Bitten by a spider - what to do at home. Spider karakurt (photo): poisonous and very dangerous The karakurt spider has the ability to resist

In fact, this is not a spider called the "black widow", but a whole genus of arachnids, to which our today's hero belongs - the karakurt spider. This genus got its name for two reasons:

• black - according to the main background of the body color;
• widow - for instantly eating her husband by a female immediately after mating.

Red spots on her abdomen give a special sign to black widows, look how gorgeous the karakurt spider looks in the photo.

Attention! In some mature females, the spots may disappear, then the widow becomes especially black!

Species biology

Description

Let's start the description of the karakurt spider with its size. The species has a pronounced sexual dimorphism, in which the female in the span of the paws reaches twenty millimeters, and the male is only 5-7!

Distribution area

Naturally, having heard about dangerous bites, each person is interested in where the karakurt lives. This representative of black widows prefers forest-steppe, steppe and semi-desert zones with a warm climate. Therefore, its habitat is located in the south of Europe, in Central Asia and in northern Africa.

As for the post-Soviet space, the black widow is found in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan. In Mariupol near Azov, Donetsk region of Ukraine, karakurts were also noticed not so long ago.

In Russia, karakurts are also very widespread. This mainly applies to the southern regions of the country and those regions that are located in the steppe zones. So, for example, karakurts are often found in the Rostov region, in the Novosibirsk region and the Altai Territory.

In addition, scientists have recorded cases of catching karakurts even at the latitude of the Moscow region, which occurs during the migration of spiders in especially hot years. But such appearances are of a single nature, since the black widow cannot endure the harsh winters of the middle zone of our country.

The habitats in nature in the black widow are distinguished by their attraction to the plains. It can be:

• steppe;
• arable land;
• territories near ravines or artificial ditches;
• salt marshes;
• wastelands.

Nutrition

The black karakurt feeds on insects that fall into its webs. These are usually those types of arthropods that live directly next to the spiders themselves:

• beetles;
• grasshoppers;
• locust;
• flies and horseflies.

It is interesting that victims of karakurt come across in horizontally stretched nets. At the same time, the web of karakurts does not differ in the elegance of circular lines, but is made as if randomly, but at the same time it is very viscous and does not give the insect that has fallen into it any chance of salvation.

The spider paralyzes the caught insect with poison, and then sucks out its liquid tissues.

It is interesting! Did you know that spiders have blue blood. It turns out that not red hemoglobin is responsible for the formation of blood, but blue (copper) hemocyanin!

Reproduction and development

In summer, spiders, having found a secluded place, start mating games. The male karakurt arranges a patina, flavoring it with his pheromones to attract the female. As noted above, after mating, the male ruthlessly eats, and the female begins to look for a secluded place for arranging the clutch, in which she places up to 130 eggs.

Unlike other types of arachnids, the female karakurt forms from two to four cocoons, in which she lays her eggs. For oviposition, she uses rodent burrows or similar secluded places. Here she weaves a web, to which she hangs her cocoons. With the onset of autumn cold weather, the female dies, having not much survived her eaten husband.

The eggs in the cocoon are reliably protected from the cold and easily endure the winter, and in the spring they begin the struggle for existence. In autumn, the wind tears the cocoons from the cobwebs, and the masonry begins its journey across the steppe, thus expanding the habitat of the species.

Our Help! Once every 10-15 years there is a surge in the reproduction of karakurts. In such years, females are able to lay up to 1300 per season.

Spiderlings appear quickly, within 10-15 days, depending on the weather, but they do not leave the cocoon, but live in it until next spring. At first, they feed on the supply of food that nature has laid inside their body, then they switch to cannibalism, as a result of which only the strongest individuals get out of the cocoon.

During spring and summer, they grow, living several molts during this time: males - seven times, females - nine.

Our help! The body of spiders is protected by an exoskeleton, a kind of shell made of chitin, which prevents the spider from developing further. Therefore, when growing, black widows shed it and replace it with a new one - a larger one.

