The venom of the black widow spider contains poisonous chemicals that make people sick. Black widows are found throughout the United States, mostly in the South and West. They are usually found in barns, sheds, stone walls, fences, woodpiles, porch furniture, and other outdoor structures.
Some types of grass hay, in dry weather conditions or on dry ground, will be much too dry when baled as small bales using the eight to 15 percent moisture (the traditional rule of thumb) as a guide. Some of this grass hay produces the best quality bales when baled at 24 to 30 percent moisture.
Hay wrapped at 35% moisture was fed to equines without causing adverse health effects in Sweden [4]. Others have observed surface mold between the hay and plastic wrap when dry hay (less than 15% moisture) was wrapped [8]. All feeds contain some level of mold, even feeds properly harvested and stored.