Work Hazards

My job in a biochemistry lab comes with some expected risks:  toxic chemicals and exposure to radioactivity in particular.  It does not, however, come with the risk of venomous bites. 

Okay, I take that back.

The sign I posted outside the darkroom door after our (not so little) friend was discovered.

Yesterday, a student in our lab ran in just twitching with revulsion.  He had just seen a LARGE black widow in our darkroom. 

Yep, the darkroom. Where we turn off the lights and essentially work by feel under a red light, just like you see in the spooky movies right before something jumps out at the unsuspecting victim. 

Yep, in the box containing the reagents I routinely refill. Which I likely would have been doing later that day as they were nearly empty. 

So we went back in to take a look and the spider had gone back into hiding.  We did however, find a large web underneath the bench complete with baby spiders crawling everywhere, including on my arm as I touched the bench. 

Hasty exit from room.

Signs posted.

Exterminator contacted.

Today the exterminator came out and found her... a large black widow.  Just like the pictures we saw when we googled it yesterday.



Size comparison done by the exterminator during capture.

Our new pet is now living in a filter sterilization bottle and dining on fruit flies contributed by someone in another department.

As soon as someone put the fruit flies in, our little pet grew agitated and weaved a little web of death for those flies.

Notice the classic black widow red hourglass on the abdomen?

It's like our very own discovery channel over here in the biochemistry department!