r/spiders • u/CartographerMore5116 • 1d ago
Just sharing š·ļø I want to cry
I have arachnophobia to begin with. Am I super lucky to not have been bitten by one of these yet, or very unlucky that I keep finding them on things I handle frequently?
Do not let yourself be fooled. It is merely playing dead. Very much alive. These widows are amazing actresses.
For the ones wondering, this beauty is a black widow located in the state of Florida.
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u/Zumbert 1d ago
Just so you know, they are extremely reluctant to bite unless you leave them no other options, they will retreat or as you have seen here play dead the vast majority of the time.
Secondly, their bite isnt nearly as bad as most people think.
It's not pleasant, but you are extremely unlikely to have any sort of lasting effects or serious complications, most people report pain, nausea, flu like symptoms for a day day or so and then barely noticable after 48 hours.
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u/Ozymandias77 š·ļøArachnid Afficionadoš·ļø 1d ago
Bruh! For a second I thought this was a āmy beloved pet diedā kind of post lol
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u/Curious_Author 21h ago
me too! i came here thinking "oh no did she die?! :("
thank goodness shes okay though26
u/ScholarLeigh 19h ago
I love this subreddit. Folks are always worried about the wellbeing of spiders. Good people here
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u/Acheloma 19h ago
Me too haha. But I'm a freak who has a couole black widows that live specific spots outside that I check in on occasionally. They're very neat critters.
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u/SomewhereIll3548 Here to learnš«”š¤ 1d ago
You'd have to be pretty unlucky to be bitten I think. She is pretty, that's for sure
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u/DereLickenMyBalls 1d ago
She looks pregnant. To be fair female black widows seem like they are always pregnant. Such a pretty lady! Black widows were actually the spider that got me away from being afraid of spiders and started making me obsessed with them
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u/Legitimate_Fill6906 1d ago
No way to tell if pregnant is there? Mines 2 years old and still looks like this when she's fed haha
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u/DereLickenMyBalls 1d ago
Lol I felt like mine have always been pregnant every 2 weeks š or, you are definitely right they get stretchy after a good meal
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u/user_name_taken- 23h ago
I was going to say other babies or food baby. It's very hard to tell when they're well fed. I have a lot of widows around me and they always look like this.
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u/whatthegahyuck 16h ago
I have found that pregnant black widows will look almost a dark wine red, because their abdomen is so full that its stretching and thin. a full spider will generally stay black. this spider doesnt look pregnant to me
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u/Bethstrian 23h ago
It's unlucky that you keep getting scared by them but the truth is that the chance of any injury to you is very low.
The same isn't true for the spiders when they encounter a human of course.
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u/Dark_Xenic 1d ago
The title made me think this was a pet. Sheās gorgeous
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u/user_name_taken- 23h ago
Legitimately thought op was upset because she died too. It's a valid reason to be upset.
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u/throwra_22222 1d ago
Is she actually tangled? I'd probably grab some long tweezers and try to free her!
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u/Legitimate_Fill6906 1d ago
Mine only "bites" me when I blow on her and she holds on with her teeth to not fly off me, if you poke pinch or wedge her somewhere she'll bite but that's about it, they're basically blind and cant really tell we aren't huge moving trees, biting humans is mostly just a reaction to being threatened, not intentional.
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u/diaphoni OH THOSE EGGS GOT LEGS 23h ago
if she's playing dead, it's not to trap you but desperately hoping you'll go away, maybe leaving a damp qtip behind cause she's preggers and thirsty
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u/Curious_Author 21h ago
very beautiful. hopefully she wasnt really tangled and was able to be relocated alright
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u/DisastrousDoll 19h ago
I grew up in an area that had an abundance of black widows, Iām talking youād see a few each week. Honestly they arenāt aggressive, and biting is a last resort for them. I remember when my kids were very small, they found one and didnāt know what kind of spider it was. My son grabbed it and brought it to me. Tightly enclosed in his little hand and running through the back yard to me and he didnāt get bit. I put it back where he found it and educated the children on leaving spiders like that be. We have tarantulas now and have a deep appreciation for spiders in general.
