This was in the Grand Rapids Press maybe Friday.
Spider not so itsy bitsy in family's downspout
Posted by Chronicle News Service August 11, 2007 22:09PM
Categories: Grand Rapids
Sharon Barnes is no arachnologist, but she was pretty darned certain the eight-legged beauty she found this week in the downspout of her Plainfield Township home was no run-of-the-mill spider.
A blackwidow spider
The red, hourglass-shaped marking on its shiny black underbelly gave it away.
Black widow spider.
Yup, the most venomous spider in North America was lounging in Barnes' yard, getting ready to snack on a wasp it had snared in its thick web.
"It's a very striking spider," said Michigan State University entomologist Howard Russell.
"In Michigan, we almost never see black widows -- people like Barnes bring a specimen to the MSU Cooperative Extension Office in Grand Rapids once a year or so -- but they're probably more reclusive than they are rare."
"We had to force it out because it had taken its prey and gone down the downspout," Barnes said. "It wasn't going to hang around in view."
So named because the females have been known to capture and eat the males after mating, the black widow spider generally bites humans only when one unknowingly sticks a hand into her web, Russell said.
And when they do attack, "Their mouth parts are very small and, from what I understand, it's very difficult for them to grab a hold of skin," Russell said.
There are documented cases of fatal black widow bites, but Russell knew of none in Michigan. Plus, the venom of the northern variety, such as the one Barnes found, isn't as toxic as that of the black widows found in abundance in the Southwest.
