Did you know that in Florida, there are four types of Widow Spiders? They are the Northern Black Widow spider, the Southern Widow Spider, the red Widow Spider and the Brown Widow Spider which will discuss in more detail below.
Although the venom of these spiders are not as toxic as the Black Widow, they are still very painful and can cause serious injury if not treated.
Because brown widow spiders (latrodectus geometricus) can vary from light tan to dark brown or almost black and may have differing markings such as white, black, yellow, brown and even orange on the back of their abdomen, they are very hard to recognize! The picture below is of the red widow spider.
On the bottom of the abdomen you’ll notice the hourglass marking but it will be colored yellow or orange. The Egg Sac of the brown widow spider is not that same as other widows and has pointed projections much like the old sea mines.
If you have pictures of this spider, or believe you have been bitten by a Brown Widow, please post your comments below and send the pictures to the email address located on the bottom of this page.
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?
This site has definitely helped me with some misinformation I received from our exterminator, who said all the banded widow shaped spiders in our yard was the male black widow species, in which BURBANK, CA is notorious for. Not only does my small nephew play outside, but the love of my life, my Russian blue cat, is a -natural hunter of all creepy crawlies. 1 night I noticed her torturing some insect, & I’m sure now it was a brown widow she spit out of her mouth cos I never understood why if it was a black widow, why didn’t it bite her. The brown’s more docile nature would explain It.
1 thing I can add is, for those terrified of them like me, instead of only hunting for them @ night to spray directly, is not to rid their webs, and saturated their webs with spider spray in. The daytime & by the AM, you’ll find many a widow carcass.
Also, any of those waiting on medical attention post-bite, are being foolish. If it was a indeed a widow bite, you only have amputation or respiratory failure in your future. Had 2 friends wait until the point of gangreen before heading to urgent care, not the way to go.
& those collecting in jars to relocate are just-crazy. They do not have a problem populating, no one wants them, & are too dangerous to keep as mere insect control. A daddy long legs can do the same thing without harming you.
If u handle your insect problems, the spiders will not need to infest your property. Use the yellow light bulbs for the porch, & do what u can to deter widow food, because widows don’t migrate
I swear I started having flashbacks of that movie Aracnaphobia.
I started seeing these brown widows around my apartment complex in August of 2009. Killed the few I saw around the trash cans and at the bottom of the building next to the foundation. Then low and behold a week later I started seeing them everywhere. Least to say I began the search and destroy method while waiting for the exterminator. I smashed 53 of them and about 20 egg sacs with the spikes on them. I work on pools and spas for a living and have now been finding them everywhere I go. If you see them I would definitely give the exterminator a call as well as some spider spray from your local hardware store. I have kids and would not want any of these cockroach-like breeders to infest my place.
If you see ONE then there are many more on the way. I have even been seeing them around other homes even during the winter season. Dec. thru Feb. 2010 so far.
Rep: Pam Garcia #372. February 2nd, 2010 at 3:54 pm. -I feel so bad for you. And you’re Dr told you you had a Staph infection? Didn’t culture it to be sure?!
I hope he gave you antihistamines and a topical antistetic. Somtimes holistics help. I hope can find something works, good luck
Hate to say but that sounds like a brown recluse bite, those are recurrent, and the only real answer is to immediately excise the bite and affected tissue. Otherwise the symptoms reoccur and spread. It’s a nasty cycle that can spread with out limit. Personally I get plug in spider alarms, Krylon silicon caulking gel, and check for any entry points. Mostly we have tarantulas, scorpions, and rattlers. I have seen the traditional blk widows: WD-40 kills them. We also check for brown recluse, and violin spiders..
But I was looking for info because A friend in LA was bitten repeatedly by a spider that caused swelling around the eyes.. The Apartments were fumigated with something toxic enough that the tenets were sent away, and that worked. But it was 6mo ago and they are coming back.
By her description it is either black or brown, although I think the size of a Quarter or 50 cent piece is fear talking. What are the odds your Brn widow is the culprit? frankly, I am not sure it’s even the spider that is causing the symptoms. how common is swelling of the eyes as a singular symptom of frequent bites? She thinks they are biting here there. But has never seen actual bite marks, so I think its a result. Who ever heard of a spider that bites your closed eyes in the dark? If it were her lips and a rash I’d say Redivid….
deanna vanosdale
#4. October 7th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Sorry, no photo. 78 y.o. man living in Naples, FL was bitten by something about 4-6 mos. ago. Didn’t pay attention to it as it continued to grow w/ infection. Within 1 mo. after bite, lost sight in one eye (continuously going from one Opthimologist to another, test after test with NO specific results), then irregular heartbeat (back to emergency for meds. to regulate) now walking w/ use of walker. 2 mos. ago showed the bite to regular Dr. (now the size of tearing a dollar bill in half, quite deep w/ black center surrounded by progessive inner very pink to dark pink/red outer ring. Dr. drew circle around it stating: if it goes outside the circle he drew..your in trouble!? Thank you for comments and information (I believe he’s very much in d e e p trouble)
I was bitten by a garden variety spider while watering my plants. I had an immediate bad reaction and took benedryl. Then went to the
Dr. who gave me a shot. I got better slowly.
