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Poisonous Spiders – How to Identify Them

Poisonous Spiders – How to Identify Them

POISONOUS SPIDERS: THE BLACK WIDOW

When considering poisonous spiders and spider identification, the first one that comes to mind is the black widow. In North America, there are around five species of the Black widow spider. You can easily identify the black widow, especially the female, because of it’s round, bulbous belly.
The female black widow is a nocturnal and likes hiding in dark hidden places. The spider measures 1.3 centimeters to 3.8 centimeters long, about the size of a quarter. You can also see a red hourglass on its belly, though it is not found on all members of the species. The hour glass may also be orange in color or come as a stripe, a dot or a series of dots. These will occur according to the age of the spider and its location.
The rest of the body is normally shiny dark black in color, but can also be brown, slate gray or any other color that is a shade of black. The male spider is smaller in size as compared to the female and is usually harmless, due to the smaller amounts of venom that they have as compare to the female.
The black widow weaves a web that is irregular in shape, and is normally referred to as drunken web. As much as it is irregular, the web is known to be the strongest of all silk and is most often found near the ground.
Though the venom of this spider is too little to be diluted by the body of the human, a bite will lead to a large swelling around the bitten region and may also cause the victim to experience muscle ache, nausea and even breathing difficulties.
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