Comment on Did it hurt?
SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 5 months agoSorry my dude, but according to this they are.
There are two species of black widow spider in Canada: the western black widow found in parts of BC through to Manitoba (mostly restricted to areas close to the southern Canada-U.S. border) and the northern black widow in southern and eastern Ontario. On occasion, black widow spiders occur outside of their ranges by hitching a ride on produce such as grapes.
herrcaptain@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
Well, crap. Now I’m going to be irrationally afraid of a run-in with an illusive grape-riding Black Widow.
I did know about foreign spiders hitching a ride on produce. I just didn’t know that these dudes could take root in our cold wasteland. Nonetheless, thanks for the link!
SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
No worries, if your heart is in decent shape, you’re actually not in much danger from a black widow, as far as I know. It’s mostly the elderly and the really young who die from their bites these days.
herrcaptain@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
Good to know. Nevertheless, I hope to never be in a situation where I get to find out. I’m guessing they’re suuuuper rare here. I checked the iNaturalist app and there were no observed sightings of either type mentioned in that article.
There’s probably just a colony in the back of a supermarket somewhere.
SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
I’m from Vancouver, and there was definitely a few that lived out back of my dad’s house when I was a teen. TIL my dad’s house was a supermarket!