Brown Widow Spider
Brown Widow Spider
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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.
It’s no surprise to me that these spiders are being reported in so many parts of the U.S. as well as the one from Thailand. As goods are shipped over greater and greater distances, species that are normally not found in one place or another are being accidentally dropped off. It’s no longer safe to assume that just because a spider has been associated with a particular native range, it will stay there.
We just moved last month to our new apartment here in Carson, CA . Just yesterday while doing fogging we saw one big Brown Widow Spider crawling in our kitchen door frame which was easily identified by the pest control staff. “He said it is brown widow spider.” We are not really familiar with this specie of spider, so I took pictures of the spider and google it in the internet and we learned that it is really venomous and can cause harm to human. We are worried because we have 3 kids and our 3rd kid is just 18 months old. We requested fogging in the apartment because my little one has so many bites on his body everyday and it has bad reaction to his skin. We are really worried, how can we get rid of this spiders?
Found this at work in the outside picnic area on a bench.. Looked it up, saw this website, so here it is!
Found one of these guys in Sacramento, Ca. Like the black widow, they are very smart. This little man built his web next to a hole in the house. Every time I try to turn him over for a picture, he runs into the crack. He is brown with a bright reddish orange hourglass on its abdomen.
There in Texas now ya’ll. Found a black one a few weeks ago and now a brown one. Creepy!!!!!!!
Is there any other kind of spider with a round shiny body besides the widow spiders? If not, we have a brown widow in our Bearded Dragon’s habitat. It was sitting on top of a dead cricket loosely wrapped in a very sticky web. I tried to take a picture this morning, but it scurried away at the slightest hint of noise. It is currently lurking in the corner of the cage. I guess I need to somehow go home and a) remove the dragon without getting bitten by the spider, then b) kill the spider without making the habitat toxic, then c) once I am very certainly sure it is dead, turn it over and see what its belly looks like. Ugh.
We live in Ocoee, FL and my son and I have found them on our screened-in back porch, underneath a wooden table on the front porch and in the little grooves of our rocking chairs on the front porch. Just today we killed 6 big brown widows as well as the egg sacs. Within the last week, I found four big ol’ brown widows and a black widow under the edges of some square planters I have tomato plants in. I was going to move one of the planters by grabbing the edge and the little voice said, “check for spiders first.” Sure glad I listened to the little voice that time. My 21-month old granddaughter has a playhouse off of our back porch and we are constantly having to make sure her house is free and clear of spiders as well. Be sure not to leave shoes sitting on your front porch as these are wonderful places for them to hide.
A week ago when pulling the cover of my grill i came in contact with a brown spider with a tan colored abdomen….didn’t find a match to my description when i searched online, then today as I’m taking my trash can out to the curb i notice these sacs about the size of plump pea underneath the trash lid, they were a mix of yellow,tan,white with spikes…looked up the description and it turns out we have brown widow spiders in our backyard…..not happy at all….I HATE ANY KIND OF SPIDER
I AM IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AND FOUND THIS SPIDER IN MY BATHROOM AND THERE IS ANOTHER ONE IN MY BACK YARD THAT IS MUCH LARGER. CAN ANYONE HELP ME IDENTIFY IT? FROM MY RESEARCH ONLINE IT SEEMS TO BE A BROWN WIDOW BUT I AM NOT SURE.
I am twelve years old, my sister is ten and we were cleaning our bathroom when I noticed a sock moving around. I picked it up and I saw THE BIGGEST BROWN WIDOW I have ever seen. It’s entire body was at least the size of my palm, and I have big hands for a girl. It is somewhere in our bathroom cabinetry, and I can’t find it. From the research I have been doing, there are more in the house somewhere, and I don’t know where to look. I also don’t know how it got in the house! Help me!!
At about 11:30 my daughters were playing in there playhouse and they called me. So I went to go check what was wrong and I see an egg sack with spikes on it. My son came and took a look and didn’t know what spider made it. we looked around and he found a spider that was like a black widow. we killed it and got the sac in a teaspoon and burned it. I am keeping my eye out!!!
I have been bitten twice by something in my sleep which I believe to be a spider. Bitten in same leg both times a month apart. Both times my leg looked very red, white, black and blue at the bite and swollen. Treated with comfrey salve and Benadriyl. (Hope I spelled that correctly) I live in Indiana and although I have not seen any brown recluse or what is termed in the widow family we do have a big peanut shaped spider here that is very common and we can find no information on. I also found several spiders in my shop this winter that look exactly like the black widow but have no hour glass. Just wondering if anyone has any information on these two spiders. Have kids and want to find out what is doing this before they get bit.
Susan Dennis, your comments are surprising about this spider. Are you sure we are talking about the same type? I normally love spiders too, but not harmful ones. Please post one of your pictures, holding it in your hand.
Lorraine Wright 3/17/11, I think you saw what is known as a “false black widow”, which have similar look and habits, but are not poisonous to humans. I leave those alone, figuring they are competition against widows.
I have been dealing with these little devils in my yard in San Diego for 5 years. I have posted on this board a few times before, and done some research and corresponded with an entomologist at the SD Natural History museum. Here are a few tidbits of info:
> Brown widows originate in S.Africa and first appeared in the US in Florida and the Southeast about 60 years ago. They have been populating the West Coast in the last 10 years, probably riding in shipping containers. They reproduce rapidly. Since they are an invasive species, no one should feel guilty about killing them.
> Brown widows do not crossbreed with black widows. Brown widows grow darker as they age.
> Brown widows are completely unrelated to the brown recluse.
> Although brown widows are not aggressive, they are not as picky as black widows about where they build their web. So you are more likely to encounter one in commonly used areas, like under patio furniture, under rims of pots or trash barrels, and up under awnings or eaves of the roof. The spider’s resting/hiding spot may be 10 feet or more above its main web, connected by a single thick strand.
> A very strong messy web is a sure sign a widow is near. Especially if there are bones under it (JK!).
> Brown widow venom is more potent than black widows’, but their fangs are smaller and they do not inject as much venom per bite, and only full grown ones are capable of piercing human skin. But don’t take chances! The spider will usually play possum at first if knocked down, but will bite if it feels threatened or is protecting its spiky egg sac.
I’m located in Chino, California which is western San Bernardino County and I just located a Brown Widow Spider on my living room chair in plain site. This bastard was trying to take over. I can’t have this so I am calling a pest control company tomorrow!
I found two Brown Widows today…I only got a picture of one, but I don’t see where to post the picture? These were big and beautiful! Too bad they were on my daughters bike, had to kill them.
I life in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and I was bit by a brown widow spider a few years ago. Until that time I didn’t even know there was such a beast. I didn’t feel the bite, but the next morning I had a large bump on my back that hurt and was hot. My legs were sore and I felt sick to my stomach. Since it was a Monday morning I went to work and told a few people that I thought I may have been bit by a spider the night before. A friend at work told me to look around the area (my screed in back porch) to see if there were any egg sacs that had spikes and if I found them I would know that I was bit by a brown widow. Well, I found them and I was still feeling really bad. By the time I went to the doctor my legs were really sore and the bit on my back was huge and red. I got a tetanus shot and a shot of antibiotic along with a prescription. The bite took a few days to come to a head and with slight pressure the pus came out, which made it feel a lot better. Now I check under my outside chairs and tables daily since we spend a lot of time outside. Since I know what they are and what they can do I am very careful to keep our porch sprayed and clean. I still find some, but I kill them right away. Keep an eye out for theses spiders. You do NOT want to be bit.
@Gwen sorry for the late reply, and the picture is a little blurry (or I’m just old), but that spider looks like a brown recluse to me. frankly, I’d rather have this existing brown widow bite than the muscle killing, necrotic bite of that evil beast.
I just moved to my late grandmother’s house in Cocoa, FL. Sometime during the moving process I was bitten by what I thought was a noseeum or house spider, but the next day the area had a hard, excruciatingly itchy swelling and I began experiencing severe leg cramps, then later, stomach cramps. I accidentally nicked the bite while shaving and have since developed a severe rash on my leg that looks just like Franca’s husband’s leg. The pain, cramps, and swelling, however, have gone, thankfully.
Yesterday I decided to clean out the cobwebs around the balcony and lo and behold, a brown widow was living under one of the very chairs I had sat down on. After googling the symptoms, I knew she was the one who got me. She’s in spider heaven now, and after a thorough search, I’ve found no egg sacs (yay!), but I went to the store for spider spray anyway. Moral of the story:
Not all spider sprays are equal! Read the labels carefully, and make sure they specifically say they will kill widows and recluses. Walmart sells a brand called Eliminator Ant, Roach, and Spider Killer that does specify that it targets these nasties. Many of the others will say they don’t in the fine print.
MorningSta,
Consider this: The Native Americans were not receiving shipments of produce and other goods from all over the world. Now we are and the shipments sometimes have bugs!
Just read the following out of California on 5/11/2011 find it near the bottom of their page.
They say the Brown is more toxic than the Black!
The brown widow spider is rapidly expanding in California.
A U.C. Riverside researcher predicts the pest may move into Central California this summer.
Brown widow spiders are native to Africa but were found in Southern California in 2009. Researchers say the agricultural community should be worried. The spiders could pose a problem for farm workers if the pests take up residence in fruit orchards. Brown widows could also congregate in agricultural shipping containers or packaging.