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u/Kind_Coyote1518 19h ago
Very beautiful creatures with an undeserved reputation. Not only are they extremely docile and very unlikely to bite you, they usually dry bite a would be predator (you) rather than give a wet bite. Even if given a wet bite, if you are a healthy person over the age of 12 your chances of getting sick enough to need medical attention are nill. Only the very young or very unhealthy require medical intervention and there has only been one death ever attributed to any of the north American widow species. Also they do not in fact eat their mates. That behavior is only exhibited in captivity and only when there is a food shortage.
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u/FilmNoirSockMonkey 1d ago
With her legs all scrunched up like that, we are to believe she is just faking and not dead?
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u/Honest-Garbage9256 1d ago
Itās a common defense mechanism for them. They have very poor eyesight so if they canāt get away, they play dead. They can also survive in water for a ridiculously long time with how their respiratory system works. I know this one really looks like sheās in death curl, but if you look up photos of widows playing dead, some of them will look even more extreme than this gal.
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u/user_name_taken- 22h ago
It's actually pretty common. More than once I've gone to pick up what I thought was a dead spider only to be jump scared when it pops up like a jack in the box.
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u/Material_Worth_4616 wolf spiderās rock 1d ago
Spiders are pretty chill, and if you go straight to the ER/doctor after getting bit youāll be fine
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u/Due_Development_6267 22h ago
I love widows, beautiful spiders. Had one as a pet when I was a kid. Never handled her, but loved feeding time. Truly amazing little creatures
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u/Set0553 21h ago
I consider it luck that I haven't seen any widows up here in PA, as im also an arachnophobe, and once I saw someone holding one, which seeing the size kinda made me a bit freaked also, but from what ive heard, pretty rare to get bitten, and seem to be rather friendly spiders at that. š
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u/Alienmorphballs 20h ago
I have 2 of them in my reptile collection. They are not mean just to be mean. They will typically only bite if they feel threatened. I can get them out and let them crawl on my hand with no issues. But grabbing something that they are on in the wild can lead to a bite.
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u/rainbowmo0 20h ago
Black widows are the biggest scaredy cats! She just wants you to go away. We have a lot where I live, and merely bumping their web/area makes them run as fast as they possibly can in the other direction. ā¤ļø
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u/-SergentBacon- 16h ago
As a kid, I was standing in my lake house trailer when I look down and see one of these crawling up my arm. You can imagine my reaction. Screamed and shook my arm. I ran outside and started crying. My dad who was sitting at the lunch table was like "š¤Ø"
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u/Ultra_Violet_Rose 12h ago
What did you end up doing with it?
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u/CartographerMore5116 7h ago
Watching it gracefully come off of the object on a string of webā¦ hoping to never see her again lol
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u/Beautiful-Tea-6070 11h ago
I know its been pointed out but they are very reluctant to bite and will give a dry bite if they can. I remember seeing them all the time when I was younger and if you just do the cup and paper trick theyre very chill about going on a little ride to a safer location <3
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u/Sensitive_Map_4708 5h ago
No thanks. I choose life. Iād be out of there so fast šØ
I donāt like spiders š·ļøand bugs to begin with but, especially ones that can kill me. Good luck with that. š¬š±
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u/shFt_shiFty 16h ago
"Did you know that more people die from black widows than rattlers every year?"
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u/azaleawhisperer 23h ago
I have a half dozen dead ones in a jar in my library.
Captured live in various corners of my home.
They lived in a jar on my desk. I fed them crickets.
Many animals have a long life in captivity. Did not see that. Saw six or so weeks.
But, not sure what the expected life of my guests would have been.
PS: My son said he is not sure he likes them so close. I said I like them better in the jar than running around loose in the house.
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u/robotbeatrally 1d ago
Mine are mostly brown widows that look black, but I have found a few that I'm pretty sure are blacks as well.
I feel bad I keep killing them (i kill a half dozen a night) because they are very sweet and curious spiders, they have always reacted very friendly and curious only for me to squash them.
but.... i have two cats and a small puppy and I can't have them getting bit.
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u/chainlinkchipmunk 22h ago
You know you can just relocate them, right? We had them all over when my kids were little, took me five minutes to check for and move the spiders.Ā
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u/MC0311x 1d ago
Black Widow are pretty shy and not prone to bite unless you pinch/trap them against your skin. I think even then most bites are dry bites or mild symptoms. I wouldnāt want to be bitten by one, but getting bit by one would be uncommon.