Brown Widow Spider
Did you know that there are four types of Widow Spiders in Florida? They are the Northern Black Widow Spider, the Southern Widow Spider, the Red Widow Spider, and the Brown Widow Spider which will discuss in more detail below.
Although the venom of these spiders is not as toxic as the Black Widow, they are still very painful and can cause serious injury if not treated.
Because brown widow spiders (Latrodectus Geometricus) can vary from light tan to dark brown or almost black and may have different markings such as white, black, yellow, brown, and even orange on the back of their abdomen, they are tough to recognize! The picture below is of the red widow spider.
Brown Widow Egg Sac
You’ll notice the hourglass marking on the bottom of the abdomen, colored yellow or orange. The Egg Sac of the brown widow spider is not the same as other widows and has pointed projections, much like the old sea mines.
If you have pictures of this spider or believe a Brown Widow has bitten you, please post your comments below and send the photos to the email address at the bottom of this page.
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 home! 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.