Karakurt spider: where you can meet him and how to behave at the same time

In fact, it’s not called a spider’s “black widow”, but a whole race of arachnids, to which our hero belongs today - the spider Karakurt. This genus got its name for two reasons:

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

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

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

Species biology

Description

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

Distribution area

Naturally, after hearing about dangerous bites, everyone 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 southern Europe, Central Asia and northern Africa.

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

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, there are often karakurt in Crimea and the Rostov region, in the Novosibirsk region and the Altai Territory.

In addition, scientists have recorded cases of the capture of karakurs even at the latitude of the Moscow Region, which occurs during the migration of spiders in especially hot years. But such appearances are single in character, since the black widow cannot endure the severe winters of the middle zone of our country.

The black widow's habitats in nature are characterized by a craving for plains. It can be:

• steppes;
• arable land;
• territory near ravines or artificial ditches;
• salt marshes;
• wasteland.

Food

Black karakurt eats insects that fall into its network. These are usually the types of arthropods that directly live in the vicinity of the spiders themselves:

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

Interestingly, Karakurt victims fall into horizontally stretched nets. At the same time, the web of karakurt is not distinguished by the elegance of circular lines, but is made randomly, but at the same time it is very viscous and does not give an insect any chance of salvation.

A spider caught by an insect paralyzes with poison, and then sucks its liquid tissues.

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

Reproduction and development

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

Unlike other species of arachnids, the female karakurt forms from two to four cocoons, in which she lays 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, the female dies, having only slightly outlived her eaten spouse.

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

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

Spiders appear quickly, within 10-15 days, depending on the weather, but they do not leave the cocoon, but live in it until next spring. Initially, they feed on a supply of food that nature has laid inside their bodies, then switch to cannibalism, as a result of which only the strongest individuals are selected from the cocoon.

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

Our help! The body of the spiders is protected by an exoskeleton, a kind of shell of chitin, which does not allow the spider to develop further. Therefore, with growth, black widows discard it and replace it with a new one - large in size.

Enemies of Karakurt

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

Wasp sphyxes act against karakurt in their own favorite way: they inject poison under their skin, paralyzing and killing subsequently.

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

Finally, the ubiquitous hedgehogs who are not afraid of the bites of a karakurt, being protected by armor from needles, love to enjoy karakurt.

Bites

Having given the idea of ​​a black widow as an animal, we turn to the main part of our story - the bites of karakurt. Immediately you need to identify two main positions associated with this:

1. A black widow's bite can be fatal.
2. Spiders are not the first to attack humans.

Symptoms

First, we denote the symptoms of a bite of a karakurt, which manifest very quickly.

1. Within 10-15 minutes, it begins to break all the muscles of the body, as is the case with flu or another catarrhal disease. The muscles of the chest, abdominals, and lumbar are most affected.
2. In addition, the heartbeat becomes more frequent, shortness of breath appears, dizziness, tremor of the extremities and even priapism in men.
3. After this comes the general weakness of the body, it seems that the limbs do not obey the person, vomiting appears.
4. Then there is a nervous depletion of the human body and depression may occur.
5. The consciousness of a person becomes cloudy, and he ceases to be aware of reality and recognize even people close to him.

If you do not enter the antidote on time, physical death of a person may occur.

However, it is not necessary that all bites of karakurt are fatal to humans. Firstly, people with increased immunity will be much easier to tolerate a bite 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, bites are less scary in other seasons.

Reference! Karakurt males are not able to bite through human skin, therefore they are not dangerous for humans 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 blood throughout the body. The fact is that the female bites the skin only half a millimeter, and for some time the poison concentrates almost on the surface.

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

• blade of knife;
• cutlery;
• car key go car;
• a 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 around the body.

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

In an extreme case, when the necessary funds were 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, could alleviate the patient’s fate.

After medical procedures, the patient needs to be given a plentiful drink to remove the poison from the body and a hot bath to reduce pain. It is also good to take painkillers and sleeping pills, for a healthy sleep will greatly benefit a weakened body from a bite.

Karakurt animal bites

Different animals react to the bites of a black widow ambiguously. Horses, camels, which in some regions is a real scourge for agriculture, suffer the most from it, including death. 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 karakurt.

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