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Living six years in southern UT, and seven years in TN, both states with high populations of black widows I never heard of anyone dying from a bite. Knew a few in those years who were bitten it caused a serious reaction to a reaction similar to a nasty bee sting.
Problem with any bug bite, be it from a spider, bee, wasp, etc., you really never know if you are really allergic until after the fact.
Black widows are not an aggressive spider, they prefer to be left alone. They make a distinctive web that is ugly, and they like to hide. Here's a great example of a black widow hiding spot. This is the Lynx Wheel Chock, used to chock the wheels on my trailer. The day I left Moab, to move to ID, when I was read to pull the chocks out from under the wheels, I almost stuck my finger into that hole. She was just waiting for me to poke her in the rump....
While Caddis flies aren't harmful to humans and don't bite, they can be a peculiar hazard here when driving alongside some of our rivers.
The flies all hatch at the same time, and can rise in clouds from the rivers. Driving into a hatch like this sometimes needs an ice scraper to clean off the windshield! The front end of a car can become pretty fuzzy pretty fast.
Try it with a motorcycle some time! Not a lot of fun
I have a black widow in my garage almost every year. It hides every time anyone gets near, so it is very difficult to squash. Most years, I just leave it alone and let it eat other bugs. As others said, widows are very shy. If you don't stick your hand into their hidey hole, you're going to be fine. I have a spider phobia too, but I really don't worry about black widows very much.
Also, I totally agree that everyone responds differently to bites. My 5th grade teacher stupidly stuck his arm into a pile of firewood and got bit 7 times by one or more black widows. He was fine. I got bit at my sister in law's wedding, 3 times on the back of my legs by some sort of spider. I got 3 big blisters and my hands and feet itched for 6 months (only the palms and soles, it was weird). On the other hand, a family member in Eastern Idaho got bit about 20 years ago, and she almost lost her leg. She did lose a chunk about the size of a grapefruit.
Personally, I have cats and they do a very good job of finding spiders for my husband to squash. I usually get 3 or 4 a year of various types in my house in Boise. If you don't have a willing body to do this for you, you could get a spider vacuum so you don't have to get too close or squash them yourself. I also put sticky spider traps in my garage, and they typically catch 15 to 20 a summer. So we do have some, but mostly outside.
Best towns for what? You'll need to be more specific with that question to get a good answer.
Try it with a motorcycle some time! Not a lot of fun
Are these related to Mayflies? I used to live in MI and in June (never saw them in May) they were so thick near great lakes that you would slide through a stop light on their fishy smelling bodies. And my first experience with them was on a Kawasaki, without a full face helmet. Didn't have to eat for a week....
Seems the more east one goes, the bugs double in size.
I was amazed at the size of some bugs in Tennessee.
Try the more south..I think that would be more in line. I New England we have no more bugs than you do
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