I was just on the phone when a black widow appeared on my kitchen counter amid some papers. I quickly killed it, tho. it tried to get away.
It left an oozy clear sticky looking substance with about 5-6 small
specs in the ooze. The back was solid black and very round and large.
I live in N. San Diego.
Do black widow spiders live in Louisiana??? If they do i dont want to move there
I live in Northwest Florida.. and about two weeks ago, I removed the tarp off my kayak (been sitting there for several months on a trailer) to get it ready for spring fishing. I worked several hours on it, cleaning etc… and I can’t even remember if it was Sat afternoon or Sunday morning, I had this HUGE itch on my left shoulder. I reached to scratch it and almost freaked out. I found 4 good size lumps within several inches, 2 right off my shoulder and 2 about an inch down my back and they were about an inch apart. In scratching, I removed the blisters. From then on.. things went downhill.
I had no idea what bit me but I knew it wasn’t good. I had previously aggravated an old injury in my neck and could move it a little more than half way, well after that bite, it got really bad… I couldn’t hardly move it at all, so made an appointment with my chiropractor. He sent me back to get a massage and the lady doing it said she had the exact same markings about 7 years ago on her chest and it was a spider bite. I never saw or felt anything biting me so I am still wondering. I did finally go to a Dr and he said I had Merser. Well.. I KNOW I didn’t from all the research online on spider bites. All I know is that something bit me and from looking at the picture, I think one of the widow’s got me because you can see two little spots and then their appears to be three poison pockets. After taking two strong antibiotics, I was finally able to remove the black parts and they are now healing, but still itching like crazy. I wish there were more pictures of widow bites so people might be able to figure out what bit them. It’s been a terrible two weeks.. with horrible neck, shoulder and back pain, terrible muscle spasms and chills and fever.
Oh.. before I started and a few days after the antibiotic, the burning continued in cycles. It burned like it was a crater and had a raw feeling to it, then a few minutes later, it started itching like there was no tomorrow then the pain. OMGGG.. it hurt like nothing I’ve felt before. It would continue doing this over and over again… until finally the meds kicked in and the cycle was broke. Now it just itches like crazy and it seems to have developed a rash around the bite (with the two little spots in the picture. The other 3 spots are healing and no longer bother me). I hope no one has to go through this ever… it’s been a terrible experience that I never hope to go through again.
Picture of a Brown Widow Spider
They are everywere in So. Cal. The problem with them is that they are non aggressive — thus they don’t mind sitting under your patio chairs. But really, how often are you bitten by a spider? If you see one, your are not taking care of your yard — or at least have not been there for that long. Keep your yard clean and if you see them — spray vinager on them. For a week or two after spray with water. No spider wants to live where we do. The brown widow is here to stay — i live in a normal cookie cutter house and had 200 in my yard (a repo). A little viniger and good house keeping will do wonders. Remember if you keep your yard clean they wont live there. If bitten go to the ER, but dont worry. There has been not one spider bite death in california in 10 years.
John
We recently discovered a brown widow spader in our kitchen. Could you please advise me as how to get rid of this spider. Will it be possible for you to answer my request by e-mail? Thank you and kind regards, Rita.
How can I get rid of these stinking spiders. At any given time I could go in my back yard and find 20 of these monster brown widows without looking very hard. I have a three year old daughter, even though they don’t pose much threat I still worry. In the two years we’ve lived here in Torrance Ca, the spiders have been here and still I haven’t seen one in the house so at least they are outdoor pests?
Hi, we live in Southern California and have just recently been INFESTED by the brown widow spiders. Originally, I thought they were male black widows, but did some investigating and found out about the BROWN widow. We had a pest control guy come by yesterday and he mentioned that originally they were only located in Florida, but have migrated to CA.
He also mentioned that they are infamous for spinning there webs exactly where you wouldn’t want them to. This possibly explains me finding three webs and egg fars. One under my boys pitching matching, one under their quad and one on the door handle to the garage. I elected to use some WD40 and flame making sure the adults and eggs were dust!!
i got bit last night and it is about the size of two quarters and is swollen, please help.
From Venice,CA 1/2 mile from beach. Rarely see black widow’s. Found over 20 brown widows today for the first time ever and killed probably fifteen of their pods. Under patio furniture, a stepping stool, ALL over the trash cans and just went outside with the flash light. Window awnings and the tv dish as well. I would really like to know where this is going. From zero to 30 in no time.
my wife said “what is this?” we knew it was a spider but it was weird, bulbous round brown/white stripe-ish back.. I looked it up b/c I knew it was dangerous.. it just looked sick and I knew nothing could look that crazy and be benign.. so we put it out our window .. I should have killed it instantly but I didn’t know then what I googled now.. too bad.
wow, we live in New Rochelle, NY who would think we’d get that kind of spider here? we did just pull up our rugs.. I guess anything can happen we live on first floor and right outside our window is dirt garden and we do get ants all summer long..
can someone with knowledge on these things (spiders) say if it’s possible to get this kind of spider in NY or did someone plant this bugger in our apt.?
I had a fairly large brown spider that was shaped like a black widow (which I have in my storage shed). this one was brown, busily making a web on my car hood. It had two white spots on its back.