Enemies of Karakurt

It turns out that the formidable black widow karakurt is not omnipotent, and many animals are not only not afraid of her, but are also able to feed on them. The natural enemies of spiders are herd animals. A flock of sheep or a herd of horses can trample down entire hectares of the steppe along with the spiders living there.

Sphex wasps act against karakurts in their own favorite way: they inject poison under their skin, paralyzing and subsequently killing.

Riders lay their eggs in cocoons with spiders, and then their larvae easily deal with unprotected spider nymphs.

Finally, the ubiquitous hedgehogs love to eat karakurt, which are not afraid of karakurt bites, being protected by armor made of needles.

bites

Having given an idea of ​​the black widow as an animal, we move on to the main part of our story - the bites of the karakurt. It is immediately necessary to identify two main positions related to this:

1. The bite of a black widow can be fatal.
2. Spiders do not attack humans first.

Symptoms

To begin with, let's denote the symptoms of a karakurt bite, which appear very quickly.

1. Within 10-15 minutes, all the muscles of the body begin to break, as happens with the flu or other colds. The muscles of the chest, abdominals, and lumbar region hurt the most.
2. In addition, the heartbeat becomes more frequent, shortness of breath appears, dizziness, tremor of the limbs and even priapism in men.
3. After this, general weakness of the body sets in, it seems that the limbs do not obey the person, vomiting appears.
4. Further, nervous exhaustion of the human body occurs and depression may occur.
5. A person's consciousness becomes cloudy, and he ceases to realize reality and recognize even people close to him.

If the antidote is not administered in time, physical death of a person may occur.

However, it is not at all necessary that all karakurt bites are fatal to humans. Firstly, people with increased immunity will tolerate a bite much easier than those weakened by diseases, or those who have an increased allergic reaction to poisons. Secondly, the highest concentration of poison is observed in black widows during the mating season and after laying eggs; in other seasons, bites are less terrible.

Reference! Male karakurt are not able to bite through human skin, therefore they are not dangerous for people and most animals.

What to do after a bite

The most effective way after a bite is to immediately cauterize the wound. This allows you to destroy the poison, preventing it from spreading with the blood throughout the body. The fact is that the female bites through the skin only half a millimeter, and for some time the poison concentrates almost on the surface.

You can burn the wound from a bite directly with the head of a match, or by heating any metal object at hand on the fire:

• blade of knife;
• cutlery;
• house key or car key;
• metal comb.

Attention! Cauterization should be done in the first 10 (!) minutes after the bite. After this time, the poison will go for a walk through the body.

Everyone knows what to do next - immediately contact the nearest medical institution, which will provide the required assistance. In regions where the black widow is common, there is almost always the right serum, which is designed to neutralize the poison.

In an extreme case, when the necessary remedy was not available, it turned out that an intravenous injection of ordinary potassium permanganate at a concentration of 2-4 percent or magnesium sulfate - 10-15 percent can alleviate the fate of the patient.

After medical procedures, the patient should be given plenty of drink to remove the poison from the body and a hot bath to reduce pain. It is also a good idea to take painkillers and sleeping pills, for healthy sleep brings great benefits to the body weakened by a bite.

Animal bites with karakurt

Different animals react differently to black widow bites. Horses and camels suffer the most from it, up to death, which in some regions is a real scourge for agriculture. Also, many rodents die from the poison of karakurt.

At the same time, dogs, hedgehogs, amphibians and reptiles are practically not sensitive to the poison of the karakurt.

Now it's time to watch the video about the black widow. Watch a report from America filmed by our former compatriot.

At all times, people have been wary of spiders. These mysterious insects repel not only their appearance, many of them have the ability to kill (see). One of these spiders is, or as it is also called, karakurt. Having met an accidentally dangerous insect, a person risks losing his life. Why is a karakurt bite dangerous and how to avoid death when attacked by a spider?

