Black Widow bites...

[palliard]

I am referring of course to the spider.

I'm not especially allergic to them, but they do have a unique effect on me: I get a giggle fit that lasts for about an hour, followed by a week of feeling like I got kicked in the chest by a mule.

Anybody else have a similar experience? You must have been bitten by some sort of bug or another.

[CapnARRR]

i thought those were supposed to kill you

[palliard]

They're like bee stings in that respect: they only kill you if you're allergic, usually.

Very few bugs in North America will outright kill you dead if they bite you. I haven't been bitten by the worst of them, but black widows seem to enjoy my succulent juices... I think I've racked up about one bite a year, on average.

I mention it only because I'm still getting over my latest one.

[Jennifer Babcock]

I got bitten by something serious in Vienna and then in Paris. Paris was by far worse. There were two bites on my leg, which bruised up and stiffened my entire calf for two days. It was seriously screwed up.

When I got back to LA I got bitten by something vicious on my face- 4 times! My entire left cheek was completely swollen.

[palliard]

Well, for what it's worth, you got me beat on the numbers.

That's a lot of bug bites. Are you sure you weren't wearing something that would attract them? "Poisonous Spider Chanel"? ;D

[murp27]

Looked this up on Wikipedia and naturally received a shudder from this bit:

Widow spiders have more potent venom than most spiders, and prior to the development of antivenom, 5% of reported bites result in fatalities.

Improvements in plumbing have greatly reduced the incidence of bites and fatalities in areas where outdoor privies have been replaced by flush toilets. "Nearly half the black widow bites reported in the medical literature of the first 4 decades of [the twentieth] century were inflicted on the male genitalia by spiders lurking underneath the seats of outdoor toilets." 1