If the ticks and the chiggers don't get you...

In New Jersey there are lots of ticks, chiggers, knats, greenheads and deerflies but the insectlike critter often most worrisome is the black widow spider. This photo was taken 10 feet from the front porch of the Peek Preserve field office. Two of these black widows were under a log, and there are lots more around the fence posts and other scattered timbers. The Glades Refuge also has many of these spiders; I once counted more than a dozen while cleaning up a bunch of tires from a newly-purchased property. While their bite rarely kills people, it sure can be painful and causes some unusual reactions.

So here's another reason to visit the New Jersey preserves: to see these beautiful colorful creatures in their natural environment, which often is the woodpiles and debris left by humans in rural and wooded areas.