Brown widow spider venom is more toxic than black widow venom, but scientists say brown widows are less likely to bite. Instead, they curl up, and play dead when disturbed.
I can take tons of pictures of these. They’re beautiful. They don’t, from the thirty websites I’ve just checked, sound that harmful. I definitely would never kill one. I’ve held them multiple times and not been bitten or seen reactions of aggression. Spiders are solitary and completely uninterested with invading your space and endangering your children. Leave them alone.
I have been studying the latrodectus, since i saw one for first time, i know is 4 species here in Florida. My question is if i get bite for one i can die, what happen and all that stuff, i want to learn more if someone know a lot of them just let me know cause i want to know everything in the staircase of my apt building is a lot of them and is so creepy but everyday that go by i want to know more about them and here in internet is a lot of places saying different things!!!!!
Okay I’m from long beach 42 yrs now… so far my findings of black/brown widows is quite note worthy
in around 2002-2003 i found small spider with brown and yellow patterns on the legs but with the tell tale hour glass on the bottom. It looked like a l.b. garden spider except the red marks caught my eye, so i kept the spider and raised it alone thinking that it would die fairly soon. after 3 months i fed it and it grew molted and became just like the picture above from Lakewood. Here is where it gets strange I did the research and NO-ONE knew of this spider here in Ca. So over the next year I fed it a few bugs here in there.then it molted… AGAIN! this is not normal in any black widow life pattern from my readings. this spider became the largest BLACK WIDOW that I or any of my friends or family have ever seen… that’s right i t turned solid BLACK. most widow spiders live around 12 -16 months this one lived to 25 months and died of starvation I assume.
Wait! there’s more… so i moved from near El Dorado park area in 2004 to a different area, after only seeing that one spider I forgot about it til’ my son and friends found a few big brown widows at our new house near Pavilions. I eliminated all the ones i could find realizing they like our l.b. recycle/trash cans that always had the stiff web on them but they came back over an over and over. then one day a neighbor with an OLD car from around the block drove it by on sweeper day. BAMM! ther they were all under his car that gets moved once a week for 30 syr. I follow him and tell him he doesn’t believe me. so I look at his car further and they have been dropping babies (brown wids) all thru the neighbor hood every week for years and years. so I notify the l.b. board of health and they verify my findings and told about the Brown Widow invasion from Florida happening her in l.b./ Lakewood areas. He told me I had found a cross breed originally, when the widow went from brown to black he had never heard of such a thing. So its going on and Brown Recluse spiders as well. I know 5 people bitten by Recluse spiders in l.b. in the last 5 years he also confirmed that news. He told me to watch the cans, old cars and places like wood piles or even the senior neighbors garages. My last note is this- don’t smash or step on these spiders barefooted or shoes! they produce a female hormone that attracts all sorts of spiders possibly into your house from on your shoes after you smash them via the “chemical smell” of another spider.
When a Recluse gets on you “flick it off” DO NOT SMASH IT! it will be forced to bite even harder when its pressed down upon just like a bee would do, this could inject massive amounts of venom that could kill you if bitten on the neck or chest. also spiders can hold there breath up to 72 hrs so normal insecticides may not work be sure to use “spider quality” poisons away from kids etc. so that sums it up I guess, I battled widows for 5 yrs and didn’t win. I moved again and they still hang out on my brand new l.b. trash cans.
Good Luck and call your board of health or exterminator!
You people love your pesticides don’t you? Did you know that Native Americans lived in harmony with other creatures, without bug spray, pest control or traps?. Fear, fear and more fear rules your hearts and minds, when will you stop being afraid of death?……
well I just seen the news a few days ago. they said they are coming to Fresno, CA. but they have been here for a while but we just had not paid attention since they weren’t black.. but now by looking in this website I realize that we’ve been sounded by them for a while…nothing we could do but kill spray and hope they never bite us..
I just sprayed a brown widow spider that had built a web on my gate latch in the back yard here in Los Angeles. Thank God I noticed it before I stuck my hand on it. When I saw the orange spot on it’s abdomen I immediately searched the web and came to this blog. I’ve found black widows hidden in the dark of my garage before but this is the first time I’ve seen a brown widow spider, and in broad daylight no less.
4/02/11 2:30 PM. I just killed one of the brown widows..it looked exactly like the first picture above, light brown, orange belly. I immediately came inside to search and read about it on the web. Sorry that I did not take a pic, I just read the suggestion on top.
I was washing an empty trash can to put my dog’s food in there. I have seen black widows there before, and this is why I opted to use water pressure to clean the trash can. To my surprise, I did not find a black widow, but the can did have this enormous looking brown ugly spider…I’m getting creeped out all over again. I turn on the water on high…begin to wash, and as I turn it on the spider, this thing is not going anywhere! I knew it was a serious spider. I added more pressure by putting my thumb on the hose outlet, and still, this thing came on getting up and going into it’s corner. I looked for a LONG twig, and I felt it’s web…wow! It was like I was trying to remove cotton. No wonder I could not get the spider out of there.
I left out to say that when I initially turned the trash can over, I noticed about 3 huge spider eggs. So, I thought to myself, bingo, black widow! I washed out the eggs…which I just let flow down with the water, now that I am thinking about it, and then I noticed the spider deeper inside a corner of the can, on the reverse side of the handle. I have two more similar cans..I will see if I have more and I’ll take pictures. Reading everyone’s comments above, it seems like these spiders multiply fast…I just hope that I do not have a problem with these guys.
Thank you, just wanted to share my recent experience with the brown widow.
Ooops we live in Burbank, California. (brown widows)
In 2000 I got bit by one that was hiding in my car – Ugh – under my brake pedal eek! I felt a little scratch….didn’t know what it was (then 20 later felt the sick stomach and bit of fever) I thought I got stung by a bee, later the next day began a very bad 2 weeks of not being able to walk (it bit me right on a tendon on the top of my foot near the big toe). It was terrible, feeling like glass shards were in my foot every move, when the pain stopped it actually came back nearly a month later – I was unable to walk, my whole leg wouldn’t work I was at a party and had to be carried up the hill “how embarrassing eh”?
So I would say they are extremely poisonous if bitten on the hand or a tendon? I had never seen one before and just this year only I’ve seen zillions and weirdly they’ve chased the black widows away – I think I miss them because they are easier to find and don’t live in “Trees” like these do – be careful of any clump of leaves – and they love plastic furniture “never would catch a black widow doing that!
Has anyone out there seen a black widow that is dark burgundy color without an hourglass marking on it? This looks identical to black widow in all other ways.
I live in Mobile, Alabama and i just learned that im getting my grandmother’s car, that hasn’t been used in a while, so i go to check the car out and notice about 3 prickly egg sacks sitting under the door hinge, and there are also two open egg sacks in the floor board. How am i suposed to get rid of an infestation in a car? Any suggestions?
I know were to look for them. By our house i find these brown widow spiders. They love the plastic chairs you put on your stoop. Lots of corners there. I kill them and to my knowledge the brown one are more poisonous than the black one. i found seven on one of my searches. Killed them all but funny enough there was also two males with each female spider. They walk on the stoop to find these chairs and what stops them from coming into my house from under the door. I have twins of four years of age. Told and warned about spiders – especially this kind.
One picture on the wall of my kitchen- this to identify to them and i also killed them in front of the kids with warnings of how dangerous they are. I’m very careful when killing them- long strong stick.
I have found two Brown Widow adults in my house in less than a week. Both had webs on legs of furniture. A good sign of a Widow spider is the presence of a dead male spider (much smaller than the female) in the web. The Widow will generally hide during the day and venture out on the web at night. Take a flashlight and once you spot them, spray to kill. I live in Northwest Florida and this is the first time I have encountered the Brown Widow. The part I don’t like is they seem to be comfortable inside the house.
I live in Slidell, LA and I just found a brown widow today. It was under the handle of a blue plastic storage box that I was cleaning up. I took a bunch of pictures today, and since I was squirting the box with a hose to clean it, I think I knocked off some babies into the dirt.
I ended up spraying the spider with some hot shot hornet spray. It died pretty quickly. My little babies play under my house as that it is 15 ft in the air, so now I am worried. I live next to the marsh so, unfortunately, I don’t think this is going to be my last encounter with a poisonous creature.
I went to my backyard and I saw those spiky egg sacs everywhere… I live in Mira Mesa, part of San Diego… sprayed them right away… Thank God they didn’t open.. but I still need to find them and kill them off!
We have them in the oc and in la at my gmas. I noticed the black widows close to the house and the brown widows toward the garage. My dad holds a pest control lic. So he told me any dark place (under out door chairs, kids toys like trikes and power wheels. Kids play houses ) they like that. We changed bulbs to yellow light to reduce insects coming to the back porch area. Also we took terro spider spray and every other month we spray spider spray. I like terro brand spider spray. But spraying the big ones suck. The small ones die the big ones fight. I had about an inch of the foam covering the spider and it kept charging me. It made it about a foot and a half from the trash can before it died.
So far so good. We’ve been vigilant and its been about 2 years…occasionally we get an egg sack. But we kill it and spray everywhere asap and so far so good.
Hope this info helps.
Chandler AZ- I caught a brown spider with bright red spots going down it’s back, did lots of research and found out that it was actually a Brown Widow! Looks JUST like the spiders in the pictures on this website. I’ve had it for a few months now, feeding it & keeping it for observation at my work and I just realized that the bright red spots on it’s back are GONE! Can Brown Widows lose their spots as they get older? Or do they fade if they are in captivity? Is this is just normal? Please help me figure this out, thanks!
After getting bit in the arm,I cleaned out my living room looking for this spider. I have finally identified it as a brown widow spider. We found the egg sack which helped to identify it. The egg sack has little spikes around it, where there black widow egg sack is smooth.
My symptoms started as headache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting and very tired. I then found a lot of pain in my arm and a lot of redness and ugly. I went to the Doctor and I had a staph infection. I insisted on Bactrim, knowing it was for bad spider bites. The pain lasted for 1 week and is finally getting better.
I needed to get into a storage box I keep in a closet in the garage. As I was looking through the papers, I opened a velo-bound deposition transcript. I flipped through the pages, and there it was — a big light-brown spider. I’d say, not counting the length of its legs (I think 3 pairs and not very hairy) it probably was an inch long. It had a round body and a round head. It felt like his eyes were staring at me. I grabbed a piece of a paper-towel that was within my reach and tried catching the intruder, but before I knew it, he had jumped to the floor and disappeared faster than my eyes could follow him. I haven’t gone near the closet since. What is totally unclear is how could he live in a book and having a round body. It wasn’t flat. Next question, how does one catch a spider, if it, in fact, was a spider and not a bug. Could I use some sort of pestiside that I could put in the closet?
So I have always found spiders to be very fascinating, even though I have been bitten once by a brown recluse and very recently by a brown widow. I didn’t see the spider actually bite my leg, however 2 days later the was huge and gross and had most of the symptoms of a black widow bite. After feeling like I was having a mild stroke, i.e numbness to my left side, abdominal pain, nausea, fever, sweats, and the bite which i originally thought was a mosquito, was now hard, red all around it and tripled in size and it was leaking…I went to the ER.
Originally both myself and the ER doctor, thought with symptoms and the bite it was a Black Widow. However I started doing a little research and discovered the brown widow. I never came across the spider, and I know with black widows they generally only bite you when they are disturbed. However the brown widow is alot more aggressive and like to hang out near humans.
I started thinking back to a few months ago when I saw this crazy looking spider munching on a small frog in a web on my back porch. Now I know it was a brown widow, wished I had taken pictures. I didn’t kill just wrapped the web on a stick and brought it to the edge of the woods behind my house. Yesterday after determining that I was most likely bitten on my back porch, I started checking everywhere, with raid in hand. I didn’t see and live spiders, lots of dead insects in various webs. Well low and be hold under one of my patio chair I found 2 egg sacs. One was already hatched and another had not. I looked up brown widow egg sacs and they were pretty much identical. I disposed of the live sac by moving the chair to the back yard, and stomping the sac. I hate killing spiders, but I cant have these things all over my house. I have since sprayed the perimeter of my house. They had hatched right under where I was sitting. Also my bite was on the back of my leg.
Hey guys don’t mess with any of those spiders. I’ve been bitten by most of them and I swear when u get bit by a premature black widow it hurts. If they have spots on them and a red hourglass that is a premature black widow.
I’m a woodworker and we have black and brown widows all over the shop. My boss kept one as a pet and it made two egg sacks in captivity. The eggs hatched and we counted at least 93 from one sack! They are riding on the wood deliveries from mostly Oregon. I just recently caught a brown widow and kept it as a pet in the shop. I would feed it flies and crickets. I could not find any bugs around today so I let her go outside on a telephone pole. I miss her already! That may mean we have an infestation! I’ll get some pics of the ones in the shop. I had to exterminate some with lacquer thinner because they were making nests under the table saw…where we reach our hands in!
I heard about the brown widow about a year ago on my local news, then about a few months later I was looking under an old grill lid I saw this spider and it was a brown widow. It was brown and it had a hour glass shape on it’s bottom. I was so amazed! I just left it alone, I was not sure if it was as bad as the black widow. A month or two later I was messing around in my yard and I was lifting things up and under a wheel barrel was a brown widow (It was dead) and beside it was about 4 egg sacks. I was not sure that I want a bunch of baby brown widows in my yard so I put the egg sack in the trash can.
I’ve dealt with these for quite a while now in Orange, CA. My favorite method of eradication is night hunting. I take a flashlight and a can of WalMart carburetor cleaner spray and look in the usual locations. One little blast of the powerful jet of carb cleaner and they’re incapacitated. Then a little squish under the shoe makes double=sure they’re dead. The spray costs $1 for a large can and evaporates completely so it’s perfect for just about anywhere. (It can dissolve some plastics and don’t use it on non-colorfast textiles.) If you’re really into it the spray is very flammable and you can use it to torch the egg sacks. (I don’t do that because it leaves black scorch marks.) Whatever you do, don’t ever hide one of those egg sacks inside an object and send it to an arachnophobic person. Opening a package and finding hundreds of tiny, poisonous spiders could make a person go completely insane. I used to get about a dozen large and two dozen small widows in a night during the spring bloom, but now I only see about 1 large and 4 small ones if I haven’t done it for a few months. Since I enjoy it, I just might volunteer to hunt my neighbor’s yards ;-b
To Jerry-
Beg to differ on your comment. They are running rapid in the Tierra Santa area of San Diego. Specifically the military housing area. I found them constantly, and I was born and raised here and am very used to Black Widows. When I saw these I was a bit perplexed. Did some searching around and sure enough… Brown Widows.
Is this a brown or black widow? The legs make me think it’s a brown, but the hourglass looks so black widowy I’m not sure. Found her under my apartment window in LA
My adult daughter was bitten by a spider and ended up needing medical attention in an ER. The doctor determined that she was bitten by a Brown Widow. She was throwing up blood and covered with lesions. She is recovering but thankfully it wasn’t a small child bitten instead.
i live in Moreno Valley, Ca. and my daughter found a brown widow in our back porch on 11/03/10
Found this one on my front porch. Riverside CA
These spiders are all over Florida. I Iive in Vero Beach and see them daily under plastic chairs, grills, and in car fenders.The point is be careful where you put your hands. I don’t want to get bit as i am sure you don’t
I live in Santee CA and there are a ton of the brown widows outside my apartment. My building is a tan stucco and at first I thought the spider morphed or adaptation happened that made it light in color. I could see the hour glass figure on the under belly, so I knew it was a widow. I sprayed near an egg sac and 3 brown widows came running out. All together there were 6 around 1 window. They do have the spiky egg sac, so look for those. I hate spiders, and yes they are pretty resilient.
Brown Widow Spider
Hey there! I just found my first brown widow today in my own house! ^_^;
Although I really don’t like spiders, I never really had any inclination to squish them. When I found this brown widow, I scooped it off the wall with a fishnet and put in a small fishbowl to keep it contained until both my parents could see it. It has an irregular red stripe down its back with some smaller red spots on the side. It has a fairly decent sized hourglass on the bottom of the abdomen as well. Its markings are not as orange as some of the other brown widow photos I’ve seen, and there is a light tan band around the edges of the red markings.
Here’s the back of the abdomen:
And the front with the hourglass:
Side view with spots:
Live in North San Diego County, Carlsbad, just found 6 on my back patio!! All with full egg sacks. They live where black widows live.
how do you raise them.?
that sounds like something i would want to try carefully of course.
send me a picture if you haven’t found out already, they could be bott flies or something like that. bott flies lay larva in your skin and have been known to cause holes like that. the pus could actually be a larva. if you are not getting the head of the larva out of the whole, it will just regrow it’s body. tweezers are the best to get them out. then if they look anything like larva, see a doctor and bring the larva in a bag or something. my friend had them recently, he thought they were huge painful pimples.
I can assure you that whatever they are, they are NOT Brown Recluses. Brown Recluses are not native to Ca. There have only been 10 EVER found in Ca. Brown Recluses also do not have any stripes on their legs, they are uniform in color. Also, anything that only has 6 legs is not a spider, it is and insect. Spiders have 8 legs, unless the two “fangs” you speak of are actually the two front legs. You probably wouldn’t be able to see the fangs unless the spider is the size of a tarantula or you actually picked up the spider and looked at its face close up.
hi my name is Bekka and i live in Ontario with my family and they found a very rather large spider in our backyard. and personally we have never seen big spiders in Ontario. we have photos that i will be sending in. but they couldn’t get any abdomen photos. so please can u figure out what we have in our back yard as i am pregnant and we have also a small child in my family =S thank you
Description :
- a rather large dark tan color with light tan stripes.
- legs that look like they have spikes on them with a black and gray pattern to them
Brown Widow Spiders displace the more aggressive Black Widow and are a lot less likely to bite. I think that is a good trade off. Leave them alone.
i noticed three spiky egg sacs while i was getting my mail under the mailbox. when i got back in my house i looked up what spider made these types of sacs and it turns out the brown widow does! i haven’t ever heard of them today. i shot them with raid-but the spider wasn’t with the sacs-so i don’t know if it will make more, thanks to this site though now i know what they are! thanks!
btw, I’m in Oceanside California
I got out my shower and found a spider which was orange with black/brown spots but it had no hour glass on it. does anyone know what it is?
