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.
I found one today in my flower pot. Actually I found the 3 or 4 eggs sacks on a leaf then I turned the pot over (this pot had a rim on it) and found the spider with another 6 egg sacks . I had been keeping this plant in my house in a spare room for the winter.
I manage a self storage business in central Georgia. Brown Widows are everywhere here. Just a word of caution if you have a storage unit. Beware.
Brown spider, I don’t think it’s a brown widow (no obvious markings) Sending you two pictures…. Would LOVE your opinion since this is the third one I’ve found around my house. Live in Trenton Florida and I can not find a picture that matches these spiders…. Thanks, Tim
I found a spider appearing to be some kind of widow spider
Similar to the brown widow, Tan in color, striped legs, and a dark brown hour glass on its belly. Any clue what it might be?
One of my friends was sitting at home and said he saw a spider crawling out of the corner of his eye so he got up and caught it with a pair of pliers and he took a picture and posted it to Facebook. This spider is very ugly looking and he said he did some research on the internet and its a brown widow spider.
I think its a good thing he caught it before it bit anyone in his house, but he took it outside instead of killing it. I think he should have killed it but its a really nasty looking spider and when I saw the picture of it I told him that it was creepy. I have a thing with spiders. They creep me out.
We live in Huntington Beach and we found these spiders in our backyard including on the children’s outside play things (bikes, swings, wagons, climbing structure, under the lip of toys, you name it.) If anyone is interested in a natural remedy, I’ve use Simple Green and liberally spray the stuff into the cracks and crevices of the toys where they like to hide and just waited for the spiders to come crawling out and then I squash them. I also use a wind-resistent lighter to burn the egg sacs to ensure they don’t hatch (the eggs are really strong.) Works great and I don’t mind spraying the toys down because Simple Green is natural and non-toxic, and kills the spiders.
Hey: KRISTI your spider looks like a wolf-spider mixed with brown-widow just because of the red color on his butt yours might be a female spider because its fat maybe, you should look up wolf-spiders and you’ll see they both look the same
We see a lot of Brown widow spiders in Orlando, FL and occasionally black widows. This brown widow made a home very quickly in front of our doggie door when we stopped using it for a few days after one of my dogs injured his leg. I sprayed it with spider spray, but it quickly ran away. Not sure if I killed it or not since it ran away so quickly.
Found this brown widow today in Darien, Ct. It was cold and the spider was quite inactive. Found several of the spiky egg sacks as well.
DeRidder, Louisiana
I work at a liquor store here in rural West-Central Louisiana. I had a lot of cases of brandy half-pints in my back seat that I was transporting from one store to another for my boss. As I was bending into the back seat of my car to pick up some cases, I noticed EIGHT of the Brown Widows’ spiked, white egg sacks in the hinge of my car door. I haven’t noticed any of the spiders themselves, but where there’s smoke there’s fire and where there are spider eggs there are spiders. I’m going to spray the egg sacks directly with Raid Wasp and Hornet killer as soon as I get home (man I’m dreading that drive, as I’m afflicted with a terminal case of the willies where spiders are concerned), since I’ve found that to be a very effective pesticide in the past.
I want to be THOROUGH, though, so I’m considering using a fumigator inside my car. I don’t know if this is a great idea, but I can’t think of any other way to eradicate ALL of these dangerous (and creepy) spiders.
Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I wondered onto this site trying to find info to back up whether it’s possible for a female black widow “not to have” ANY markings. I have so many black widows around my house that I began studying them. I’m at the point I can id them them by body alone regardless of size. I still catch them to study them under a magnified light. I caught 2 today, same location. Obvious body structure & color. They don’t however have ANY markings on their back or abdomen.
I’ve read several other posts and thought I’d share information I learned from a friend that is a exterminator / wildlife specialist. He states that red widows; although still rare and hard to find a lot of info about; are considered the most venomous of the widow species, 2nd- brown widow (which is also more aggressive) and 3rd – black widow. With all widow species; the female is the one that carries the “venomous” bite. All spiders are venomous to a degree or couldn’t kill their prey. The male widows carry no more of a venomous bite than that of other spiders. Male and female blacks look completely different in size; markings and body structure. I’ve captured well over 40 in the 3 yrs in my house and studied them all. In my opinion they are fairly docile unless aggressively provoked.
Lastly, not to offend anyone, but I found a few of the posts concerning. 1) who knowingly lets a spider continue to bite them for id purposes. Grab something close at hand and capture it. Once contained in a closed container you can safely study as long as you want. As an EMT of 20 years I can’t tell you of the jeopardy you put yourself in by allowing that; let alone the extremely painful symptoms. 2) For the person that called the police for a widow spider. Tell me your joking. That’s not what serve and protect means; and not responding definitely isn’t being lazy. As far as your dog; pit bull or not, dogs are just as capable of being bitten regardless of breed.
well i thought i seen it all…
well found a black widow in my apartment, then a week later found what i thought looked like a brown widow i said no way a brown widow but look at the legs their kinda like bony to look at just seems like they would have no problem putting their legs around a 6 sided object
I was biten by a brown widow spider just over a week ago on Monday 11/28/2011; it bit me by my ankle. The bite mark has made changes through the days. The actual bite felt like someone was directly burning me with a cigarette, so I went to look at what was making my ankle burn, and to my surprise it was a spider. I allowed it to keep biting me, so I could identify it, and it hurt badly; I really wanted to make sure what it was, so I could tell the Dr., so he could tell me what I should do, mind you I was just diagnosed with pneumonia 2 days prior. He ordered me to wash my ankle thoroughly and prescribed cephlexin. Stupidity on my part, I have not taken the antibiotic.
Anyhow, about an hour after the bite, I started to feel pain on my right side of my body: ankle, right thigh, butt cheek, lower abdomen, right side of my back, and even a headache on the right side of my head. Today is Tuesday 12/6/2011, and my right side of my lower back still ache; my ankle still has pain like I sprained it, and I have had a puss head on the spider bite a few times (meaning I had a puss head on it 2 days after the bite, and my husband popped it; then, the puss came back the end of the day, and he popped it again, and it keeps coming back after he pops it). Today, there is a new purplish halo surrounding the area I was biten. Has anyone ever heard a that from a brown widow?
I live close to El Dorodo park in Long Beach, Ca and periodically find these fairly large dark brown spiders. They are usually hidden but they run very very fast. The thing that really creeped me out was a week or so ago I put my son in his crib and a spider began running back and forth on the mattress. I always shake out the blanket so I’m not sure if it flew out of there or was hiding next to the wall but it wouldn’t leave. My son has been bitten before by what I assume are spiders and I would really like to know what I am dealing with. The look very angular and mean.
Also, I drove home and there was a very large similar looking lighter spider with a body shape just like a giant black widow. It was hanging down from our tree and hit my windshield. I tried to take some pictures but the lighting makes it hard to see the color. Either way does anyone have advice? I don’t really want to use pesticides but am afraid my children will be bitten.
OMG I just found one in my backyard. I tried to hit it with the tip of my towel but it quickly ran up in to the corner of the wall. It sat there for a good two minutes giving me the evil eye. I went in to the house to call my next door neighbor. When he arrived we both went outside with a can of bug spray but, the spider was gone. I am now waiting for my husband to get home, he will have to find this thing or else we are dead tonight, the way that spider gave me the evil eye I am sure of it. The kids will have to stay with their grandparents tonight. I called the Police department over two ours ago, they tried to pawn me off to Animal control and it has been an hour since they promised to come around.
I know this brown widow wont mess with my dog ( he’s a Pitbull ) but Im not risking my dog’s life because the police are to lazy to protect us.
Does any body have any suggestions?
Please H.E.L.P!!!!!!!
Hello, everybody apparently here in southern cali we have an infestation, I went down the homestore (depot) to buy a 2 gal canister for $14.99 and a concentrated can of poison for $8.99 got home used it, and these brown widows fell death within minutes a whole bunch it must of been at least 30-40 the product worked just fine better than orkins which were charging $60 a month and would take care of the problem, with $25 I took care of it and there’s still some left waiting for the next wave of brown widow if they dare.
i live in Savannah, GA and i have brown widows everywhere in my garage. i went on a spider killing spree and found that bleach will eat away the spider web and kill the babies.
I live in Southeast Florida, and I have seen the Brown Widow in the window of my neighboring apartments, one on one side of me, and one on the other. I thought I noticed the hourglass makings, but was puzzled by the brownish color. Then I did an Internet look-up and sure enough, thanks in part to both the look of the spider and egg sacs, I learned for sure they are the Brown Widow.
I told my apartment managers to be on the look out for them, but they don’t seem to be all that worried as they are still there. Well, I know I have done my part. Hopefully nothing will happen to anyone because of them.
When our lanai on the West Coast of FL became infested with small brown spiders (w/hourglass markings), we contacted the FL Dept of Agriculture. They explained that the egg sacks (which can produce up to 400 young) and look like little velcro balls had been borne aloft on the upper winds of Hurricane Andrew from Africa. The spiders then rapidly moved across the FL peninsula.
Once we became aware of them, we began to see the egg sacks everywhere! The Dept of Ag said they are smaller and non-aggressive, but their bite is more toxic than a black widow’s. We later heard that Ag never publicized this infestation widely so as not to inhibit tourism. Am sorry to learn that these nasty, venomous critters have moved across the US. As a person who suffers from arachnophobia, I have since returned to NY. Absolutely love the snow and ice, knowing that I don’t have to be on the lookout for the brown widows!
I have heard and seen on the internet conflicting facts of weather the brown widow or black widow is more poisonous…I really would like to know since i have no car nor live within walking distance to a hospital. I
have 4 children and we just found a brown widow yesterday right outside our door on the frame outside. my kids are not afraid of bugs though I warn them here in Florida bugs are more likely to be poisonous then when we lived in NY, also this thing was HUGE!
the abdomen alone was just shy of the size of a nickle. but it had the definite red hour glass on its underside (haha fun trying to get my arachnophobic self to turn it over!!!)
I’m in Torrance, CA and these little bastards are EVERYWHERE.
If I take a flashlight and walk around my house at night I can count hundreds…literally every two feet. They hang upside down in their web which is usually about a foot off the ground, connected from the ground to the side of the house.
They are in trashcans, patio furniture, child toys, underneath cars…EVERYWHERE, and they are here to stay!
I’ve just learned to live with them because there is nothing you can do. Kill em?? Hundreds are waiting to take up the vacant spot. By far, the most prolific spider I’ve ever encountered.
I live in Carlisle PA in an old farmhouse and just killed a Brown Widow outside my front porch. I am not a happy person at the moment.
Hi everyone,
There are 4 different widows, Northern Black Widow, Southern Black Widow, Brown Widow, and Red Widow. Black Widow’s venom is 10 times more deadly then a rattle snakes venom. But because widows are so small they are incapable of injecting enough venom into you to kill. They are dangerous to people that may have health problems. These spiders have been living with all of us for years; you have just now noticed them. Mostly they stay outside, that is where the food is. Generally they like to build their homes in places where they won’t be bothered, like under picnic tables, under grills, and outside furniture.
I went out today and caught these two beautiful ladies to take to school with me. I have had spiders for years. Mostly I have tarantulas. Here in the United States none of our spiders are aggressive. Widows will retreat; they will even abandon their egg sacks. You may think they are acting aggressive but they are not. An aggressive spider will stand up on it back 4 legs and show their fangs. They will even slap at you with their front 4 legs. I have a Brazilian Bird eater she is 8 inches in diameter, when she gets pissed off at me for having my hands in her tank she lets me know. If you go on Youtube you will find great videos of aggressive spiders. The more you learn about them and understand them; you will be able to deal with them. Like I said I take spiders into schools and teach children all about them.
It never ceases to amaze me talking to children and showing them all the different things and yes even the bad and dangerous things that live with us every day.
Well I had 2 pictures of widows that I have but I don’t see how to post them. I hope that I was able to help. Spiders are an amazing thing and they are very important to the environment.
Just found one in the kitchen cabinet. I noticed the orange hour glass shape on the abdomen but it was brown with stripes on the legs, did an internet search and now I know.
Culver City, Ca
We first encountered brown widows a couple years ago when we mounted a bug light in the back yard to keep bugs away from our pool. Big mistake, the bug light attracted bugs AND 15-20 brown widows. I became suspicious when I noticed the orange hour glass shapes on the bellies. After some research I came back armed with several cans of bug spray with those “shoots 10-15 feet nozzels. They might be less poisonous than the black widow, but because we had so many, wasn’t risking multiple bites. Turned out they were not only on the pole near the bug light but we also had some hiding under every Rubbermaid chair we had in the yard. They love those little cubbies on the bottom. Most were killed quickly, however one very large one sitting on her egg sack behaved pretty aggressively when I hit her eggsack and actually ran across a chair right at me. I was a couple feet away, but the reaction was so surprising it scared me a bit. But after a steady stream of wasp killer she eventually gave up. I never used that bug light again however having all the spiders centralized did make it easier to kill them all.
Carlsbad CA,
My son found the brown widow and an egg sac under a plastic patio chair. Based on some of the other comments I read, sounds like they like it under the chairs. I am going to do a sweep of all the chairs now. We have found a few black widows over the years in the surrounding 20 miles, never heard of a brown widow, before, their coloring is amazing. Seems like they are all over the world.
Bye, Bye, brown Widows!
Just saw one and thought it was a regular garden spider, till I saw the hourglass. Looked under the windowsill saw five egg sacks, strange looking things. Smashed her before she gets me or dogs, then smashed egg sacks one by one between my fingers. I was surprised at how strong the nest was, covered in slime that won’t wash away with the hose. Diatamacious earth is what I will spread around.seems to work. Haven’t done it this year, maybe that’s why there’s so many insects this year. Get those things before they get you! That’s what I think. Especially poison spiders. No thanks. Spider bites suck.
saw my first one taking down fake Halloween webs today. she was on the antique plow in our yard. scary thing was her egg sacs, she had 9 of them. they have very thick and sticky webbing.
We just had our frame home treated for termites (subterranean, non-tenting with orange oil).
Today I found a brown widow spider under the lip of my laundry room window. I picked it up with tweezers, but it got loose after I looked at it under a magnifier lamp and rode a silk down to the floor where my husband promptly stepped on it. Sorry, no pictures. I am going to clean the room from top to bottom in case any more linger. I’ll use the vacuum cleaner before moving anything! We also had just sprayed for ants in that window area yesterday, so the ant spray does NOT kill them (at least not right away).
Nancy in St Pete FL
My friend just caught one here in pleasant grove, UT.
My brother thinks that he was bitten by one. He rode on a Greyhound bus and it smelled like they had sprayed with raid. A few days later, his finger was swollen and he had to have it lanced to draw out the puss. Why would they have sprayed like that and not have taken it off the road it is a total mystery.
I found 2 brown widows in my back patio. they had brownish but close to red hourglasses on there abdomens and the bottom of the spider was black, i first thought it was a black widow and i know from experience that they are not that aggressive until you really start messing with them.
i thought nothing of it because i knew they would not mess with my dog. When i came about 2 weeks later 1 was gone and the other was turned over and i saw that the spider was brown and thought that it was a new spider and the old ones died. I failed to realize that the spiders laid eggs and by the end of the month i had 8 brown widows and about 22 or so eggs. I freaked out, got a lighter to burn them out of there webs and then finished all of them and their eggs with a bb gun. its been about 2 1/2 months and i haven’t seen any spiders since.
To whom,
Don’t expect an answer but sure hope someone will find time to answer this email, while stationed aboard the USS LASALLE AGF3, in 1974-76 in Bahrain, my wife was bitten on the back of her right by what the Navy doctor said was a brown recluse spider and to this day my wife still gets a quarter size rash on the same spot that the spider bit her 37 years ago, is this possible. I say it was a brown widow spider but 37 yrs and still returning rash.
Anyone have a answer!?
Just found one here in NYC!! I caught it in a soda bottle, I used to live in SW Florida so I know what they look like. Besides, it looks exactly like the pics… Didn’t know they were here too..
I caught a brown widow a couple days ago in my house in Washington State, i cant post any photos of it but i took it to my biology teacher at college, and they told me to dispose of it quickly because its dangerous, it is a very light tan color when in the light, and has white markings on its back with a red stripe down the middle of the back on the white, and a red hour glass on its abdomen, and the hourglass is edged with white, its very interesting
I noticed a ladder-like web on my car this summer that was widest at the bottom. I really didn’t think anything of it. Then I saw it again last week in a different place- attached to the back bumper. Today I opened the rear hatch of my Subaru and saw a medium-sized spider with swirly tan, orange, and brown markings on the abdomen and I thought…hmmm… I’ve seen that before….juvenile black widow?
I chased her out of a plastic crevice with a a grass stem and she took off through the long grass (not on my property). I don’t think she had access to the car interior- she was just in a spot that is protected when the rear hatch is closed. Having read all the posts here I now think that it was a brown widow spider. I just went out to the car with bug spray and treated the areas I can’t see into. I REALLY hope there is no egg case in there. The last thing I need is a couple hundred baby brown widows in my car.
Just found this site as our house in FL suddenly got a bunch of brown widows a year ago, we’d never seen them before and have been here for 11 years. As we’re from the UK – which has no venomous or even large spiders – this came as a shock although seems they have become a lot more common all over the US recently. A quick spray or two of Home Defense kills them almost immediately and they don’t seem aggressive. We don’t have any crickets by the house so I’m not sure what is attracting them.
I have brown widows at home and at work. My garage always has them and the pointy egg sacs. I occasionally use insect foggers in the garage. Two or three of foggers at once kills about everything, including brown widows. When I see a live one in the garage, I bomb it again, seems like I need to about every six months. Thank fully, I have not had them in the house yet, but they like my cars.
At work, we have an exterminator in about every month. I see no brown widows inside, but they are outside on chanlink fences.
I was working on a tractor in Roseburg, Oregon and when i removed the dash to do some electrical repair, the dash area had several of these with sacks. this was the first time had come across this type of spider and i didn’t recognize it. looked like a black widow but was brown and had stripes on it’s back with a hour glass on the belly. having to put my hands into the dash area was a bit scary. this was back in 1997. haven’t seen any up until now.
Saw my 1st one in January 2011 and have since found em all over our yard on roof eaves, and fences. One was almost nickel sized but was very lethargic in the day when I poked at him. Must be 10 individuals around the yard right now.
Just found a brown spider sitting upside down on its web in my garden with an hour glass; one of my customers told me to watch out for Brown-Widows. I found one, so I used Raid’s Ant and Roach killer on it. I sprayed it and it fell off of its web and walked around in circles. I don’t like to kill spiders as they eat the insects that prey on my crops, but I don’t like to be poisoned either….
Chatsworth, San Fernando Valley, L.A., Calif Oct. 7, 2011
I have found three brown widow spiders….one on trash barrel handle; one under plastic patio chair; one in garage. I used a LOT of ant/roach spray. I put one in a bottle but it went moldy. I froze the second one, and just found the third a few minutes ago. I had sprayed under the chair and she was hanging from her web. I thought she was dead, and put her into a plastic bottle when I saw her move. I’m freezing her now. What do we do to get rid of them?
I live in Ormond Beach which is on the east coast of Florida. I have lived in my house and have never seen these spiders, until now. They are everywhere! There is one in my car! It keeps making a web on my gas and brake pedals. I keep knocking it down but it reappears. They are around my front door and under the patio chairs. I don’t want to get bitten.
I found one in my backyard! Here’s the video of it:
Brown Widow Spider!
I live in Bahrain, an island-state in the Persian/Arab gulf. A month ago we moved to a new house with a very big garden. A week after we moved, I discovered an adult widow spider on the door of the garage. Not sure if it’s a black or a brown widow (the hourglass marking was more orange than red). It was the first time i see one, and it scared the heck out of me! I checked the outdoor furniture and toys and found some more widows and egg sacs (the brown’s pointy ones).
I’ve put powder all over the garage and had pest control spray the garden twice. But during a routine check last night, I have found some more spiders and eggs inside the house (underneath furniture, but fortunately not underneath beds). The discovery made me very nervous … spent the night spraying pesticide.
All the stuff I’ve read says that there is no way to get rid of these things (that i really hate) for good. Any miracle solution???
We are in Orange county and after reading different post, I too am concerned about spraying for these stupid spiders.I see them often but really its the webs I see more than anything and their egg sacks. They come out at night, my husband goes out at night and sprays them . They like to hide by the garage. It seems they stay low to the ground, we have a almost 3 year old and I worry for his sake and mine.I hate them! I want them to go!!
Found this brown widow and four egg sacs at work yesterday in Luling, Louisiana.
I have to say I am freaking out. After living in one home the last 19 years in San Pedro. Ca, I never saw a Black or Brown Widow before(Thankfully). We had a huge yard with trees, bushes, flowers etc. Never saw a Widow. We moved a year ago to Culver City and I feel like I am in another world!
It started with the invasion of cockroaches (ie. water bugs for southerners)! I mean everywhere. You cannot walk around the city streets without stepping on them. City cleaned the sewers and the population dropped though growing again. The HUGE invasion are crickets. They are everywhere and they hop through my house like it’s a super highway. Gave up try to get rid of them UNTIL NOW!
I am truly freaking out! Out of the blue we have been invaded with Brown Widow Spiders. The first was just hanging there along the cat’s water dish in the middle of the day. Scared the pee out of me. Killed it. Next day another right over the cat’s water dish. That was it. Got the flashlight out that night and ended up killing 48 of them all over our plastic chairs, the house walls, the swing, the chair I sit on every day and each night and my daughter’s bike she rides every day.
I am just blown away. Bad enough I have a fear of spiders, but to know they are right outside my backdoor (patio is concrete too) gives me hebeejebees and I am having nightmares now.
The cricket population is too ingrained here to do much about them, but I am worried as my daughter is allergic to insect bites, son has bad allergies, asthma and lower immune system & I have allergies and autoimmune issues too. I fear one of us getting bit with the Brown Widows right outside my door.
Ortho Home Defense clearly states that it does not kill or repel Black Widows or Brown Recluse. I have several containers always on hand!
Time to find a way to control cricket population first & foremost and……
Any proven way to get rid of them?
we have a lot of these now in our garden (brown widows) which is quite large space and in our patio area…….we used to have more black widows…….lots………but since these have shown up we have seen very few black widows……if the the brown ones are killing or somehow taking over the black ones…. this would be good for us …..as the black ones are far more deadly…..anyway we just got the browns two years ago…… we live in southern California ……inland empire area
I found some with my brothers. They were everywhere in plants and trash cans. Once we found a egg sack in the trash can in chula vista, CA.
I have found two in different locations in Redding, CA. So they have traveled pretty far north. Of course black widows are very common up here as well.
Found a bunch of these Spiders and egg sacks on my scooter in Darwin Australia we have never known what they where your web sit helped heaps thanks Kym.
I just found a bunch of these spiders as well as 6 of the strange looking eggs. Especially the kids bikes and outside toys are full of the thick and odd looking webs. The strangest web goes from a tall bush up in the air across to a big tree.
It’s like a 15 feet long web up 10 feet in the air. I noticed it since a huge dragonfly seemed to be floating in air when in fact it was caught in this odd really long spider web. It’s time to get some poison and get this cleaned up. Lot’s more black and brown widow spiders than last year – wondering what’s that’s all about.
I live in La Mesa, CA. I awoke with a stinging upper lip…within a few hours it was swollen and burned. Could feel and see the two holes about a mm apart. Had flu like symptoms the rest of the day. Two days later I squished this big spider on the bedroom wall by the closet. This morning I spotted a large female (abdomen 1/2″diameter) suspended about 8ft. off the ground between the fence and a tree, a good 15 foot span. Captured her and tried to identify it….ended up here.
I just found the 2nd of these spiders. The first one was inside the water hose reel – along with it’s spiky egg sac. The second one was on my back porch – fat and aggressive. They both died with a heavy spray of ant spray. (I have a picture of the 2nd one but don’t see a way to post pictures)
I’m in Southern California.
We live in Kelowna, BC in Canada and we have got black widows here. Apparently we have brown widow spiders too as I see in the photos. I kill them every chance I get because if you let them live, they will lay those eggs and then more come.
They tend to enter our garage when the nights start to get cold. One year we had 16 come into our garage. Our way to kill them… a hockey stick! I crush those buggers with a vengeance and the tip the hockey stick is great for the tight spaces. My momma bear comes out with those stinkers as I’ve got two boys and don’t want them or my husband and I bit by those things.
We tend to bring in our shoes that hang in the garage during the fall months. And check the garage corners and around door ways to kill any who may have entered during the night. We had a bug guy come that made recommendations and one of them was to get rid of as may rocks as possible. At that time we had a rock boarder around our backyard. Now all that has been removed and replaced with grass. It has made a big difference.
…me again. No exaggeration, i’ve killed at least 35 Brown Widow Spiders in the last 4 days!! However, I just spoke to the Western Exterminator man who services the building where I work and he asked if I have a lot of crickets, and whatdoyouknow, I DO! He said, “they love crickets. Get rid of the food source and you get rid of the problem.”
He suggested Ortho Home Defense bug spray to kill both the spiders and the crickets. He showed me to spray the cracks around the foundation of my home to kill the crickets and to hit the spiders directly and their egg sacks, which I’ve already been doing. (deep sigh) Let’s hope this works.
I live in Stockton California. I recently killed two of these brown widow spiders in my back yard. There has always been a relatively large population of the black widow spider in my area but they seem to be more shy. I see them only when I move an outdoor umbrella or garbage can or if I disturb some sort of hiding place.
The brown widows I have spotted have spun large, very strong webs that extend out into the yard and they tend to hang out there where they are very visible. They are as big as any of the black widows I have seen. Some of my neighbors here have also seen them and my friends in the bay area are seeing them as well.
I found a brown widow spider with 16 egg sacks in my grandma’s garage. The egg sacks look like spiny sea creatures.
