Care when locating your ink bottles.
I recently put some shelves up above my computer screens on my desk. I wanted to store my inks and pen boxes on them so that I could reach them easily and at the same time clear some space on my desk.
A couple of Mondays ago sitting at my desk, I suddenly felt this searing pain like I had been stung. I got up and within a few seconds fell over feeling totally awful. I was out for about 15 mins and then when I came around my wife told me that she had noticed a couple of holes and it seemed that I must have been bitten. Anyway, this bit got really sore and blew up like a golf ball under the skin and the bite mark was very strange.... Heat, throbbing, sore etc... A couple of days later I was sat at my desk doing the same kind of things and had pulled a bottle of ink down to refill a pen.. Suddenly the pain was there again lower down my other arm on my wrist and this time I reacted quickly slapping the pain. There was the the culprit... A Michigan Black Widow spider... !!
It appears that when I was drilling I upset the nest in the wall, it's very warm in the room because of all the computer and network equipment. Living in the US now we have stud walling and so empty spaces behind the walls. So the first time he bit and got me, but the second time, he dropped on my wrist and bit into the skin above the bone, hence why I was not affected as badly. The doctor told me that they sometimes bite to warn and don't inject the venom, which could be why the second bite didn't affect me so badly. It could also be because of the bone. Then it hit me, I remembered the first time I was bitten I was also re-filling my pen. The spider had obviously taken a fancy to my ink bottles and was sat on top. Each time I reached up and grabbed a bottle the spider fell off the bottle onto my arm and the rest was history.
I am told everyone reacts differently to these bites and really don't know a lot about spiders. I do know I wasn't aware that Black Widow spiders live in Michigan. Apparently there is also a Brown Recluse that is much more rare but has a much more venomous bite. My doctor was quite numerous about the hole thing, and as I take a substantial level of pain killer every day because of medical problems she told me the spider probably had a good last few seconds before I clumped it....
The ink bottles don't live on the shelf anymore and I don't reach up to take anything without looking first. Every little touch to my skin makes me wince at the moment. I am sure that will calm down..... I had a bunch of things on the shelves.... I wonder what drew the spider to the ink bottles....shiney surface of the glass perhaps? Anyone had trouble with spiders and ink before?
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Originally Posted by tandaina
We have so many nasty things here - brown widows, black widows, brown recluse (commonly known as a fiddleback), and even if they are not venomous can cause bad infections if the have bacteria on them and they often do (I had a very scary infection from the bite of a big wolf spider I startled and the punctures were huge). As mobile as our society has become, these nasty critters are spreading everywhere and adapt quickly. I am sorry for your discomfort and am so relieved you did not have a more significant reaction. Gracious, that is such a wild story! Take good care of yourself and probably good practice across the board to look before you reach. I learned that here the scary way, not as much inside as out, but so many little things find their way to warmth when it is cold, dry when it is wet, and cool when it is hot. They are creative and resourceful. And ink lovers, clearly. Like little hairy legged bottle guards.
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