Propak Systems Ltd. confirmed the discovery of more than a dozen black widow spiders at an Airdrie warehouse, July 25.
The confirmation came after an anonymous e-mail was sent to the City View from an employee.
The employee, whose name has been protected, stated “dozens of black widow spiders and their nests had been uncovered” in one of about 20 crates imported from Texas.
The crates were allegedly delivered on July 18, but remained unopened until July 20, the employee wrote. About nine crates were sent to Propak-404 and the remainder were delivered to Propak-505, neighbouring buildings in the city’s East Lake Industrial Park. The poisonous spiders were found at the company’s 404 yard.
“I’m told by my superiors that an exterminator was called in to deal with the spiders the following morning but at what time I cannot be sure,” the person added. “I do know for a fact that over 12 hours had passed between the discovery and the extermination.”
Once the spiders were found, one was bottled and shown to a foreman.
“It started off with ‘oh, that’s a big spider,’ then it was ‘oh, that’s a really poisonous spider,’” the person said. “It doesn’t really occur to anyone, when you’re opening foreign material, that there could be some stowaways.”
The employee took photos before leaving the area where the shipment sat and expressed concern for small children and the elderly in Airdrie who may be at the most risk.
Propak’s safety coordinator Dan Montagnon confirmed the arachnids’ appearance and said information was later distributed to employees. Orkin Pest Control from Calgary sprayed the infested area.
“Somebody noticed it when they saw a crate, called it in, they took care of it,” said Montagnon, adding Propak has never had incidents with the much reviled spider species.
The final count of the spiders tallied 15, “a couple male and mostly females,” Montagnon added.
The order from Texas contained parts for construction projects and Montagnon said he could neither confirm nor deny Propak had received shipments from that company before.
Black widow spiders are not common to the Airdrie area and are more likely to be found in southeastern Alberta, including Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, where the climate is hot and dry.
These particular arachnids don’t often make their way to the area, according to Robert Longair, faculty member with Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary.
“Occasionally we get them on grapes coming into the Co-ops and Sobeys,” said Longair. “That is pretty regular, once or twice a year, but that’s about the sum total.”
Longair said it would be easy for a black widow to be transported to the area from the United States via trailer if someone were to travel down to Arizona and drive back.
“But so what?” said Longair. “People in the southern United States live with these things all the time.”
He said while bites are certainly uncomfortable, it’s generally not serious.
“In very small babies or older people it could cause more problems,” Longair said.
Black widow spiders’ bites release a neurotoxin, attacking a person’s nervous system. The creature itself is no more than two inches long usually with an abdomen the size of the end of a thumb or a grape.