Karakurt belongs to the order of arthropod insects. This spider is especially poisonous: the bite of a sexually mature individual can kill an adult man. If the victim is not provided with first aid in a timely manner and is not delivered to a medical institution, in most cases a fatal outcome occurs. Many people who meet an arthropod die due to the fact that they cannot recognize the bite of a dangerous killer in a timely manner.

What does karakurt look like?

The spider has a black color, red spots are located on top of the abdomen, the number of which is almost always 13. Adult females are much larger than males, their body length reaches up to 2 cm, while males are 2 times smaller than females. The arthropod was called the "black widow" for a peculiar feature: after mating, the female karakurt always kills and then eats her cavalier.

The abdomen of the spider is spherical in shape, there is a cephalothorax, 4 pairs of long legs. The jaw of a karakurt consists of 2 pairs (the upper jaw is chelicerae, the lower jaw is equipped with poisonous glands). It is the female spider that poses the greatest danger to humans; males, as a rule, are devoid of toxic substances in their teeth.

Find out if it poses a danger to people and what to do if an insect attacks?

Read what is dangerous for a person and what to do when an allergy occurs.

Where is the spider found?

On the territory of Russia, the black widow lives in the southern regions of the country, it can often be found in the Crimea. The spider also settles in Afghanistan, Central Asia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, northern Africa and southern Europe. There are cases when arthropods migrated to Rostov, Moscow, Volgograd and other regions of the country.

The black widow chooses rodent burrows for its habitat, various depressions in the ground, crevices, ditches, ravines, and steppes. In open areas, karakurts, as a rule, are not found. Spiders are considered the most dangerous during the mating season, from July to August. At this time, the poison of females has a powerful toxic power, acting deadly on its prey.

Note! Black widows do not disdain to settle in people's houses, for their shelter they choose dark attics and closets, abandoned barns. Especially karakurts like to settle in human housing with the onset of cold weather.

How to identify a black widow bite?

The poisonous teeth of a female spider are capable of piercing not only human skin, but even nails. An arthropod bite is sometimes virtually painless and feels like a mosquito puncture. What a karakurt bite looks like: a small red spot appears on the affected area, which disappears without a trace after a few minutes. The first signs of a black widow attack appear after a couple of hours. That is why a spider bite is considered dangerous: a person can simply lose precious time and die.

Some time after the attack of the karakurt, the victim feels the following symptoms of a bite:

• feeling of aches in the whole body;
• unbearable back pain;
• weakness in the limbs;
• heart rate increases;
• nausea is felt and;
• lacrimation is observed;
• pallor of mucous membranes and skin;
• acute pain appears in the abdomen (symptoms are similar to an attack of acute appendicitis);
• panic attacks, fear of imminent death appear;
• temperature rises at the site of the bite;
• pain in all muscles.

If the bite of a karakurt is obvious and the victim has characteristic symptoms, the person must be urgently taken to the hospital for timely treatment. The help of doctors consists of the introduction of antitoxic serum.

First aid in the attack of karakurt

It happens when, with a bite of a karakurt, you can’t quickly get to a medical institution, what to do in this case? If after an insect attack it is difficult to deliver the victim to the hospital, it is urgent to start providing first aid on the spot:

1. A person must be laid horizontally and not allowed to make even the slightest movement. Physical activity will accelerate the spread of the toxin throughout the body.
2. It is recommended to suck out the poison from the wound. If there is no special device for this device, you can suck it with your mouth. It is important that the one who will remove the poison does not have wounds, ulcers and other injuries in the mouth, otherwise the toxic substance will also enter the body of another person.
3. Apply ice cubes or a container of cold water to the bitten place. This will slow down the absorption of the toxin and soothe the pain.
4. When the bite fell on the arm or leg, a non-tight fixing bandage is applied just above the affected area.
5. The victim is given an antihistamine to drink, which prevents the occurrence of an allergic reaction.
6. It is required to constantly give a person a large amount of liquid to drink, best of all, strong sweet tea (see).
7. It is forbidden to comb, cut, and even more so burn the wound, as this contributes to the penetration of infection into the tissues and the development of the inflammatory process.

