Comments on: Black Widow Spider

By: Billy

Billy — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:30:07 +0000

I HATE SPIDERS. I was bit by a brown recluse 1 month ago My scar is still barley healed. Im a moron and prefer to sleep on the floor in my living room just cause I love laying near my heat vents from my central air. I think im done with it now.I was sitting on the floor in front of my couch watching tv for 2 hours. I picked my blanket up which had been next to me the whole time I even moved it a couple times, as soon as i picked the blanket up to wrap it around me to lay down out falls a huge black widow about 1.5 inches with legs spread. Of course I sat and took pictures of it lifting its front legs up at me until I crushed it with my shoe with pure anger because of the ordeal I went through from the bite i am just getting over. Now im paranoid my favorite resting place in my house is tainted. It amazes me I have lived in this house for 15 years I keep my yards trimmed clutter gone from around my house and im being invaded by the most poisonous of everything. Im waiting on a copper head to surface next since its the next thing that comes to mind. Im trying to find some humor in all this.. Just my little story since i immediatly found this site after killing the black widow..

By: anthony

anthony — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:51:23 +0000

so recently my friend and i found a female black widow and it was a bright day. we poked it a few times with a stick and then it curled its legs and played dead.since we had never seen a spider do that we thought it was insanely cool.we poked it a few more times and then it just sprang up really fast and came towards us.we ended up killing it because that scared us!

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:45:29 +0000

I just noticed 2 black widow spiders outside of our deck. Now I’ve seen 2 Baby black widows one one the deck and one in the house. Is there any way to get rid of them?

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:39:27 +0000

I wanted to post a follow up as I just found and killed what I believe was one in our bathroom. It was shiny black but didn’t get close enough to confirm the red dot. My point is this. When you confirm you find one make sure you wipe out the nest. The milky white egg sacks. We didn’t initially and we have had a garage filled with these creatures. I believe we had the garage door open and this bugger crawled into our bathroom yesterday. In the last 3 months, because we didn’t wipe out the egg sacks we eventually killed about 10 in our garage. They like the area right around garage door opens, the hinges and such. If this doesn’t do the trick I am going to get some bug foggers, make sure to turn off your pilot lights, and eradicate them. The pros and cons of living next to open space.

By: Maria

Maria — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:12:18 +0000

I live in suburban Los Angeles and lived in happy ignorance of the presence of black widows for many years. One day, an A/C repairman told me that they liked to hang out in A/C units. I thought he was kidding but he assured me they were very common. We had a weathered (few cracks) Rubbermaid bin with a lid that we used for an outdoor toy box (squirt guns, balls, etc) that was on the porch. It had a very strong spider web silk thread attached to it that I had tried to swish down a couple of times but stayed up. Suspicious, I decided to dump out the contents to clean it out and take a look. Something told me to fling the lid on the grass first. Good thing I did because a large black widow crawled out from it.

I sprayed it and everything else with strong bug spray, then soaked it with the hose. Then I remembered the kids’ hard plastic wagon that had been sitting under the cypress trees gathering leaves for a while. I took my bug spray and water hose and kicked it over. At least a dozen widows and juveniles (light brown) ran out. There were several egg sacks. Another day, one crawled out of our Rubbermaid hose rack on the other side of the house. So, heads up to all the parents: widows love those hard plastic toys, racks and boxes for their nests so be sure to check them thoroughly and rinse them out before your kids use them if they are left outside. I have also seen the spiders/webs under picnic tables and benches in the park so be careful sitting on them.

By: Janette S.

Janette S. — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:26:46 +0000

if it helps I’ve told my mom and she doesnt seem to paranoid, but I just want to double check. ALSO. I haven’t seen it around there anymore so did the Mantis eat it? Or should I spray around there or…?

By: Janette S.

Janette S. — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:24:19 +0000

Hi, my name is Janette and I have 3 dogs and 2 cats in Las Vegas, NV.

I went outside in my backyard over to one of those fan things that most houses have, and I saw a black widow, (This was at night) and Im 100% SURE it was a black widow because it had a orange hourglass on its adomben so its a female right?

Well theres also a Praying Mantis patrolling the fan so should I be worried if the spider will get into my house?

By: angel

angel — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:27:24 +0000

i was cleaning out my shed (witch is located in my back yard) and came across a couple of black spiders about the size of a quarter maybe a little bigger.i live in new york city and dont know much about spiders,i want to know what kind of spider it is because the kids play back there and i dont want them to get hurt.pls help..it was black about the size of a quarter,did not jump it just walked nice and slow,and i found it behind/under a piece of wood in my shed that has not been cleaned in about ten years..thanks

By: karen

karen — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:22:21 +0000

A week ago today, I was driving without shoes and socks, and twenty minutes later was itching the top of my foot by the toes. The itching increased, then it was very painful. A few minutes later the pain was in my groin/upper leg area, intense. My leg felt funny. My boyfriend and I switched positions. Then the stomach cramps began, they hurt soooo bad. The pain went between my stomach and low back. I was writhing in pain, as my boyfriend kept driving, as we were two hours from anything. Having no insurance I didn’t want to go to the ER, but when we got there (just in case) I was like “let’s go”. I couldn’t walk- he had to shuffle me in. Fortunately the doctor was familiar with spider bites and identified it, gave me three different pain meds via IV as well as calcium. The pain meds took the edge off, but the pain never went away. On a scale of 1-10 I went from a 9 to a 5. Pain, but tolerable pain.

The next day I could not walk either. The stomach cramps were very bad. I threw up once. I was very weak. Eating wasn’t appealling and I had no appetite. Major night sweats.

The following day I could walk, finally. I drank broth and ate jello. I couldn’t sit for long, as it was exhausting to hold myself up at all. The stomach cramps were still bad. Major night sweats.

The third full day I tried eating oatmeal. The problem for a few days was after eating, or later at night for about five hours, my stomach would cramp up- but different than before. I could feel little bubbles moving around and passing gas helped. But it really hurt. Pressure and heat helped. I was still weak. Major night sweats.

I thought I’d be fine after that, but no. It’s a full week later and I still find myself easily short of breath, after a 10 minute walk or a shower. I have a rash that moves around- it’s on both feet and ankles, abdomen, outer elbows, and inner right elbow. I still feel overall weak. My ability to think is still diminished. I get hot and cold. My knees really hurt and hot baths and Aleve do not help.

I stopped the pain meds after the third day as the pain was manageable by then.

That was my experience. I just wonder how long until I don’t feel the symptoms anymore… it’s not in any of the informational sites that I’ve seen.

PS Going to the ER was the best move, as I thought I was going to die from the pain.

By: chase

chase — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:15:06 +0000

Actually langrish, The Brazillian Wandering Spider is the most poisonus spider in the world as of 2007.