Black Widow Spider Poison
Widow spider called due to strong belief that Female spider kill and eats male spider after mating. Black Widow venom is 15 times strong than rattlesnake. According to facts only female spiders can bite humans and three time toxic than male.
Read more about Female Black Widow Venom
Female Black Widow bites can be dangerous and cause various health issues, especially to children and elderly.
Appearance – length ~1/2 inch body length (only body not including legs). They appear shiny black color and hard skin. Abdomen section is larger and round.
Marking – Red hourglass shape at lower side of abdomen. But color can be varies Orange to yellow. Sometime marking may also dots, spots and triangle separated.
Web – web look tangled and messy. They prefer dark, dry and disturbed area. Location woodpiles, stacks of wood, corner, garage, inside boots, gardening gloves, rocks. Latrodectus spider bite in defense or they feel threatened and only female can bite.
Kingdom – Animalia
Phylum – Arthropoda
Class – Arachnida
Order – Araneae
Family – Theridiidae
Genus – Latrodectus
Skin type – Shall, Average lifespan – 1 to 3 years, Male about half the size of female.
Black Widow Spider Venom
About Black Widow Venom Facts
Latrodectus species produce a protein venom and affect nervous system of victim. Some people slightly affected & some other may have severe response. It’s known as most significant species of spiders. More than 30 widow spiders all over the world. Within US It’s responsible for most clinically significant envenomation among all species of spider.
People may feel burning, feel severe pain, swelling and redness around bite. People can easily see two fang marks.
More symptoms include –
- Nausea and Vomiting
- Difficulty in breathing
- Muscle ache and begin to hurt, stiff (within 8 hours)
- Excessive sweating, weakness or tremors
- You may not able to move legs
- Rash and itching, Swollen eyelids
- Abdominal pain or cramping.
If you think or suspect anyone bitten by black widow, get to emergency room. bites can be fatal in children.
- In meantime try some tips to ease symptoms and slow down further infection.
- Wash bite area with soap and clean water. Apply an antibiotic cream or lotion.
- You can also apply cold washcloth or ice pack wrapped in cloth to area.
- Also clean over the counter pain reliever.
- If possible capture spider properly (capture in plastic bag or jar). This way will help to recognize species of widow spider.
Black Widow Toxin
Black widow spider generally live in dark place like shed, outhouse, garage, woodpiles, rocks and others. Also Black Spider widow known by its biological nomenclature as Latrodectus. Latrodectism caused by bite of female widow spider. Within US two species most commonly implicated.
- Latrodectus mactans (Southern Widow Spider)
- Latrodectus hesperus (Western Widow Spiders)
Venom of widow spider a combination of biological active proteins, proteases and peptides. Primary toxin – alpha-Latrotoxin and binds irreversibly to protein receptors on presynaptic neurons and creates calcium permeable channel with in lipid bilayers. Latrodectus venom or toxin also cause various health problem when they bite.
At last Active things in venom – Latrotoxins, A number of smaller polypeptides (toxin interacting with cation channels which display spatial structure homology which affect working of sodium, potassium, calcium channel). Also Adenosine, Guanosine, Inosine, 2 4 6-trihydroxy purine.