I have looked on every spider website and have yet to see a picture of one like it.
I don’t like spiders so, I grabbed a small stick and knocked it off, then stepped on it.
can you tell me what kind of spider this sounds like?
Thanks
Debbie
hi,
i have been noticing spiky eggs in Utah and i don’t know if there deadly or not but they are not aggressive.
I live in Coronado, CA and have killed over 20 brown widows with egg sacks around my property in the last 2 days. They are EVERYWHERE. under almost all my patio chairs. on every trash can. in all my trees and bushes. Under my eves. I have warned my neighbors. I am afraid to let our pug go in our backyard.
We took her for a walk tonight around the block and took along a flashlight and my gallon jug of insecticide. She almost walked through 3 brown widow webs at the base of trees and poles. I killed 5 more of them on the walk.
I sprayed my yard and trees today. I may hire professionals if that didn’t work.
I feel like John Goodman in arachnophobia.
Just took our Christmas decorations out of the attic and there was a spider on one box. I sprayed it and continued on. When I went back and looked, it was brown and had an hourglass on the tummy. That’s when I found this site. I just wonder how many more that I don’t see are lurking nearby.
i live in southern Colorado and we have a lot of black widows and they usually don’t attack humans but just pay attention
Today my co-worker took a brown Widow off my back. I’m so lucky
to be alive!!!
It’s really interesting. I have always been warned of the Black Widow because I live in Florida. I grew up in South Florida, but now reside in North Florida. A few weeks ago my husband was doing some cleaning around our porch and came in to tell he had found dozens of Black Widows under the porch. Now our porch/deck is about 4 ft. off the ground so it’s easy to get under. He said not to worry and that he had taken care of them all. I didn’t think anything of it.
That was until a week ago when I was doing some rearranging of the furniture to start preparing for the holidays. We have a heater that resembles a fireplace and I started to move it to the opposite side of the room. I found many spiderwebs and noticed the eggsacks myself, 10 to be exact. I brought my husband in and showed him, he said they were black widows. I had to correct him because I’ve seen Black Widows nests before. We got rid of them of course, but looked it up to find out what they really were. Brown Widows!! I have 2 young children and I freak out when a mosiquito bites them- my some suffers from severe allergies.
Well we found 27 more eggsacks in the front doorway taht we never use. I opened it up to let some fresh air in the house 2 days ago and there they all were- all 27 of them and at least 4 spiders. I live in the middle of nowhere. Heavily wooded so we get all kinds of creatures here. I’ve had bats in the house. My husband had to remove a opposum from the house as well as a small raccoon. We found out that when they made the hole for a 2 inch pipe in the kitchen a 12 inch hole and never sealed it. So we’ve had some excitement around here.
Not to mention the 6 and 5 ft. rattlers we discovered at the bottom of our porch one day, but that’s been about 2 yrs. ago.
Our backyard has a bunch of these brown widow spiders and egg sacks, I’ve sprayed the ones that I found on the sand box and bikes and around the other spots where my kids live. For the most part it looks like they curl up and die but I’m afraid of how many I haven’t found and what to do if they get into the house or live in the closets. I don’t know if have the house tented is a safe thing for us since we have two young children but I’m really tempted.
Brown Widow Spider
Not bitten, just found a brown widow spider in Tustin, CA (Orange County). Was courious to learn about the unusal markings, because we are use to seeing the traditional black widows in this area.
I live in Monterrey, Mexico and had a black widow make her web in door hinge of shed behind my house. One day she had caught a small lizard. The lizard was easily 3 inches long. That tells you how fast their venom can work.
I just caught a brown widow that was out on the patio. I am about to let her go. Most people squish spiders. I am not Buddhist but I’m not taking any chances with my karma.
I live in Ky. Only once have I seen a black widow in my lifetime but I hear a lot of people tell me they have seen them around the apartment complex I live in. The one I saw though was at least twice as large as the ones I’m seeing in the pictures on this site. No Kidding! It was a black widow because of it being so large, when it got to close to the edge of it’s web, it flipped upside down on the web hanging on the underneath. That’s when I saw the red hourglass figure.
Hi,
On Halloween 2009 outside in the backyard A brown spider spun down & crawled on my sister’s head until my brother got a broom and pushed it down.! It came down from an orange tree, (fruit)
I never knew there were such things as brown widows.
me and my daughter looked at this site and the comments scared the hibbie jeebies out her (i told her we don’t have them and she was like HOORAY!)
I work at the plant in new Orleans la and came across my first brown widow today so then I really started to look for them and came across about 50 freaky pointed eggs and I’m parenoid as can be right now!
La Mirada, Ca. My 16 yr old son found a spider, He has it in a glass container. I didn’t know that there was such a thing as a brown widow until today. He is so killing it as soon as we get home.
In regards to post 316, that is actually just a garden spider not a brown widow.
It lacks the orange hourglass, and brown widows lack any type of “fur” or hairs on legs. I have plenty of both of those spiders, I now let the garden spiders live in hopes they may kill some of the brown widows.
I have had to rip out all of my shrubs and almost all my plants to combat these nasty browns, they love kid toys which is really scary.
Glendale, CA
Every year we get tons of Black Widows, but tonight I noticed a spider that was brown with striped legs and the same hour glass marking as a black widow. Luckily I found this website that helped me identify them as Brown Widows. My husband killed 5 of them and 1 got away. We also got a few good pics. I’m not sure if the big round one is a Brown Widow with an egg nest attached? It was in my kids’ playhouse that I just hosed down earlier in the afternoon, kind of freaked me out to see a web back up so quickly.
i just found what appears to be a brown widow spider in my uni room by the window, its being said off for examination as i type this becasue it is such serious thing. surely its too cold for them over here (UK) but then again it has been a really this warm summer. I’m not scared of spiders but this one really made me shiver. It just looked so out of place the colourings was so odd. it had the hourglass on its underbelly so i rekon it really was a brown widow. It’s kinda scary when you think out it (for me anyways).
This whole Brown Widow business is difficult because the facts vary and they are relatively “new” to the US.
I am very very frustrated! I have knocked down the numbers on my property radically. The key is hunting at night. I emailed a local entimologist informing him of my progress as requested. He wrote back , “You can knock back the population but the way the browns are reproducing they can be back in a few weeks.”
Crunching the numbers, and even using the reported lower end numbers of babies in sacs and sacs a female produces in a lifetime, if I have missed just 10 female adults, I’m screwed.
So, we need the facts. We all need to know how poisonous? At what size can they bite and inject venom? What is their lifespan? Do the males bite? (please look at male widows pics. as they need to be “removed” also. They help make the babies…)
For example if the experience of “T Turner post
#94. September 8th, 2008 at 1:26 am ” is accurate as a mainstream Brown Widow bite experience, symptom wise , I would be greatly relieved.
The words excruciating pain, hospital stay, and animals dying is not something I can just accept. If this is the reality, what choice do we have but pesticides and sterilizing our yards?
Allison
Live in Byron Ga. Found 9 egg sacs and several small brown widows around and about sprayed with Clorox and then bug and wasp spray. The week before killed two black widows in same area. Looked this morning and egg sacs were gone ,hope the ants took them off. Will def. be spider hunting now . Printing pictures to show my grandson and to educate him on the dangers. Calling county ext. agent tomorrow to see what exterminates these pests!
Hi I just found this I think is a brown widow you tell me it was in my window inside my room I wondering if there’s any more a round? I live in San Diego ca. Downtown area what should I do if I get bite for one of this brown widow?
Alot of folks on here commenting on brown widows and how dangerous they are… People some of you are getting hysterical! Yes, they are getting more common in the Southern U.S. states but if you care to read up on some of the facts: for example, YES they do have more toxic venom than black widows per mmg., BUT they deliver much less in a single bite. Some don’t even have fangs long enough to break the skin (though most black widows do). In general, they are safer to have around than black widows. One website even goes so far to say that they are competing with and replacing black widows in those environments they share, and it will be a god thing that less people will be showing up in emergency rooms because of it!
P.S.: For the lady who lost her dog, I’m so sorry to hear about that–but if the vet said it was old age.. just believe him/her, okay? Also, for the little girl bit outside on the picnic bench, remember she doesn’t have to be intentionally bothering a spider for it to react like its in danger.. they can’t tell the difference. The human race isn’t under attack, the brown widows just aren’t that aggressive.
can you die from a black widow bite or a brown widow bite can dose cal have anti-venom if you get bite from one
I live in San Diego (4S Ranch) and just found a smaller brown widow in my garage. It made a web right in a walkway. I’ve seen hundreds of black widows before, but this is the first time I have seen a brown widow. What is the best way to kill them?
My wife and 2 yr old son just moved in to our new home and on our lanai and front porch has black and brown widow spiders every were. We’ve been here now a week and on the lanai iv already killed 2 black widows and 6 brown widows and with my 2yr old who plays out back im very concerned i really would like to know what i could do to get rid of them? We’ve tried several different things and they still keep coming so please help me out
I have been finding brown widows all over my property in Greenville SC, at first I thought they were something like a window spider until I noticed one with a red hourglass after inspecting the others I realized they were all about the same. Also in my area I have found 14 black widow spiders under boards, railroad ties, and in low lying bushes. I haven’t ever seen this many and I’ve lived in this area my entire life I wonder if it has something to do with the warmer changing climate.
ok soo theres this spider outside of my house on my window and i have no idea what it is… i would like to know can a brown widows abdomen be smaller than a nickle but bigger than a penny and how big can its web get and what it looks like, the web here strecthes about one standard window of a standard home. the weird thing about this spider is that it has seven legs not eight… its realy really scary too haha any way thanks and please answer those questions!!!! asao if possible!
Are brown widows native to Alabama? I’m sitting here in my office staring out the window and was distracted by a really pretty brown spider with the most beautiful white/yellowish design on it’s back… I did some googling and the brown widow is the closest I could find…
I only took the time to look at it cause it’s on the other side of the glass 🙂 Speaking of spiders and biting… I have bad allergic reactions when I get bit… don’t suggest it… I just moved out of my old apartment because between my cat and I, we were killing at least 2 big ugly brown ones a day… Beware of the ones that play dead and then scare the living day lights out of you, by jumping at you when you go to pick them up with a tissue…. My new apartment is spider free… so far….
