Part 2

Scorpions normally remain in hiding during the day, coming out in search of insects at night. The deadly species are commonly found under bark on old stumps, in lumber piles, or in firewood piled in dark corners. It is not unusual to find them in basements or in linen closets. Adults may find an unpleasant surprise in a shoe or a piece of clothing taken from a closet or dresser drawer. Legs of cribs or children’s beds may be placed in cans containing kerosene or in wide-mouthed jars.

Moral: Keep your garage, basement, and premises in general, clean, tidy, and free from insects on which scorpions feed. Screen children’s cribs, and pull the sheets clear back before putting the youngsters to bed. Shake out your shoes before putting them on, and inspect sheets, blankets, or clothing which have been in closets or drawers.

Black widow spider (_Lactrodectus mactans_)

Although spiders in general produce venom with which to paralyze their prey, only a very few have fangs of sufficient length or power to penetrate human skin, or venom of sufficient quantity or potency to affect human health.

There are two poisons present in spider venom: a toxin which cause local symptoms, and a toxalbumin producing general symptoms. In those spiders whose bites produce systematic disturbances it is believed that the latter poison predominates.

Where black widows live

Black widows spin their webs in crevices between rocks, under logs or overhanging banks, in abandoned rodent holes, and in rock and wood piles. Indoors they are most frequently encountered in dark corners of garages, basements, and stables.

A favorite and especially dangerous location in which a black widow establishes her home is beneath the seat of a pit toilet. Such a location is ideal for the spider because it is dark, is not usually disturbed, and insects, especially flies, upon which the spiders feed, are abundant. Humans using the toilet, unaware of the presence of the spider, arouse her by breaking or agitating her web, and offer especially tender and susceptible portions of their anatomies for her bite.

Pit toilets in warm climates should always be built with hinged seats which should be raised and inspected frequently. As a further precaution, the underside of the seats should be treated with creosote, an effective repellent.

Although the majority of people now recognize the black widow, some do not, hence they kill all dark-colored spiders on general principles. This is neither necessary nor desirable.

The female black widow is a medium-sized, glossy black, solitary spider with a globular abdomen spectacularly marked on the underside with a bright red spot roughly the shape of an hourglass. The normal position of the spider is hanging upside down in her web so that the “hourglass” is plainly visible if she is below the level of the eye. Her overall length is 1 to 1¼ inches.

The males are much smaller and, like the immature females, are grey in color and variously striped and spotted.

Adult females spin egg cocoons during the warm season; each cocoon contains approximately 300 to 500 eggs which hatch in about 30 days. As many as nine broods per year have been recorded. The young grow fast but do not mature until the following spring or summer.

Black widow bites

Although black widows ferociously pounce upon insects or other spiders much larger than themselves which become entangled in their webs, they are by nature retiring and bite humans only when restrained from escape by contact with the body of man.

The fangs, which are about one-fiftieth of an inch in length, serve to inject from two large glands the venom which is reported to be much more virulent per unit than that of the rattlesnake.

There is some pain and swelling at the site of the bite. The pain spreads throughout the body, centering at the extremities, which become cramped, and over the abdomen, where the muscles become rigid. There is nausea and vomiting, difficulty in breathing, dizziness, ringing in the ears, and headache. Blood pressure is raised, eye pupils are dilated and the reflexes are overactive. Medical records, according to Bogen[2], show that “despite its severe symptoms, arachnidism (poisoning by spider, tick, or scorpion) is, in the majority of cases, a self-limiting condition, and generally clears up spontaneously within a few days,” although cases of death resulting from black widow bites are on record[3].

Treatment of black widow bites

_Since the venom of the black widow, among other properties, appears to affect the nervous system, its effect is almost instantaneous, and most first-aid measures are of little value._

_Stahnke has found that the iced-water treatment (as described in detail in the scorpion section of this booklet) is beneficial. The points of puncture should be treated with iodine, the patient kept as quiet as possible, and an ice pack applied or the part submerged in iced-water, and a physician summoned immediately._

_Baerg[4] recommends hot baths—as hot as the patient can endure. These should be used only in cases of advanced poisoning, never immediately after the bite is received._

_Internal use of alcohol is dangerous, and a person bitten when intoxicated would have much less chance of recovery._

Professional treatment consists mostly in the use of opiates, hydrotherapy, and similar measures to alleviate the acute pain. Of more than 75 different remedies used, three seem to be outstanding as palliatives: spinal puncture, intravenous injections of Epsom salts, and intramuscular administration of convalescent serum when given within 8 hours. Dr. Charles Barton, of Los Angeles, recommends intramuscular or intravenous injection of calcium gluconate, 10 cc. in a 10 per cent solution. The patient should be encouraged to drink as much water as he will. He usually leaves the hospital on the fourth day. Recent experiments with an injection of neostigmine followed by one of atropine have had encouraging results, and the use of ACTH in several cases has had spectacular results, according to _Readers’ Digest_ (Nov. 1951, p. 45).