Came home today to find a spider inside our apartment! It made itself at home between our fridge and cabinet. I’m glad my cats didn’t see it and get bitten, as they love to play with spiders/bugs found around the house. As soon as i saw it i locked them in bathroom and investigated/killed it. Looks like its a brown widow for sure, my first time seeing or hearing about this species. It recently rained so i think it might have came in somehow from the outside…i hope thats the end of it. Spiders on the outside are fine, just stay out of my fucking house! It made some random webs around the kitchen, it was so strange for a spider that’s supposed to be living outside. I sprayed all over the place, then going to let the management know so that they can spray the premises, hopefully.
I never Knew there were Brown Widow spiders.
There was this really huge, cool looking spider above my entryway- I figured I leave him there to add to the scariness of my Halloween display because where his web was a light & it cast a huge shadow of his spideriness on the entry wall- nice and creepy just in time for Halloween-I thought, I go all out, try and make it creepy and realistic.
Well, today I was hanging my Halloween decorations and when I stepped down off the ladder- there he was ON MY LEG!!! My first response was to squish him, but then I remembered that I wanted him there for Halloween. -That was before I found out he is a Brown Widow, now I’ll have to hunt him down tomorrow and kill it- I thought he was harmless! Lucky he didn’t bite me!!! look at his creepiness in the pic I took of him he’s huge and his web is strong like string! wait how do I put a pic here?
Got bite by a brown widow adult today while doing volunteer work. Hear in Ft Lauderdale they are everywhere, under the little leauges park benches, in the fence near the post. You will often se e only a 2-4 inch tuff of web, well there is a Mama brown inside, be careful. I have killed dozens and will soon be putting up a video on youtube to show the infestation., Funny thing is I have known about these spiders for over a year.
Today while installing political signs in a empty lot filled with stickers and weedS. I felt a bite and figured it was one of many stickers that I had in my shoe and shocks. I looked a moment later to pick out the stickers and there was a brown between the lip of my shoes and my shock, He must have gotten pinched between the lip of my shoe and ankle as I was walking through the weeds. He was slightly banged up and I finished him off after taking a picture or two of him.
I had a slight chest cramp throughout the day. The area is a little red and hurts to the touch, I in the recent past bought Brown Recluse First Aide Kit, I am applying the first paultice. Anyone every used this product for a brown?
Great forum.
Jay
wethepeoplepress on youtube
I work at a nursery and was breaking down plant tables today. I saw and killed at least six black widows but also saw others that were the same body type and shape, etc. but lighter brown and with odd red spots outlined in yellow on their backs. There is even one like this above my garage door. I am so glad I looked at this site. I have been in the garden business for years including pest control and never knew these guys existed. I will definitely deal with them swiftly as I am asthmatic and would probably die from a bite.
Bonsall & Costa Mesa, California. For sure they are invading!! I heard two years ago about the brown widow. Never encountered them until this month September 2010. Found two under plastic yard chairs. Always check under your outside furniture, its a for sure love of spiders. I always find a black one every year. What was unusual this year is that I found two together. So I looked it up and sure enough it was the brown widow. The legs and the hour glass tipped us off. But the egg sacks were unusually spiked!! Weird like a sci fi movie.
Went home and thought I wouldn’t find any in my small back yard at home. BS!! It was a freaking invasion. I had read that they are more gutsy- in where they pick their homes, more out in the open. Well they did, I had two reclining chairs on their side. I killed 8 and egg sacks. All together living happily ever after. Thats what threw me off. Usually you have the black territorial about her space. Not these brown ones. Sure enough there were small spiders and eggs sacks. I sprayed and squashed everything. So I began to think “oh man look at this whole back yard its covered in tropical plants and nook and crannies to hide. There could be hundreds. Went to look under another vinyl bench on the lawn killed probably 10 more hanging in every area of the bench.
Freaking infestation like that!! These boogers are not alone if you see one dont think your done because there is more hiding in that same area or web. Watch out and good luck!! Im totally getting a professional spray and hitting up the webs and the border of the property to cut down on the population. Also having the yard keep cleaner and getting rid of the crap. Totally dont want them in the house or outside!!! I love good spiders too! Even the big ones!! But I am anti Brown Widow for sure!!!!! One of the nastiest spiders I have ever seen!! Help cut down the population! Treat your areas. They have powders and sprays or even go on a hunt. But for sure they multiply rapidly.
A few weeks back, new flowers & small palm trees were added to the small gardens in our condominium building. As a Macro-Photographer, I have been following one or two common orb weavers in the taller bushes. Tonight, I saw a bit of orange/red on the underside of a small spider, so I took a photo. Much to my surprise, I think that I found a Brown Widow. Close-up attached.
I was bitten by a brown widow yesterday, it was very painful but now I am good. I mean I’m not feeling any pain though I have a headache.
Okay i know what a widow spider is, but i have seen 3 different brown widows, at work are brown everywhere!! i mean a lot just one problem no hourglass more like Grey abdomen everything else is just like it especially their legs, at my house i notice a bunch of widow spider on my outside window wen i when to dust it, they were tiny more like mini brow widow even their eggs sac were mini but they had a white stripe on the top of their abdomen and no noticeable hour glass i even notice a male bit to small to keep track of it. the egg sac indicated that they are brown widow but no hourglass. it seem to be that the one with the orange hour glass is more thinner than the other spider, maybe different species of brown widow!
We had black widows in The East Bay area of San Fran they are very common in garages near cold damp places as well as water pipes. When we were moving we found so many of them in the garage only one tried to come out us. You must spray them when you find them. Here in Orange country we found the Brown Widow they make their webs at dusk so that is when you must go out and spray them. Last year we found 14 of them and this year I found their egg sacks everywhere especially around the pool.
The mother will protect her sack by her body and she will try and stay and fight for it. So far we have killed 4 of them so a better number than last year but Sept. seems to be the time of year the webs come out. My husband almost got bit so we are on alert they also love the grape vines. You must kill them they will only come back in larger numbers the next year and the risk of getting bit is totally not worth it.
One other thing, my word of extra caution, watch out for ones that set up their hiding place under the eaves of the roof. They will maintain a long thick strand down to the ground to their main web. Sometimes you might find their lower main web, but not a hiding place. Look out above, a big spider is probably up in a corner of the eaves waiting to drop down on a victim!
Wow! I posted back in 2008 (#69 and #181) and see now that this menace has continued to spread. I’m still encountering large numbers around my yard in San Diego, despite my weekly seek-and-destroy missions. It’s a chore. I’ve learned where to find them and how to spot the young ones, which are very pale and almost white. I’m even brave enough now to squish the tiny ones with my bare fingers.
But I can’t enjoy my patio in the evening and night unless I cleared the area that day.
There is a lot more information on the internet now, for anyone who wants more details on these creatures. Just Google or Bing brown widow spider and your nearest big city.
I live on a hospital ship, Africa Mercy, that sails to different West African countries, but we however, needed to move the whole crew (ca. 400 crew members) onshore to South Africa because we need new generators. We were very lucky and found an empty college a 2 hours drive from Durban.
It’s not been in use for 4 years, and everything’s pretty dusty. While cleaning out the Academy (yes, we do have several families with kids who go to school), we found several spider hanging from the ceiling. We also found a dead spider in our dorm room, and another dead one along with a live spider outside the toilets.
After doing some “research” I found out that these spiders look a lot like the brown widows. Nobody’s had a chance to see if they have the hourglass on them, but they look terribly much like the brown widow.
We’re staying at this college ’til Christmas, and there are over 40 kids here, so we’re scared some of them might find a spider and start “playing” with it.
Does anybody know if there are any brown widow in Kwazulu-Natal (that’s a province in South Africa)?
I’ll try to get some pictures of the spiders.
I live in central Utah. I started seeing these spiders about four years ago here.Since then the problem seems to be getting worse. Ive killed three Black widows, and about ten Brown Widows in the last two days. I read an article online, and it said if you find one of these spiders (Brown Widows) you are probably infested with them. Good luck getting rid of them.
Live in San Diego, CA. Got bit on the neck last weekend while reading the paper on my back patio furniture…didn’t hurt at first – went to E.R. – only was given a tetanus shot – pain worsened over a few days – earache, eye pain…it’s been 1 week and went back to Urgent Care for follow up – doctors here don’t even have knowledge of this new Brown Widow. The only doctor who treated venomous spider bites left town to go Los Angeles. Local hospitals don’t even stock anti-venin in San Diego (I was told). Very nervous about future effect of the toxicity. We have them all over the back yard – kill them daily; sweep porch very frequently. Symptoms seem to still be developing. Very concerned as doctors aren’t able to treat the bites. We are being invaded!!!!
So i was outside the other day working around the yard doing my usual stuff (i live on a farm) and i saw one of these in my shed so i was like “that’s a weird spider” and just left it be. Then i was in my basement and i saw TWO, i don’t have a camera, i wish i did so i could show them to you, and then i was outside having a cigarette and i noticed one right near the entrance to my house, i killed that one, once i find a camera i will show the other one i found and post pics.
I was bitten by one once and i had to go to the hospital, its really painful!
Charleston, South Carolina.
Found Brown Widow spider yesterday in leg of plastic lawn chair, along with 2 or 3 eggs. Squished them all before I even knew what they were.
The egg sacs were spiked just like pictures I have seen here.]
I am used to Black Widows since I am from Southern California, but now live in Charleston, South Carolina…..and had never heard of the brown widow until today.
I just moved over this weekend to a house that was empty for a few months. I found a black widow spider and killed it of course. Someone commented here (I think on page 1 or 2) that if you see 1 black widow expect to see 25-30. Well yesterday I killed 25 brown widows and 45 eggs so I may have only 5 more to go… then to start the cycle again in a week. I am ready for them. This is my house!!!!!! MY HOUSE!!!!!!
@Kaleb Willstrop-Sounds like a Brown Recluse bite.
I was in the bathroom cleaning this morning when I looked over and saw a spider in the lower corner of the wall. I went over and caught it in a Tupperware container and was looking at it when I noticed it had the “red hourglass” shape on it. I knew it wasn’t a black widow because it was brown with kind of striped legs so I began to research online and realized it is a brown widow, YIKES! We just moved form Ohio and I had always feared the black widows and brown recluse but had no clue that now I need to worry about brown widows in my HOME! I have 2 small kids and am worried sick about what to do to get these spiders gone. Any help please?!?!?!?!
In the battle of Man vs. Arachnid, man was victorious once again.
I quickly dispatched an additional foe that had remained unseen previously. Bringing the enemy body count to four. I knew that smartest and most formidable hostile remained. She was guarding another training camp and seemed to anticipate my advances. I used a flash bang as a diversion then in a classic flanking maneuver I annihilated the camp of young insurgents.
At this point the last high ranking official realized the overwhelming force that was against her and fled to a nearby crevice. Knowing she could no longer perry blows, she undoubtedly planned her counter attack in a more clandestine manner.
I then dropped a 500 microliter pyrethroid allethrin “bunker buster” into the stronghold. As a last ditch effort and a display of valiant courage, she attempted a static line drop on me as I raised the garage door, I then engaged her in hand to hand combat and decidedly overcame the enemy combatant.
It would appear the enemy has been wiped out for now and the territory is again friendly, but one must remain vigilant to their clandestine advances back into this region.
OC, California
Me and my Dad have a tradition of going out front and back every couple summers and killing all the black widows we can find. This year, however, there were 0 black widows.
Instead, a new population of spiders moved in – brown widows. all had hourglasses, and all were brownish or grayish with white marks on the legs.
We killed 40 of them. and 2 slugs
My family and I are currently vacationing in the Orlando, FL area from upstate NY. At the house we’re renting we have a screened in pool area where my wife noticed a large brown spider by the pool. After looking around a little more, we found 2 additional spiders…all with the familiar orange “hour-glass” shape on it’s belly. After a quick Google search, we found that they are brown window spiders. After reading up on them a little, we realized it would probably be best not to let it bite us. By the time we read that, my father in-law, whom was already out there poking at it was laying face down in the pool twitching. At that point we knew it bit him. lol I’m kidding…about my father in-law anyway.
I also, against my girlfriends pleads, let them be and didn’t “spray them” like she wanted me to. ha We will not be bringing any of these back with us as souvenirs. I took a couple cell phone pictures and am submitting the best two of the bunch.
Trying to identify what has been biting me exactly. I have been bitten 5 times now by something that is causing a dime size hole in my body. Depth- can fit an entire cue tip head in the holes when cleaning them out. Massive pockets under the skin of poison and puss. If anyone may be able to help me identify exactly just what the hell is getting me, please email me. if you need a picture of the infected site, email me and ask me for one and ill have one taken for you. thanks
Hi,
I live in Spring Hill, Florida. I was on my lanai this morning and noticed a brown spider underneath the metal support of the screen cage, inside the lanai. I then started to look for more and low and behold-a total of 11 within a 20 foot area including a spiky nest. I found them under the patio chairs, tables and other supports. I immediately went online and found out with photos that they are Brown Widows. I sprayed them all and bagged them, including the nest. I will not tolerate having poisonous spiders around my living space. That just seems like WAY too many in such a small area. I had recently power-washed the lanai and had sprayed off all of the areas to clean them. Now I am seeing the spiders. We have 2 cats and a small dog. I don’t want to see them or my family members suffer from the affects of a bite from one. I am one who would be happy to eradicate them.
digging trenches to lay pipe…felt a slight sting…being a native from Florida I payed no mind…the heat index was very high…thought more that is was from the heat…it was not until much later after the third day digging trenches that I noticed my recovery was not normal…but that did not stop this Southern boy from completing the task….
I got bitten by a brown widow while I was camping in Kern River in California. The spider was in my tent I woke up and I found the spider hanging right above me. I looked at it and I grabbed my shirt and smashed it and kept it just in case it had bitten me. It did.
At first it was like any normal mosquito bite but then it got puss. After 12hrs it was bubbly. I let the pus out but it kept growing. It’s the 3rd day and now my muscles are starting to feel spasms. I’m not waiting to turn black so now I’m at docs.
I live in a little town in Florida called Homosassa. I have 2 small children and a few dogs and cats. Today my mother was out cleaning our pool(which is above ground) she was cleaning the outside of the pool with bleach and out came two of these spiders!! I have never seen one of these but knew right away it was a widow because of the hourglass figure underneath the belly. One is a lot bigger then the other and a lot darker too. She called me out there to show me what she found and they seemed to be dead from the bleach, so i took some tweezers and picked them up and put them in a container with a lid waiting for the arrival of my husband to show him what we found. He said that they were poisonous right away and I said it was a black widow and he told me NO that it wasn’t a black widow so the investigation that I am I went right to the computer and found this sight and a few others with pictures of these UGLY critters and I was right!
I knew it was some kinda widow. Now I am scared to let my kids swim or play outside and to know that there are probably millions more in our yard is gonna give me nightmares. I hate spiders period but to know and see some that are deadly makes it WAY WORSE! What in the world will we do now. How do we get rid of them? What if there are more? what if they get me in my sleep? I want them gone and how do I make sure they are gone FOREVER! I don’t want anything to happen to my babies or my fur babies! (animals). Please HELP ME !
Scared and Freaking out in Florida!
Amy
I raise Brown, and Black Widows from start to finish and have every growth stage and guarantee you I have a picture that would surprise you of a baby Black Widow. I am an expert at raising and finding Widows.
Red Ants will kill Black widows. I was watching some red ants climbing on a trailer, could not figure out what they were after. A closer inspection showed an ant had gotten caught in a very poorly made spider web. Careful inspection found the black widow. I knocked the spider to the ground where several red ants were; they proceeded to attack the spider. By the time the fight was done there were probably 30 red ants attacking the spider. When it was dead they drug the body far away from the opening to their bed. I guess the little guy caught in the web was calling for help. It was a very interesting discovery.
WE LIVE IN BUENA PARK IN ORANGE COUNTY AND JUST RECENTLY HAVE COME INTO CONTACT W/THESE DIFFERENT KIND OF SPIDERS…..STILL UNSURE AS TO WHAT KIND THEY MIGHT BE…THEY LOOK SIMILAR TO THE BROWN RECLUSE…… IT HAS A BIG BUTT,6LEGS AND 2LONG FANGS IN FRONT.W/BLK/BROWN STRIPED LEGS…
are these brown widows found in Yakima, Washington because I’ve seen a few in my bathroom that look very similar. they look like a black widow but a lot smaller and brown. please give opinions!
The brown widow spider has made it everywhere in the US. They are poisonous but will not inject large quantities like the Black widow also Brown widows is 2 times more potent than Blacks are and blacks are 15 times more toxic then our average rattle snake so if bitten by anything that you are unsure of seek your nearest DR> or emergency room its always better to be on the safe side and go then stay and the problem erupts to other issues like (loss of platelets, kidney failure, liver failure and or death) TREAT ANYTHING WITH CATION!!!!!
I live in Fullerton CA, and about two weeks ago I found a black widow on my front porch and so I put it in a jar to examine it. Just today I was picking up a towel that had been hanging over a chair in my backyard and unfolded it. The thick web of the brown widow made it harder to unfold and that’s how I noticed it. It was sitting right next to it’s egg sac. I’m very frightened of spiders so i threw down the towel, but the brown widow stayed inside it. So I went back with a jar and caught it as I had the black widow. So now I have a black widow and a brown widow. I never knew there was such a thing as a brown widow or any other type of widow before today. It’s an exciting discovery, besides the fact that everybody else’s encounter sounds like where there are one, there are many. I’m not sure what I will do with it, probably feed it and watch for the spider-lings to hatch. After that, their fate is unknown. But I definitely will not kill them.
I live in central Florida.. we just moved here in June, and after a few weeks we found a brown widow on our back porch with about 5 egg sacks. My husband got rid of them and cleaned off the back porch from top to bottom with a vacuum and insect repellent, and in doing so found another widow. today we were standing out front and saw several smaller spiders, not sure what they were, but then dangling in the window sill (outside) there was another brown widow, huge… I took some pictures through the glass from the inside, but they didn’t come out to where you could see her markings.. we have a 2 week old baby, and two other children… I am terrified of one of my kids being bitten. What can we do to rid our house of these things??? We have also seen several wolf spiders.. I know they are not as dangerous, but I want them gone too! Any advice, please!!
