Produce isn't the only thing that's being shipped into New Hampshire grocery stores. Lately there have been a few incidents of Black Widow spiders stowing away on fruits and vegetables.
In the past year there have been three reports of Black Widow spiders in New Hampshire. The spiders have been hitching rides in on produce coming from other places. In the Lakes Region of New Hampshire a store worker was bitten by a Black Widow while stocking grapes this past summer.
Ed Tillinghast, a retired zoologist, studies spiders and he still has a lab at UNH even though he's officially done working. "I just can't give it up," he said.
According to Tillinghast, the Black Widows have been coming from warmer parts of the country. The most common types of Widows in the United States are the Southern, Western, Northern Black Widow, and the Brown Widow, which is found mostly in Florida.
The Northern Black Widow can be found as far north as New Hampshire, but it is very rare that it comes this far north. Both Don Chandler, a zoologist at UNH, and Tillinghast said they have never seen a Northern Black Widow spider in the wild. The Black Widows that are native to this area are not the ones that are making news lately. The Southern and Western Black Widows are the species that are getting shipped around the country.
"They don't recognize us as food," said Tillinghast, who has been studying Black Widows for years. Tillinghast said that Black Widows are not aggressive at all. "You can live around these things and they don't bother you," he said. These spiders often get a bad rap but are not very aggressive at all. They would try to move away from a person if they were approached.
Tillinghast has witnessed some places where people and spiders were peacefully coexisting.
Tillinghast was traveling south one summer with his wife and research associate spider hunting. They had stopped at a rest stop in Florida and they found some Brown Widows under picnic table seats. He thinks if people had known they were nearly sitting on them, they would have been shocked. But the spiders didn't bother anyone, they just made their homes there.
Black Widows have shiny velvety black bodies and a red marking. They live only for a few years. According to Tillinghast, a Black Widow's first reaction to fear is to release a sticky secretion. If a person is bitten by a Black Widow, he or she should seek medical attention immediately.
Black Widows have neurotoxin venom that attacks the nervous system. Some of the symptoms are pain, swelling, abdomen and back pain, abdomen cramping and labored breathing. If someone is bitten and immediately seeks medical attention, he or she should have no complications. The only other spider equally as dangerous in the country is the Brown Recluse, which lives in the Midwest part of the country.
The Black Widows that come in from the South or the West could not survive New Hampshire's winters, unless they were living inside. With so much transportation within the United States, the spiders are likely to crawl into dark spaces and be moved around.
Tillinghast took several Black Widows one winter and kept them in his shed. He watched them daily and fed them. They eventually refused food and died. They aren't built for the harsh conditions New Hampshire has to offer.
Chandler said that because farmers are using fewer pesticides on produce, Black Widows, and many other insects will be able to live with packed fruits and vegetables. "They find a protected area and hide. Grapes provided nooks and crannies," he said.
Chandler identifies insects when they are sent to UNH. UNH receives 150 to 200 samples a year for identification. UNH does have a Northern Black Widow in its collection. A man from Campton, N.H. captured one on July 23, 1957. The Black Widows that UNH receives now are not Northern but from different parts of the United States.
New Hampshire sells grapes year round in supermarkets and their produce comes from all over the country. "Stuff is coming and going from all over," Tillinghast said. This leaves plenty of opportunities for things to move about the country.
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