Control of black widows

Because of their wide distribution and secretive habits, black widows are difficult to control. Basements, outbuildings, and garages should be cleaned frequently, and black widow webs and eggs destroyed. If accessible, the spider may be dislodged from her web with a broom, and smashed. The use of a blowtorch, where there is no fire hazard, is effective for both spiders and egg cocoons. Insect sprays, in general, are ineffectual.

Brown recluse spider and its venomous relatives

Until recently the black widow was considered the only spider in the United States dangerous to man. In 1955, physicians in Missouri and Arkansas began treating persons suffering from the bite of the brown recluse spider, whose poison caused serious damage to the skin at the site of the puncture and often produced a severe systemic reaction sometimes fatal to young children.

The spider is approximately ⁵/₁₆ inch in length, dark brown to fawn, with long legs. A violin-shaped spot on the upper side of the cephalothorax (head portion) is the only noticeable identification giving rise to another common name—fiddleback spider. It is also known as brown spider, or brown house spider.

Little has been published on its life history, but it has been reported from Kansas, Illinois, the Gulf Coast, and from Tennessee to Oklahoma. It is extending its territory westward and has recently been reported from southeastern New Mexico and southern California. People are contributing to the rapid geographical spread of this species by unknowingly carrying it across state lines in their luggage. The brown recluse spider, according to Paul N. Morgan, research microbiologist at the Little Rock, Arkansas, Veterans Administration Hospital, “constitutes a hazard to the health of man, perhaps greater than the Black Widow.”

Where found

It is found in open fields and rocky bluffs but thrives particularly well in outhouses, garages, dark closets, storerooms, and in piles of sacking or old clothing. Its web is large and irregular.

The brown recluse bite

Because of the spider’s nocturnal and retiring habits few people are bitten, in spite of a large spider population. According to an article in the August, 1963 Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society, “there may be mild transitory stinging at the time of the bite, but there is little associated early pain. The patient may be completely unaware he has been bitten, and the spider is seldom seen. Only after 2 to 8 hours does pain, varying from mild to severe, begin. After several days an ulcer may form at the site of the bite. The venom appears to contain a spreading factor resulting in a spread of the necrosis or tissue destruction. In some instances, the ulcer may be so large that skin grafting is required, but the graft may take poorly or not at all. “The bite may also produce serious systemic symptoms including fever, chills, weakness, vomiting, joint pain, and a spotty skin eruption, all occurring within 24-48 hours after the venom injection.”

Treatment for bite of the brown recluse spider

Physicians at the University of Arkansas Medical Center, Little Rock, prefer the prompt administration of corticosteroids, stating, “Large doses given early may completely prevent the gangrenous response as well as the systemic reaction. The dosage schedule which we have found most effective is: 80 mg. of methylprednisolone (Deep-Medrol) intramuscularly immediately followed by one or two additional doses of same amount at 24-48 hour intervals. Subsequently, step wise decrease to 40, 20, 10 mg., every 24-48 hours, depending on the patient’s response, is carried out.”

Dr. Herbert L Stahnke, Director of the Arizona Poisonous Animals Research Laboratory, reports that an antivenin has been prepared in South America to control both the local and general symptoms from the bite of a closely related species of _Loxosceles_. He states, “locally there seems to be a favorable response to hydroxyzine, 100 mg. four times a day. I would say that cryotherapy, as we recommend it, would prevent all symptoms. I would recommend that the site of the bite be packed in crushed ice for 6 to 8 hours, after which the patient should be kept warm to the point of perspiration with the ice pack continuing for a total of 24 hours. In other words, treated like a pit viper bite, but over a much shorter period of time.” Avoid narcotics (morphine, demerol, dilaudid, codeine, etc.) since they enhance the systemic effects.

Although the brown recluse has not yet been reported in Arizona, it may be expected at any time, according to Dr. Mont A. Cazier, professor of zoology at Arizona State University at Tempe. In the meantime, studies are being made of the several close relatives of _Loxosceles reclusa_ known to be present in the state. Among these is _L. unicolor_, first collected near Littlefield and Virgin Narrows in 1932. Equally poisonous with _reclusa_ is the similar _L. laeta_, also found in Arizona. Other members of the genus, _L. deserta_ and _L. arizonica_, have been known to live in Arizona and elsewhere in the Southwest for more than three decades, but no studies have been made of their venom. Dr. Willis J. Gertsch, world famous authority on spiders, believes that there may be as many as 20 species of _Loxosceles_ in the Southwest. Several reports by persons who have been bitten by spiders describe reactions similar to those caused by the bite of the brown recluse.

