Interesting story Mangeorge, you probably had a severe reaction because the laceration placed the venom into your bloodstream, something a widow couldn’t have done,
ah the black widow, poor little beauty has too much power for her size, so everyone kills her. Most of the posters are right that said they’re only dangerous to the very young, the very old or the allergic. Also, you should know that virtually all spiders are venemous, but few can actually break the skin. Most treatment is for symptom relief and few will need antivenin. I’ve never heard about being able to tolerate just one dose, but it is still made with horse serum so you run the risk of serum sickness a few days after antivenin treatment, you have to have a pretty severe reaction to justify the risk. Actually, bee stings account for more deaths than any other type of envenemation, by quite a margin I believe. Most of our Poison fears are overated. Recluse bites can heal without scar, but they can require skin graft. Boys are bitten by rattlesnakes much more frequently than girls, and 85% of bites are in the upper extremities, how do ya figure the snake got up there?
Zette, I’m disappointed in you, no creature should be made to die a nasty death.
I had a child in the ER awhile back with a widow bite, they gave her morphine for the pain, Calcium for the cramps and sent her home after about 12 hours of observation, no big deal,
Larry,
I’ve never been bitten by one. When I was a kid in the '30s and '40s in San Jose we’d find them just about anywhere. The kid next door kept a bunch in jars in his basement. Whem my mother found out, she got on his mother about it. I forget the outcome, but nobody in our two houses ever got bitten. As an adult, living mostly in Northern California, I’ve never seen any, either in the city or in the woods or grasslands.
I don’t see how an antibiotic could counteract spider venom.
Yeah, all you need is a physician with a whole in his head. . .and naturally that stuff isn’t gonna work unless it knows there’s an “experienced herbalist” involved. What do you figure would happen if an inexperienced herbalist or a non-herbalist tried the stuff?
You sure those weren’t “bulldog ants”? I remember reading a National Geographic article about bulldog ants 25 years ago. They swarm out to attack you if you so much as cast a shadow on their anthill, they have stingers, a single sting gave the author “waves of pain which lasted 5 days”, and 30 stings could kill a full-grown man.
Makes fire ants seem rather tame by comparison.
Quick-N-Dirty Aviation: Trading altitude for airspeed since 1992.
Tracer: there really are such things as bullet ants. The reason they are named that (so I have heard) is because the pain of the bite is comparable to getting shot.
‘The beginning calls for courage; the end demands care’
NanoByte : I’d expect that the treatment would work under the same conditions… I would certainly try it again. But, since I can’t give conclusive reclusive scientific documentation, I’m being extra cautious in posting this as “medical advice”. Common cold remedies are one thing ; possible emergencies are another. Also, with herbal remedies nowadays,especially with something as popular as echinacea, there is a wide range of quality available. And experience can make a difference in assuring that the proper strength/dosage is used. Hopefully proper research (and funding of such) will be done so that more people can take advantage of all that herbal medicine has to offer.
Well, good thing you missed my thread about 2 months ago when I came across a big ass snake in my yard. That got ugly.
Sorry to be such a cold blooded killer- does it help that I also do charitable work- lots of it? I like to think that despite my propensity for causing horrid deaths to a few of Gods creatures, my Karma is still on the plus side due to the good things I do. Anyone help me out here??
(There’s probobly a thread in the pit with my name on it- “Zette- the creepy killer. We hate you!”)
Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps. Zettecity
Zette: Nope. What does the Bible say about harming even one of God’s creatures? Eternal damnation awaits you. Plain and simple. Sorry. Have a nice day.
Zette-- I think the trick is to know which critters are truly a danger, and which ones are objects of “nameless terror”. Learn which snakes, spiders, telemarketers, etc. are really poisonous, and those you can let go on their merry way.
A lot of it is attitude : my parents are biologists, so I had the good fortune to learn which crawlers not to touch…as a kid, during teaching/collection trips, I used to turn over rocks and pick up scorpions with forceps and put 'em in bottles (yeah,that was killing a la scientific study, but back then I didn’t realize that) … I actually thought in my 11-year old mind that since I was a Scorpio that I was safe… When Mom found out, she discouraged me from doing this, but,fact is I didn’t get stung.
Now, when I see the aforementioned brown recluses in the house, I sometimes whomp ‘em, but feel sad to do so. That doesn’t excuse it in my mind though…I suppose you have to make amends with the fact that to go on through this world, you’re going to do a little damage, and try not to let your fears escalate and do too much. As to balancing it out by doing good in other arenas, any good is on the plus side, but if you’re some harmless black snake losing it’s plain ol’ right to be, a volunteer stint at the local homeless shelter doesn’t help you much. Hope this helps in a tricky situation.
I was a real drama boy back then.