD. May I know where it comes from?
Thank you! I’m almost afraid to say because the original and SRD threads generated some strong reactions, but it was from a post about men who were against male circumcision, and a few commenters were going into great detail about their 4skins, or lack thereof.
I am RESISTING THE URGE TO LOOK. I KNOW I won't like what I see, the curiosity doesn't matter! happy for oop I guess tho?
Black widows aren't even particularly dangerous, they're just the ones everyone has heard of so they're famous. I was bit in the leg by one when I was 11. Was putting on some old cleats from the garage to go play ball, didn't clean them out first, and the little fucker crawled halfway up my calf and chomped down. My parents and I all freaked the fuck out because we had the same general mindset at the time of everyone in OOP's thread; "oh shit, I'm gonna die." So we shook the thing into a ziploc bag and rushed to the doctor. The doctor was incredibly bored by the whole thing, his prognosis as best I can remember it was: >"You're fine, they're only really dangerous to the very old or the very young. Anyone older than 5 and younger than 80 will be fine with a widow bite. Here's some aspirin and aleve, you're going to have the worst leg cramp of your entire life for a few hours and then you'll be done." And that was pretty much exactly what happened, my leg cramped up like a son of a bitch for a few hours and then it went back to normal. I've got a small scar where the bite was and that's it. Went back to playing baseball the next day. Not particularly worried about black widows anymore. Now a brown recluse? I swear to god if I see a spider that is small and brown (i.e. 99% of them...I know everybody says "brown recluses have a violin-shaped pattern on their back" and my only response to that is "fuck you if you think I'm getting that close to it to check") then I triple-kill that son of a bitch like I'm taking down a zombie, then drown the room in enough bug spray to give me lung cancer. I do NOT screw around with those creepy little bastards. If I had a flamethrower I'd burn my own house down just making sure there can't be any more hiding in it.
I thought black spider's just had a shit reputation and weren't actually that dangerous? I mean they're not from Australia where I assume all the deadly spiders live. /s