According to Dr. Findley E. Russell, toxicology researcher of the University of Southern California Medical School, the “venom” injected by the brown spider is not really a toxin but a complete chemical that inhibits the normal action of infection-fighting antibodies in the human anatomy.

Tarantulas (_Avicularia_ sp.)

Known to naturalists as bird spiders, the large hairy members of the genera _Avicularia_, _Dugesiella_, and _Aphonopelma_ of the arid Southwest are commonly called tarantulas.

This name originated in southern Italy where, centuries ago, according to a story, in the little town of Tarantum (now Taranto) there developed an epidemic of “tarentism” supposedly resulting from the bite of a large wolf spider (_Lycosa tarantula_). Victims were affected with melancholy, stupor, and an irresistible desire to dance. Presumably, the Neapolitan folk dance, Tarentella, came about as a result of an effort to develop a cure for tarentism.

Early day immigrants brought to the western hemisphere both the unreasoning fear of spider bites and the name “tarantula,” which they applied to the large and fearsome-looking bird spider of the Southwest. Since that time this superstitious fear has become established among the uneducated and uninformed people of the southwestern United States, where the bird spiders are numerous.

It has been spread and aggravated by prolific writers of western thrillers, published in the pulp-paper magazines. Fantastic tales in which the big spiders followed their victims, sprang upon them from distances of from 6 to 10 feet, and inflicted painful bites resulting in lingering, agonizing death have had wide circulation and have found a credulous audience.

Tarantulas are nearsighted, and their habit of pouncing upon grasshoppers and other large insects on which they prey is probably the basis for exaggerated stories of their jumping abilities. Their strong, sharp fangs can inflict a painful bite, but they use them only rarely in defense against human molestation. Stahnke states that any effects produced appear to be the result of bacterial infection rather than that of poison, although a mild poison is present. Treatment of tarantula bite with iodine or similar antiseptic is recommended.

One species of _Avicularia_ and several of _Aphonopelma_ range throughout the Southwest where they are active during spring, summer, and autumn months. They live in web-lined holes in the ground, usually located on south-facing slopes. The males are commonly encountered traveling across country, and are particularly noticeable as they cross a highway.

Preying upon insects, these large and interesting desert dwellers are beneficial rather than harmful to mankind, and deserve protection.

Unfortunately, many become the innocent victims of the wholly unwarranted fear in which they are held because of the fantastic stories regarding their purported poisonous characteristics.

Conenose bug (Kissing bug, Bellows bug, Walpai tiger, Cross bug, others) (_Triatoma_ sp.)

Although not limited to the deserts of the Southwest, conenose bugs, of which there are several species, are commonly associated with subtropical climates.

Certain South American species of the family _Reduviidae_ are disease carrying and there is evidence the conenoses in San Diego County, California, are infected with a disease-producing flagellate. Lack of large bug populations in close contact with man and ineffective transmission habits protect man in the Southwest from disease contacts. However, the site of the bug’s bite becomes inflamed, and swelling may spread over an area up to a foot in diameter.

In general appearance, conenose bugs resemble assassin and squash bugs, with protruding eyes at the base of a cone-shaped snout and are about the same size. Some species are considerably smaller, while others attain a length of an inch or more.

Habitat of conenose bugs

Since conenose bugs subsist upon animal blood which they suck from the capillaries by inserting the stylets of the proboscis, they seek locations where there is a source of blood. These include livestock barns, poultry houses, and human habitations.

Studies conducted by Wehrle[5] show that conenoses are parasitic on woodrats and breed in the dens of these rodents. They are also found in meadow vole (mouse) nests. Early in May the winged conenose adults begin dispersal flights, invading human habitations in the vicinity of woodrat dens. Although reported as most active in May and June, they may be expected throughout the summer until October, and are much more numerous in the country than in cities.

During the daytime, the insects remain hidden under rugs, between quilts, or even in bedding or behind drapes. They may be seen during the evening on ceiling beams, walls, curtains, and around windows. They are alert and difficult to catch.

Conenose bugs do not attack people until the victim is quiet or asleep, and may take blood without awakening the host. Immediately after being bitten, however, the victim is awakened by severe itching. The area about the puncture swells and becomes red and feverish. Welts at the point of puncture are hard, and may be 1 to 3 inches in diameter.

About 5% of the people repeatedly bitten develop severe allergic reactions with burning pain and itching at the site of the bite, itching on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, neck, and groin; general body swelling, and a nettle-like rash over the body. Some persons feel ill, with light depression followed by quickening of the pulse. Others are faint, weak, and nauseated. In very severe allergy these symptoms may lead to anaphylactic shock and unconsciousness.