Important! When first aid is provided out of time, as a result of a bite of a karakurt, severe consequences develop for the victim: a decrease in blood pressure, respiratory failure and death.

Spider bite prevention

Going for a walk in the area where karakurts can live, in order to avoid bites, you must follow certain rules. It is not recommended to visit places where there are many rodent holes, a large number of stones and crevices, dry foliage, ditches. Better to spend time outdoors.

Those who are going on a camping trip with an overnight stay should not put up a tent directly on the ground; you must first equip any flooring made of durable material. In addition, a place to sleep should not remain open all day. Clothes and shoes should not be left outside, it is best if things are stored inside the tent. Before putting on clothes and shoes, all personal items are thoroughly shaken out and inspected, as spiders can crawl into them.

Staying in nature at night, you can’t sleep on bare ground; for safety, it’s better to lay a dense tarpaulin material or use an inflated mattress.

Learn what to do if: first aid.

What to do if: first emergency aid to the victim. bite complications.

Parents take note! : varieties, symptoms and treatment.

It is better not to walk barefoot on the ground, as the karakurt spider will surely bite the person it meets on its way. In addition, it is necessary to collect branches, brushwood and dry grass for a fire in tight gloves, which will help to avoid the penetration of poisonous insect teeth.

Before entering any barn, closet or attic, especially where there is no electricity, you need to protect yourself with thick clothing. Spiders living indoors must be destroyed: the females of the karakurt are very tender, with the slightest pressure on the insect, the spider dies. The discovered cobwebs and cocoons must be taken out into the street and burned.

Karakurt - Black Widow - is one of the most poisonous spiders on the planet. The most poisonous of all arthropods are spiders, and of them the most poisonous is karakurt ("Black Widow"). The second name of the female of this spider was due to a biological feature - after mating, have a bite to eat with her chosen one.

Karakurt Spider Black Widow

Spiders, like scorpions, are evolutionarily endowed not with hemoglobin, but with hemocyanin, which instead of iron contains copper, which stains blood in an unusual color: venous - blue, arterial - blue.

HOW THE SPIDER KARACURT LOOKS

The body of the karakurt is smooth, the hairline is completely absent, so the insect seems completely harmless. An adult female has a spherical shape 1.5-2 cm in size. The female and male are not alike in everything: the spider molts 9 times, and the spider only 7, and has more pronounced red spots on its back until the end of its life.

The danger to humans and warm-blooded animals is the poison-producing apparatus of the karakurt.

POISON KARAKURTA

The poisonous glands located in the cephalothorax are connected by thin ducts to the movable sharp claws of the upper jaws. The glands are enveloped in a muscular sheath. Due to the sharp contraction of these muscles, the victim receives a portion of the poison instantly.

According to the biochemical structure, the poison of the karakurt belongs to toxalbumins, spreads through the lymphatic tract, is neurotoxic and contains six bioactive fractions. The sensitivity of warm-blooded animals to the poison of karakurt is not the same.

The bite of a karakurt is very dangerous for horses and camels that die right in the pastures. Sheep, goats and pigs are not sensitive to this poison and can eat an adult karakurt without any consequences. The venom of the karakurt is 15 times more toxic than the venom of a rattlesnake.

People (especially the inhabitants of the steppes) are well aware of the danger of karakurt. To reduce the likelihood of contact with it in the habitat, shepherds have long driven out, driven out and grazed in the steppe flocks of sheep that are not sensitive to the poison of the karakurt, and also practiced seasonal burning of the steppe so that young individuals of the spider would die in cocoons.

