With These Facts, Black Widows may not be as Scary as you Thought

I’m already on the record about my fear and loathing — with a side of extra fear — of black widows. (Do enjoy the anecdote about my wife giving me a bladder-emptying scare.) So I’ll try to suspend my deep-seated arachnophobia long enough to pass along a few facts about Latrodectus mactans, which is Latin for Aaghgh, kill it, kill it!

The black widow’s venom is 15 times more potent than a rattlesnake’s — but since it delivers so little, typically only the very young, old, or those with medical conditions are at risk of serious complications. 🕷️ Their lifespan is 1-3 years, which may be 1-3 years too long. 🕷️ They aren’t aggressive. 🕷️ Once their prey is immobilized by venom, the widow injects digestive enzymes that liquefy the prey into a fluid that the spider then drinks. (Political advertising follows a similiar principle.) 🕷️ The widow’s reputation for eating her mates after sex may be exaggerated. According to the Smithsonian, such sexual cannibalism was first observed in a lab — “where males had nowhere to run away from their larger, hungrier counterparts.” In the wild, they figure, it happens maybe 2% of the time. 🕷️ Because of climate change, their habitat is expanding, which is exactly the opposite of what I want to hear.