Treatment of conenose bites

Although a specific treatment for conenose bites has not been developed, some physicians use epinephrine. More promising results appear possible with antihistamine preparations (under doctor’s prescription) such as benadryl and pyribenzamine, which have been effective by mouth, and in severe reactions, by intravenous injections.

Matheson[6] writes: “When a blood-sucking insect bites, it is always possible that the proboscis may be contaminated with pathogenic organisms. If such organisms become localized near the point of puncture or gain access to the blood stream, results may be serious. It is always wise to use some disinfectant such as alcohol, tincture of iodine, etc., and to press out the blood, if possible, from bites made by insects.” Antibiotics are frequently necessary to control the extremely high percentage of secondary infections.

Physicians recommend the application of a hot Epsom salt pack over the point of puncture as soon as possible after the bite has been received. Application of antiphlogistine alleviates the severe itching. ACTH is recommended by some physicians. Hydrocortizone ointments reduce the skin eruptions and local pain.

Control of conenose bugs

Prevention is more satisfactory than treatment, and since conenoses live in woodrat dens, these rodents should be eliminated from the vicinity. Weatherstripping around all permanent doors and screen doors, tight-fitting, holeless screens in all windows, and fine screens in fireplace chimneys will help to keep the bugs out of houses. Occasionally they may be seen on walls and ceilings in the evening, and may be killed with a flyswatter.

If impossible to keep the insects out of the house, sleeping persons may be protected by the use of mosquito netting. It is especially important that the beds of babies and young children should be safe-guarded because of the danger from scorpions.

Bedding should be shaken thoroughly just before children retire, because both scorpions and conenose bugs have a habit of concealing themselves in bedding during the daytime.

Ants, wasps, hornets, bees

Stinging insects all belong to the group _Hymenoptera_ and consist of the families _Apidae_ (honeybee, etc.), _Bombidae_ (bumblebee), _Vespidae_ (wasps and hornets), _Sphecidae_ (thread-waisted wasps), _Mutillidae_ (velvet ants), and _Formicidae_ (the ants).

_In general, the only treatment recommended for insect stings is to bathe the parts with ordinary liquid household bluing just as soon as possible after the sting has been received, and apply hot compresses. However, certain specific treatments are advised, depending upon the particular species or condition._

Some persons are extremely susceptible to insect bites and stings, and preliminary work has been done in trying to immunize those sensitive individuals, but, in general, with very little success. The problem of immunizing or desensitizing persons who are allergic to insect bites and stings is one of considerable importance, as such unfortunate persons will testify.

Because of the fact that honeybees are of such great economic importance, not only as producers of an important food but also as pollenizers of fruit, vegetable, seed, and other crops, they will be discussed separately from the other stinging insects.

Everyone is familiar with ants, wasps, hornets, and bumblebees, and there are very few persons who have not had unpleasant experiences with one or more of these groups of insects.

_Ants and velvet ants_

Velvet ants, which are in reality wingless wasps and not true ants, are not as well known as the others, although the little creatures that scurry about like brightly dyed bits of cotton are quite numerous in the desert.

The primary purpose of the sting is to paralyze or kill their prey, although it becomes more important as a weapon of defense with insects which do not prey upon or parasitize other creatures. Although the solitary insects use their poison as a means of personal defense if attacked or imposed upon, the social insects such as ants, social wasps and hornets, honeybees, and others, rally to the defense of their nests and in mass attacks against an intruder may cause painful and sometimes serious injury.

Although the small amount of poison introduced beneath the skin by the sting of one of these creatures usually causes only temporary discomfort, there are sometimes after effects which may be more intense and of longer duration with some persons than with others. In general, stinging insects may be considered more as a nuisance than a menace, although a person attacked by a large number, or subjected to their stings for some length of time, might receive serious and perhaps fatal injuries. Known deaths have been caused by the sting of imported fire ants in southeastern States. The species is believed to be spreading. Treatment by a physician may include the use of ACTH and calmitol.

Although ants and velvet ants are commonly considered as wingless, they are, actually, winged. Male velvet ants have wings whereas the females are normally without wings. The females have a very effective sting, and if picked up or pinched they make every effort to use it, at the same time emitting a peculiar faint squeaking sound.

True ants, of which there are hundreds of species, are social insects living in colonies containing the mother, or queen, which becomes wingless after fertilization; numerous workers, or non-fertile females; and young winged males and females.

_Control of ants_

Ants of various species are numerous on the desert, some of them becoming serious household pests, difficult to control.