I just caught a large female Brown widow spider its still alive in a jar. i live in southwest Va and I caught it an a porch outside during wet weather
i live in pico rivera, and this last year or so i have been finding them around the house mostly in the garden/ plants it seems that they don’t hide in places like black widows, and they tend to have more egg sacks as well . i have found them with 4 egg sacks in the same location. i think that is why they are harder to get rid of them. they can be from light brown to white and also they can be black and white. so what im trying to do is find the sacks, so they cant reproduce more. like i said they seem too like the outdoors, so be careful when gardening. FYI… show and tell your friends and neighbors and if you can catch one and show it to your local elementary school.
CRUZ
I need to find out if I what I have is brown widows. We have black widows here too, I killed 7-8 in the past couple months. I know these brown widows look exactly the same as all the photos of these on the internet but the weird thing is their hour glass is not orange or red… its black or greyish. Im not so sure ive been searching and searching but cant find anything about this. They are identical and there everywhere. Only come out at night and make webs right below my gutter near the security light. Been here for a long time… so many. They aren’t aggressive.. you can walk right past them and they take cover. I just dont know how to figure out if they are. Im almost certain but the whole hour glass thing is weird, they have one all right its just dark colored, they are so light with orange dots on there back and grey and ect.
Los Angeles, CA (Hollywood area)
In the space of a month, a couple weeks apart, I found 2 black widows inbetween the 2 sides of our big metal driveway gate to our backyard. Killed them as soon as I saw them. Around 3 weeks ago, as I opened the gate, I heard the crackling of a web breaking so I thought it was another black widow. When I saw it was light brown, with a red diamond my first thought was it must be no big deal because it wasn’t a black widow. But seeing the diamond made me a little concerned so I googled it. That’s when I discovered brown widows.
And like everyone else who has posted here, I’d never seen them before or heard of them before. And now it’s like we’re infested. I’ve killed 5 in the last 3 weeks in the exact same area of the gate. As soon as one goes, another takes its place. And just tonight alone, I saw 5 of them. 1 near our kitchen window and 4 in webs around my trash cans that were at the curb. The trash collectors just emptied them yesterday morning and already they set up camp a day and a half later.
I talked to an entymologyst last week who said they’re solitary and won’t build webs where there’s usual activity but the gate and the trash cans get pretty frequent use. He also said there’s not much you can do. Just keep an eye out. I have a 3 year old so these things are really concerning me.
Like everyone else, I haven’t had much luck with finding a solution online and I’m not about to spend hours searching my yard to kill them only to have them come back the next night. Nice to see we’re not alone but really troubling.
I just killed a very large brown widow that had made a nest under my office desk. I have only been gone two days but that was more than enough time for him to move in. Luckily, I had got under the desk to reset the cable modem and saw the spider. Had I not seen it I prob would have gotten bitten on the leg when I started working. I am going to inspect everything for these spiders now, since everyone here is saying that as soon as you have 1 you have a 100.
I’m from Los Angeles (Palms, to be exact) and I discovered their egg sacs (about 6) all over my bicycle the other day, and the spider itself hiding within a web behind the reflector. I’m so terrified of spiders but I managed to spray everything off with a hose while hyperventilating. I hope they don’t find their way into my apartment… my bike was sitting just outside our door.
*shivers*
OK, I have been battling Brown Widow infestation for a year an a half. I live in central San Diego. I emailed an etymologist with our Natural History Museum a couple weeks ago. I told him I have found and killed hundreds (I am NOT exaggerating.)and maybe have had a stretch of a week and a half of no BWs out in plain view. I went on to say that they are everywhere. In my trees, pots, rose blooms, wind chimes, bushes, rocks, eves, windows, rim of every pot, The etymologist said he talked with the county etymologist and here is what he wrote:
***”There are canned sprays available at home and garden stores that are formulated for spiders as well as other critters. These seem to be effective but the spiders need to be hit directly with the spray. Egg sacs can be gathered and drowned in alcohol. I had a chat with the County Entomologist about mass spraying by pest control companies. He said he wouldn’t recommend as they really do no better than you with can sprays and are a lot more expensive. Also, mass spraying will kill of beneficial creatures as well as those that go after spiders. There are no sprays that can be put down that will last to keep spiders away as there are for insects. One article I read suggested spraying webs and when the spiders eat the silk during web repair they ingest the poison. That’s fine but it seems that widows don’t do that as often as other spiders but may be worth a try. Most of the sprays commercially available are not long lasting and so don’t pose a great hazard to kids and pets.”***
So then went on to ask if I would drop him an email if I figure something out and it works. Grrreat!
He is what I have learned:
They do not hide like Black Widows. But they don’t like full sun on them.
I use a little soldering torch to kill them and burn up sacs. (I do not like doing this)
They will run up a stick towards you. Best not to use a stick.
I just found if you go out at night they are further out in their web and easier to fry. (fun fun) Plus they are upside down and easy to spot hour glass.
They are NOT aggressive. I have had 2 on me and they run off. (yeeeech!!)
They can have multiple sacs and they do hide them. They do not stay with sacs as a rule.
