My Journal

Black widow bites

There have been approximately 3000 deaths from black widow bites in this country since European settlers first arrived here.  Most of those deaths occurred in the country's early days and could be blamed on the treatment more than on the spider venom.  Black widow bites cause extreme abdominal pain and the major treatment for pain in the old days was a shot of whiskey.  The combination of the alcohol and the neurotoxic poison in the spider venom was far more lethal than the venom alone.  Nowadays, most black widow victims recover after three or four days of extreme agony.