Blackwidow Spiders

Ugh!! Has anyone else besides me here in VA found a lot of them this year?? I believe it's due to our having gone for several weeks now without any rain.

Turned over the outdoor horse troughs (one 150-gallon; one 100-gallon) only to find a total of 7 large Blackwidows (cute little red triangle patches & all) clasped around their eggcases. What a thing to have to see (not to mention stomp on) before breakfast - especially for me, a confirmed arachnophobic.

While I can usually count on finding one or two - 7 is by far a record for the 8 years I've been here.

Breezy- you stomped on them?
I would be terrified! Did you kill the sacks also so no babies?
You are very brave I would not even have turned anything over for fear of that very encounter

Yup - stomped on the egg cases as well - but not "bravely". More like hysterically & frantically. Yet another reason why I am SO glad my farm is rather secluded, especially while the trees are still leafed out, so no one could watch the "St. Vitus' Dance" I was doing - lol! Except for the horses, of course, who stood around, ears pricked, watching with quizzical amusement.

I really don't have any choice as far as tipping those troughs over. It's the only way to ultimately get rid of mosquito larvae & other flotsam & jetsam, scrub the mud/algae out of them, & refill with fresh water for the "gang". I do it once a week, & while I normally just come across a toad, some crickets, & maybe 1 or 2 of these awful spiders - this years it's been more spiders than anything else. Ugh & double ugh!!!

I found two in two days a few weeks ago. I live very close to Va. in Tn. and have seen them a few times before in summers past so two in two days was really yukky! They were behind two separate bags of soil that were propped up against the brick side of the house. The first day I pulled the bag away from the house to use and there it was in the cement between the bricks. (shudder) I prodded it out with a stick and stepped on it like you did Breezymeadow. The next day I pulled the other bag away and there was another one just like the first!! This time I did somethig REALLY stupid - I ran inside for my camera (hoping it wouldn't escape into the garage) took these pictures and THEN prodded it out and stepped on it.

Here's the first sighting - sneaky suspicion and not really sure what it is yet...



This message was edited Sep 21, 2005 9:05 PM

getting another look at it...

I'm pretty sure now

YES IT IS!!

AARUGH!

Wow, I have a feeling you are gonna cause an earthquake. Everyone that sees these pics will have the uncontrollable urge to stamp their feet.

Ewwww *shuddering and twitching all over*

STOMP STOMP STOMP

mg

I am not stomping here I am RUNNING !!!
How did you get such close-up?

That is scary!!!!!!!!

Aren't they just one of the creepiest things you've ever seen?? Due to having them as well as the even more poisonous Brown Recluse around here, I never EVER stick my ungloved hands anywhere I can't see first.

Ha ha! magoobu, I wasn't actually as close as the picture looks - I just cropped my original digital picture and blew it up. Thank goodness BW's aren't jumping spiders!

One of the people I work with is dealing with a spider bite on her back that she has had lanced 3 times. If it doesn't get better soon she is going to have to have a surgeon remove all the tissue around the bite. She didn't feel the bite when she got it which is a classic brown recluse symptom. They don't know for sure that's what it was though. Apparently you feel a black widow bite immediately.

I was bitten by something while gardening in the fall last year on my ankle. I definately felt it at the time - enough to yell "OW!" indignantly. I didn't see what it was. It did swell and festerand had to go to the Dr. (funny story about that...) but I didn't get sick or anything too bad. I'm wondering if it could have been a wolf spider? We have a ton of those too and they get pretty big. On my bite you could see two fang punctures about a quarter of an inch apart. It was either a very large spider or a teeny weeny snake LOL!

My funny story is, when I was at work with the spider bite, one of my co-workers after looking at it said, "You need to go back to your doctor - I can see bluish streaks coming from the bite!" I had to tell her that those were just vericose veins.

Definitely sounds like a spider bite. What a lot of people don't realize is that ALL spiders bite, but unless you're unusually allergic to insect bites in general, very few are poisonous.

From what I understand, Black Widow bites are more painful, but Brown Recluse bites are more dangerous. Last year a woman around here was bitten by a Brown Recluse on her hand & ended up nearly losing the hand. Prior to that, another poor woman was bitten on her face (she was working up in her cobwebby attic) & required immense amounts of plastic surgery to repair the eaten-away tissue on half her face.

And animals aren't immune either - a horse was bitten by a Brown Recluse in a barn & ended up with a grapefruit-sized cavity on its rump that took over a year to heal.

Nasty critters.

Oh yes I have heard of and seen pictures of Recluse bites just awful. After I saw the bite shots I was paranoid everywhere in my house and checking shoes etc... Since they said on the sight alot of the recluse bites happen in bed when you roll over on one!!!! Agh! I shook my sheets for a week staright til the fear went away-- A BIT!
I still think every little brown spider I see is a recluse in my house and they said the best way to kill them is "A Shoe" so I stomp and run!!!
Too funny about the vericose veins!! LOL
Oh spiders give me the creeps!

My co-worker was bit on the shoulder area of her back and they think the brown recluse was in her CLOTHES when she put them on. ((shudder))

My husband was bitten 3 times on the arm by a black widow when he was a kid. He was very young and can't remember what it felt like really. Obviously he lived though! LOL!!

We had them in our well 'rock' a few years ago. I don't go out there so if they are there now I wouldn't know. I put a big bed around the thing with grasses, etc. My son won't go over there b/c the grass is 'prickly.'

Tuesday I was going to put him in 'his' bathtub for a change. He usually bathes in ours. It had been so long there was a half grown 'wolf' spider in there. Brown hairy things! ICK ! They give me the creeps. Size and hair seem to set me off where spiders are concerned. I try not to be a 'girl' around my son but I jumped back and squealed a bit. They we washed him down the drain.

ICK!

Nicole

"I try not to be a girl. . . "

Don't worry - I can't even try & am a screaming, hysterical, should-be-straitjacketed lunatic when it comes to large hairy spiders. The only reason I get close enough to the Black Widows to stomp them is because once I disturb them & they're running around I don't want any of my horses or dogs to get bitten.

LOL!!!

You know what happens if you stomp a wolf spider with babies on her back! You get her but the babies go everywhere! ACCCKKKK!!!

I usually vacuum them or spray them with wasp spray if I can. I sprayed one in the garage with wasp spray years ago in my garage and the darn thing ran around for 4 or 5 minutes before it died. I thought I was in a horror movie!!

I smack them with shoes - preferably big heavy boots. The problem with that is that I then end up with footprints on my walls & ceilings, which can be difficult to explain when there are a lot of them. It's almost amusing to see the expressions on repair people - you can tell they're dieing to ask, but just can't - lol!!!

From a few years ago:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/editpost.php?pid=718404

you're welcome

This message was edited Oct 5, 2005 10:59 PM

Oh, well. It's the first time I tried a link. I guess it works for me because I wrote the original and can edit it. Duh. I'll just copy and paste:


When I lived in NC, we had black widows around our 1830s house. They nested under boards or stones in the garden I was trying to rehabilitate. I had small children at the time, so I did kill the ones I found, but I never felt good about it after one experience.

I turned over a stone at the edge of my herb garden and found a widow and her egg case. Off came my shoe, and purely by accident, I squashed the egg case first. The spider scurried over to it, shaking with aggitation. She began patting at it with her forelegs, almost seeming to try to gather it back together. I dispatched her as well, but I still feel sad at causing what looked like a classic maternal reaction - and all to protect MY children.

That's sad! Mothers feel for other mothers regardless the species. Like the horror movies where the mom monster is trying to protect her young. I hate those.

Nicole

Slow day today for spider dancing. Flipped both tubs - jumped back - & then had to play hide & seek with an absolutely HUGE Blackwidow.

But at least it was just one this time 'round. Boy - I can't wait for the first hard freeze.

I thought I'd read up and add this link.
I have never seen one in person only a dead one at the museum.
Guess I've been blessed.:-)
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2061A.html

We have these things in our yard. They are either a wolf spider or a huntsman spider. The females carry the egg sacks around with their fangs. They live in the sand so I have to be careful weeding. The one in the photo is dead (found in a bathtub). Otherwise, I would never have been able to photo it. Even when taking this photo I was nervous the spider would come to life and jump me. My 4 year old son found a widow for me the other day out on the patio. He said "mommy, we cant use that chair because there is a spider under it" I looked at the web (looked like a problem web for sure) flipped over the chair, and there was a big fat widow. I truely desired to shriek and bash it like a maniac with a stick. But, I dont want to pass on my phobias or have children who randomly kill creatures. SO I calmly explained that this spider was poisonous and bites and then bashed it to death with a stick. Now I go around checking under everything in the yard like some kind of nutball.

I'm not opening that pic!! It looks creepy enough from here!

I know about not passing along phobias... A friend has a tarantula and I let her put in on my hand to show my son. ACK!!! I did it though! :)

Nicole

Oh i opened the picture now I am scared to death!
Hate spiders!
SCARY shot of that one even if dead!

You're braver than I am Magoobu. I'm leaving that pic small & unopened thank you. I have enough trouble dealing with the arachnids here in VA - I don't need to even think about the tropical ones.

LOL go to one of Knotimpaired's threads she has tarantulas!!!!

No thank you!!