There web ais sticky and very strong and no pattern. They will make long “tag lines” away from where they are.
The hour glass varies in color from a pinkish orange to orange to almost red.
Even the very small baby ones have an hour glass.
The sacs have up to 35 babies in them. (at least it isn’t hundreds!?)
I found only 1 in my house right near a hole in screen door. (last straw for me. I am now obsessed with getting rid of them.)
They don’t care if they room right next other spiders or even Black Widows.
When you kill one try to get rid of web so you’ll know when a new one comes you see the new web.
I just did an hour and half night killing and got at least 60. Sadly only 3 egg sacs.
I think this night hunting is really going to knock them back. Wish me luck!
I really wish they would figure out a way to help. Who are “they”? I don’t know. lol
Last week we found a big brown spider @ the end of our driveway, it was in between a tree & ice plant, out in the open. It was there a couple weeks before I finally made my boyfriend spray it with raid. He likes things like spiders & lizards, so he decided 2 put it into a plastic baggie ( it was dead). We’ve looked @ some different web sites but didnt find anything it really looked like. The other night on the news they mentioned brown widow spiders,so now ive looked this site up. The spider resembled these ones, but the biggest difference is that it had spikes on its body. It had all the same markings + spikes…. not sure if it was a brown widow or something else. It looked like it was ready 4 war… I didn’t see any egg sacks.
Michael, Orange, CA
My first encounter with the brown widow was 5 years ago. I had noticed a spikey web sac, similar if not identical to the ones posted above, and ones circulating on the net. I killed a brown spider by smushing it, not noticing any markings, probably because I did not think it was a widow. Now, September 28, 2009. I noticed a bunch of messy webs outside when I went to bring in the trash cans from the street and also around my lawn mower and gate. Being the curious pre-vet student biologist that I am, I starting looking around for the owner of the web. I noticed a brown spider with neon orange hour-glass markings and a spikey/studded cream-colored egg sac. I sprayed it with raid and was resilient to the spray. So I smushed it with my shoe after using a stick to remove it from its web in the undernook of the trash can grip.
I went to google for my research. Lol. I found out that they are multiplying around other people’s homes. I went outside and started looking around for messy and STRONG webs. I found a total of 8 brown widow spiders without moving any objects. One of them had THREE egg sacs which was unusual, as the other 7 each had 1 egg sac. I have not found a brown widow without an egg sac yet, but it is September and maybe breeding season? I am going to hire an exterminator because winter will be rolling around and there is only room enough for 2 species in my house, humans and house centipedes.
These centipedes are my friends, they scurry about and ever since they infested our home, I have yet to see a spider in the house. These hunters gobble up all the spiders.
Hello,
Quick Question… I live in Northern California near Roseville, (Lincoln- Between Chico/Marysville and Sacramento, CA) and I was wondering if there is or has been any record of any other kind of “Widow’s” around these parts? ie. Brown Widow, Red Widow or any other kind for that matter? The reason I ask is because I think I was just bitten by a Brown Widow. It Doesn’t hurt at all, not one bit what-so-ever, Frankly I’m not quite sure I was bitten at all. I got up early this morning before it gets blistering hot here, (108 yesterday) anyways, we have a broken drip line sprinkler system that was shooting water 25-30′ in the air, around the broken line i have a fake boulder (fiberglass rock casting), while moving the boulder i came across 2 different kinds of Widow.
One of which i have never seen before today. One was a normal, well known Black Widow, the other was a tan widow, it still has the distinct red hourglass on its abdomen. Well, while I was very respectfully and gently moving them to another location along the perimeter of the yard, I was unaware that the Brown/Tan Widows web had become tangled with the stick I was using to move it, and I accidentally flung it directly at my leg and into my shoe without socks… After that, I never saw it again, which happened to be very embarrassing, I ended up stripping my clothes off, down to my boxers to try to find this thing! Which never happened!
I never found it! Which worries me, cause as I’m sure you know, they are sneaky little guys and don’t die real easy, you really have to try to kill them, if you want to kill them… you can’t just squish ’em, they’ll smile and crawl away, so I know I didn’t squish it in my shoe, so how long do I have before it starts to show symptoms, and How long do I have before I can relax if nothing happens? Thanks for your feedback in advance!!! If there is any at all.. Nobody has been on this site since November ’08 so hopefully somebody still checks it out and responds! Thanks again! sOCalKenG
P.S. I guess that wasn’t as ‘Quick’ of a question as I thought it would be!!!
We are infested in Encinitas, CA (north of San Diego) with both black widows and brown widows. I’ve killed 7 (brown and black) but there are so many more. You see their webs every where but do not see them. I thought I was crazy with the brown spider with an hour glass. I sprayed them and killed them and put them in a ziploc bag as proof.
Hello i just came across one of these brown widows. I have found and killed 5 big black widows in the past few weeks. This was the first brown i have come across. I didn’t think much of it but was sitting down to watch a recorded tv show when a news comment came on about the spiders being in San Diego. I will be spending most of my Saturday trying to find more.