I left my 14 month old’s stroller folded on the front porch for whatever reason, it’d been a couple weeks and bad weather was coming so I decided I should check for mildew, clean it up and bring it inside. When I opened it, about 3 brown widows came crawling out. Freaked me out pretty bad. Sprayed the stroller w/ Ortho home defense, waited a couple days,planning to clean the insecticide off of course b4 putting little Jac back in…SO. When I opened it, thinking they would be dead by now as I’d saturated it, 2 or 3 more came out. I said screw it and put the thing by the road w/ a sign on it warning people not to pick it up (as it looks brand new.) Fiance comes home (fiance who I always pick on for being arachnophobic) and wants to know why the $200.00 stroller is by the trash. GGRRRRR! So I dragged the blasted thing to the back patio, sprayed it w/ disinfectant, and proceeded to attack it w/ the hardest pressure setting on the hose. O.M.G. They were coming out faster than I could smash them!
Must’ve been all in the little dark spaces under the stroller’s tray and wheel covers and all….literally I sprayed and shook and sprayed more Ortho (which deems pretty useless unless you use about a pint on just one of them!) and more disinfectant and more water…for about an hour b4 they stopped coming out. Then inspected all crevices, and sprayed for about another 20 minutes, put it in front of the outdoor A/C unit and it was dry and spider free by the next day. That same day, I was mowing the lawn and something made an angry noise and a round metal piece shot out of the side and it died. I imagine some hot burned up oil came out w/ it. This was all Saturday. Sunday I noticed what looked like a cigarette burn on my arm. I was confused because it didn’t hurt and I figured I would’ve had to be pretty drunk to receive a burn like that and not feel or remember it.OH. I also clean crime/death scenes. I had a 1 month decomp cleanup Sat. evening, and had to take Rx pain meds after b/c using a Sawzzall to cut up a contaminated couch cause my carpal tunnel to flare. I also take Neurontin, a nerve pain inhibitor, daily to keep the carpal tunnel at bay. So it took me awhile to put all these factors together and figure out that it just might be a spider bite and the meds may have prevented me from feeling any pain @ first.
The blister popped yesterday, (mon.) and that’s when it began to have a bit of a pitted look and a red ring around it. I keep circling it and taking pics, it hasn’t grown that much, the pain is minimal but gradually increasing. Treating w/ tea tree oil as I am told it works wonders for spider bites and staph. I worked in an ER for 2 years, but now have no health insurance so i am being stubborn and haven’t sought medical Tx, but from what I am reading, there isn’t much they can do unless it becomes a boil that needs draining or the flesh begins to necrotise..God forbid. Killed 3 more and an eggsack on my front porch last night and am officially freaked out!
I am convinced that our beagle was bit by a brown widow. We have seen the spiders and egg sacs in our garage and on our lanai. Presumably they are in the yard too.
A couple months ago our 6 yr old beagle went out in the yard and a few minutes later was crying at the door. He came inside holding up one of his front paws like it was hurt. He wouldn’t let me touch it though, yelped every time I tried. He also had a “droopy” tail. He came inside and laid down on the floor and his muscles in his back legs were pulsating – he seemed like he couldn’t move (paralysis?). He has a history of seizures so we thought he was having or had just had one. But he was alert, looking at us, etc. – not normal for seizures.
Over the course of the rest of the day, every time he got up to walk around his leg muscles would start to pulsate and he would end up on the ground shaking. We still thought he was having a seizure(s). He had only had 3, very mild ones in the past, spaced really far apart, so we didn’t have any meds or anything for it. And of course it was a Sunday, so the vet was closed and the emergency vet had proven pretty useless with previous problems.
Monday, took him to the vet because the problem was still ongoing. Less muscle spasm but he was still favoring his one paw and FREAKED out if I tried to touch him ANYWHERE. This is a mild mannered dog who lets 2 year olds pull on his ears and eyebrows without a sound. So we knew something was wrong. Of course while at the vet he did not exhibit as strong of symptoms so it was hard to demonstrate the problem.
The vet suggested it might be a spinal injury of some kind and sent us home with anti inflamatories. I didn’t bring up a spider bite because the thought hadn’t occurred to me yet (up until this point I still thought he was having seizures…)
Over the next couple of days I started wondering if he was having a neurological problem because he was pacing, circling, etc nonstop. And he still got freaked out if you even ACTED like you were going to touch him, let alone ACTUALLY touch him.
I called the vet and asked if it might be a spider bite and they said no. But I am convinced it was. I started googling neurological symptoms in dogs and everything started pointing towards a spider bite. Since I knew we had brown widows around here I guessed that might be the cause.
He did get gradually better after a few days. It took a long time before he would let me touch his front paw – I figure that is where he was bitten.
We buy “Spider Killer” spray at Home Depot and spray our lanai every couple of months – we get TONS of spiders out there for some reason. I worry about my little guy out in the yard now – his nose gets him into trouble and I don’t want him to get bitten again
Hi,
I live in Belgium and in Belgium its know that many spiders come in trough the harbor, but never really saw a living black widow, or brown widow.
but couple days back i noticed a this little spider in our bathroom.
No I don’t know if its got the hourglass on its belly, but it has marks on its back here’s a photo:
Is this a brown widow spider? Some people say it is…
Yes. These are very dark makings, which I have never seen so dark, but it is a widow, nothing else looks like these potent predators.
Scott
I wrote this letter to Gordon Grice, who wrote Lives of predators, a nice story on black widows kicks the book off. The links will need cut and pasting, but you can skip them if you like. Scott murphy, Sarasota Florida, (Brown widow central)
A macabre scenario for you to consider,
Dear Sir,
I am a Sarasota Fl. resident, well known and not prone to emailing anyone I do not know at least in passing. However, that said, I live in an area which is totally infested with Brown widows, and a splash of blacks just for flavor. My family and I recently moved from one nice area to another, the later was spider central. Any house has at least 10, some more than 50. They take up the spot right under the outside window sill which is both protected from the elements, and hidden from the daylight. At night they drop down to the ground and lay out a network of 45′ angle runners, sometimes several feet long, and hunt very successfully. This former African spider is on a tear here in Florida, and UF even has a research program of some sort running, or at least they did. You are never more than 200 feet from one in this town, they are everywhere. I am sure this is known to you.
Anyway, I enjoyed your stories, and wanted to offer a possibility to you. As to why the venom is so cataclysmic in strength,…What if a widow bites and fells a large animal in the vicinity of a spreading colony of sisters. Just for arguments sake, this animal decides not to flee but rather to drop dead right then and there, or there anyway, not so much then. This animal now attract a huge supply of insects, enough to insure a deep level of species penetration into that environment. The death of the initial sister who inflicts the bite, if that occurs, would be inconsequential compared to the windfall it would provide to its sisters, and its progeny. These spiders seem to be really, really unconcerned with other species exerting pressure on them, they simply eat the invaders, with relish. So this type of strategy makes some sense in that light, as most other in situ predators would not want that kind of activity near the home front. Also, The toxic power, which is unreal to say the least, (of 0.0009 mg venom / gram body weight will kill 50% of mice) has its roots in conservation of precious resources, similar to venomous snakes. Dry bites indicate real dedication of its hard wired behavioral patterns to conservation of its smallish venom resources.
The enormous power of alpha latrotoxin conserves resources, and provides a distinct advantage over all threats, including us. Spiders are a really misunderstood link in the system, but these Brown widows are really aggressive and very poisonous. In case you have heard the stories of them being to small to inflict any real damage, when I took out the garbage tonight there were two on the barrel, and one was just a hair shy of two inches in length. Last year I caught one which was two inches in length, and tan like light coffee. These also change color under dark conditions, and when old and living in the dark, they are nearly black. I can discern no real difference anatomically in the fang department between them, though the Blacks are clearly faster to run and faster all around. And yes, I know several people who have been bitten, why that is the case is a function of my work here. Thanks for the story, Here are some pictures of someone’s pet brown.
Scott Murphy
since moving to Florida we have been doing battle with all kinds of roaches. we were delighted when a web popped up near our front door and started filling with dead ones. last night i finally caught a glimpse of the spider in question, brown widow (as a kid i really dug spiders) anyways it was not at all aggressive, it fell out of the web when i started to take the web down and played dead. i used some cardboard and cup and moved it into the woods where it can continue helping me with my roach problem.
Just found brown widow spiders in my garage in Seminole, Florida.
Took a great picture and looked it up online–no denying it’s a brown widow. I have a 4 year old little boy and can’t seem to find any information on whether it could be fatal to small children. I almost assume it could be but no cases shown. Guess I know what my husband and I will be doing this weekend…cleaning out that darn garage!
Great…I live in S.West Fl. and just found a Brown Widow spider and 3 eggs in one of my tomato plants. I am all for a stable environment but this is too much. Just two weeks ago I was working in the garden and noticed webbing but didn’t see a spider…Thought well that’s good it’ll keep the pest insects away. Then today I saw a strange brown orb body with a distinct orange mark on the underside tucked under a leaf with 3 eggs right next to it. I went inside and got a mason jar, and with a 2 foot long stick was able to remove the spider and eggs.
Moral of the story…Keep an eye out they are EVERYWHERE!!!
I saw the web in my garage in Buckeye AZ, i just figured the web was torn up because it was low to the ground on our recycle garbage can and i moved the day before. When we got home my wife stopped me to ask if i know there was a black widow in our garage so i went over to check. What do you know i was like man that’s two in the web but when i took a closer look i noticed she was brown and had a red hourglass shape on the underside and little red dots down her back.
