BLACK WIDOWS (GIO CORSI: SKIP THIS)

Today, while doing some yard-work, I ran into my 5th black widow spider.

1st encounter: My mom had saved a fridge box and kept it in their basement in Kamloops. My son, then 4 or so, and I were playing in it when I looked up in the corner of the box and saw my first black widow. We got out of the box and destroyed the spider's existence (after examining it in a jar).

2nd encounter: I was at my uncle's place in Penticton and I grabbed a ball out of a bucket of beach toys he had under his porch. There was a black widow spider about 2 inches from my finger.

3rd encounter: Not a black widow encounter but at our townhouse in False Creek, I picked up a cinder block from our patio and inside it was a Brown Recluse. These things scare me more than black widows. Just look what a bite can do to someone's hand...

I don't want that!

4th encounter: My parents brought a small apt.-sized washing machine down from Kamloops for me to sell on Craigslist. An Aussie wanted to buy it and as we were loading it up in his truck we found a black widow underneath it. He said, "Aye mate, you got yourself a red-back!" This is it:


5th encounter: This black recluse in our downstairs tub:


6th encounter: My dad brought a cedar chest down from Kamloops for me. I kinda jokingly asked if he'd checked for black widows and we kinda laughed and decided to look anyways and lo and behold, right near my thumb on the bottom of the chest was a black widow.

7th encounter: Today, while picking up some logs from a wood pile, I grabbed a log and this juvenile female black widow descended from the log on a web-line towards my foot. Needless to say I put work gloves on after that. Here it is: