How much venom does a black widow have

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If a black widow spider has bitten you, get medical treatment right away. What are the symptoms of black widow spider venom poisoning? What causes a black widow spider to bite? Black widows earned their name because scientists witnessed the females eat their mates after copulation. But research has shown that in a related species, redback spiders, females only cannibalize their mates about two percent of the time, so experts suspect that American black widows have similar rates of cannibalism in the wild.

Male black widows also have strategies to avoid riskier sexual encounters in the first place; for instance, research suggests they can tell whether or not a female is hungry by her pheromones, so they can avoid potential mates who seem a bit peckish.

And some related species take an aggressive approach. All of the spiders in the Latrodectus genus have a few things in common: curved feet covered in bristles, earning them the name comb-footed spiders, and messy, irregular nests of silk called tangle webs. Western black widows take two different strategies to build their webs depending on how well-fed they are: starving spiders build more sticky threads, which snag prey, and healthy spiders invest more time in supporting threads, which may stop them from overeating.

The spiders rely on strands of silk in their tangle webs as extensions of their own senses. Thousands of organs called slit sensilla, which look like cracks in the exoskeleton and are especially common on their leg joints, feel vibrations in the silk. By changing its posture, a spider changes the shape of the slit sensilla, so a black widow can tune its senses to certain frequencies of vibrations coming down its web.

The insects hunted by black widows want to avoid falling into their jaws. So as the black widows evolved, they needed to strike a balance between hiding from prey and warning predators off. Colorado College spider researcher Nicholas Brandley conducted experiments with 3D-printed widows showed that bright red spots protected the fake spiders from bird attacks, he told Smithsonian magazine in Unadorned plastic spiders were attacked three times more often than the red-spotted ones.

In another experiment, a live black widow with many red spots tended to build its web higher up in terrariums than its less-colorful counterpart. The extra spots may give it more protection from predators up high and lurking below. Black widows are most common in the warm environments of the southern and southwestern United States. Instead, black widows find a protected area and go into a dormant state called overwintering.

In spring, they emerge, and the tricky business of mating begins. If you ever think that you've been bitten by a black widow spider, tell an adult immediately. Black widow spider bites rarely kill people, but it's important to get medical attention as soon as you can because they can make you very sick.

With an adult's help, wash the bite well with soap and water. Then apply an ice pack to the bite, and try to elevate the area and keep it still to help prevent the spread of venom poison. If it's possible, have an adult catch and bring the spider to the doctor's office with you. Even though it's usually easy to identify black widows, you'll want to make sure that's the kind of spider that bit you.

The spider can be killed first before you bring it with you; just be sure not to squish it so much that no one can tell what it is. Doctors treat people who have been bitten by black widow spiders with medications to help relax the muscles and reduce pain. They sometimes give antivenin, a medication that fights the venom in the spider's bite, if someone who has been bitten has underlying medical problems or doesn't get better from the other medications. The best way to avoid getting bitten by black widow spiders is to be careful in areas where they like to spend time.