I decided to jump online and see what this spider was (didn’t know there were different widow families.) the web was strong and silky when i started to rip it down it sounded like i was tearing fabric and was a very poorly put together. The male was a whole lot smaller about three times smaller than the female. I have a 2 year old and 2 week old and worry that there are more around my house so i am going to start checking more now than ever so my girls do not get hurt. Thanks for everyone’s comments and descriptions they helped alot.
Is this a brown widow?
I live in Northeast Texas, near Greenville.
It is a beautiful spider and has the hourglass shape on its abdomen. It has very vivid orange, yellow, and white markings on its back.
I had never heard about the brown widow till my daughter-in-law told me about them. I have had several black widow spiders and have been successful at killing them with normal wasp spray (you have to put the spray on thick). Your web site is fantastic and I thank you for sharing this information on all of these spiders. My daughter-in-law is having a big problem with brown recluse spiders. Can you give us advice on how to get rid of them. Thanks again
ahh crap i picked up an empty can today and a spider that looks a lot like this crawled onto my hand. do they live in south texas?
I live in Los Angeles. Every now and then I’d eliminate very large Black Widows in my back yard. I began spraying Malathion and other insecticides and stopped seeing the BW. However, I’ve since started seeing Brown Widows (and I don’t mean one or two – there have been lots of them) particularly in my BBQ pit, and beneath my lawn furniture. I thought the BW’s had evolved and mutated. In my 61 years I had never heard of this spider. From where did they originate?
I live in Norman, Oklahoma, just to the south of OKC, and this spider has taken up residence outside my glass patio door. It’s been there for several weeks.
After I wrote this post yesterday, I looked for her last night after it got dark, and she was there repairing the web. From the inside of the door I could see an hourglass shape on the abdomen, so I decided to take another look at Brown Widow Spiders online. I didn’t know there was such a thing, but I think that’s what it is. Can you tell for sure?
I tend toward the “live and let live” philosophy when it comes to critters, but this one is in a spot that could easily put her in my hair, or on my face or shoulders if I walk through the web and she’s in it. I don’t want to be posting one of those ugly spider bite shots on my blog.
I’ll see if I can get shots of her belly before I get rid of her. I haven’t noticed any egg sacs, but they’ll get the axe too if I find any.
Thanks for your website!
Jan
So we live in swfl (cape coral) and bought our house a year ago. Before we purchased this house it sat vacant for like 3 or 4 years, and the bugs TOOK OVER! The entered outside of the house was COVERED in spider egg sacs that now after the research I’ve done today, have found out were brown widow sacs. And when I say covered I mean HUNDREDS on EACH window shutter and then hundreds upon hundreds more in the yard and all over the garage and garage door and lanai…..
Anyways after seeing ones belly in the mailbox today (there’s prob 6 or 7 alive in my mailbox right now!) I noticed the orange hourglass which confused me because the spider wasn’t black and I had never heard of a widow in any other color. So I got online and discovered that widows come in many colors and I’m fortunate enough to live in a house INFESTED with brown ones!!!
ICK!!!!! I just killed one 5 min ago INSIDE the house! That was the last straw. I have a 6 mo old who’s starting to crawl and I don’t care if I have to have the pest guy come here EVERY day, I will win this battle and they will be banished from this house!!…. Side note I can NOT believe I haven’t been bitten yet. The chair I go sit in to smoke outside on my lanai has several underneath it. I have sat out there several times a day for a year now and they’ve never bothered me, except to freak me out.
What type of spider is this? I googled spider with black stripes, and came up with nothing that looks like this … well, I was going to send two photo’s but do not know how to link pics to here … :O(
I recently moved to the desert region of Southern California. I am staying with a group of people while setting up to get my own place. My thing is that the entire garage is filled with black widows. They say that this has been an ongoing problem for them and the neighborhood for years– the only way to completely get rid of them would be to “fumigate the place”. All in all, the black widows stay out of the actual house and can be avoided. They’re a pest you learn to get over in some ways since you never see them unless you go into the garage itself.
Two days ago, however, we found something new. This is a brown spider, almost caramel in color, mid size but with the shape of a widow, a series of gold markings on the back and an orange hourglass on the belly. We killed it on the back patio, and then began seeing more as the days went on. Usually early evening (not as nocturnal as the black ones), and a lot less concerned with staying hidden. They are bashful when bothered, and have a tendency to “play dead” by shriveling up for extended periods of time. Shy as they might be, though, they don’t stick to cracks and corners like the black widows. They pop right out, like to be mobile, like to lay a lot more egg sacs than the black widows. A man in charge of a spider exhibition at the museum in LA said that they have moved into the region primarily through cars and cargo, and that anywhere you might normally find 1-5 black widows, expect to see 20-30 brown ones…
Fumigation is sounding GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First, great web sight. Thanks for putting this up.
I’m in South Orange County, California.
I just found one of these Brown Widows in a down stairs bathroom a few days ago. Just walking around like it owned the place. Only way it could have gotten in was the fact that the kids left the front door open.
We normally are pretty active people in our yard and rarely if ever find Blacks and frankly I never even knew a brown existed until the other day when I looked up this strange looking spider.
My daughter was moving some chairs around on our front porch to sit down for lunch last weekend. I told her we needed to turn the chairs over to check for spiders. Sure enough all three chairs had these brown widows hidden in the nooks underneath. Not to mention egg sacs.
We washed off the chairs and discovered that these brownies don’t drown like other spiders. Also the web is a real pain to get off of the chairs you need a strong jet of water or scrub it down with soap and water.
I toured our yard and discovered 50+ of these spiders. Under patio tables, chairs, fire pit, ping pong table, you name they were hiding in in it. I found babies to full grown adults.
Went to Home Depot and found some specialty spider insecticide. Used up a whole can in the yard. They don’t die easy even from direct contact. Based on what I saw I think all need to invest in some bulk concentrate and use my back back commercial yard sprayer to deal with the problem.
Glad I caught the problem before someone got bitten.
I live in Westminster, CA (so cal). Been noticing LOTS of these brown widows since about 2 years ago. Almost funny how unnoticed they go if you have never had an encounter (been to SO many friends houses and freaked them out by pointing out all of their brown widow webs in their backyard.)
They are truly everywhere. While I rarely see black widows anymore, I can often spot webs (or potential webs) from yards away. Pretty much anything low to the ground. If you have a picnic bench, for example, you almost certainly have at least one widow underneath. Tables, chairs, toys, lawn mowers, you name it. I have never encountered one in the house and would imagine that they wouldn’t prefer it, although I have read several posts claiming their existence indoors.
After killing a bunch of the brown ones vs. the black ones, I noticed that the brown ones will “play dead” much better than the black ones. DON’T JUST SPRAY. We had one SOAKED the other night, and while barbecuing an hour later we began to see him (her?) crawl away slowly.
Seems the woodsman lore saying of “low to the ground is where black widows are found” doesn’t apply to the brown ones either. Seen several of them eye-level on jungle gym equipment/window sills.
Use Raid (ant/roach) – which surprisingly seems to work better than the “spider killer” spray I have tried. With the spider spray they simply stopped, but with raid they actually keeled over and curled their legs back. Be sure to step on them. Clear out their webs and keep a close eye on just how quickly you see new webs.
Go in your backyard tonight, grab a flashlight and look down. You are probably guaranteed to find at least 5.
I live in Santee, Ca. Just discovered these things everywhere when we decided to clean our plastic lawn furniture. As soon as we sprayed the bottom of the chair with some simple green they would crawl out. I didn’t know that these were brown widows when we first saw them, but after researching the web I now know for a fact. I also discovered their spiky little egg sacs.
I have really been keeping my eyes open and have discovered them on my trash cans. I have been totally obsessed with these spiders and want to get rid of them. I had my husband go out at night to look for more. Bring a flashlight and you will be sure to find some. We found them under his truck, under the side column of our house, the big green meter box on our neighbors driveway. I have been warning my neighbors and so far 3 more houses have confirmed them. It is scary the amount I have seen in the past five days. With 2 small children and 2 dogs I don’t want any bites and want to get rid of them. Wondering if is even possible. We will not give up….
I live in Clearwater, Florida, which is in the Tampa Bay Area. I had been thinking for a long while that I had Black Widow spiders in my mailbox, but after a little research, I figured out they were actually Brown Widows. I noticed their egg sacs more prominently than the spiders themselves. I have been shaking out my mail for a long time. I have sprayed with household spider killer a few times, plus I have swept away the egg sacs. I know now that I need to destroy the egg sacs, along with the adults and webs! I have a picture on my phone but cannot get it to upload. Sorry! Thank you for this site!!!
I live in San Antonio,Texas,out in the country,we saw two black widows,my husband killed them.he bought some seven ten powder and spread it over the garage floor,we counted 50 black widows the next day,all dead,I’m sure there were some we didn’t find.It was very scary.
if you can find 7-10 dust it will control them.
I live in the island of Puerto Rico and I have a brown widow spider situation in my front yard. When I first saw the spider and the eggs I was curious and did some research on the internet . I Didn’t like what I saw since they were under the chairs I have on my porch and I have three kids. I spayed them and kill them . That was a couple of months ago. Yesterday, I saw three of them hanging underneath the chair again. I killed them, the eggs and put one on a jar. It is brown and has an orange hour glass mark. I don’t have a picture yet, but I will.
