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Black widow spider?
Orogogus
San DiegoRegistered User regular
San DiegoRegistered User regular
I found this in my garage last night, sheltering behind my garbage and recycling cans:
(larger than actual size)
So... that's a black widow, right? Or is there anything like a "false widow" or "mock widow" that I might have instead? Can I just buy a can of spider & scorpion killer and spray any spiders I see? Or do I need to get my garage and/or house fumigated?
My main concern is my cats. I gather that people rarely suffer any permanent harm from black widow bites, but it's bad news for pets. I don't usually let the cats in the garage, but one of them does like to rush in if he sees the door open. Is it likely that I have any in the house, not just the garage?
(larger than actual size)So... that's a black widow, right? Or is there anything like a "false widow" or "mock widow" that I might have instead? Can I just buy a can of spider & scorpion killer and spray any spiders I see? Or do I need to get my garage and/or house fumigated?
My main concern is my cats. I gather that people rarely suffer any permanent harm from black widow bites, but it's bad news for pets. I don't usually let the cats in the garage, but one of them does like to rush in if he sees the door open. Is it likely that I have any in the house, not just the garage?
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black widows really aren't aggressive at all. i would just let be unless it was in a main living area
Venomous animals have no place in the home!
There are false widows, but that ain't one. Vacuum her up and any eggs.
This site has some tips on chemical responses (and other non-vacuum-based preventative remedies):
http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/black_widow_spider.htm
(I love spiders, but there are rules and widows and recluses aren't welcome under any of them)
1. Search through your garage for spiderwebs. Most of the webs will be at most a feet or two off the ground. Make note of each one you find. Do not remove them at this point. You want to get the spiders, not the nets.
2. Is it a massive infestation? If so, get professional help.
3. Is it just a few nets? Get a can of spider killer spray, return at night when the black widow spiders are active (ie, hanging out by their nets) and murderize them all. Spray liberally and take no risks. Then clean out the nets with a vacuum cleaner (giving you some distance so you don't risk getting bitten).
4. Clean up your clutter. Remove anything that isn't necessary.
5. Repeat step 1, 2 and 3 a few days later.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Interesting! Why not? To see if any return later that were hiding?
To determine rules 2 and 3. Whether you can nuke them yourself or need help.
Because you really want the spider that built the web. Most of the time black widows hang out in their nets. If the net is still there they will still be hanging out in that net later tonight.
If the spider isn't there, destroying the net means that it will have to build a new net. Which might be somewhere else. It might be a lot harder to find.
Regardless it means you need to find the spider again, instead of knowing exactly where it is.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Exception for northern Europe/Canada and Alaska.
...I mean or you could follow fiendishrabbit's steps, it's up to you.
36 since 1960. And probably some of those attributions are incorrect, since it used to be somewhat common to guess that any given ailment was a result of spider bites. The most recent confirmed death was in 1990.
I can't find statistics on pet deaths, but presumably they're higher, so I guess that's a concern. IMHO you should just leave the spider alone, but it's your house.
There isn't a large amount of evidence of verified deaths from black widows (or even other 'dangerous' spiders in the US), and in fact most cases have been determined to be clinical misdiagnoses.
Anyway, that's 100% a black widow. What you do with it is up to you. You don't need to kill it if it is in an out of the way area. These are generally fairly timid spiders, and the biggest risk of bites occurs when handling them to remove them from their home....
They typically keep the really shitty insects at bay.
I never kill spiders. I might make exception for widows but I hardly see them, so.
There is a whole range of problems between "eh" and "death". Black Widow bite can be deadly, but even if you don't die (not-death being the most likely result by far) it's on a whole different level than say...bee stings.
The positive side is that it's a neurotoxin, so a bite most likely won't cause tissue necrosis (do not google "brown recluse bite" if you're the slightest bit squeamish), but a bite can still put you down for several days.
My opinion? Kill 'em dead. Any poisonous, aggressive or potentially deadly houseguests are on an invitational basis only. Uninvited guests get evicted. Lethally if they're not vertebrates.
P.S: I meant vertebrates.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
How is this concern mitigated? Is it that the black widow is unlikely to kill my cat, or I should keep my cat out of the garage? If it's the latter, am I likely to get black widows in the house if I leave them alone in the garage? This cat is a little too curious for his own good, and likes to get into cabinets and nose around in dark spaces. I've never seen him go after most bugs, but I've never had one this large around before and he does eat small lizards. He does bother crickets because they hop around so much. I just feel like he's at moderate risk here.
Also, do I probably have widows in my yard, too?
I have a fairly good idea of where the main nesting site is in the garage, it's all over the back of my trash & recycling bins - I noticed fairly thick & large webs hanging off both bins. Normally I would have pushed them out from the back (today is garbage pickup day, so I was moving the bins outside when I saw the widow), but I was a bit spooked by the widow I saw, so I dragged them out from the front instead. Even if I do leave the spiders alone I feel leaving them there would be tempting fate.
Hehe, poor backbone-having intruders.
I would also like to point out that tissue necrosis caused by brown recluse bites is also an overstated problem, and more often than not the large-scale tissue damaged is caused by transfer of bacteria from the chelicera (fangs) into the open wound.
Right that yeah, black widow bites aren't "fun" or a walk in the park, but the damage they can cause to an average, able-bodied person is incredibly overstated.
A little H/A for any spiders who might be reading this:
- Attempt to be outside. I appreciate the very nature of houses and humans may escape you, so mistakes are understandable. Just do your best.
- Do not let ArbitraryWife see you. While her reaction may be hilarious, but you will not have long to enjoy it.
- Do not be on my body when I wake up.
- If you are a large ground spider and I politely escort you from my home: Do not sneak back in an hour later and hide under my gamepad, then run at me when I "find" you. Not cool, my little eight legged (lady?) bro. Not cool.
Your cat may disturb the spider due to a case of cats being assholes. Pets and small children are where I begin to worry with venomous spiders in the home, unless the spider is in a very out of the way area. Even so, a bit is extremely rare on both pets and kids. Your cat is more likely to kill the spider without any damage than the spider is likely to be able to reach your cat's skin with it's fangs.
You probably have a lot of widows in your yard, but then again, everyone does and this isn't news. Again, these are not aggressive spiders, and where they nest in nature is similar to where you find them in your garage, i.e. hidden under rocks and in tree nooks. Maybe keep an eye on gardening tools or supplies you haven't touched in a while, but otherwise you are unlikely to encounter one of these ladies.[/quote]
One of the best methods for removing a spider web you aren't sure about is a long-handled broom, but keep an eye on where you know the spider will be located. Essentially shoo it away with indirect brushes from the broom, and then use the broom to clean up the webbing with some vigorous strokes. I'm not really sold on the vacuum method, even though people suggest it. I keep an "outdoors" broom on the porch for just such an occasion, so I don't risk bringing things inside that should stay out.
Here's a few of my go-to resources when talking about venomous spiders in and around the home.
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/URBAN/SPIDERS/black_widow_spider.htm
http://buzzhootroar.com/a-spider-did-not-bite-you/
https://arthropodecology.com/2012/02/15/spiders-do-not-bite/
https://arthropodecology.com/2013/06/13/update-spiders-still-dont-bite/
http://spiders.ucr.edu/necrotic.html
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/URBAN/SPIDERS/black_widow_spider.htm
If you have a severe reaction requiring antivenom to the first, you are in a vanishingly small subset of an already small pie, and if wound cleaning doesn't help your "brown recluse bite," and something needs to be amputated you didn't get bitten by a brown recluse, you somehow acquired MRSA at the "bite" location.
Minor fact; True for LOTS and LOTS of medical conditions.
Your cat is better protected than you are from spider bites, what with it's thick fur & relatively thick protective fat layer underneath that. Humans are kind of unique in how vascularized we are.
I can find literally no veterinary record on how many cats die per year of widow (or any other kind of spider) bites, so I think it's reasonable to guess that the number is 'practically none'.
Children would be a much bigger concern, but even then, there are no recent deaths involving kids or toddlers or anyone as a result of widow bites. This might seem counter-intuitive given how prevalent widows are & how frequently they co-inhabit space with humans & how potent their venom is in isolation, but it makes much more sense when you realize how timid spiders are & how biologically expensive their venom is to make. They rarely inject venom into anything that isn't prey, and almost never deliver a full dose.
EDIT: I mean, here is the gist of it: spiders look scary. They have an odd cluster of 8 eyes, some of them located in strange places (from our perspective), 8 spindly legs in a configuration that is pretty alien to human intuition and a big bulbous abdomen with odd patterns on it. Their webs can be a nuisance / eyesore and sometimes spook you when you walk into one you couldn't see.
But they are not dangerous. We want to justify our fear of their appearance by pretending that they are a menace when, in fact, they provide enormous pest control benefits to us & very rarely have aggressive interactions with humans. Contrast that with, say, ants. Ants are much more likely to damage & infest your home, and yet few people panic when they see an ant drone walk across their kitchen floor.
Canada has em, even as far north as Yellowknife.
I'm all for leaving things alone if they're not bothering anyone, but I'd probably purge anything that could do that to me again while I was cleaning the interior of a building. I'm not a fan of having bites and such and as much as many people respect and love lots of types of creepy crawlers it's not a war crime to squish a spider that's on your trash can.
this image
(It's from this article on how to identify spiders)
Because spider eyeclustering is basically the arachnid equivalent of "If you can read this, you're too close".
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Since then I have been chased by camel spiders in Afghanistan and found centipedes the size of plates in my bunk but that experience with the widows was still the most traumatic.
Purge them if they're in a place where they can do harm is my advice.
unfortunately (even though they're unlikely to actually kill you) you really don't want'em around
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
This is a black widow. It gives you the powers of a dead spider if it bites you.
If projectile shitting and vomitting count as superpowers, then yes a black widow bite will totally give you superpowers
Worst. X-man. Ever.
Cypher though
think about it.
gamertag:Maguano71
Switch:SW-8428-8279-1687
Well Black Widow superpowers weren't in debates, is reason supers are named after them
I think you misspelled Cyclops.
His power is ok
He's no Iceman, but he can still wear sunglasses and open his beer with a wink