The other day I was chatting on a forum about the bugs that I find around my house – inside and out. It’s normal for me to see a Wolf Spider cross my floor or have to remove a mud dauber nest (wasp) from my patio. And how, if there is a mud dauber nest in my patio I know Orb Weaver Spiders are nearby, since that is what mud daubers stick in their nests for their babies to eat. Nasty, right?
Well, the other day I had pest control come and he pointed out some Brown Widow spider nests. I always noticed the webs with their unusual, spiky egg sacks – but I had no clue that these sacks I’ve seen ALL OVER FLORIDA (theme parks, friend’s houses, etc.) were actually from a spider more toxic than the Black Widow! (More toxic, but rarely does it ever leave as much venom in a bite, so they are actually “less dangerous”.)
So now I knew what I was dealing with and what to look for. And it was in my best interest to keep these spiders out of my backyard, because I have kiddos that play there. So imagine my surprise when I was visiting my parent’s beach house and there had to be between 20 – 50 of these spiders in their screened in pool area. I took a broom to them and my husband followed with poison. But we did manage to keep one body intact to photograph for my site, and to bring back to my mom to show her.
So here she is – the Brown Widow Spider. She looks like an “average” spider, until you turn her on her back. That’s when you see the red hourglass on her belly. She can range in color from light brown to almost black and measures up to 1.5″ when you count those long legs.
She is large, but timid. They usually won’t bite unless pressed upon – but that can happen accidentally when they are surrounding you in a screened in enclosure. All I needed was for one to crawl onto a pool toy and if the boys touch it… I don’t even want to imagine.
Besides the hourglass on the belly, you’ll probably recognize her more easily from her nests. They are white balls with spikes on them.
A brown widow bite is usually not fatal, but it is painful. You may notice a dull ache, redness in the bite area, the skin may actually die and turn purple, nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps, rise in blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, etc. They are nasty little critters, eh?
If you see a brown widow in your house, there are probably more. They can 20+ egg sacs in a life time, each containing up to 250 eggs! That’s why my parents had so many of these guys in their patio. So definitely take the time to spray with a spider insecticide.
Definitely not my favorite part of the trip and a nice family learning experience.
I had no idea, I had only heard of black widows. I wonder if they are in my state much. I hope not.
WOW! That is pretty amazing. You got some great pictures. I had a brown widow in my mailbox, and I finally killed it. I hated sticking my hand in there lol.
Finally killed it? LOL. How long was it living there? I never minded the Wolf Spiders in my house until I read how bad their bites can be! LOL! Well, I am glad you got rid of it, though. And thanks for visiting.
Happy Buzzing,
Erin T.
http://www.themombuzz.com
Spiders and wasps are my worst enemy (as in I’m TERRIFIED of them!) You are so brave! I kill spiders, and leave them under the shoe I squished them with until DH comes home to remove the body! And Wasps….I don’t go into my back yard most of the day because wasps are always on my grass!
I think we need to hire a professional now…
That spider is CREEPY! I would be freaking out…
Yuck! I am glad you pointed these things out. Who would know that black widows come in brown. I am going to spray for them.
Um gross. You poor thing, I would be so grossed out!
Eeek gives me the weeby geeby’s!
I found one of these in my bathing suit that had been hanging to dry on the patio. I totally freaked out. Today I went outside to investigate further and found 6 of the nesting under my patio chairs and my kids’ water table. Sprayed them all with spider killer – looks like I’m going to have to keep the kids in for the rest of the summer, unless my landlord decides to let the pest control come and take care of this for me! I will kill what I see and can find, but I hate spiders and the thought of one of them jumping on me gives me the heebie jeebies!
That’s all you can do. These guys lay SO MANY EGGS at one time – I think more than the average spider. So it’s easy to have a problem if you just let 1 live. It’s a shame, I am not really a spider killer. But you can’t take a chance when one is this venomous. I mean – it was hiding in your BATHING SUIT. If you put that on, it would have reason to bite even if it is a “shy spider”.
Good luck taking care of your problem!
Happy Buzzing,
Erin T.
http://www.themombuzz.com
Ok, now I am totally disgusted and won’t be able to sleep! However, I’m glad you posted this. I had not heard of brown widows. I wonder if we have them in MO?
Jenny,
I googled for you. The states that have confirmed Brown Widow Spider reports are:
Florida, Alabama, California, Oklahoma, Nevada, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas and Texas.
So I guess you are safe… for now.
Happy Buzzing!
Erin T.
http://www.themombuzz.com
LOL, I was holding my breath reading the states they were confirmed in!! Good thing no Washington!! Oh those pictures made me fearful, I HATE spiders!!!!
This is frightening…
i have these everywhere. We had an infestation of them 3 years ago in the garage and had to throw out like…EVERYTHING. They are super common where I live, heck I saw one bigger than yours the other day on the underside of the water squeegie at the gas station of all places. You have to catch thier egg sacks on fire.
I have two living in my mail box that i cant get to come out and i refuse to put my hand in there.
That is SUPER gross. How you even managed to get those pictures is beyond me. I am in freak-out mode over here just LOOKING at it!
LOL! She was dead, but I was afraid she was just “acting” and would bite me any second. If I stared long enough it really looked like she was moving – it was so freaky. But I wanted my photos!
Happy Buzzing!
Erin T.
http://www.themombuzz.com
that is just gross to look at
Oh that acutally made my stomach turn.
Ewwww thanks for giving me the creeps tonight
I don’t miss the giant FL spiders.
LMAO! Just wait – I have a post on Wolf Spiders coming up in a few days.
Happy Buzzing!
Erin T.