I live in Huntington Beach, CA. Last Fall I noticed a brown widow spider near my garage door on the outside of the house. I’d never heard of these before and got a little freaked out. I went online and read that they like to hang out in trash can handles and anything cast iron. Sure enough I found a brood of them there including their spiky egg sacks.
Since then they have rapidly multiplied. I can go outside any given day and kill 10. It’s easiest to find them at night though since they come out to find food. I find that any old spider spray works, but plan to try dish soap & water in a spray bottle as was suggested in another post. In the past week i’ve noticed them moving closer to my doors!! Augh!
DID I MENTION I HATE SPIDERS? Got bit by a widow when I was a kid. No fun, let me tell you. The poison travels through your body & exits some random place in the form of an enormous painful boil preceded by terrible sickness! None have made it indoors yet, thankfully. Praying it stays that way till someone finds a way to curb the population.
Hi,
I just submitted a blog about a suspected brown widow spider in my townhouse. What I forgot to mention is I live in what we call *Northern* California, near Sacramento! (Tallahassee, FL is my birthplace!) Thanks.
~ Bob
Around 3 this morning (Sun. 9/18/11) I discovered a brown spider hanging upside down in my townhouse. Under the guest bathroom counter cabinet near the floor is more specific.
She is almost as big as a small full-grown black widow, yet she is still medium brown. She could be a cupboard false widow (Steatoda grossa) spider. However, the shape of the abdomen looks more like a true widow’s. Additionally, she seemed too out-in-the-open in my bathroom, despite it being a dark part of a dark house at that hour, to be a black widow.
Slamming the cabinet door a dozen times today will hopefully chase her next-door to a vacant townhouse. Its downstairs guest bathroom is there too. When I find out how to reach it’s owner, I get to warn him/her/them!
I live in Orange, CA I was in the porch with my mother when she pointed out this huge spider building its web I’m not as terrified at spiders as my husband is but I had the urgency to kill this spider one because it was so big like nothing I had seen before ( that it gave me the creeps) and two we have a pet and a 1 yr old daughter…
I went out caught it with a tupperware and we where very curious on seeing it up close so we sprayed hairspray and degreaser ( that was my husbands idea) n eventually killed it we took pictures n I will post them…I thought that our was the only one around until last night we were walking into our home n my brother spotted ANOTHER ONE hanging from our front door…I’m scared of leaving the Windows open now because I’m afraid they might crawl in!!!!
I have already killed around ten Brown Widows and about sixty egg sacs in Denham Springs, Louisiana all over my front porch
I returned from NY to find Brown and Black Widow spiders had taken hold of my Florida garage. I called my pest control guy and he said they have to make direct contact with the pesticide to kill the spider. Since he isn’t going to stay in the garage, he swept all the corners and the back of the garage door and suggested I get a spray bottle and add 1 part vinegar to 1 part water and spray them directly when I see them or use cheap hairspray. He also suggested I change my exterior garage lights to the yellow colored bulbs as the regular bulbs are what has likely attracted them in the first place as the spiders like to catch and eat the insects flying around the lights.
I found this lovely (sarcasm) brown widow right at my back door yesterday. I live in Lake Forest, CA. We get a lot of spiders here, actually, and especially black widows, but I was surprised to find a brown widow. I didn’t even know such a thing existed!
The poor lizard in the pic is alive and I did rescue it after killing the spider. Sad, I know. But, the last thing we need is a poisonous spider right by the door and the possibility of one of us or our animals getting bit. Honestly, we have a widow problem here at the house and it scares the be-gee-bees out of me
I’m a Texas girl so I’m used to tarantulas, but not sneaky stealth deadly spiders like this. EEK GAD!
We have had black widows for several years, just found my first brown widow here (used to get them at work in Orange County). All widows are easy to control without toxic insecticides…just mix water with dish soap (orange scent / essence seems to work best), and put it in a sprayer. A few spritzes will kill the spiders, and it also works to bring them out of hiding if you only find their web.
It can sometimes take a few minutes to work, but they cant breathe when the soapy water hits them. After they die, just rinse with a hose and your pets and kids are safe.
i was washing dishes one day and felt something on my leg i felt a sting right before i slapped it off my leg i thought i got bitten but i didn’t have any marks or side effects i took a pic of it but my phone was to close so the flash made the background blue but u can see the markings on it perfectly.
We live in Whittier, CA and this afternoon my son and I found what we think is a brown widow spider. It has the classic widow body and the orange hourglass. The body looks exceptionally large so I am wondering if it is pregnant…do they get “bigger” before they make an egg sac in a web?
This one was just on our driveway and not in a web. I don’t recall seeing anything like this before, but the I think I have seen their spiny sacs. We are in an old neighborhood with lots of large trees, established foliage and open hills not too far away.
This makes me very uncomfortable because I hate spiders (although I have this bizarre fascination about them at the same time LOL) and with pets and a child, I worry about a bad bite.
I told my son we are going to do a thorough spraying this weekend and get some quotes for pest control services.
Got bitten six times by a Brown Widow moving into our Sarasota, FL rental.
I haven’t heard of anyone else being boneheaded enough to get bitten repeatedly by a brown widow, so I thought I’d post my story and symptoms. I was unpacking boxes in our garage and felt a prick under my armpit (mid-morning), which I dismissed as my imagination or a mosquito, so I just let it go.
I had recently put my shirt back on after leaving it laying around and I had also walked through a very strong/sticky web. A while after feeling the prick, maybe an hour or two, I wasn’t feeling well, so I called off moving day and drove my family back to my mom’s house, over an hour away. By the time we arrived (early afternoon), I had a bad headache and was feeling rather ill.
This developed into a severe headache, strange and uncomfortable hot/cold flashes, and nausea. I felt like I couldn’t really move my face b/c it just hurt too much and I didn’t want to. I recall my 2 year old climbing on me and feeling helpless to get him off of me. I’ve never felt something just take over the way this took me over. Not knowing what had happened, I took 4 Excedrin Migraine pills (I’ve never had a migraine so thought it might have been one).
They didn’t help at all. Almost an hour later, I was vomiting (not due to the pills). I took a double dose of someone’s migraine meds (Fioricet), slipped into a very deep sleep for a few hours, and woke up feeling substantially better – like I had an almost normal piercing headache. I took 4 Ibuprofen, which helped a little. A few hours after that, I started feeling close to normal again (late evening). Then over the next few days, I found these unexplainable bite marks under my arm that seemed to develop slightly in severity.
I’ve been bitten by mosquitoes, chiggers, no-see-ums, wasps, and ants, and the bites were just not quite like any of those, although I’d say they were closest to my experience getting stung by a wasp or fireant (but I didn’t get stung by a wasp or ant –I would have noticed that). There were 6 distinct bite marks within about a 6” radius. I suspect it was from one trapped spider, as they seemed to range from more to less severe (in order, down my side). I tried various treatments and found witch hazel to be most soothing.
Fortunately, the bites never became infected and they went away after a little over a week, first coming to a firm head, but never actually popping or oozing (I resisted the urge to fuss with them). Anyway, a few days after the symptoms, did some research on spiders, went back to the house and found the web I had walked through, which had a Brown Widow and egg sacs around it, and I found dozens of other Brown Widows and egg sacks around the garage. They were mostly in the overhangs among the aluminum garage door panels and around recycle bins.
The widows and their egg sacks were unmistakable once I knew what to look for. I killed them all with pesticide and expect to have to make another round again shortly.
I have a brown widow living in the corner of my patio – in the same corner is a huge banana spider. The brown widow ate the male banana spider and had it all wrapped up in her web.
I had never heard of a brown widow until we moved here. They are everywhere. We actually get sprayed every three months for spiders inside and out, but they return within a month every time.
Brown widows often appear white, with small red or brown spots. They can also be incredibly dark, like black widows. It all depends on the spider. I have been spotting and killing black and brown widows for years now, and I think the easiest way to spot them is by their irregular webs.
The webs take the appearance of a witch’s broom style cat’s cradle string game. Just a note, sometimes they are aggressive, it depends on the spider. If you aren’t sure whether or not you are dealing with a brown widow infestation, look to the egg sacks. Brown widows have spiky egg sacks!
We live in San Diego. Last fall I found our first brown widow spider with its unique egg sac. It was the only one I saw. Then a few days ago I noticed a few egg sacs hanging from my kids’ trampoline. I decided to do a careful search of our property and I noticed clusters of up to 12 egg sacs under the eaves of our house. My husband got his canister torch and we went to town blasting away at ever spider and egg sac we could find.
I found a brown widow spider living in EVERY single outside toy. Tricycles, swings, kids’ picnic bench, playhouse, patio chairs, they all had at least one brown widow on them. I probably killed around 50 spiders and at least as many egg sacs. I’m almost panicky thinking of my kids playing around outside. I haven’t had it in the past, but I am going to sign up for a pest control company ASAP.
probably should of mentioned we have tons of crickets in the backyard that come out and night that’s whats probably attracting them.
