Mother Bear

Last week while at work I get a phone call from Sheri. She was going to be dropping off Triton at my work within a few minutes, so why was she calling? She is somewhat hysterical, but I figured it was nothing. She then claims that she had caught this spider, and blah blah, make sure that I kill it when I get home. She wanted me to make sure that it wasn't a black widow as well. I have only seen one black widow at our house (actually my mom's house) in 18 years or so. My mom had also claimed to have seen one on the front step, but I didn't see that one. Thus I was skeptical about this being a black widow. Sheri hates spiders and won't even catch a jumping spider, so how could she of all people catch a black widow?
The black widow spider is just about the only spider that creeps me out? I can see a hobo spider and be fine, any other kind of spider really doesn't bother me. I kill hobo spiders and mostly just leave the other's to themselves unless it looks anything like a recluse! I sometimes will take them outside if Sheri is home and demanding that it be killed, but if it isn't a hobo or a recluse, why kill it? The black widow creeps me out big time? I don't know why. Maybe it has to do with the first time that I ever seen one. The spider was in my own bedroom when I was probably 16 or so. I entered my room, which was always dark, and the sunlight peeked in and shown a hint of light in the room. I never used my dresser growing up, everything was usually on the floor or in a hamper after being cleaned. Might have been a great thing that I didn't use my dresser. One of the drawers was halfway open and I discovered that something was hovering in the opening area, in a web. It was for sure a black widow, for some reason I knew it right off. Shiny, black and much bigger than I would have imagined it being. I vaguely remember why I used a single rod to try and kill this spider? It might have been the only thing near me at the time and it was long enough to keep my distance from this creature. I used what must have been a broom without the actual broom head. It might have had the head, but I can't
remember for sure? I remember poking around in the drawer with whatever I had and in an instant the spider being gone. I look down and this spider was probably 5 inches from my hand. It had crawled all the way up the handle in the matter of a few seconds. Pretty sure I dropped the broom and was able to kill the spider. While it was hanging in it's web in my drawer I could clearly see the red hour glass on it's belly. This experience might be the reason that black widows creep me out?
Back to the spider in the container at home. Triton and I get home about an hour later. I am somewhat apprehensive about what I might find. I put the actual percentage of the spider being a black widow to be about 3%. Sheri was getting ready for work and was by the phone in the kitchen and looked down to see a spider crawling on Triton's dirty clothes hamper. She probably freaks out but realizes that she had better not leave this spider for me to kill, because it might be gone by the time I return home from work. She runs over to get a shoe to kill it and upon returning back to the hamper it is gone. Okay it wasn't gone, but it had moved from the upper outside edge of the hamper to the inside almost down in the clothes. I guess that she figured that killing it with a shoe was no longer an option, so she caught it in a Tupperware container. She then called me to let me know it was there, and to see if it was for sure what she thought was, a black widow. I walk over to the kitchen counter grab the bowl and I am not able to see a spider in the container? It was able to crawl up the sides and made it's way to the upper portion under the lid. I shook the bowl around until this spider fell to the bottom. I could see that it wasn't shiny, but it was bigger than I thought it was going to be. Even though it wasn't shiny it was indeed a black widow. Even through the container which is scratched and really not that transparent I could make out the red hour glass on it's underbelly. I took it outside a little while later and stepped on it. It wasn't as big as the one that was in my room some 12 years earlier, but it still gave me the creeps. I have been shaking my shoes before attempting to put them on ever since seeing it. I have been making sure that no blankets have been touching the floor. Again, not sure why black widows are the only spider that weird me out like that? I feel the same way about scorpions, but they are in the desert and I don't have to worry about them being in my shoes!!
I am proud of Sheri for protecting her son in a time of crisis. It is way surprising what you will overcome and accomplish when protecting your own children. Sheri of course has been wicked creeped out since, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that she did something I didn't think that she could. Moreover, I am grateful that Triton wasn't the first to see it. Black widows are the most poisonous spider in the North American region. They are not the cause of most spider fatalities though. I guess it is because when and if they are forced to bite a human, they don't inject very much toxin. This doesn't mean that Triton wouldn't have been severely sick or worse had he been bitten, but all we can do is be grateful that he wasn't.