DISTRIBUTION OF KARAKURT

Hot countries - Central Asia, Ukraine, Caucasus. The density of its settlement largely depends on the regional weather conditions of the past year, wintering conditions, and the number of natural enemies.

The habitats of spiders are diverse: mouse minks, cracks in adobe walls, sagebrush steppes, wasteland salt marshes - both on virgin soil and on arable lands. They even settle in inhabited yard buildings.

In deserts, as well as in very humid places, in dense grasses and shrubs, karakurts do not live.

WHAT WAY OF LIFE DOES KARAKURT LEAD?

Most often, the karakurt arranges a nest at the base of grass stalks or directly on the ground, where it weaves spherical cocoons for eggs and has a trapping net nearby. Trapping nets and cocoons are made of very strong, tightly stretched cobwebs with a stretch factor of up to 30%.

Karakurt builds cocoons in July - August. After 5-7 days, spiderlings appear in the cocoon, but they emerge from there only next year at an air temperature of 30 ° (15-20 ° degrees in the shade).

WHEN AND HOW KARAKURT BITES

The first bites of karakurt occur in May - early June. However, in 2007, on March 5, a report appeared in the press about the first and only case of a winter spider bite. Usually spiders sleep in winter, but the warm winter, according to experts, has disrupted their biological clock. The most frequent and dangerous bites of karakurt are observed in July and August. From September to the end of October, when the weather gets colder, karakurts die en masse.

All adult individuals die, only spiderlings hibernate in cocoons, from which they emerge in summer. In recent years, there has been a movement of karakurt to a zone of relatively dense human habitation. These are sheds, abandoned courtyard buildings, piles of firewood, rural latrines (cases of a bite in the buttocks are known). It is possible for karakurt to penetrate housing during prolonged heavy rains that flood the spider's habitats.

HOW TO PROTECT FROM A KARAKURT BITE

The most reliable defense against the deadly poison of karakurt is not to do stupid things while outdoors. To prevent contact with karakurt, certain rules must be followed:

1. For parking, you should choose areas unsuitable for the life of a karakurt (the absence of a large number of rodent holes, cobwebs in the recesses of the soil and on vegetation).

2. No need to walk barefoot in the places where karakurts may live, and not only them.

3. You can not sleep in the steppe on bare ground, you must use a tarpaulin or air mattresses, which are reliable protection against spider bites at night.

4. When collecting hay, straw, brushwood for a fire, clearing forest belts and wastelands, it is recommended to use gloves and protective clothing, tuck trousers into socks and boots.

5. Do not turn stones over and move by feel at night on rocky slopes.

7. Most bites are provoked by the victims themselves. Summer residents and homeowners struggle poorly with wild herbs on the territory of households and adjacent areas, so karakurts and tarantulas often master vegetable gardens. Some take off their shoes in the evening and leave them in the aisles. Spiders mistake left shoes for a desired mink - and morning can be fatal.

TREATMENT IF BITED BY A BLACK WIDOW

When bitten by a karakurt, it is necessary immediately, no later than 2-3 minutes, to burn the bite with a match head (attach the head of an unlit match to the bite site and set it on fire with another match).

The poison of the karakurt penetrates the skin to a depth of 0.5 mm and decomposes when heated. Other methods of destroying the poison are injecting 3-5 ml of a 0.1% aqueous solution of potassium permanganate into the wound site and applying it to the bite site.

Only a female karakurt can bite during puberty

For treatment, it is necessary to inject 1-2 doses of serum diluted in 1000 ml of saline intravenously. Specific anti-karakurt serum is produced at the Tashkent Institute of Vaccines and Serums. One dose of this serum costs 37,000 rubles. This is a huge amount for district hospitals.

Wherever a karakurt bite is received, the victim must be immediately taken to a medical facility. With severe intoxication, drinking plenty of water is recommended, with chills, trembling, a feeling of cold and muscle tension - warming the limbs. A cold compress is applied to the bite site, salicylates and any painkillers are used.

