Black Widow invasion

[LVSteve]

The fruits of summer are finally appearing in the form of Black Widows. I had not seen/killed many in my yard this year until we had our little monsoon outbreak followed by a spell of humid weather. Since then my score has increased dramatically.

In the last ten days I have killed two that were so big and old the hourglass was nearly gone, two other mature adults, one medium and the other possibly a male, and something over 20 juveniles. The young ones can be hard to spot due to their light colouring. In case you did not know, young Black Widows are not black.

I also killed two other spiders, not because I knew they were dangerous but because they were on the house. One was a large black spider of a species I have yet to ID. One expert thought they might be an undescribed form of funnel spider, possibly an import. The other I think was a Huntsman species. I nailed it because I thought at first it was a Desert Recluse, but my second look made me think otherwise.

The other thing that has happened is the damper conditions have brought out the young cockroaches. I go and spray the edges of the grass about every other night to discourage those little buggers. Anyone else having fun with bugs?

 

[madmikeb]

My scourge this year has been ants. Last Friday night I killed literally hundreds in the house. Saturday morning I gave the area around the sliding glass door a good spraying and it seems to have done the trick. I don't know what kind of wood the core of the door is made of but the little buggers sure do like it. They get inside the metal door frame and the wood dust starts to fly.

 

[snowman]

Just had an exterminator in yesterday to rid the house of carpenter ants; should have done it two or three years ago. They guarantee the work for a year; I'll see how it goes.

Andy

 

[RightArm]

I swear that every spider I see at night is a brown recluse. Paranoid I guess. No monster roaches since I bought that raid with the barrier that lasts 6 months. My home is home again.

 

[jaykellogg]

I killed two Black Widows this year. That is two more than I have killed the rest of my life. I am 67. I hate spiders.

 

[therevjay]

The big speckled garden spiders are safe, as long as they stay away from doors and walkways. Otherwise as far as I'm concerned dead spiders are good spiders.

 

[Sebago Son]

Yup, Skeetahs.....

It was announced this morning that the county I live in has just recorded it's first cases of West Nile Virus (two people in one day) and a possible case of Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

These incidents co-incide with a dramatic decrease in the bat population as a result of the white nose syndrome. Thank God that the dragon flies have been picking up the slack and are eating thier way through the hoards of mosquitos during the day...

 

[LouisianaJoe]

We are having more wasp nests than we had in the past. I have seen black widows in my garage.

 

[DeathGrip]

South Florida, We have bugs year around.

This summer I seem to notice more wasps than usual.

Mosquitos, Its raining every afternoon so we got those too.

 

[DeathGrip]

Oh!! I forgot about the baby spiders. The wasp were having a feast. It was pretty cool.

 

[JustAnotherGunGuy]

I have a large female Black Widow living in my down spout on my front porch. I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. Her name is Black Betty and she only comes out at night. I see plenty of bugs in her web. The ways see it, live and let live. I don't have any children and I don't let the dogs out front at night. If she bites me it was more than likely my fault. YMMV

 

[geoff40]

In a typical year, I might see 2 or 3 northern black widows all year long. This year I've seen that many in a day, and it's happened a few times now. Killed a pair of them inside, under a windowsill, a couple of weeks ago, when I replaced a busted AC with a new one. Around here they are often not all black, and as LVSteve said the immature ones are light colored, usually having white or yellowish spots and streaks on them. Most people seeing an immature black widow wouldn't even make a guess they might be looking at one. You can learn much by using google-images and searching immature black widow for starters.
There are 3 or 4 slightly different species of black widow in America, and they get up in to Quebec and Ontario at the northern limits of their range.

 

[A10]

There are very few black and brown widows on our side of the mountains. We have all manner of other types of arachnids though. Lots of golden garden spiders this year, I have walked through more webs than I'd care to count! Killed a big ol' wolf spider in the bathroom Wednesday, at the behest of my granddaughter...

 

[Sebago Son]

And then there are these bastids...

 

[A10]

And then there are these bastids...

Now THEM we got! Baldface was flyin around the raspberries this mornin'........

 

[walkin jack]

None of these have bothered me much this years. It's been so dang hot outside I haven't been out that much. I keep it so cold in the house that no insect could survive. Somethin' wants to bit,sting, pinch or spray me it will have to bunker up and come on in the house...

 

[captorquewrench]

And then there are these bastids...

Holy ()&#*@^%)( what IS that freaky creepy thing?!?!?! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

Seriously. Have not ever seen that but that picture gave me the heebiest of the jeebies.

And that's saying something. I live in Houston. This place is a War Zone on bugs year round. Right now I am fighting roaches.

 

[A10]

Holy ()&#*@^%)( what IS that freaky creepy thing?!?!?! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

Seriously. Have not ever seen that but that picture gave me the heebiest of the jeebies.

And that's saying something. I live in Houston. This place is a War Zone on bugs year round. Right now I am fighting roaches.

Baldfaced hornet. They hunt other bugs. I've seen them kill honeybees before....

 

[Fishslayer]

Loads of black widows & wasps this year.

 

[LVSteve]

Holy ()&#*@^%)( what IS that freaky creepy thing?!?!?! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

Seriously. Have not ever seen that but that picture gave me the heebiest of the jeebies.

And that's saying something. I live in Houston. This place is a War Zone on bugs year round. Right now I am fighting roaches.

Would you like me to trump that with a Tarantula Hawk? We also have Cricket Hunters and Scarab Hunters. All are LARGE species of wasp with a life cycle straight from the movie Alien.