In all my 12 years of living in this house when we moved here i never seen these Brown widow spiders before until a month ago when i was about to walk out to the backyard where the sliding glass door leads out to it.
as i was walking down the steps i stopped immediately and as u would see yellow tape that would say caution this was all webbing a lost like it was from the handlebars to the other side of the wall as if the webs were blocking me from continuing. as i saw 2 of them on the web i never seen spiders like this so i got my hand lighter and lit them up as i continued to walk passed the steps i saw more to the side and under the chairs and tables to my left against the wall of the house i actually saw a HUGE black widow sharing the web with 2 of the brown widows that were smaller and at first i thought maybe that’s what small black widows look like then i saw more smaller ones tons where the chairs and tables were outside so with m hand lighter i just lit all them as many as i saw during this month
i been seeing them pop up in the same spot also along the railing outside of the house leading to the backyard. I go outside at night to get rid of them. Im thinking of just taking all our stuff and breaking it down and throwing it away its all just “Stuff” anyway. I basicly alrdy knew the less clutter the less effect u will see spiders. I still havnt seen an egg since. What i find weird is when i kill the spiders at night when i go out in the morning the bodies are gone. hopefully i can get rid of them i hate spiders hah.
We have a ton of these spiders living around our patio and backyard fence. They’ve infested a picnic table, patio chairs, even some of the plants. I use something called Terro Spider Killer and it works great. If you want to kill a bunch of them at once, I recommend going outside around 8-9 PM since that’s when they come out and are most visible.
I live in Laguna Niguel CA. Tonight i killed about 15-20 brown widows in my back yard as well as a ton of egg sacks. Lots of the widows had the sacks on them. These things are everywhere. I just used Raid and it worked fine. Go out at night with a flashlight.
I was playing tennis and I found a brown widow and so i filled up all my water bottles with water and dumb it on the spider and her eggs over and over again until she got mad. Then I left them soaked and angry. Hopefully i will kill them tomorrow
I found a brown widow egg sac in our kitchen behind the garbage can. As soon as I saw the strange sac with spokes sticking out all around it I began to look for the spider. I saw a web under the kitchen table bench spread out to the floor a foot away and two legs hanging below the bench. I went on-line and researched the egg sac to see it matched the picture of the brown widow egg sac. We used Ortho indoor outdoor insect spray to kill the spider because she was hiding in a crevice on the bench as soon as my husband flipped it over to find her.
We need to look under the table top and see if there are anything other egg sacks. Ugh!
Our dog’s paw became swollen and I took her to the vet. That afternoon I checked the shade cover of her x-pen and found the white sac with the little points on it. When the swelling of hour dog’s paw increased I took her to the vet again and also took one of the spiders and the egg sac. Our dog is now on antibiotics as pus has started to come from the infected site. In reading information on the spider, I find there is no anti-venom for it.
Earlier this year, I did find these strange egg cases but did not think much about them until now.
As we were away on vacation and our dogs were boarded at a kennel, I wasn’t aware that I should have checked the shade cover of our pen.
Thanks for all the information on this site. I hope our dog will be okay.
I live in Del Mar, Ca. My Wife and I have noticed a huge infestation of Black, Brown, and now White Widows on our community. We killed over a hundred in just a half block. The White widow are the strangest.
From reading some info these are supposed to be young black widows but this is not the case. These are large adults that have all white on the back orb. Maybe from Brown and Black widows cross breeding? I can only say this is out of control from the normal. We’re talking 1-5 widows every 3 square feet. Nightmare!!
I live in Fullerton CA and we are overwhelmed with brown widows. They used to be attracted to my wrought iron things, but lately I’m finding them on anything wood also. I hung clothes outside to dry and within hours found their webs attached to the clothes. They like dirt too. They are in my bushes and attach their webs to the dirt it looks like. I stab them and smash up the eggs sacks. We used to have a bug man spray every month, but my son has an immune issue so we canceled the bug man. Since we don’t spray anymore they are literally everywhere.
I live in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
I just found one eating a rollypolly at my work.
I was scrubbing the floors when i saw it move out of the corner of my eye and my hand brushed up against it. I’m glad i wasn’t bitten!
How do i get rid of it?
I am in El Cajon, CA. Reading these posts, it seems that we are having a bumper year here for brown widows. I had no trace of the buggers last year in my yard, but this summer I have an infestation on my porch and backyard area. Found the first one when I went to put on my bathing suit that had been drying on one of my patio chairs. I went to put my leg in, and it popped out of the suit crotch area and took off running across the floor. I killed it and studied it as I had never seen a spider move so fast and “leggy”. Sure enough it had the orange hourglass. I studied my porch and upon closer inspection, found lots of cottony sticky messy webs underneath my patio chairs and under my kids water table. Ended up killing about 20 of various sizes.
My landlord sent out pest control, who sprayed, and said they found about 50 of them whilst spraying, but my troubles did not end there. I have been killing 5-10 of these a day for the past month. They seem to just keep coming back, and have a special fondness for my kids’ bikes, my patio furniture, kids’ outdoor toys and the outside of my patio box. Very frustrating. I have gone through 3 cans of Raid and 1 can of oven cleaner so far! I usually leave spiders alone but am worried that my kids will get bit. I moved to this duplex so that my kids could have a backyard to play in, but this summer I am not letting them out there, it’s just not worth them getting bit. I am concerned that these spiders will move into the house too. It’s very strange how I didn’t have this problem last year, yet this year I am infested.
Irvine, CA
I have a three year old, and 11 month old, and the idea of spraying poison makes me nervous as it could have persistent nasty effects on unintended targets. To make matters worse the poisons seem to have limited effect on the spiders.
My small back yard has become infested, and in ~ 20 min I killed perhaps 12-18 spiders and a couple of eggsacks. About six of the spiders were quite large.
I have found that using one of those lighters for lighting stoves, and “RZ-50 dry film lubricant spray” works very well. The stuff is frighteningly flammable, so you need to be careful to not singe your eyebrows or start a fire. The 2-3 ft fireball takes out the spiderwebs, gets the spiders hiding in the cracks, deck furniture etx, and doesn’t leave any visible residue.
I live in Mission, Texas (deep south, about 10 minutes from the border). I don’t ever remember seeing these spiders, and a few days ago I found that they had infested everything on my patio. My 3 year old son has lots of dump trucks and outside toys. They had made nests/egg sacks inside almost every one of his toys. I’ve been cleaning them out and spraying and killing them and smashing their egg sacks, plus spraying wherever they had made nests. I’ve been using Bengal Roach Spray, and Hot Shot spider spray. I’ve also sprayed Ortho Home Defense Max and put granules that say they help to kill/prevent spiders. From what I’ve been reading it seems like these things are spreading like wildfire. I don’t mind garden spiders, but now I’m trying to eradicate every pest in my yard to get rid of them.
Where did these things come from? Think maybe Katrina blew them over? I have found TWO in the last month. I was told there is no anti-venom for the brown widow.Is that so? The first one I saw, had an abdomen as big as a dime!
I have seen two of these recently. one had a back end the size of a dime ,& the hourglass was glowing neon orange. The other one, my son found under my carport late at night when he tried to capture it in a jar, it ran under a piece of furniture I was re-finishing. I stayed up all night long. Refusing to sleep till I killed it! About noon the next day I caught that sucker, placed him in a jar with a alcohol cotton ball.He was just a small one. But you could see that orange spot on her underside. Where did these things come from? Do you think maybe Hurricane Katrina blew all these strange things over here?
I just found and killed 5 brown widow spiders on my side deck and on my sliding door. I wish I took a pic of them but I know there are more when I find them I will email the pictures to you. I knew what they were because last month they did a news report here in socal but they were in orange county but now they are here in rialto, ca.
I have found about 6 eggs sacs on my outdoor trash can. Also, black and brown widow spiders in the area. Will bug spray kill the spiders in the egg sac, if not how do you get rid of them? I am in Lakeside, CA.
Oh, I forgot…I live in the Sunland/Tujunga area of Southern California. Also, the brown widow doesn’t seem to shy away from sunlight unlike the creepy shadow dwellings of the black widow.
I’m a textbook case for ” not being aware of garden ‘dangers’. Recently I was watering my backyard with a garden hose and the little bugger (brown widow) climbed up the garden hose (frm its coil in the bushes) and up my wrist to the underside of my forearm and bit me!
Since there were some mosquitoes and ‘no see-ums’ around I didn’t think much of it. I did feel a sharp prick there but attributed it to a deer fly bite. Along with a few mosquito bites I noticed this one blister/bite on the forearm underside. I made the mistake of squeezing it some thinking that with anticeptic and neo-sporin it would go away.
I waited a week (big mistake) before noticing the redness spreading and the swelling increasing. When my arm swelled up, and the bite-site starting to shoot ribbons of infection up my arm I went to Urgent Care where I received a 7 day supply of heavy duty antibiotics.
The bite-site became raw and basically became an open wound requiring bandages. My arm hurt like heck until (while changing bandages) it drained itself (about a 3/4 shot glass full of pus). Then the pain went away but for 3 more weeks I had an awful wound where I had to change the dressing every 12hrs or so.
Now, 1 month later, I still have a bruise at the site but the worst is well over. The most alarming thing about the whole affair is that the brown widow spider was very colorful and on quick glance resembles your average garden insect (ie color and all). The thing to remember is it’s SHAPE. It looks very much like a black widow in shape(!) Forget the color! It’s the shape (yeesh) that’s the give-a-way. Live and learn I guess.
Found a brown widow spider in the bathroom of my duplex last week. Didn’t see where to post the close-up photo so I’ll email it. This lucky spider was carefully placed in a pill bottle with a piece of paper towel and shipped to the UC Riverside Entomology Department. They are researching Brown Widows, although not specifically for LA County, and more info can be found online.
Just noticed two more in the front yard that made intricate webs. Hopefully they’ll stay out of the way because I really hate to get rid of them…
In the past 2 months I have found a total of 6 brown widow spiders on my front patio. I live in the panhandle of Florida and have never come across these spiders until recently. One was crawling around on the chair I sit in every morning, and I’m pretty sure the bites I discovered on my back this morning are from a spider. I decided to take a look around and discovered an egg sac underneath the BBQ grill.
Hey Dawn,
Send me your picture at badspiderbites [at] gmail.com and I’ll get it posted for you!
Jen
@ Shannon Leviner – Get an exterminator!! We have an old drafty house made in the early 1900′s too & whenever I think we are OK without an exterminator, nope everything from spiders, roaches, to wasp come back. I know how you feel, I have two children myself & it frustrates me whenever I let time go by without having the exterminator come in. They aren’t really that expensive like some people think. Mine comes by the house quarterly (about every 3 months) for $75.00 & they take care of every pest I have. And trust me, it will be the best thing you ever invested in.
This year, we are absolutely OVERRUN with these poisonous spiders! I went out last night with a flashlight, as they really love to come out after dark. It took my breath away, there were so many, all in and around my many flowers and bushes, and I am not normally squeamish about spiders. I also found multiple egg sacks under the wood beams of my fence and under the eaves of my house. If you are a gardener, BEWARE. The brown widow loves vegetation of all kinds, including flower and vegetable gardens.
We spray around our foundation regularly with professional products, which unfortunately do not appear to have any effect on the brown widow. I called an on-line store (for those who like do it yourself pest control) and was advised that spiders are hard to get rid of and need direct spray, usually with a wettable powder or dust. I have an organic garden, so I am going to try the least toxic of his recommendations first, which is ECO WP, a wettable powder. I am going to spray the creatures at night as that’s when they seem to be most active. Will let you know if it does any good. I hope so, because at this point I’m afraid to even pull weeds!
Forgot to add that I am in El Cajon, California
We have them here too, in Yorba Linda, CA. It is a constant battle with them. I found six small ones under my kids water play table! I actually found 5, the 6th crawled up my leg and bit me while I wasn’t looking. That was yesterday and I feel fine, just a little redness where she got me. I can deal with Black Widows because they are fiercely territorial, so you usually find only one in a patio chair. the Brown Widows don’t seem to mind company and have parties in our teak furniture. 9 in one chair alone, yeesh!! Diligent cleaning keeps our 1 year old explorer as safe as he can be and the our 5 year old daughter knows to stay away from webs.
Just found one of these next to my house in Carbondale, Illinois. I live a long way from where these things are supposed to be.
I am from Ontario California, and I have seen an increase in widow spiders lately. Not a good thing, since I have 2 dogs, and a 3 year old who loves to run around the yard. The other day I found a dead widow by my front door, and thought it was a black widow, it was so dark, but then when I looked closely, I noticed light brown stripes along it’s legs. I just ignored it, and thought that it was just a different shade of the black widow… until today. This afternoon I was out back with my daughter, watering my rose bushes which are up against our dividing fence, when all of a sudden a huge widow drops down from the top beam.
I was so startled, and went inside to get bug spray, and when I came out to get it, I noticed it was lighter in color (a decent brown) with light tan stripes on it’s legs. There was no doubt that it was a widow, since it had the huge rear end, and the red hour glass, but man, the colors of it looked like so many of the other spiders running around here that I’ve always thought were harmless. Now I beginning to think that the smaller spiders that have the same look, may indeed be little brown widows. That’s a scary thought! If this indeed is true, than I have a serious problem on my hands. I’m a little freaked out right now. Before tonight (when I finally googled it) I didn’t even know Brown Widows existed, being from So Cal we usually only see Black Widows, now I’m realizing that there is a whole other monster out there waiting to attack my kid. Frightening, that.
No Bueno!
Yesterday, I found a Brown Widow and her egg sacs in my waste container in Long Beach, CA. I was quite taken aback by the female’s magnificent beauty, however, I didn’t hesitate to removed the egg sacs. As I did so, she played dead (as a later found out) and it was quite a show she put on.
I have the egg sacs secured in a 35mm film container. At this point, I’ll either dispose of them, or donate them to the invasive species research center at UC Riverside.
Killed this one last night on our back porch. I’m attempting to link the photo since I see no email at the bottom to send the pic to.
I appreciate reading the many comments and observations regarding this spider from around the country. I’m located in San Diego and have lived in this home for 27 years. To the folks who think we’re spider haters for killing the Brown Widow species I’d like to mention a few things. I’ve co-existed wonderfully with black widows on my 1/4 acre plot and always had a policy of relocating the ones that moved in to the living spaces. This was my uniform treatment of all spiders, my whole life, as learned from my mother who felt they brought good luck.
The last three years here have seen an invasion of the African brown widows that has actually seemed to displace the native black widows. Those are rare on my property anymore. I can say I wish I’d eliminated all those spiky, cream-colored egg sacks that started appearing under my many garbage can (for greens recycling) handles a few years back!! The population has exploded. For the last year I have killed every brown widow I encountered and today I realized I need to step up the battle or lose it.
These noxious spiders are now encroaching into my garage and storage buildings as well as my HOME, through some old wooden framed windows. The BEST thing I can say is that these spiders thankfully announce themselves in a unique way in that their “disorganized” webs are sticky and unmistakable when you put your hand (or head!) into it. It is hard to remove and distinctive. You can catch the buggers hunting along the web if you’re lucky. Maybe you see them in a crack or crevice.
I haven’t tried poisons yet and seeking advice on that is how I got to this website. Anyway, I am doing some things in advance of chemicals which includes a good clean-out of the garage, storage and yard areas. One huge bit of advice I can offer is using a Shop-Vac (mine is a 16 gallon) to catch these guys when seen. For some reason they generally allow themselves to be sucked up (this technique goes for houseflies and Argentine ants as well.) If they are in crack, I use a long slender screwdriver to coax them out or smash them, in conjunction with a crevice tool on the vacuum hose. They have never walked out of the canister again!
With the ants (horrible problems here and probably in many areas), when they are vacuumed up I spray only the entry spot with Home Defense and this is very effective. I’ve got a lot of suggestions for chemical treatments from the posts I read and now look forward to waging a winning war on these brown widow non-native invaders. It is sad I agree, but when I walk through an area at my home and feel the sticky web on my hands and body I know they have too much reign here!!!
i have fine a brown looking spiders it looks like a Brown widow spiders what do i do with it?
I just found one brown widow and five or six black widows and a nest of eggs(6 total) in a gas station trash container not the trash can but the cover part at a gas pump and I’m in south Louisiana in thibodaux.
I am officially freaked out! These spiders are all over the house. And I really mean everywhere! Fridge, shower, under the kitchen table and chairs, cabinets, I think you get my point. I had no idea they were poisonous. Also, we have blue wasps that have tried to take up residence as well. The favorite food of the blue wasp is a black widow. Ugh! Our house was built in 1912 and is very drafty. We also have a German roach infestation which caused the whole cycle to begin. Can anyone help me determine how to rid our house of these pests? I have two young children and a dad who can’t get around and is allergic to wasps.
fresh pics of my little monster…. & i am not so sure everyone here is totally freaked out and hates spiders.. i do hate them but only when they are in my home or in a place near my home where a dangerous spider could meet one of my dogs or a small child, my nephew is always into everything… and these guys are not exactly hiding under the porch or up in a corner of the garage…they are building nests under the patio table so they could drop on your leg when you sit and under the chairs you sit on…. to me that is not cool…
Hi Folks, I am in Port St. Lucie, Fl. I don’t know where to begin to describe to you the insane amount of Brownies in my garage. They are everywhere. So far I have never been bothered by them, maybe it’s because I loved the child’s book “Charlotte’s Web”. I do admit I get rid of them when I can’t get into my car without one hiding under the handle. I do this by using a small shop vac to suck the little Brownies up. I them drop them out of the bucket in a field by my house and let them enjoy the chance to heal and thrive. Don’t be fooled by hysteria. They perform a vital job as dos any spider in our eco system. So if you need some relief suck them up andrelease them elsewhere. They deserve it as they work hard at cleaning up other pests for us.
so cali checkin in!
found one today under a plastic patio chair… noticed dog hair caught in the unmistakable krazy tangle of patternless webbing a BW spider always spews, i checked the dark recess of the molded chair & saw the little guy hiding so i knocked him out into the light of day & Holy crap! i have never seen one before never even heard of any thing but a black widow but here was a light tan, striped like a tabby cat ‘widow’ spider with an orange hourglass under his belly..?… i find black widows all the time around my house and garage … here in so cali they are in every dark corner of a carriage or under a pile of bricks or lawn tools you name it..
I took some pics and will upload later i think they are pretty good we will see…didn’t have the right lens handy ……… freaky looking thing i tell ya!.
watch out under rarely used patio furniture, bbqs etc…they love that stuff.
Found a mom with some babies (sadly most had dispersed) under a plastic lawn chair today. Killed them with Hot Shot spider killer. I live in Los Angeles in the Valley. We also have an alarming number of black widows around the property as well. Not happy especially since I have an extremely curious 2 year old!
Wow, I just found one of these brown widows that I though was white widow!
I live in San Clemente, CA which is a beach town in southern Cali. I caught and fed this spider to my B52 Venus flytrap, haha!
Apopka, FL.
Just found a brown widow hiding out under a beam of my lanai enclosure. Noticed a widow web and to my surprise found a very large adult brown widow.
I have 2 small dogs, so this became a serious concern. I flung it in my pool skimmer. When it’s good and dead I’ll take a post-mortem photo to post.
I have killed over 100 brown widows at work in the past two days. I live in Southern Alabama and it seems like these spiders are starting to take over my shop. I have sprayed “Home Defense” all over the place twice in the past 6 months and they just keep coming back! Any ideas on what I can to to get rid of these nasty spiders?
I live in corona California, and last night I killed four of these things. In the past 3 years I have seen a significant increase. Sad part is they resemble a garden spider except in body shape, and the hourglass. There seems to be more of these brown then there are black ones. Seriously considering hiring pest control, since I have never seen so many spiders at any given time.
Nickie,
If you send me your pictures at badspiderbites [at] gmail.com I will post your pictures under your comment for you.
Jen
I’ve been catching and raising widows for many years,they are very interesting. I would like to know how to post some pictures of them.
My daughter bought a jeep wrangler from Gonzales, Louisiana. This is close to New Orleans. The jeep was infested with the brown widows. My suggestion is spray with suspend just like a normal professional would spray your house and outside of your house. First time you spray then spray 3 months later then every 6 months. This is the BEST. I could not believe how well it works on all insects. You can get it off line or may look up places that sell it. It comes concentrated so will last a couple of years. I love this spray. It kills everything.
I used to work at a mental/forensic hospital. Certain residents who needed close supervision were required to sit in large plastic seats located outside on the cement patio. We had a number of residents on our building who had spider bites, which became severely infected with MRSA and led to being hospitalized. None of the staff had heard of Brown Widows until one of our curious nurses discovered egg cases under her swing outside her home and Googled them. She informed me as the manager of the building where the majority of bites had occurred and we searched beneath the chairs and discovered brown widows. She was being ridiculed for not knowing the difference between black widows and our common brown recluse. Not until I copied pictures of the spiders and their unique egg cases, along with info about their venom did other people take her seriously.
We were told by our maintenance staff that spiders were not killed by residual spray and must be sprayed directly and that the spray did not kill the hundreds of babies in the egg sacks. I found three huge sacks on my porch tonight and am calling my pest control company first thing in the morning. I have a 7-mo. old granddaughter who loves to explore the porch in her walker and the sacks were right where she could reach them. I also have two very curious small dogs, who love to nudge or chew anything that moves. Scary!
I live in Northwest GA. My husband and I were cleaning or backyard and moved a pool…. it was covered in Brown and black widow spiders! I have 3 kids. what do i do? we got some spray and will be spraying tomorrow. Lord, I hope it works.
Judging by the comments I take it this is a website for people who hate spiders.
That’s a shame because without spiders to keep the eco systems around them in check, we would be overrun by flies, beetles, moths and worst of all, mosquitoes and roaches.
I have several brown widows living peacefully outside my apartment and I enjoy watching them setting traps for their prey. I would not like to be bitten by one but I know it is highly unlikely. You could poke one with your finger and it will undoubtedly retreat.
Grabbing one from it’s web is definitely not a good idea though and I can see the danger they potentially pose to curious children. That being said, we need to realize we live in a world we are outnumbered by bugs and we should be more aware of what is dangerous and what is not and we should educate our kids early, not just the dangers but the benefits these creatures have on the environment too.
One should feel safe in the knowledge that 94-96% of the creepy crawlies on this planet are entirely harmless to humans and those that are a real danger are mostly defending themselves. So we should respect their personal space where possible and to avoid danger in our homes, take better care when dusting out closets and be sure to check inside old work gloves and boots.
I live in central Florida. This spider was on my pool net handle. It also had a very strong web that felt like hair. I know this because I used the net before i noticed the spider. It was after i felt the web on me that i noticed the spider at the other end. Luckily it didn’t get on me. I’m not sure, but it looks like a brown widow. It was a little smaller than a dime and brownish with a big abdomen .
Okay, I am a house painter, and I see these spiders, and many others all the time. They are not monsters. They will not hunt you down. They are more common than people think, however. If you don’t want to kill them you can coax them onto a stick very easily, and carry them to a bush away from common areas. Be advised that they reproduce quite rapidly, and if you have one, soon you will have many more. The easiest way to get rid of them is to use a vacuum, and keep areas free of clutter. They do not make the classic spider web. Instead, it’s a tangled mess of threads, and they will make one just about anywhere they can. Easily identified when the sacs are present. The males are much smaller, but if there are eggs present, then you know they’re around, and the population will boom. Once the sacs open, there’s usually a few hundred babies waiting to fly away on a gossamer thread, and start the whole thing all over again. I wouldn’t say they are harmless, but they are very common, and an unknown infestation is not unusual. Nothing to freak out about, as we have been sharing the same living space with them for thousands of years. If you have infants or are taking care of the elderly, just do a search around the house for their telltale web and sacs. If you notice them, get the vacuum out, and suck them up. It really is that simple. I find them all the time while painting, and that’s how I get rid of them.
I have to laugh when I read where people say these Brown widow spiders are NOT aggressive as that is not the case here in Kissimmee Fl. I was out on my screened in porch when I spotted a web with a lg spider and spike sack and looked it up on the computer. I then went out to kill it and that spider came at me as if she had to kill me before I sprayed her. It was a LARGE brown widow spider with 2 egg sacks and I killed them both. I now see them all over by my house, Garbage cans, mail boxes, back porch, etc and they are VERY aggressive. I have 5 pic of them and they are the big as are the sacks. PLEASE tell me what to use to get rid of them before my grand-kids get bit. They are taking over.
insecticides do not work on any spider unless you get direct contact with the spider,fumigating for them is a waste of time and money………..what works really good and is really cheap is to put soapy(like dishsoap) water in a spray bottle and and spray them directly(tried and proved this myself)this knowledge was given to me by a pest control guy, hope this proves useful to everyone!!!!
Here in the UK we have conkers/chestnuts that grow on trees. Inside of them is a small brown nut, the chestnut, apparently spiders hate them, I have very few spiders in my house because of them put them at the window sills. I’m not sure where you would get conkers over in the States though.
I am a Pest Control Operator/Technician out of Central Florida and I have, lately, been encountering the Brown Widow often. Typical crack and crevice treating, along with eave and corner treatment keep these spiders away. I use Cyper wettable powder for these treatments. I see typical infestations of brown widow spiders – and other various Florida spiders – completely wiped out within a couple days to a few weeks.
The only thing that bothers me as a PCO is that I have to kill these spiders. I dislike killing spiders due to the fact that I have a pet Tarantula, and that spiders are nature’s pest control.
Seminole, FL – I have been finding a ton of the white/spiky egg sacks all around the outside of my house, under window ledges, corners, all under patio furniture. I called pest control and they came out to treat the entire front/back yard and remove eggs/spiders they found. They guy was shocked at how many egg sacks and adult spiders he found..including all under, around the lip of a big plastic pot I use to put the kids pool toys in!