Who in the world is scarier than a rattlesnake? This is not a huge bear and not a terrible tiger - this is a small spider, the name of which makes you shudder! Black widow karakurt... its bite is 15 times more poisonous than the bite of a rattlesnake! Look at the photo of the karakurt spider and remember not to get into its "web" ...

The name of this eight-legged creature comes from the Turkic words "kara" (black) and "kurt" (worm). The scientific name of the karakurt is Latrodectus tredecimguttatus. This bloodthirsty creature belongs to the order of spiders, the family of spider-web spiders and is referred by scientists to the genus of black widows. This animal is considered one of the most poisonous spiders in the Crimea. Having met him on a hot afternoon, it is better to run away from him wherever your eyes look, otherwise he will certainly want to get to know you better. By the way, the same applies to other animals of the Crimea, for example -.

How to recognize karakurt among other spiders?

Adults of these poisonous arachnids are of medium size.

Females are much larger than males. Compare for yourself: if the body length of males ranges from 4 to 7 millimeters, then females grow up to 2 centimeters!

The body color of karakurts is black. But there are a great many black spiders, you say, and not all of them are deadly poisonous! Karakurts have one distinctive feature - these are its spots. These blotches are red, sometimes they are bordered by white rims. It is noteworthy that when the spiders become fully mature, sometimes these spots disappear altogether ... therefore, when relaxing in the Crimea, bypass, just in case, the side of all black spiders!

Where do karakurts live

These dangerous creatures can be found in Asia, for example, in Kazakhstan. Karakurts also live in Europe, in particular on the territory of Ukraine. In our country, you can get acquainted with karakurt in the Crimea. North Africa is also included in the habitat of these poisonous creatures.

Karakurt lifestyle

For a comfortable stay of these representatives of the genus of black widows, a warm autumn and a hot summer are needed. But when the temperature rises above the norm in the summer months, karakurts can migrate to more northern regions.

Steppe areas are especially welcomed by these spiders. Karakurt likes to settle on wastelands, slopes of ravines, in ditches, ruins, salt marshes.

This black spider builds its home in animal burrows, cracks in the earth's crust.

What does karakurt eat

Insects such as grasshoppers, locusts can get on the "dining table" of this predator. Sometimes karakurts also feed on other invertebrates.

Reproduction of karakurts

The breeding season for karakurts is July - August. On a woven web, the female lays eggs, "packed" in a cocoon. A week later, small spiders appear from them. It is noteworthy that young spiders do not leave the cocoon until the spring of next year. They winter in this very cocoon.

Enemies of karakurt - who are they?

These arachnids are attacked by rider beetles. In addition, herds of sheep often trample, without knowing it, entire clusters of karakurts.

The bite of a karakurt - why is it dangerous, and what to do if the “kiss” did take place?

If you are bitten by this poisonous spider, then right away you may not even feel it. The sensation of pain comes only after 10 - 15 minutes. Severe pain instantly spreads throughout the body, and if timely assistance is not provided, then such an unpleasant “surprise” can end in death for a person. The poison of one small karakurt is quite enough to kill an adult.

Karakurt is a compound name: "kara" - black, "kurt" - worm (from Turkic), scientific name - Latrodectus tredecimguttatus. The spider received a different name "black widow" for the dark color of the body and the instant eating of a partner after mating.

A special sign of this spider are red-orange markings on the abdomen, sometimes bordered by a white outline.

Quite aesthetic in the photo, without fluff, which is typical for spider varieties, it does not necessarily cause a feeling of disgust or is able to remind of danger. With the age of the animal, spots may disappear, as for Eurasian females, unlike Australian and American ones, which are always spotted, so black spiders should be avoided in their habitats.

A more detailed description of the spider: a spherical abdomen, cephalothorax, four pairs of legs, two pairs of jaws. The upper jaws of the female end in hooks, on the other side of which there are poisonous glands. Sometimes a mature female has yellow stripes instead of red-orange dots. The body length is 1-2 cm, legs - up to 3 cm.

