[BC] Spiders

[nakayle at gmail.com]

>>"D. Wayne Woollard CPBE" <woollard at inreach.com> said: I don't know if this is the correct venue for this epistle or not, but here goes anyway.  Last night an 18 year old in our small town passed away from complications brought about because of a spider bite!  Just 4 days after the diagnosis was handed down.  So, my friends be careful!! As the days warm the females will be spinning the little cotton ball egg sacks, and they remain close by to protect these nests.  I have seen but a few transmitter sites that were not hatching nests for the infamous Black Widow.  "Let's be careful out there!"

Are you sure this wasn't a "brown widow" spider? I never heard of these things until last year but they seem to be inundating the country and no one knows why.  I first began noticing an unusual number of cobwebs and round spiny eggs sacks two summers ago here in southwest Florida. Never seen anything like them before. Last summer they were much worse and I began searching the net to find out about them. I found many people were having the same problem and are as mystified as I am why these spiders have suddenly become such a problem. They are brown but have an orange hourglass on their belly just like a black widow. Besides the toxicity concern, they are a pain to deal with because their messy webs and eggs sacks are extremely sticky and cling to everything. Now that I know about them I will be raging major war on them this summer. They are certainly something to watch for when visiting remote transmitter sites.

- Nat Kayle