Brown Widow Spider
Did you know that in Florida, there are four types of Widow Spiders? They are the Northern Black Widow spider, the Southern Widow Spider, the red Widow Spider and the Brown Widow Spider which will discuss in more detail below. Although the venom of these spiders are not as toxic as the Black Widow, they are still very painful and can cause serious injury if not treated.
Because brown widow spiders (latrodectus geometricus) can vary from light tan to dark brown or almost black and may have differing markings such as white, black, yellow, brown and even orange on the back of their abdomen, they are very hard to recognize! The picture below is of the red widow spider.
On the bottom of the abdomen you’ll notice the hourglass marking but it will be colored yellow or orange. The Egg Sac of the brown widow spider is not that same as other widows and has pointed projections much like the old sea mines.
If you have pictures of this spider, or believe you have been bitten by a Brown Widow, please post your comments below and send the pictures to the email address located on the bottom of this page.
Written by Jim on June 17th, 2007 with
25 comments.
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Just bitten by a brown widow spider in my sleep…the area swelled up and got very red and feverish…then I got very anxious, my blood pressure shot up, cold sweats, pain in muscles…stabbing and hot pains throughout my body, blurred vision, shortness of breath and feels like a very bad flu with a bad headache and stabbing stomach pains. Its no fun and whats more is there are multiple varities of widow spiders…most people don’t realize this, as I didn’t until I researched it a little…even if its little, but has a big abdomen…leave it alone!
The black widow venom is 15 times as potent as a rattle snake. Though it may inject less venom into an unfortunate victim. The brown widow’s venom is reportedly 2 times as potent as a black widow but it is considered less dangerous because it is a timid spider that doesn’t defend it’s web. The red widow is the most venomous of all the widow spiders but is temperamental to climate and is only found in south florida. According to Jeff Hollenbeck at bugguide.net who was bitten by a red widow says this about it, “A clear lymph fluid also oozes from the pores surrounding the bite. The muscle spasms are permanent, (at least my case) reoccurring several times a year for several minutes at a time.”
Ive been finding these brown widows all around the outside of my house lately and have a few questions. First, the ones I’m finding have a pink hour glass on them and not the orange or yellow described above have you ever heard of that before? Second, I have looked at different sites about how toxic their venom is and they all say something different. How dangerous are they really? I’ll try and get a picture of one and send it to you. Thanks.
Sorry, no photo. 78 y.o. man living in Naples, FL was bitten by something about 4-6 mos. ago. Didn’t pay attention to it as it continued to grow w/ infection. Within 1 mo. after bite, lost sight in one eye (continuously going from one Opthimologist to another, test after test with NO specific results), then irregular heartbeat (back to emergency for meds. to regulate) now walking w/ use of walker. 2 mos. ago showed the bite to regular Dr. (now the size of “tearing a dollar bill in half”, quite deep w/ black center surrounded by progessive inner very pink to dark pink/red outer ring. Dr. drew circle around it stating: if it goes outside the circle he drew..your in trouble!? Thank you for comments and information (I believe he’s very much in d e e p trouble).
Bite by Widow spider believed to be Brown Widow by doctors. Had Exteme fatigue, Weakness, Dizziness, Bad headache, Extreme body aches that led into chills, muscle tremors then to seizure. Per medics, became extremely hypotensive, short of breathe, altered level of conciousness. Emergent transport to hospital. The spider venom not only sent me into anaphalactic shock but also managed to make into my blood system and attacked my platelets. Platelet level dropped to 35. In hospital for a week on pain med drips, blood pressure med because of hypotension issue, and monitoring because of lack of blood platelets. Was very weak for along time after leaving hospital with strange body pains. I survived the Brown Widow Spider bite barely.
i saw a red widow in the shower once but i mushed it
i thought the black widow is the most venomous.i live in Kentucky and i know for a fact I’ve seen a red and brown widow, and i have been studying them. i saw a red widow in a pine forest, and a brown widow twice on side of a building and one on a guttering.
Found two of these brown widow spiders in my house after cleaning up some cluttered areas, I live in central California and have never seen these before. All I’ve ever seen were the black ones. It didn’t seem too irritated when i stopped it with a piece of paper though to snap a quick picture. I’m still not fond of them around if they are as bad as they are said to be because I’m 7 months pregnant:S
My son was bitten in the abdomen and didn’t realize how bad the bite was because it was just a hard red bump. When it started to burn and felt swollen and hard, i took him to the doctor and he had to have it opened and drained. When we went back for a check up the doctor told us that more blackened tissue where the venom had damaged would have to be removed-he is scheduled for surgery tomorrow. He is a young adult who works outside in Ky and the bite just didn’t look that infected, however his symptoms quickly worsened with body aches and pain,nausea, headaches, and slight fever. Until this happened, we didn’t even know there was such a spider as a brown widow.I just hope my son recovers.
I just caught one of these little brown spiders in my bedroom closet looks like she made a web in one of the corners there was a cock roach in the web about 5-6 times the size of the spider if thats any indication of how poisonous they are I would not want to get bit.Most all the descriptions are accurate in that its a very docile spider she didn’t try to escape like the black widow. they bolt usually if your shadow even passes over them. she is small about the size of my pinky nail with a very large thorax kind of a mottled white and brown color with a dark brown hourglass definitely a female and definitely a widow have not been able to find a photo online of this exact spider
I found a brown widow on my porch today with its egg sack. She didnt seem to get upset about us moving her into a plastic container and isnt realy acting against the other spiders that are in it with her.We put her egg sack into the container with her thinking that it may hatch. (maybe get some babies) Kids and i have been watching her all day and havent realy seen any movement at all. Its funny that something so small can hurt some one so much. Is there anything that i can do with this spider other than killing it. Maybe a place that we can take it to?
I had a spider living in the siding by my front door since before Christmas, and called her my pet spider “Charlotte”. A few weeks ago I saw a white sack in the web, covered with little pointy things. Another sack appeared, and then a third today.
I finally decided to search the net to figure it out and found that the egg sack definitely meant it was a brown widow. Some websites say they are very dangerous so I had no choice but to kill her and her egg sacks.
I bought some spray, and as spraying her she spun around and I was able to see the extremely bright marking on her abdomen, showing me that she was definitely a brown widow.
I then searched all around my apartment building and found one other brown widow and egg sack. Although she never bothered me for months, I couldn’t risk her biting me, or dealing with the thousands of babies that were about to hatch.
RIP Charlotte
I work for a P.C. company in south-central Georgia. We started noticing the Brown Widow around July ‘07. Since then, their population seems to have gotten much heavier. We found 17 brown widows and dozens of egg sacs on a riding lawn mower. There was a total of 26 at that one residence.
Living in southern California, have a lot of brown Widows here now. With kids it’s a bit scary. The experts say not that dangerous, but the comments above belay that.
i might have got bit by this it was brown with a yellow circle on its back it roamed my cheek when i was standing but distracted i thought it was an itch I don’t know if it bit anywhere else but it bit my cheek its been a day and only slight cheek swelling I don’t know what spider this is though for sure…
Last year killed what I believed to be 10 Black Widows on and around the house in south Louisiana. With some outside spring cleaning today, noted some “widow shaped” spiders, but all 4 were brown and with egg sacks. An A/C Tech told us last year about Brown Widows, but I was skeptical (only believing in the Black Widow and Brown Recluse spiders in the U.S.)
With the information contained on the FL website, and several recent news articles regarding Brown Widow migration into LA, I am more convinced. They are poor web builders, like their Black cousins, but seem to play ‘possum’ when provoked. It’s an odd characteristic for an arachnid. Irregardless, there are 4 more dead spiders, and countless little ones in egg sacks.
Question though, how can they be eradicated? Is there an effective spray or powder?
Thanks!
A couple of years ago my husband got bitten by a spider while we were sleeping. We live in central fla. Never saw the spider, never felt the bites. He had a total of six bites. On his hands, arm and on one of his thighs.
The thigh bite was the worst, swelling up to the size of a tennis ball. That bite was drained several times by the doctor. Nausea, fever, stiffness were bad for several days. I also had a bite near my arm pit. It never amounted to much as I had, had surgery at the time of the bite and the antibiotics used for surgery were still in my system.
Am a Florida cracker who has been in woods, old dirty barns full of spiders, lived on lakes, boated, skied, mowed tall grass in fields, rides horses in forests. Never been bitten until now. And bitten in bed by possibly a brown widow spider of all things! Go figure!
Hi there,
I live in South Africa in the city of Port Elizabeth. I recently moved here, and moved into a town house that had just been built.
I found in the garage, that there was a web with hundreds of newly hatched spiders, but thought nothing of it. just sprayed them with a poison spray and that was it. Now, I find my house infested with Brown Widow spiders.
Just this weekend i went on a spider hunt, and killed (burned) about 25 medium sized widows and 2 full sized as well as about 12 egg sacks.
I have had close encounters with 4 different full grown widows as well. What is the best way to get rid of them? I need to do something soon, before i also end up in hospital…
I found an unusual spider this afternoon inside a web under a shelf on my pavilion on the patio. There was also a light brown egg sac about 3/8 of an inch in diameter covered with little points. Here are a few pictures:
I had never seen one like that before. We live in Orange Co, CA, and have lots of black widows around here, so I’m very familiar with those. The web funneled into the corner, and there was a spider at the point.
Using a stick, I removed the web, and it was a tough job. The spider fell to the ground curled up in a ball, and it looked as if I might have accidentally stuck it with the stick and killed it. However, when I showed my husband the spider and poked it, it uncurled its legs and grabbed the stick.
With the legs extended, the size was about 1 to 1 1/4 inches. The abdomen was huge, so I sprayed it. Later, I turned it over, and there was an orange hourglass on the underside.
I have never seen a brown widow before and didn’t know they existed until I googled it and found your website. I am sending pictures to your email.
Thanks for your pictures on the web site and for the info.
We live in Orange Cty, CA and have seen plenty of Black Widows. We have 4 kids and go on regular evening spider hunts to try to control them. It always erks me to see them make home in the fender wells of the kids quads and tricycles. At least we have figured out how to find them… check out any chaotic low webs just after dark with a flashlight and there she is…
This year however we have begun to see the spiked egg sacs and today killed about 7 brown widow around our yard (mostly on the kids toys and play ground!!) Anyway, I am wondering if any of you can share more about their behavior so we know what to look for.
They sure do seem to be procreative little boogers!! Lots of sacs everywhere. The webs aren’t always low like we’ve seen with the Black ones. Do they come out at night? What do the males look like? Will we begin finding them in our garage now too? Uuuggh… got the hibby jibbies!
Hi I was just wondering if the Brown Widow spider was ever found in Central Europe? Becuase in our cabin there is a spider that looks a bit like the ones in the pictures. I havent done anything with it yet but I’m a little worried.
Thanks for any news
P.S. I don’t think it’s a brown widow spider but the similarity is there, it sits on the window sill in the crack in the wall. When ever i walk by it it hids there.
I found my first one working on an A/C unit in Baton Rouge, LA. last week. I spotted those unique spiked egg sacs long before I spotted the spider. I found the one female and about 5-6 egg sacs. I had never heard of the brown widows until now.
Everybody seems to be spooked by the brown widow, but it’s relatively harmless. They’ll bite if you bother their web, just like the black widow, but there’s easy ways to avoid their inconvenient bite. If you have benches, stools, or tables outdoors, periodically wear some work gloves, turn them over and insepect. Basements… a simple plug in tool will keep more than just spiders out. Attics, always difficult, but wear long sleeves and gloves and you’ll be fine. And if a creepy crawly is someplace you don’t want it to be, and a paper towel isn’t an option… Windex or Lemon Pledge will make them very unhappy where they are and will move one.
-Tony -Arachnologist
I found some spikey white egg sacs in a spider web in the corner of our wharehouse, but the small spider near the sac didn’t really look like the brown widow pictures. The abdomen was much smaller and not nearly as round as in the pictures. What other spiders produce this spikey white egg sac?
I live in San Diego California, I noticed 4 egg sacks outside my bedroom window. They have been there for over a month. I have never seen the female spider that laid them. After searching the net, I realize they are Brown Widow Spiders egg sacs. They are white, round, and prickly. What is the best way to get rid of them? Help.