One of the differences of the species is sexual dimorphism: the length of the female is related to the length of the male as 20:7 mm. It is not red hemoglobin (iron) that is responsible for hematopoiesis, but blue hemocyanin (copper), which is why black spiders have blue blood.

There is another type of karakurt - white. With the same physique as black, it does not have a colorful color, as you can see in the photo, but its bite is not so poisonous, and is more often dangerous for children and the elderly.

habitats

The spider prefers warm steppe, semi-steppe, forest-steppe zones of Southern Europe, Central Asia (Iran, Afghanistan), North Africa, southern Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and is found in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Common habitat areas in Russia are Crimea, Altai, Krasnodar Territories, Novosibirsk, Astrakhan, Rostov Regions.

In hot years, karakurts were seen at the latitude of the Moscow region in the process of migration. But usually the Black Widow does not survive the harsh climatic conditions, and such cases are rare. For habitat, the spider karakurt chooses the steppe, arable land, areas near ravines, wastelands, salt marshes.

He avoids open areas, thick grass, wet ravines, hot desert. Uneven rocky surfaces are acceptable for him, similar to the habitat of ferrets and lemmings. Sometimes karakurt is found on abandoned construction sites, but the modern yard is no exception. Karakurt spiders die with the onset of frost in the fall.

Nutrition

This spider feeds on insects caught in its webs. The victims are arthropods that live close to the black widow: grasshoppers, beetles, flies, horseflies, locusts, cicadas and other invertebrates.

These insects are caught more often in horizontal nets. The weaving of the web does not look like a round trapezoid pattern, but more looks like a random chaotic pattern. The spider paralyzes the victim with poison, after which it extracts liquid components from it.

reproduction

In July-August, spiders arrange mating. The male attracts the female with fragrant pheromones. Immediately after the mating games, the spider eats her husband and goes to lay eggs in cozy corners, which are suitable for mouse holes, cracks in the earth's crust, walls of adobe houses, ventilation drainage systems. There the female places her cocoons. Usually the number of eggs reaches 130 pieces. With the advent of autumn, the female dies.

Eggs hidden in a cocoon are reliably stored all winter, and in April they are released with the help of wind, spreading over the flat terrain, expanding the horizons of the species' habitat.

The cubs appear quickly, after ten days, but do not leave the shelter until they eat the supplies left by the mother. Then they move on to eating each other. Only strong surviving individuals remain, which get out of the cocoon in the next spring, and in June-July become sexually mature.

Periodically, strong breeding outbreaks of the karakurt spider occur at intervals of 10–25 years.

Enemies of Karakurt

Herds of grazing sheep and pigs are an unfavorable phenomenon for spiders: eating grass, they trample large areas while simultaneously destroying karakurts.

Sphex wasps eat spiders in a similar way: by injecting poison and sucking.

The riding beetles lay their eggs in the cocoons of the karakurt, and then their larvae destroy the spider offspring.

The bites of karakurt do not harm the hedgehogs, and the hedgehogs do not refuse to feast on them.

bites

The bites of the karakurt are deadly, and 15 times more venomous than a rattlesnake bite, the poison of which is enough to kill 75 people out of 100 bitten. But the spiders themselves do not attack. It is advisable to see the spider in the photo in order to remember what it looks like.

In the first minutes, the bite is not felt and the affected area looks like a small abrasion. Over time, this symptom begins to disappear. Pain appears after 2-3 hours, a sometimes 30 minutes is enough for a person to feel aches, heaviness, malaise.

Bite symptoms:

• body aches, mostly the muscles of the chest, abdomen, lower back;
• difficulty breathing, which can lead to cardiac arrest;
• rapid pulse, shortness of breath, dizziness, tremor;
• weakness and vomiting;
• nervous exhaustion, depression;
• clouding of consciousness, impaired perception;
• pallor of the face;
• lacrimation;
• sweating;
• heaviness in the chest.