Many were also around the pool pump as they are attracted to the heat. They are difficult to treat as they don’t walk through poison like other bugs…so it’s more kill on contact. I have a lot of trees, so the rain is pushing them to the ground and allowing them to then breed. I have a dog, 3 cats, and 2 kids…I am definitely concerned. Walking through the neighborhood I now see a bunch of mailboxes with the webs/egg sacks all underneath. Major problem here in FL.
One was found in KS and I’m very scared!
According to the local news, a brown widow was found in a small town just Southwest of me (in haysville, Ks.) So they are now in Kansas also.
I have killed a couple of black widows in my house the past 2 years, and my wife was bitten by a brown recluse. I killed what I thought was another black widow in my bathroom last night (though it didn’t look quite right). After seeing the news story, I started researching brown widows, and I now believe that is what I killed in the bathroom last night.
Oh my God. I was cleaning the screened in porch I found like 30 brown widows and 3 black widows. I’m sending my husband to get bug spray to get rid of each one of them. Next I’m calling pest control. I have 4 kids cant afford anything to happen. One of them is a 3 yr old, he likes playing outside. I have to figure out how to upload pics. To be continued……..
i live in fl and one day i went to my grandmas house and i got her recycle bins up for her and i felt a web and i looked and saw a brown widow spider with 3 big spiky egg sacs. luckily i was not bitten. i used this bug poison for wasps called “The End” and it kills the spiders instantaneously. thought this might help. -Cj
Hi! I’m a grad student at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga. and I’m doing my Master’s thesis on Brown Widows. I’m in need of specimens, so if any of you are in the state and happen to find some, I’d greatly appreciate if you would email me! These spiders aren’t very aggressive and would rather run than waste venom, so if you’d let them be and notify me, I’d be happy to come get them.
Email: ba00014 [at] georgiasouthern.edu
Thanks!
OMG I saw one and I live in WA, but I al glad to know that I killed that one… MAN I hate spiders… UGH!
Hi! I live in Mission Valley in San Diego, CA. I found one of these brown widows on my porch. I would normally smash him, but the only time I see him is when he is on his web. It would be impossible for me to smash him because he is floating in air. IF I went out there during the day and smashed (or even better…burned) his web, would he move on and go away or would he build his web again? Also, how can I find her sack? How else can I get rid of him. Can anyone recommend a spray I can buy?
I live in FL. i saw them in my mail box a month or so ago, and sprayed them, but that didn’t work. a couple weeks ago, i was cleaning my back patio and and lifted the cover to my fire pit and there was a few spiders and a bunch or sacs. I sprayed underneath with a hose to get it all clean, and have since left it uncovered. it seems to be helping. however, i found a spider on my mop bucket today, so i think now i am going to find an insecticide.
We are being invaded by brown widows down here at fort Polk la. Nothing works to get rid of them and I have 4 small kids…. Help if you can!
I found this nasty guy hiding under the lip of my garbage can. Will find out later I guess if I was bitten. I had been working the whole day with the can cleaning out the garage and had felt a bite earlier in the day. Not sure if it was her but I was on the look out when I noticed the egg sacks and went in to investigate. I tugged on the web and she shot out showing her red hour glass on her abdomen. I sprayed her with Raid. Beautiful insect.
Jeff, Tampa, FL
just found one in the kitchen while cooking my cheeseburgers for dinner, i have a 3 year old little boy and its the second spider i have found., no pics tho i have no camera, and i also killed a brown recluse 2 days ago, this one in the kitchen was a brown widow, i am in Tulsa OK
Spring Hill, Fl has become over-run with widows. Our entire property and anywhere I go, whether it be friends houses, the local botanical garden, whatever it may be, I see brown widows all over the place.
I see the black widows mostly in the garage where its much darker. I was bit in several places last night in my husband’s car. One of them bit my toe in one place and I have at least three entry point bites on my ankle and my ankle is now nearly the size of a tennis ball.
I don’t have any pics yet I’m waiting for my camera battery to charge. What has been helpful in reducing the number of spiders has been using apple cider vinegar in a spray bottle. We have a lot of animals and we don’t like the idea of using pesticides both in and outside the house unless it becomes absolutely necessary.
I’ve sprayed around every entry/threshold to the house, I’ve been spraying the cars before dark and if I see any sacs or webs around the outside in the gardens I’ve been spraying them too. The spiders scatter and begin to die within thirty seconds or so and its pretty obvious they can’t stand the stuff as they scatter every which way trying to get away from it.
I’ve even had some non threatening garden spiders run out of the lawn and run away down my sidewalk just after spraying the vinegar a few feet from the lawn. They apparently can’t stand the smell of the stuff anymore than most humans.
I’ve also learned that acetone is detestable to most bugs and the fumes can suffocate them. I’ve been told that dousing cotton balls in acetone and strategically placing them in common areas will help cut back on numbers too. I’ll be trying this later today.
According to Dr. G.B. Edwards, an arachnologist with the Florida State Collection of Arthropods in Gainesville, the brown widow venom is twice as potent as black widow venom. However, they do not inject as much venom as a black widow, are very timid, and do not defend their web. The brown widow is also slightly smaller than the black widow.
I have found the brown widow to be very shy, and she has not defended her nest when provoked. For that matter, she packed up and moved elsewhere. Her speed in doing so was very surprising. I wore heavy duty gloves for protection in cleaning the area, but am not sure I could have avoided her had she chosen to attack as I cleaned out the nest.
I hadn’t seen these in my 18 years until about a month ago i tried to move something and there was a big brown widow in it’s web (i accidentally touched the web and got within probably a half inch of it). Anyway,lately i have found quite a few more…they are starting to seem more and more common as i research them. I was wondering though if anyone out there would be interested in buying some of the ones i have?
I live in El Cajon, CA also.
Ok well, yesterday in the bathroom there was a spider. I had no clue what type it was. I examined the eyes and there were eight. It was a tannish brown color, and had dark brown (faint) stripes on it’s legs. I looked in the Pine Barrens Of New Jersey, (I live there) And there was no spider that fit my description. I decided to Google it. I found a picture of the spider (the brown widow) and it looked EXACTLY like the one I found in the bathroom. The one in the bathroom is a brown widow. Last night I captured him. I took closer looks at him and compared him with the picture. It was indeed a brown widow. I would like to know more about their defense system, and more, because they are not in the pine barrens of new jersey at all. Please Help me learn more.
I live in San Diego and I’ve been noticing more and more brown widows around. These guys don’t hide either. They are spreading like wild-fire and there isn’t an efficient way to control them. They are not aggressive, actually quite timid. You can actually handle them. Though the chance of getting bitten is greater when they are everywhere
.
There is a professor at UC Riverside who would like you to send the egg sacs to him if you find a brown widow and her spikey egg sac. He is trying to develop ways to control these spiders. If you do find them send the sac in a pill jar or film canister to:
Rick Vetter
Dept. Of Entomology
University of California Riverside
3401 Watkins Dr
Riverside, CA 92521
Hope this helps
Doug C
Found this brown widow in the handle of my sliding glass door. We live in Dunedin Florida, off the Gulf Coast.
I took a picture but can’t get it to paste on this reply. The one I found has orange on its beautifully colored abdomen and I found it near its eggs which are creme and have spikes of sorts on them. Its web is thick and sort of cottony.
Hope this helps,
Molly
i found one in my bed while i was clipping my nails and i felt something on my back so i swatted it off it started crawling under my bed so I tracked it down and killed it.
The species is generally non-aggressive and unlike the black widow will not defend the nest. Brown widow bites are very uncommon in humans and generally occur from direct contact with the spider and your skin. They are actually rather beneficial as they are extremely efficient killers of mosquitoes. However, if you wish to avoid them your best bet is to eliminate clutter from your garage or yard such as open boxes, sheds, tools, wood, and other construction waste. Furthermore, diligent cleaning of lawn furniture and other things which offer cover for them to nest with a hose is effective. (WEAR GLOVES) Finally, they are generally unaffected by general insecticides so “bombing” your garage will prove ineffective. prevention is your best bet but otherwise a professional exterminator should be contracted in extreme cases.
These spiders like some place to hide. I found a Black Widow that had made it’s web on my fence behind a garden hose. When I moved the hose, she was not to be seen. When I put it back, she was right there, hiding in her web.
Well, they are in Baltimore, MD now too. We found a Black Widow in the house about 6 months ago and didn’t see any more, but today I found several Brown Widows in the garage and a cluster of 6 egg sacks. Soaked them all with the super-sticky wasp spray and will be heading to the store for spider killer tomorrow. Kids and a dog mean I’m not messing around with these things getting any further inside the house. Not good… Thanks for the great website!
I found one in my front yard I live in Grand Terrace, CA. I still got it in a jar it’s a small female. I don’t know what to do with her.
they make great pets!! bees and lady bugs are their favorite.