I live in San Diego, CA and have noticed some strange looking spiders making their home on my front screen door and in my backyard. I am not a spider lover so I got the RAID out and sprayed them right away. When I sprayed the big spider it fell to the ground and that’s when I noticed a red dot on the belly. I have never seen these spiders in San Diego before and I have lived here all my life, 40 years. I have been extreamly freaked out by them and to make things worse they recently had something on our local news about them.
A family has been infested my them and they were telling their story. So I guess I’m not alone. I do have two dogs and two small children and am worried because I’m not reading anywhere on how to get rid of these pest. My main concern is to keep them out of the house! I do not want any of those things in here. I already feel like their everywhere!!! If anyone knows how to get rid of these spiders please… please let us know.
Although I am guessing if I can get rid of their food source they might leave… hopefully. If anyone wants to see the news cast it was on San Diego 10 news.
Thanks and hope we can all be rid of these eight legged pest.
Hello, I live in south Texas… This morning I found a brown widow spider next to my back door. Has two eggs in the nest and a large cricket to snack on.
We live in Savannah, Ga. Our neighbors just moved and the house was infested with brown widow spiders. Their house was treated along with ours yesterday. This morning I go out on the front porch and there was one on the railing of the steps.
I live in north central Florida. We have brown widows all over our yard. I found one in my garage and killed it. I later found egg sacks in another location in the garage. I got rid of those too but not before some had hatched. We have them in our bushes and on the kids swing set. I go out all the time knocking down webs, killing spiders and I have pest control come out every three months. I don’t know what to do. So far I am keeping them out of the house but it creeps me out. Good luck out there. I hate spiders!!!!
About 3 days ago found what appeared to be 5 full grown very large brown widow spiders. One in the door way of my families apartment home and 4 more behind the screens of our two front windows. I’m very concerned because we have a 3 year old child who loves to play outdoors, and our pest control man said that a broom is the best remedy for any spider. There must be some other solution to keep these dangers away from my child and us.
My son already has very bad upper respiratory problems and I sure don’t want any other problems. I am not fond of spiders my self at all and when I found these lurking on my porch I became very nervous to even go outside.
The pictures that I have seen posted look exactly like the ones I have found and I have also run across 1 black widow several months back. I was able to kill them using regular old roach spray, but there must be some other way to prevent them from coming back. Thank you,
Vanessa a concerned parent.
I work in a manufacturing plant in Alabama.
My desk is right where trucks come in to be unloaded.
While walking around last Friday i noticed a lot of the same spiders..
I found 27 brown widow spiders all in the same area and I’ve seen plenty more since then..
Is it normal for there to be so many in a single area????
I just found a brown widow in my backyard. I live in San Jose, CA. I have plenty of black widow but first time I have a brown widow.
Are they migrating?
I live in North Carolina and we have black widows but I had never heard of a brown widow. There was a spider outside of my boys’ bedroom window hanging from the roof. I left it alone but today I got to looking at it and it spooked me (I’m deathly afraid of spiders). So I took the spider spray and used what was left and as the spider was spinning around I noticed the markings on it’s belly. The first thing I thought was oh god, it’s a widow but I had never seen a brown one. Needless to say, I’ll be keeping a close eye out there, especially with the kids!
I live in LA and have been fighting those brown spiders since last year. unfortunately dry warm weather we had seem to work great for insects. I have frequent ant infestations and spiders as well.
I’m on a loosing side as every so often I find new webs and nests. In the past I would come across a black widow once in a while. From what I know they are cannibals and will eat each other. From 700 or so hatchlings only 7 will grow up to maturity.
Just yesterday I found 3 brown widows and 4 egg sacks under 1 solar garden light right next to each other (and at least 1 brown widow under every other garden light). I guess they are not as predatory and that’s why they multiply so quickly. I have 2 little kids and torn between using and not using pesticides around the house. Even if they are not aggressive eventually there will an encounter.
I walk around the house and yard during the daylight and note any webbing that looks like widow nest (it looks random and is very strong – you can hear it tearing ). At nightfall I revisit those spots – they are nocturnal – and spray them with “ant/roach kill” Raid.
Since training my eye to spot the webs I have also noticed the widow-style webs all over the city – from parking structures to children’s playgrounds – the let’s hope for a freezing chill this winter. I have no idea what else can curb their numbers.
I’m in San Diego County and about 2 years ago I took a specimen to the county entemologist and confirmed it was a brown widow. Now I see them everywhere around the city and they are in every little crack they can get into, I’ve seen them in fences in public, they love lawn furniture & kids toys, car fenders, rims of planters, and the hugest ones I see are in the metal electric support lines that come down horizontally with a half circle cap on top so they can hide underneath. Everyone thought I was neurotic and said there was no such thing as brown widows. Guess what, there are and they are everywhere! To date no one at my horse or my pets have been bit but we are more aware before we just sit or play with equipment that has been outside.
I am not an expert, obviously, but I am pretty sure that the reason that we see so many is that they have lots of little creatures to sustain their presence. We have been seeing a lot of crickets on our driveway at night, someone else here mentioned ants, it only makes sense that if there is something for them to eat, they will come and stay.
Found 2 adults and one baby today when moving patio equipment out here in San Diego , Ca.
