UCR Researcher Seeking Brown Widow Spiders

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23 Jun 2011, 10:07 pm

http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_ ... 405f2.html

I go to this university, so I get really excited about their research. These spiders are becoming a pest in California. This researcher will test pesticides to keep the spider's numbers more managable. They are starting to take over the black widow here.

If anyone finds any of these, the researcher would really appreciate it.

John_Browning
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23 Jun 2011, 10:18 pm

Hopefully the pesticide will work on both varieties because I just get control of the black widows.

If any eco-terrorist tries to get his pesticide banned I'm going to kick their ass!

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Stellar
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23 Jun 2011, 10:22 pm

I live right by this school and I'm terrified of spiders omg.

John_Browning
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24 Jun 2011, 12:38 am

Stellar wrote:

I live right by this school and I'm terrified of spiders

omg.

Odds are that I'm within an hour's drive from you. I don't recall ever seeing a brown widow, but black widows in Riverside county outnumber humans. I must smash close to about 100 a year on my property. This year I'm up to about 30 or 40 (2 in the house so far) and it's not even July!

MagicMeerkat
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01 Jul 2011, 5:44 pm

I feel bad for the spiders.

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01 Jul 2011, 6:29 pm

slightly off topic, but one time I was catching crickets for my chickens and I did not have my glasses on, I flipped over this one cricket in attampt to grab it and saw a red hour glass. It was so weird cuz you know the saying, I saw my life pass before my eyes...thats what happened when I saw that hourglass...images from my life started streaking through my mind rapidly. I was very lucky that I tipped over that spider or I would probably be dead. I am suprised that it did not bite me cuz I was catching crickets with my hands.

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psych
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01 Jul 2011, 6:47 pm

how can a spider be considered a pest? they dont harm any crops & help control insects - their more like an anti-pest.

psych
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01 Jul 2011, 6:59 pm

jojobean wrote:

IIRC the fatality rate of a black widow bite is about 5% - and thats without access to antivenom and modern medicine. Even if you get bit the amount of venom injected varies and could be very low, sometimes no treatment is given at all.

Your right to be wary of course, but their nowhere near as dangerous as some people think.

Quote:

I was very lucky that I tipped over that spider or I would probably be dead. I am suprised that it did not bite me cuz I was catching crickets with my hands.

If their anything like the widows in england they are extremely timid and non aggressive to large animals, when people get bitten its usually from putting on clothing or rolling over in bed etc - the bite is a reflex from being squashed, and only gets you if the spider is the right way up on your skin, iyswim.

jojobean
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01 Jul 2011, 8:41 pm

psych wrote:

jojobean wrote:

Quote:

I was very lucky that I tipped over that spider or I would probably be dead. I am suprised that it did not bite me cuz I was catching crickets with my hands.

If left untreated, widow bites can cause convusions...and I already have a life threatening sezuire disorder, so yes it could be fatal to me cuz the venom would drasticly lower my sezuire threshold.

but thanks for the information about why they bite. I also heard that most widdow bites are accidents on the spider's part mistaking a finger or toe for a bug because they are blind.

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John_Browning
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01 Jul 2011, 11:58 pm

psych wrote:

how can a spider be considered a pest? they dont harm any crops & help control insects - their more like an anti-pest.

They are poisonous and there is no shortage of other kinds of other less dangerous spiders here that will take up the same spaces.

psych wrote:

The pain from a bite is so severe that even morphine and other opiate derivatives hardly do anything to relieve it and it usually last from 3 days to 2 weeks for a large dose of venom near the heart. Some people have a surprising resistance to the venom and only get a massive red welt where they got bit.

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02 Jul 2011, 3:45 am

they are pests because they are a danger for humans

if we were overrun by daddy long-leggs that would be anti-pest....although they do give me the creeps the way they walk, but they are not pests

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techn0teen
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03 Jul 2011, 1:22 am

psych wrote:

how can a spider be considered a pest? they dont harm any crops & help control insects - their more like an anti-pest.

When over 5+ venomous spiders invade your house in one night due to colder weather and are in places that you commonly walk, that is a pest. This happened every week during fall at my old house. Better perimeter pesticides will hopefully keep them out of the house.

jojobean
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04 Jul 2011, 3:47 am

techn0teen wrote:

psych wrote:

how can a spider be considered a pest? they dont harm any crops & help control insects - their more like an anti-pest.

eeeek....I feel my arachnaphobia creeping in again.

I used to be very afraid of spiders after a few freak incedences with them, but it has eased on up.

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shadowchyld
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06 Jul 2011, 12:36 pm

I kill at least 4 or 5 of these a week... will they come to Florida? LOL

phil777
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09 Jul 2011, 11:58 am

Ahh, a cold winter remains the BEST pesticide to wipe out any and all chitinous organisms that can't regulate their body temperature. ^^

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