Hi,
I live in SW Florida, and yes there are lots of critters here, I came to this site after killing many brown widow spiders on the front porch, I knew they were widows because all widows have the hour glass. I’m not an expert but I did reports on spiders and the study of them for school when I was younger and some things I learned stuck.
Widow spiders are dangerous but they don’t attack, unless you poke around at them, I was sitting on a patio chair recently that had a couple adults and egg sacks under the plastic chair in the little crevices, they didn’t bother me they just wanted to live there because at night I like to leave the porch lights on, and when you do that all the bugs fly in and this is where spiders can feast, where ever you see a dead junebug hanging in a web string the widow is not far but stays out of sight.
Now I didn’t sit in the chair knowing the spiders were there, sha.. I just decided that since the dead bugs from the lights being on at night were starting to increase, I had better sweep, it’s usually the fruit spiders and wolf spiders that were around so I don’t worry about them much, but I decided to turn over the two patio chairs and see if there were any webs under them, and bam! there was three adult brown widows with eggs and and bunch of young, all just stay under the chair even though I was sitting there at the evenings regularly.
Spiders know that you will kill them and they just try to keep you from seeing them, but take them very cautiously since they are poisonous.
You don’t have to run screaming but you do need to have a pest control company to keep up your home, the stuff at the store is workable but you will keep needing more and more. Just have a company do it.
The spring and summer months is when they flourish, keep you Lani’s swept and your light areas that are on at night. Don’t leave stuff out where spiders can crawl in and under, spray and keep everything swept and hosed, and have regular pest control, and you can live a normal life. Keep things screen tight where possible.
Jon in Florida
I’m in Isle of Palms SC and have been trying to catch this huge black widow for three days… little witch was fast tho… I caught her an hour ago though and ill have pics soon its as big as a half dollar
I saw my first brown widow spider sitting in a web in my garage in Chino Hills, Calif. I killed her with insecticide. I will keep my eyes open for more!!
Hello, i am going on holiday to kisimmee in Florida. Are there black widows there and should i be worried?
brown widow spider has been id in WA on porch with egg sac. beware Washingtonians!
Thank you, your web site and reading other peoples stories helped us to identify the spider that bit my husband an hour ago this morning at10;30 may 23rd 2010, Sorry I have no pictures, But the bite is a small red dot and little redness around it. I washed the bite area and gave him a benadryle tablet and put cortisone on it. So far the redness has stopped and he has had no problems. We live in Ashford Alabama.
I Killed a black widow spider hiding between some cement blocks at the back of our home two months ago and I killed a brown widow Spider hiding in our BBQ grill this afternoon here in Palm Bay Fl. I suggest when moving items that have been sitting for awhile in your yard, Wear gloves and (check it over real good before you grab a hold of it, especially if it has a lip that you can not see under).
okay, so the past couple of days i’ve found two spider on my porch i thought they were male black widows but when i found this site and seen there were brown widows i assumed that’s what they were there was probably 20 egg sacks total matching the description some were hatched i killed spiders and smashed egg sacks but i want to figure out if the eggs were fertile or do they have phantom pregnancies. if not im sure i have at least a thousand of these crawling critters
Hi earlier my brother and I saw three little white egg sacks with points. So anyway there were about 10-20 little brown widows (nickle) size. I was wondering if I got bit by a brown widow, could I die? and how long would it take?
P.S, I was wondering if a wolf spider would do more harm if I were sleeping and wake up 5hrs later than right away?
COMMENT #23 by Tony…Does it have to be LEMON Pledge?
We live in the woods and find black & brown widows frequently. Last summer I picked up a pot on my deck and immediately felt something crunch and get wet between my fingers and the pot rim. Sure enough, there was a mashed black widow under the pot rim. Was not bitten but evidently the venom on my skin caused sight numbness to spread up to my elbow, which went away after several hours. Pretty scary that venom could be absorbed into my skin that quickly without a bite!
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, lets get the word out !!
I live near the coast and a canyon and have been seeing these spiders for at least 2 years. I had never heard of the brown widow. The thick webs were on the underside of everything outdoors. I tried many times to find out what kind of spiders they were as my instincts told me they they looked dangerous. I thought they may have been a mutated black widow. One night I went to turn on the sprinkler and put my hand right on a large brown. Fortunately I broke its leg(s) before it bit me. I ran into the house to get the spider spray. Finally, the news described the brown widow and how it is moving east, more inland. Thanks for all the great tips on this site. In my 60 plus years here I have never seen such a problem here with such a deadly pest.
Fort Myers FL. I was seeing webs on my van and when I looked underneath there were about 30 brown widows and 8 egg sacs. I bought 4 cans of Raid spider spray and unloaded on the van and carport. Havent seen any since. I have 3 boys. Scary.
A 24 yr old girl died Friday from a brown widow spider bite so they will kill you if you don’t get help right away. I believe she did not go to the dr. or hospital and ignored it. She collapsed and went into a coma and never regained consciousness. She had no brain activity and was on life support for almost a week.
I have also seen one that is less common around my house that is skinny but with the same markings for the most part. it has a way smaller thin body and longer legs that stick straight forward and aft. Is this another variety? Anyone know. they do have the glass. sometimes just looks like a red orange dot.
I live in Enterprise Alabama. Very south Alabama. I have a shop full of brown widows. I was always very spider shy but have become accustomed to them now. I used a spider fog that almost killed me and it killed hundreds of them but they were abundant again in a week.
I do a lot of work in my shop and have been bitten several times on the hands. A few times I have seen the brown widow that bit me. Every time it has been a small bite size but has within 5 minutes formed a deep blister filled with clear liquid. Usually turns into a nasty raw sore about the size of a dime and takes about 2 weeks to heal. i have many small scars on my hands from them. I never noticed any cramping or dizziness or anything. I have had muscle aches and cramping feelings were the muscle wasn’t tight just felt cramped. I may have just not associated the two things. My newest one is almost healed. I’ll take a pic next time.
First and foremost, THANK YOU for this site!
I was watching a show on TV, it mentioned Brown Widows, curious I turn to google, google leads me hear.
That’s when the chills started…
As I’m reading, I’m remembering the black widow looking spider I saw recently when taking out my garbage.
But it wasn’t black, and I’ve seen southern black widows before, so of course it’s just some little garden spider!
I continue reading, then tales of chaotic webs again spring memory to all the messy, run down looking webs that coat my patio and other areas outside my home.
But those are just webs used previously and have been abandoned.
I proceed to tell my family what I believe is going on. We plan to remove the webs tomorrow morning.
I take out the garbage, and take out my hand held flood light with me.
I shine the light in the oh so familiar spot, and sure enough!
There she is…egg sack and all!
I then lower the light ever so slightly, another one… Up in the corner, a third.
All brown widows, all having egg sacks.
I go find my wasp spray and begin to rain death upon them, I use a whole can on the three haha! I then go retrieve a second can and journey to the patio, sure enough, in all those “abandoned” webs sits a widow and egg sacks.
They all are vanquished, none survive.
I will be destroying the webs tomorrow.
I killed about seven or eight in total, really the main reason I’m so concerned is because of my dog.
I already lost one of my babies earlier in the year, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let anything happen to the one I have left!
I live in Houston, TX and if it wasn’t for dumb luck watching a television show and choosing to google, I would probably be looking at a full blown infestation of a creature I wouldn’t have even known about.
I still probably have a problem, but I’m going at it and am going to try my best to bring this threat down and away from my home!
My son found a widow spider in our garage. It had the hour glass on the bottom of the abdomen but looked strange. Upon researching we found out that we have ourselves a Brown Widow Spider. Never new those existed let alone that they were here in Southern Utah. Of course we moved here from Texas so we could have brought it with us….
I live in Southern California and i found a Brown Widow in my backyard. Is it an invasive species?
I just bought a bike on craigslist from a guy in Chula Vista and while cleaning it I came across a brown widow that had it’s web in the spokes. I got some good pictures.
I live in los angeles, (westwood) and was cleaning out some old planters that I knew attracted black widows. Well, not only did I find black widows but I also found 5-8 brown widows. At first I wasn’t concerned when I saw my first brown widow since it didn’t look like the typical black widow, but it was a big sucker so i sprayed it anyway and when it flipped on its back and i saw the red hourglass I was really freaked out. That’s when I went on a rampage and a seek and destroy mission until I ran out of spider spray, gonna buy more spray and going out tomorrow to continue the bloodbath. Never saw them until today or never noticed them. They’re spreading…watch out!!!
Hey #95 – It’s nice and all to observe nature, but for the safety of yourself and other people in the area, you should really kill “Big Momma.” Take some pics, immortalize her however you would like, and then get a STRONG bug spray and get rid of her. It’s just the safest thing to do . . . Furthermore, from what I understand, these spiders multiply and take an area over quite easily, so, Big Momma’s babies may present an even BIGGER problem than Big Momma herself. In other words, destroy the sacs too.
I live in Orange County and i just saw my first brown widow. I was cleaning out a fountain and when we started running water through it again, i saw a brown widow come out of the hole. As i hate spiders, i reacted by killing it but i should have taken a picture. Now i am worried about how to protect my house. i see webs in my house but who knows what kind of spiders made them.
Is there anything i can do or look out for?
Is a brown widow actually more dangerous then a black widow?