Yikes! I just found a black widow spider. Pic added

[JTsMom]

:eek::help:

I've never seen a black widow before today, and I am seriously freaked out! It was under this spigot cover thing attached to the front of our house. I didn't even see it until after I had turned on the water! I think its mate is in a cocoon outside my front door. I'm covered in goosebumps just typing that. AAAAAAAAAAACKKK!

So what do I do? I'm normally very anti-pesticide, but in this case, I'll definitely make an exception if it will help. I'm reading conflicting info about how useful sprays are though.

[veronica]

ummmmm, call a professional. Throw a tent over your house and rent a small plane to spray the whole area.......jk-I know you will find a good solution that is more reasonable but I just have to say reading your post is yet another reason to support my "I don't do outside work" mantra!!!!!!!

[Tondi G]

we have them here too! So scary. I would call a pest control company personally.

[Wife_and_mommy]

We had lots of them when we first moved to our house years ago. DH simply killed all the ones he saw. We now have "harmless" brown spiders. Personally, I kill almost all the ones I see if we're out.

FWIW, we don't have them anymore and haven't for at least five years.

[brittone2]

When we first moved to NC, the day we moved in we found one outside. And it was big (at least as compared to the black widows I've seen at our local museum's "insectarium"). It had the hourglass, so it was definitely a black widow. DH stepped on it with his shoe and killed it, but it totally freaked me out.

FWIW, that was 3 years ago and I haven't seen another one. In our case, seeing one didn't mean there were more around, kwim?

[gatorsmom]

Oh, so there ARE advantages to living in Minnesota!!! We don't have poisonous insects, other than bees. No black widows, no brown recluse spiders. Woohoo. I knew there was reason we moved here.....:p

[ha98ed14]

These things are a feature of life in SoCal, just like the sunny wealther, palm trees, and smog! So much so, that DH and our old neighbor used to go Black Widow Hunting in the backyard. Their weapon of choice was a blow torch. I kid you not.

But here are some things I learned over the years to keep them at bay:
Black widows love leaf debris. They also love cracks and crevaces. People here have a lot of cinderblock walls. Black widows love to hide in the holes. So keep the areas where the kids will be very clear of leaf littler and make sure there are no nooks and crannies for them to hide in. Keep the vegitation around fences, gates, walls, and play equipment very trimmed and weeded. Don't let it get over grown. And make sure there is space between the plants and the hardscape. Think topiary garden. If you do this, you will eliminate the places they like to hide and they will move on to someone elses yard. Good luck. Also, be careful. If you have them in the yard, they might be in your garage too.

[JTsMom]

Thanks for all of the input guys. I just have to add that DH came home, and he thinks I'm a total basketcase. LOL He's from So Cal, and grew up with them everywhere, so he thinks this isn't such a big deal. He went outside and squished it, and removed the cocoon from the front door area. That part of our house has stacked stone, so I wonder if that's what she was attracted to.

She wasn't very big, but she was also kind of scrunched up. I'll post a pic in a bit. I had no idea that she was a BW, but I saw the red on her abdomen, and knew that was a bad sign, so I snapped some pics and started Googling.

I'm still freaked out, but maybe it was a one time thing. I'm going to have DH go hunting and see if he can find any more, and I'll definitely be checking everywhere too.

ETA: pic
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z60/babiesandmommies/croppedwidow.jpg

[shawnandangel]

ewwwwwwwww

[LarsMal]

You could do what DH did and shriek like a little girl while trying to kill it!!! ;)

We ended up spraying the web with whatever bug spray we had in the house- it might have even been ant spray! We basically drowned her and then I wadded up painters tape and DH dangled it into the web to get the eggs. We dropped that into plastic bags and put them in the trash.

I was freaked when I saw it, too. We have some good shots- she was pretty big!

[MartiesMom2B]

When we first moved to the house we had a whole bunch of black widows outsides. Freaked the ***** out of me. I have a pest control company spray the perimeters. They also like dark places that are fairly dry. So I like to douse the tree bags that I usually find them in with water from a good distance. Also clean out spider webs. Black Widow spiders have irregular webs so get yourself a spider broom to clean the webs out with.

[JTsMom]

You could do what DH did and shriek like a little girl while trying to kill it!!! ;)


Assuming I can substitute "while trying to take a picture of it", you can put a big ole check mark next to that one. Along with having that creepy, there's something crawling on me, feeling all day! :ROTFLMAO: At least DH had a good laugh at my expense.

[MamaMolly]

Eeeewwwwwww! That photo gave me the worst heebie jeebies! Good luck with the pest control, those scare the pants off me.

[DrSally]

Ughh, EWWW, EEEEKKK! That pic is terrifying!

[Edensmum]

We had dozens of them all over our porches and in our garage last year. It shocked the bug service we have, they usually are solitary and nest a foot or less off the ground, yet I found them everywhere. I even had a egg hatch. I am usually very anti killing of creatures who cross my path but I smooshed a lot of these. The danger of a bite when they are nesting right in our patio chairs that we use daily and dd not even topping 30lbs was too big a risk and there were simply too many of them to re-locate safely. Pesticides don't work so well with spiders, they have hollow legs and don't really absorb it. Smooshing is your best bet.

[mom2binsd]

Oh, so there ARE advantages to living in Minnesota!!! We don't have poisonous insects, other than bees. No black widows, no brown recluse spiders. Woohoo. I knew there was reason we moved here.....:p


Well Lisa sorry to rain on your parade but....I'm just a bit further south of Minnesota in IL and my friends husband got bit by a brown recluse last summer, ruined his golfing season and he just about lost his foot (the spider was in a box, he gets a lot of deliveries at home for work). We always wear shoes and socks when down in our unfinished basement where we store everything. They're rare but not unheard of around the midwest.

[ThreeofUs]

Well Lisa sorry to rain on your parade but....I'm just a bit further south of Minnesota in IL and my friends husband got bit by a brown recluse last summer, ruined his golfing season and he just about lost his foot (the spider was in a box, he gets a lot of deliveries at home for work). We always wear shoes and socks when down in our unfinished basement where we store everything. They're rare but not unheard of around the midwest.


This does happen up here in the glaciated parts of the north, but rarely and generally only through the vector you describe: a box from somewhere south. And generally only in the summer, as it's too darn cold up here for such spiders to survive.

I just don't want anyone getting too scared - so here's a map of where the BR is found:
http://brownreclusespider.com/info.htm#live