[BC] Spiders

[Broadcast List USER]

Black Widows won't kill you.  They really won't even make you sick.   
They just have a very irritating bite.  The chance of any sort of life  
threatening effect is against the very young or very old.  In general,  
no medical intervention is needed, though the bites can be very  
uncomfortable.  We had many Black Widows on the farm when I was a  
child, and while we tried to avoid them, sometimes you could not.  We  
had a pig pen that was overrun.

There is an anti-venom, but it appears to be more dangerous than the  
spider venom itself.

There is an additional danger that the black widow antivenin might  
sensitize the person against later use of rattlesnake antivenin.  It  
would be sad to get the Black Widow antivenin and then be bitten by a  
rattlesnake and then die as a result of getting the rattlesnake  
antivenin.  In my mind, put up with the itch of the Black Widow bite  
and move on.

--chip