Didn’t notice the spiders until taking table and chairs back out of my truck. Notice the thick sticky webs which had me thinking it was not your regular spider. Then saw the funny looking egg sacks..about four of them
decides to use a stick to take off the webs since I was going to set the furniture out in my patio. Found the spiders. Sorry no pictures, I killed them too fast. Pretty scary to think I just carried the table and chairs over my shoulders while the spiders came along for the ride.
Irvine, California.
We were away for most of the summer, and the tenants did not visit our backyard. Yesterday, my wife went out, and freaked out – she killed two of those, and saw a couple more run away. This night she was dreaming about brown widows, and freaking out even more.
Today we went outside again, equipped with spider killer from a home improvement store. Holy smokes – they were everywhere!!!!! There were several undernearth every piece of backyard furniture, more near the house walls, one even made a home right above the house door… Altogether, we must have killed about 15 of those, and squashed 10 or so of their sacks… Looks like the fight has just began.
I live in kentucky, and I think that i have two brown widows on my patio. I cant be sure though because I dont see any of the eggs around. This thing has a huge abdomen and its legs are light brown with the black strips on it. There is another one in the hedge bushes on my patio and it has a funnel web so when you go near it, it runs down the funnel into the bush. I sprayed this thing a week ago with scrubbing bubbles and thought i had killed it. I just saw it again in the same web rebuilding it after I knocked it down! Any advice? how do i kill these suckers?
All,
I have attached a picture of a Brown Widow spider that I found in my storage shed outside of my apartment. If you notice that is a water heater. I was looking for somethings in my shed when I saw her and nearly fell on the web! I have a 2 year old and this really scares me. I also found one behind my tv, within arms reach of her. I knew it was a Widow, but didn’t know Brown Widow spiders were real! But I do now!!!
Jana
I have found about 50 Brown Widows around my shop here in Navarre Florida… The egg sacs are everywhere also! I never knew of a brown widow until I started finding them and goggled them. All of the spiders around here are brown, with black bands on the legs, and an almost Fluorescent orange hourglass on the underside of the abdomen!
I started catching them, and putting them all in a clear glass jar – it was webbed in in no time! I am very surprised however, as the largest spider I found KILLED all the others and wrapped them in silk!! For a supposed “non-aggressive” spider, this was shocking to witness! It also seemed to spray, or secrete some sort of clear fluids on the inside of the container, looks like smeared dew drops…what is it?
Is there any way to irradiate them from my business? Will mass quantity bug-bombing work? Please let me know, as I am Self-Employed, and definitely cant afford the time off from a Widow Bite.
I left this on the first badspiderbites page but to you here- we use 3M spray glue to isolate the spiders in place , egg sacs and all. Seems cruel somehow, but then again, they end up dying right where you left them, not running off leaving you to wonder…….
Hi checking in from La Habra, CA. Just did a check after reading these posts and found a brown in the wheel well of my trailer. Sprayed it with Hot Shot spider killer-it dropped and did a dance, but I squished it anyway. A friend recently got bitten and has a dime sized swollen spot, red, raised and weeping pus-got an injection of antibiotics and a 10 day supply of antibiotic pills.
We like to toss karma at them and spray with 3M spray glue- holds them in place till they die? suffocate? Oh well works for me! If you can set fire to it all the better.
I got bit by some type of spider about a week ago just below my calf muscle on my left leg. It was tingly at night for a few days and then went away. Now my foot is sore but only when I walk on it or put pressure on it. It kind of feels like it is cramping up and needs to be stretched out. I am going to wait a few days, if it does not get better it will see the Dr. I am sure it was a sider bite, I could see the two puncture marks. I didn’t know what kind it was but I know I was working in the yard about the time it happened and we have seen an increase in brown widow spiders in the yard. Most people don’t know this, but brown widows spiders can live in bushes or plants, unlike black widows that prefer concrete or wood piles. You need to be careful working it your yard.
I live in Charlotte, NC. Never heard of the brown widow spider until about 5 minutes ago. I was at work and stepped outside for a smoke. Found two of them. One in the corner of each railing. I’m deathly afraid of spiders, so I srayed them with Raid. The biggest one died first and that was when I saw the orange hour glass. From what I’ve been reading, there have been no reports of a brown widow spider in North Carolina. Guess what? They are here!
I found a spider in my sun lounger whilst on holiday in the Dominican Republic. I suspected it was a black widow, but wasn’t sure (we don’t have such things at home in the UK!). My daughter thought it looked suspect and said I shouldn’t lie on the bed! Didn’t know if there were poisonous spiders in the Dominican. Just sent my photos to be identified and was told the spider was a brown widow; didn’t know there was such a thing. From all these posts it would seem this spider is quite widespread and a prolific breeder.
Anaheim, California – just killed 6 of these in my back patio area. Seems like they are spreading like crazy lately!
I just found out about the existence of brown widows the other day and about the spikes on their egg sacs. Then today I was at the pool and moved a pool chair and my hand brushed a web. I am not very fond of spiders and I pretty much freak out if I come into contact with any web. Low and behold, when I checked it out, it was a messy web (which usually means the spider is poisonous) with an egg sac with spikes all over it. The spider was close by and was only about a half inch big. I live in Southern California in Long Beach. Scary!