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Please note: for small children, the elderly, and those with suppressed immune systems, you need to drop what you are doing and get that person to an emergency room immediately. Call 911 to let them know what happened as they can begin to prep for the upcoming symptoms before you or the ambulance arrive.

For the rest of us, this is going to be painful but not lethal. First you want to positively identify the spider. There are numerous species that look like a black widow from the top, small smooth black little devils, but it is the red hourglass on her abdomen, underneath her, that gives her identity away. You need to do this to avoid panic in the event of a common house spider, or to better ascertain the venom, in the case of a brown recluse, scorpion, or some other arachnid.

First and foremost this is not a bee sting, so there is no stinger or venom sack to remove you were bitten with a pair of fangs, albeit small ones. So you need to first off clean the wound. That black widow made have been in the middle of eating a macerated and very dead fly you do not want that in your circulation in addition to the venom.

After this there is little more you can do than put some ice on it, perhaps a tourniquet, but only if you know what you are doing. After that, basically remain calm, keep the heart rate down, call the family doctor and/or ER and get some anti venom in you ASAP.

From there they will administer pain medicine, perhaps steroids for the muscle cramps and spasms that will follow, and then an anti venom if need be.

A black widow is nothing to mess with to be sure, but knowing you will not die, remaining calm, and getting medical attention as fast as possible will go a long way towards a speedy recovery.

Learn more about this author, M.L. Brooke.
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