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[–] 4 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Sorry my dude, but according to this they are.

There are two species of black widow spider in Canada: the western black widow found in parts of BC through to Manitoba (mostly restricted to areas close to the southern Canada-U.S. border) and the northern black widow in southern and eastern Ontario. On occasion, black widow spiders occur outside of their ranges by hitching a ride on produce such as grapes.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Well, crap. Now I'm going to be irrationally afraid of a run-in with an illusive grape-riding Black Widow.

    I did know about foreign spiders hitching a ride on produce. I just didn't know that these dudes could take root in our cold wasteland. Nonetheless, thanks for the link!

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    No worries, if your heart is in decent shape, you're actually not in much danger from a black widow, as far as I know. It's mostly the elderly and the really young who die from their bites these days.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Good to know. Nevertheless, I hope to never be in a situation where I get to find out. I'm guessing they're suuuuper rare here. I checked the iNaturalist app and there were no observed sightings of either type mentioned in that article.

    There's probably just a colony in the back of a supermarket somewhere.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'm from Vancouver, and there was definitely a few that lived out back of my dad's house when I was a teen. TIL my dad's house was a supermarket!

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I can see them surviving in the wild in Vancouver, but here in MB it regularly gets to -30 to -40 for several months in the winter. I'm not sure they'd like that too much.

    That said, maybe your dad's house is a supermarket. Does he have lots of food in it?

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