Hey guys, As summer wears on, we are finding more and more black widows on our front porch and in our garage. I have a porch swing I always sit and read on, and found this afternoon a widow had made a web, molted, and was hanging out on it...despite the fact that I was on the thing two hours ago. There are egg sacs everywhere (that we burn) but is there anything we can do (naturally, my dog is always running around these areas) to get rid of/discourage the widows? I don't want to get bit, and I don't want the dog to get bit!
Black Widow Infestation
- Thread starter Laceface
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Widows are pretty weak when not in their webs. But I still wouldn't risk it.
I have fed them to other latros, Steatoda sp., scorpions, pedes, and isopods. For anything that you are worried about, just clip off a couple of the latro's legs... They are pretty helpless then.
Where are you, and are you sure they're widows?
All the widows I've ever encountered are very secretive, esp. during the day. I've never seen one make a web out in the open, that didn't have a retreat that they hid out in until nightfall.
But, I have heard references in areas of dense population (such as FL), where perhaps competition has forced some to alter there behavior. Whenever I hear these stories, I'm still always skeptical, though...
I live in Atlanta and while they,re not as common as they are in places like SoCal and FL, I can find them easily anytime I want, but I do have to look for them. Meaning, in rubish, in cinder blocks, or seeing the web and exposing the retreat, etc...
All the widows I've ever encountered are very secretive, esp. during the day. I've never seen one make a web out in the open, that didn't have a retreat that they hid out in until nightfall.
But, I have heard references in areas of dense population (such as FL), where perhaps competition has forced some to alter there behavior. Whenever I hear these stories, I'm still always skeptical, though...
I live in Atlanta and while they,re not as common as they are in places like SoCal and FL, I can find them easily anytime I want, but I do have to look for them. Meaning, in rubish, in cinder blocks, or seeing the web and exposing the retreat, etc...
I do live in Florida, and they are definitely widows. They are all over our porch, front and back...normally the ones we actually find are at night, but I have seen them during the day too. They make webs near the roof, which has ridges that they hang in, and between the rails around the porch. They also make webs all over the place in the garage. Believe it, they do make webs in the open here lol. There are egg sacs EVERYWHERE too...we burn all the ones we find, but theres always more.
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A black widow egg sack hatched out in my room a week ago and I spent 3 days killing baby widows. I still find a few straglers in my open mealworm and roach containers feeding. Sitting in my chair and they were balooning all around my room thanks to the swamp cooler being on, the spiders thought it was a summers breeze. Falling from the ceiling onto my arms, etc...I haven't found the mother yet.
That is scaaary. I would have freaked, haha.
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oh, i'm sorry, but that's pretty funny. hahaha, silly little guys. hey at least they're harmless until they get a lot bigger
still, i can totally see this happening to me. 'cept i would be running around filling up vials! :razz:
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Thanks, I will surely have nightmare now. Surprisingly I rarely find black widows around my house anymore. When I first moved here I found a lot, but haven't seen one in a long time. Maybe the scorpions killed them off? Or every neighbor around here besides me is pest control spray crazy if that affects them.
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I use to have lots of black widows all over the place... I have a sure answer on how to get rid of them. Get infested with C. Sculpt scorpions. As soon as I had them all the black widows went away NO JOKE, I'm so serious.
Other than that, take out the web if you can't find them. Every time they build one, if you can't find them, just take out the web. They'll move, it takes a lot of energy to build and if they have to rebuild then they'll move... At least that's what my tortoise lady told me. She's a biologist and chairman of the tortoise group.
Other than that, take out the web if you can't find them. Every time they build one, if you can't find them, just take out the web. They'll move, it takes a lot of energy to build and if they have to rebuild then they'll move... At least that's what my tortoise lady told me. She's a biologist and chairman of the tortoise group.
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i am unconvinced they are harmless at quite small sizeoh, i'm sorry, but that's pretty funny. hahaha, silly little guys. hey at least they're harmless until they get a lot bigger
as long as they can bite through the outer layer or two of hard horny skin they should be able to evenomate a human. don't forget the largest organ in the human body is your skin
i mean, jellyfish's pneumatocysts only puncture a few thousandths of an inch into your skin... and they can definitely mess up ppl!
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OMG, I agree with you!!!
and I didn't know that they look different young!!! I found these pictures of them, thought I would share.
http://www.kaweahoaks.com/html/latrodectus_hesoerus.html
and I didn't know that they look different young!!! I found these pictures of them, thought I would share.
http://www.kaweahoaks.com/html/latrodectus_hesoerus.html
i am unconvinced they are harmless at quite small size
as long as they can bite through the outer layer or two of hard horny skin they should be able to evenomate a human. don't forget the largest organ in the human body is your skin
i mean, jellyfish's pneumatocysts only puncture a few thousandths of an inch into your skin... and they can definitely mess up ppl!
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kaweah oaks has a cool webpage. they are within day trip range for me, iirc
one bit of bad info that stood out to me:
"After mating, the female spider takes on the sinister black with red hourglass coloration."
females usually assume their full black coloration when they hit their maturation molt... it has nothing to do with mating. and for L. hesperus (western widow) they can still have some colors other than black when they are mature. and they can even seem to lack the hourglass!
oh boo! they seem to believe most females kill and eat males when mating. not generally true as far as i can tell, though i have not mated them myself. just read about them a decent amount.
also, to the OP:
i reckon you probably had a fair amount of those spiders around since you moved in or were born there... you are just growing in your power to recognize them, most likely
my house and garage has quite a few widows and false widows around... i don't worry about them at all. learn to recognize widow web (probably the strongest web you will ever find w/o leaving the country) and just try to keep your fingers out of it and you should be ok
one bit of bad info that stood out to me:
"After mating, the female spider takes on the sinister black with red hourglass coloration."
females usually assume their full black coloration when they hit their maturation molt... it has nothing to do with mating. and for L. hesperus (western widow) they can still have some colors other than black when they are mature. and they can even seem to lack the hourglass!
oh boo! they seem to believe most females kill and eat males when mating. not generally true as far as i can tell, though i have not mated them myself. just read about them a decent amount.
also, to the OP:
i reckon you probably had a fair amount of those spiders around since you moved in or were born there... you are just growing in your power to recognize them, most likely
my house and garage has quite a few widows and false widows around... i don't worry about them at all. learn to recognize widow web (probably the strongest web you will ever find w/o leaving the country) and just try to keep your fingers out of it and you should be ok
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although i've never done tests on myself, i'm pretty sure they are harmless until they get big. spiderlings are not going to do anything at all to a person until after many instars.i am unconvinced they are harmless at quite small size
as long as they can bite through the outer layer or two of hard horny skin they should be able to evenomate a human. don't forget the largest organ in the human body is your skin
i mean, jellyfish's pneumatocysts only puncture a few thousandths of an inch into your skin... and they can definitely mess up ppl!
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that just doesn't hold water to me.... i mean, i do believe it is much more likely they will get smooshed before they can bite compared to an adult.... but i can't picture a physical or physiological reason why they can't bite and envenomate a human right out of the sac
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i'm sure they can envenomate, there's no doubt in my mind about that. all i'm saying is that the effects of the venom is not going to be anything at all until they are adults or very close to it. sure they can inject, many other smaller critters do...
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Hope your right cos I've handled L. mactans spiderlings MANY times, I just assumed they wouldn't be able to puncture human skin yet.