There are many dangerous animals on our planet. Predators from the cat family, by their very appearance, warn that jokes are bad with them. There is no doubt about her intentions and the white shark. Many people know that one of the most poisonous snakes on earth - rattlesnake - can kill seventy-five people out of a hundred bitten by it. But there are more dangerous creatures in the world. They have terrible poison, which is fifteen times stronger than the poison of a dangerous snake. This is a rather modest in size spider karakurt.
People have different attitudes towards arthropods - someone is afraid of them, someone causes a sense of disgust, but few people think that a meeting with such a small creature can be fatal.
Spider karakurt: description
The name of this creature comes from two words: “punishment”, which is translated into Russian as “black”, and “kurt”, which means “worm”. And its Latin name - Latrodectus tredecimguttatus - fully conveys the external signs of the hero of our story: thirteen spots or dots located on the upper side of the abdomen.
This spider is also called the black widow. Firstly, because it is in this color that his abdomen, head and legs are painted. Widow - because the female, whose size significantly exceeds the similar parameters of the male (10-20 mm, and the male 4-7 mm), eats her chosen one immediately after the marriage ceremony.
Appearance and structural features
Outwardly, this little spider seems, if not pretty, then at least not disgusting - it has neither wool nor fluff, like many of its relatives (for example, the tarantula). Nevertheless, the bite of a Karakurt spider is extremely dangerous, and if a person is not given first aid, he may die.
This spider has a balloon-like abdomen and cephalothorax. Between themselves they are connected by the seventh segment (like our vertebra) of the cephalothorax. Extremities diverge from the abdomen: four pairs of legs and two pairs of jaws.
The abdomen is a symbiosis of telson (anal lobe) and eleven segments. The female has chelicera (upper jaws), which end with hooks. And on the other side of the jaw are poisonous glands. The female is most dangerous.
Reddish-orange dots with a white rim flaunt on the back of the spider. They can be of any shape. It is from them that you can determine what karakurt is watching you. Growing up, the spider (male) does not lose color - the dots remain. And the female is noticeably transformed: sometimes instead of spots, yellow stripes appear on her abdomen.
Habitat
A spider karakurt, whose bite is deadly, in our country mainly lives in the Crimea, in the southern regions of the country. In addition, it can be found in southern Ukraine, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, the Mediterranean, southern Europe, Central Asia and North Africa, as well as in the Astrakhan steppes.
In recent years, the population has migrated, which is probably due to global warming, and today these dangerous creatures are already found even in the Moscow Region, Altai Territory, several regions of Russia - Volgograd, Novosibirsk, Rostov.
These spiders build nests in secluded places:
- in crevices;
- in mouse minks;
- in the walls of mud houses;
- in depressions in the soil.
They prefer karakurt steppes and arable lands, having fallen in love with plots near ditches, ditches, salt marshes, ravines, in wastelands. They avoid open spaces.
Karakurt spider: bite
We have already said that if you were attacked by this creature, the consequences can be very serious. A human spider cannot be bitten by a karakurt spider. A bite fraught with serious consequences (even death) is the “handiwork” of the female. As a matter of fact, males do not even have poisonous glands.
Female chelicera are so strong and sharp that they pierce not only the skin, but also the nails. These individuals are especially dangerous during the mating season (July - end of August).
What is a bite?
In order to help a person in time, you need to know what a karakurt bite looks like. Unfortunately, we must admit that in the first minutes it is visually almost invisible - it resembles a small abrasion. Feels like the injury is more like a mosquito bite, as a result of which a tiny speck of bright red color appears, which begins to disappear before our eyes. This is the insidious bite of a karakurt - symptoms begin to appear only after two to three hours. At the first sign, the victim needs urgent medical attention. And even better if the necessary measures to take immediately after the attack of a poisonous creature.
Karakurt bite: symptoms
Some victims say that after thirty minutes (although usually later) they felt an ache in the whole body (as at very high temperature). The lower back, upper and lower abs begins to hurt, the pain increases, becoming unbearable.
After some time, the strength decreases sharply, and weakness falls upon the person. First, the legs weaken, after them - the hands, and then the whole body. The victim turns pale, tears flow from him, nausea sets in, and his heart breaks out of his chest. If you do not provide assistance, clouding of consciousness occurs. A person ceases to assess the situation, recognize others, he develops depression and fear. In the affected area, skin temperature rises, the muscles become painful. Acute abdominal pain may appear (as with appendicitis).
Symptoms after the started treatment subside within three days, but paresthesia, residual cramps, weakness and anxiety may persist for several weeks and even months. To avoid death, the patient should be given an antidote - serum. This can only be done in a hospital or other medical facility (clinic, first-aid post). But what to do with a bite of karakurt if you are away from the city? After all, doctors warn that in the first ten, maximum twenty minutes, the victim needs help.
Spider attacked: what to do?
Undoubtedly, the qualified help of doctors with a spider bite will help to avoid serious complications and accelerate the patient's recovery. First aid for a bite of karakurt involves the following actions:
- First of all, you need to calm down, this will help you concentrate and make the only right decision.
- Urgently call for medical help, and if this is not possible, try to take the victim to the hospital.
- Before the doctors arrive, lay the person down, provide him with complete rest so that he moves less, since the movements will accelerate the spread of the poison.
- Apply ice or a cold compress to the site of the bite, which will slow the absorption of the poison into the blood and its further spread throughout the body.
- If the bite fell on one of the limbs, apply an elastic bandage or any bandage above the affected area, but at the same time it should not restrain the flow of blood.
- It is necessary to take an antihistamine that minimizes puffiness, slightly reduces itching and other manifestations of allergic reactions. It can be “Suprastin”, “Agistam”, “Loratadin”, “Claritin”.
- Give the patient plenty of fluids, preferably sweet tea.
- Do not let the patient comb the bite site - this will aggravate the situation.