Timely treatment provides improvement in twenty days. Asthenia and weakness sometimes persist for up to two months.

Extremely dangerous bites of karakurt during the breeding season and after laying eggs, when the concentration of their poison increases. They pose a great threat to people with low immunity and a painful allergic reaction.

Male karakurt are not able to bite through the skin of humans and some animals, therefore they are not dangerous.

Actions after a bite:

• since the spider is only capable of biting through the skin by half a millimeter, it turns out to be effective immediate cauterization of the skin(in the first 2 minutes, but no later than 10), so that the poison cannot spread throughout the body;
• sometimes the solution is applying ice to the affected area of ​​the body before treatment, to contain the speed of the spread of the poison, as well as immobilization and complete rest of the victim;
• urgently go to the hospital for antidote, which is found in the regions inhabited by the black widow.

A single dose of serum costs about 37 thousand rubles. In case there is no antidote, an injection of potassium permanganate (5 ml 0.1%) with the same compress at the site of the bite or magnesium sulfate 10-15% is acceptable, which will alleviate the patient's suffering. Good results are given by novocaine, calcium chloride, magnesium hydrosulfate.

Auxiliary measures after taking the antidote are:

• hot bath to relieve muscle pain;
• drinking plenty of water to dissolve toxins;
• rubbing with alcohol;
• enemas;
• painkillers and sleeping pills to help recover the victim (Analgin, Diphenhydramine, Ketanol);
• antihistamines that reduce swelling (Suprastin, Agistam, Loratadin, Claritin).

Without medical intervention, death is possible in a day or two. The number of deaths after a bite of a karakurt is 4-6%, which occurs due to late admission to the hospital, a person's predisposition to intoxication, including diseases and weakness of the immune system.

Animal bites

Horses and camels are most sensitive to the bite of a karakurt, the consequence for them can be fatal.

Reptiles, amphibians, dogs, sheep, pigs, hedgehogs are not susceptible to the bite of a karakurt.

Circumstances of the bite

Most often, a spider attack occurs when the nests or trapping nets of the animal are violated, when the human body is pressed against the spider. This is possible while picking flowers, mowing grass, relaxing on the ground, and spending the night in nature.

There are cases of spiders entering barns, woodpiles, rural buildings and latrines. If the dwelling of the karakurt is flooded during the period of heavy rains, it is possible that he will enter the house in search of a new dwelling.

Bite protection

Rules for preventing contact with a spider:

• for parking during rest, choose an area unsuitable for karakurt habitation (excluding many rodent burrows, vegetation with cobwebs, depressions in the soil);
• do not walk barefoot in places of a possible settlement of a black widow;
• do not spend the night in the steppe zone on bare ground, use tarpaulins and air mattresses;
• when clearing a place to rest, collecting firewood for a fire, you must wear gloves and tuck your pants into boots;
• when a spider is found on clothes, do not touch it with your hands, but knock it down with a click, shake it off;
• it is not recommended to move stones and walk at night on rocky terrain;
• it is better to close the tents, and when going for a night's rest, shake out sleeping bags and check the tents, which also applies to shoes;
• do not touch the inner wall of the tent;
• dig a tent by building a groove around;
• wild grasses in the countryside can be inhabited by karakurts and tarantulas, and shoes left in the garden will be a good condition.

Returning to the description of the barbaric custom of karkurt spiders to kill males who have served their time, I would like to mention the observation of the researcher Professor Pavel Iustinovich Marikovsky, who kept notes in his diary from nature and recorded the behavior of spiders in the photo. Not one day lasts importunate mating courtship from the side of several males at once. They prevent the female from eating, arrange fights, and if she kills them ahead of time, this does not bother the males at all. As a result, the female is forced to leave the dwelling along with the boyfriends waiting for her, but such measures are temporary.