[caption id="attachment_62051" align="alignright" width="300"] This large female black widow (~18 mm) was found on a 5 foot web in Westminster CA on 11/18/2006. This photo shows the textbook red hourglass on the abdomen as well as the legs and mouth.
Author: Chepyle[/caption]Black Widow bites golfer

One LGPA golfer is currently in the news for showing tremendous guts in the wake a potential serious health issue.

Golfer Daniela Holmqvist of Sweden was on the fourth hole of her round at the ISPS Handa Ausrralian Open, when she felt a very sharp pain in her ankle. Holmqvist looked down and saw that a Black Widow spider was crawling just above her sock line.

"When I told the local caddies in my group what had happened, they got very upset and said it was a Black Widow, and immediately started looking for their phones to call the medics," Holmqvist told Karin Klarstrom of Svensk Golf.

The caddies nearby quickly called the medics to alert them of the situation.

Holmqvist's leg started swelling rapidly, and she showed alertness when she pulled a golf tee out of her pocket and cut open the wound to start getting the poison out.

Holmqvist actually finished the round at the Royal Canberra Golf Club despite being in pain.

Medics followed Holmqvist as she played the remaining holes for the round to keep a close look on the swelling and make sure that she did not pass out.

"It still hurts," she told Svensk Golf later in the evening. "I don't recommend getting bitten by a Black Widow."

According to WebMD, treatment for serious reactions to a black widow spider's bite will be beyond the scope of most medical offices and urgent care centers. Pain relief may require the use of narcotics and antivenin (antitoxin to counteract the effects of the spider venom).

In 2011, a Colorado resident was bitten by a poisonous black widow spider 19 times -- but investigators say that the spider bites didn't cause his death.

Jeff Seale, 40, reportedly noticed the bites on his foot two weeks before he died. The Boulder County Coroner's Office says it could be 4-6 weeks before an official cause of death is released -- but Seale's sister is nevertheless convinced that the bites are responsible.

"I think it's definitely related. He was in really good health up until that point," she told a reporter for Fox31. "He worked at a horse stable in the evenings, and he very well could have brought one of the spiders home in his things, or picked up some stuff from one of the horse sheds and brought one of the things home," she said.

At the time, experts at Colorado State University and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science said that the black widow spider bites did not kill Seale.

"I'd say zero chance, not likely at all," said Dr. Paula Cushing, the museum's curator of invertebrate zoology and a past president of the American Arachnological Society. "I think it's tragic that he did die so young, but it's extremely unlikely that this is the cause."

On The Web:

Player bitten by Black Widow spider in LPGA qualifier
http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-digest-woman/blogs/golf-digest-woman/2013/02/player-bitten-by-black-widow-s.html

Black Widow Spider Bite
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/black-widow-spider-bite

Experts say 'zero chance' that black widow killed Seale
http://www.timescall.com/news/longmont-local-news/ci_18533006