Spiders of the Everglades
There are a lot of creepy things in The Everglades that give people the chills. Most people think of the reptiles that we hear so much about, the alligators and snakes. This story is about the everglades’ "ARACHNIDS," (one of those big words I don’t usually use). Yes, spiders, the 8-legged critters and their "creepy" cousins.
There are more than 30,000 types of spiders worldwide that have been identified and scientists believe there may be 4 times that many that "have not" been identified. There are many parts of the world that scientists have not been able to reach in order to find and study the unidentified species.
The everglades are home to many different species of spiders. We have many spiders that are native to Florida and also species that come from many other places. Florida is surrounded by the rest of North America as well as Central America and the Caribbean; and spiders have come to South Florida from all over the world. Some have come here by floating on pieces of debris in the ocean or on birds. Many spiders came here with people and cargo on ships and airplanes. Since the climate in Florida is similar to that of so many other places our "visiting" spiders have thrived here and decided to stay. This is why we have so many different species of spiders in South Florida.
It is said, that, there are over 20,000 spiders per acre of land in the everglades. It sounds like the everglades would be dangerous just from the amount of spiders we have, however, most of those spiders are so small you can’t even see them with the naked eye.
Most spiders are harmless and their bite is more of an irritation than a danger. Many spiders in the everglades make beautiful, intricate webs that you can see in the mornings when they are damp from overnight condensation. You can see the spider webs clearly because the webs have hundreds of dewdrops on them. On some mornings we can walk across the prairie between the cypress strands, and see magnificent, dew covered webs carpeting the prairie.
With all the spider webs across the prairies, you wouldn’t think there was room for all of the spiders but that is not the case. The spiders are territorial but they make pretty good neighbors.
Some spiders live in webs; others make burrows or hide under leaves or in the bark on a tree.
The most common of the spiders that don’t make webs are The Wolf Spiders and The Jumping Spiders. The spiders we see most often are the orb weavers (there are many different kinds of orb weavers). The most common are the Spiny Backed Orb Weaver, the Green, Long Jawed Orb Weaver, and The Long Legged Orb Weaver. The most seen, and remembered, is The Golden Silk Orb Weaver. The Golden Silk Orb Weaver spider, commonly known as the Banana spider is huge, sometimes as wide as a man’s fist and they like to make webs across cleared areas such as hiking trails and airboat trails. The web is thick and very strong and she usually hangs right in the middle of the web.
One night, while racing through the everglades, I turned onto a trail that doesn’t get used much. As the trees became dense and tall the trail became very narrow. Weaving through the tight trail I looked up and in the middle of the trail, even with my face, was a spider web extending across the trail. There was nothing I could do. Airboats have no brakes and I wasn’t quick enough to reach out with my hand to block or grab the web. The spider was, typically, right in the middle of the web and I took a direct hit in the face. The web wrapped around my face like a net and snapped around my head. The spider was pinned to my face. I was trying to pull the web off my face while driving the airboat through the narrow trail, at night. After two or three tries I pulled the spider off my face and flung it into the surrounding darkness. I’m not a "spider person." I will wrestle alligators, but spiders are really not my "thing." I can look at them and hold them and cheerfully describe them to a group of students or tourists but having one unexpectedly plastered across my face in the middle of the night affected me the same way it would affect just about everyone, it gave me the creeps. When I got out of the hammock and into an open prairie, I stopped for a cup of coffee to collect my thoughts and settle down.
Driving through the everglades I have a lot of spiders that land on me and bite me. Most of the time I never even feel the bite. I just see little red bite marks on my belly, where my shirt meets my pants and on my ankles. These bites are itchy spots that disappear quickly. We do have venomous spiders in Florida, the most widely known is The Black Widow. When a black widow bites you it is extremely painful. Along with the pain comes headaches, nausea, disorientation, chills, fever and pain in the joints and muscles. We also have a Brown Widow and a Red Widow. If bitten by a one of these spiders you can go to the hospital for a treatment of antivenin.
Another venomous spider is The Brown Recluse spider. If bitten by this spider there is no antivenin. The venom of the brown recluse brings on pain and then the tissue in the effected area starts to break down and the skin starts to fall off. The spot that is bitten will start to ooze pus and there will be a deep hole where the spider made its initial bite.
One day while at work, one of our tour guides got stuck in some shallow water and a few of us had to go out and help him get un-stuck. We got there and pushed back and forth on the boat until it could be moved. We returned to Gator Park and went home for the night. Two days later I noticed two small purple marks on my leg, by my ankle. The marks were about the size of a quarter and they were just on the inside of my ankle. I had two on my left side and one on my right side, I knew I’d been bitten but didn’t know by what. Four days later the purple marks were turning very purple and black, so I went to the doctor to make sure I was ok. The doctor told me that it looked like spider bites and that he had never seen anything like it. He gave me an antibiotic shot and I went home. Two hours after I got home I started to feel bad. I got weak and could hardly stand up, then, all the muscles and joints in my body started to hurt. I started sweating and I got chills and my temperature went up to 104. I was in so much pain I thought I was going to pass out. This lasted for two days before I began to feel a "little" better. I went outside to get some fresh air. I was leaning against my car and I looked up and saw Chuck leaning on his car too. Chuck was the tour guide that had gotten stuck. I told Chuck that a spider had bitten me and showed him the purple marks. He said, "look, I have the same marks on my ankle." I was lucky. I had someone to help me through being sick but Chuck didn’t have anyone to help him while he was sick. Chuck was bad off so we took him to the hospital. The doctor at the hospital said the same thing that my doctor said and couldn’t tell what kind of spider bit us. I went home but Chuck had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days.
No, I haven’t forgotten, scorpions are also arachnids and we do have them here in South Florida. Getting stung by one of our Florida scorpions is about the same as getting stung by a hornet. Painful, yes, but they usually are not deadly, unlike some of the scorpions in Africa and some other places.
Although we may not like spiders, they do play a vital part in our ecosystems and we need them to help control populations of harmful insects.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my story this month and that you will check out my story next month.
THANKS, GATORMAN
PS. Remember NATUR RULES!!!!!!
PS. If any of my stories can help you with anything for education (a grade, class project, or a science fair) just e-mail me, and I will give you permission to use the story. All I ask is that you e-mail me back, and tell me what grade you got or if the class liked my story THANK YOU!!!!
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