Brown Widow Spiders

JcMack

Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
6,302
Reaction score
6,418
Location
Deepest, darkest, Indiana
I believe one lives by my porch light. I Believe they're in my basement. I don't bother them they ain't messed with me. I'll try to take a pic of porch dude tonight. she's a bug killin machine.
 
Register to hide this ad
I'm a pest control technician in California. I'm familiar with black widows and brown recluse spiders. not the brown widow. must be a mid-west thing....


Better read this, then. You've got 'em there, after all.
They are the same genus as the black widow, but a different species. Not to be confused with the brown recluse, a wholly different spider.

CISR: Brown Widow Spider

T-Star
 
I am not a spider loving kinda guy they creep me out pretty bad. When I saw brown widow I was thinking that would explain the huge brown spider I found at work. With a red hour glass. But that was not it. I found a very Brown spider that was shiny and slick with a red hour glass not orange. The thing was huge for a Widow. One day I'll find another and maybe figure it out.

I always thought the brown ones were the males

By the way, A Male Black Widow is$very tiny. Pales in comparison to the female, and looks nothing like the female. He he barley a snack for her.
 

Attachments

  • spider_unknown02a_under.jpg
    spider_unknown02a_under.jpg
    24.9 KB · Views: 44
Last edited:
Si, I'm familiar with these brown widows your speak of. The males are being terminated in turf wars in East LA.
 
So what caliber/load is good for these things?

I've been battling enough spiders already without worrying about yet another species...
 
Last summer my shop was absolutely infested with those things. I had never seen them before but it didn't take rocket science to figure out an hourglass belly was bad news. Did some research and found out they were brown widows. I would open shop in the morning and go on the hunt, 1 morning killing over 30. That summer I killed well in excess of 100 of them. I still find 1 or 2 occasionally but thankfully it appears I did a fairly good job of wiping them out last year.
 
What little Reading I done on these things they are not as bad as the Black Widow. Some say less toxic some say more toxic but injects less venom, and not aggressive. No matter I wouldn't mess with them anyway.
 
Frankly, I would rather be bit by a Black or Brown Widow than a Brown recluse. Got bit by a Brown Recluse once sitting on a wood pile and got lucky. He tried to go through the back pocket on my Levi's and it was just a light hit of venom. So, after about 8 weeks the wound finally healed, however there were reoccuring eruptions once or twice a year for the next 12 years. Anyone curious about how nasty the Brown Recluse is, just search google for some images. However, fair warning, the bite can cause necrotizing faciaitis and the pics will gross you out.

As a consequence whenever I see a spyder I kill it. If it's a big spyder, I just might shoot it.
 
fire.gif
 
We had a forum member die of complications from a brown recluse bite a couple of years ago. IIRC his name was John Ward.

The bite became infected with MRSA and he developed septic shock. He was gradually recovering when he aspirated a nutritional supplement and developed aspiration pneumonia.

All of this took several months. :(

The spiders aren't aggressive. Their bites contain enzymes for digesting their prey. Most of the time you don't even feel the bite, you just get a sore that keeps getting larger and larger as the enzymes do their thing.

I hate f'n spiders.

- Jim
 
Frankly, I would rather be bit by a Black or Brown Widow than a Brown recluse. Got bit by a Brown Recluse once sitting on a wood pile and got lucky. He tried to go through the back pocket on my Levi's and it was just a light hit of venom. So, after about 8 weeks the wound finally healed, however there were reoccuring eruptions once or twice a year for the next 12 years. Anyone curious about how nasty the Brown Recluse is, just search google for some images. However, fair warning, the bite can cause necrotizing faciaitis and the pics will gross you out.

As a consequence whenever I see a spyder I kill it. If it's a big spyder, I just might shoot it.

Brown recluses are no joke. A leg wound caused by one of these took three years to totally healand left a permanent crater. Now, when I sleep in Forest Service cabins, I make darn sure to check for the presence of these guys, and other eight-legged critters.

Found a bunch of these guys in the garden. Anyone have a name for them?

DSC01229copy.jpg




Bullseye
 
Back
Top