Black & brown widow spiders
When the subject of dangerous spiders comes up, the average person usually thinks about the black widow spider. Their shiny black body with a prominent red hourglass marking on the underside of the abdomen is an image that readily comes to mind.
The most commonly encountered species of venemous spiders that people are finding around their homes and work place is the brown widow spider, Latrodectus geometricus. In the mid to late nineties there seems to have been an outbreak of brown widow spiders. This spider has spread throughout the Carolinas and people have reported sightings of it from Southern California, Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Cars, trucks, and RVs have probably helped to distribute this spider far and wide. The most important factor in its expansion has probably been transportation by vehicles.
Because they vary from light tan to dark brown or almost black, with variable markings of black, white, yellow, orange, or brown on the back of their abdomens, brown widows are not as easy to recognize. The underside of the abdomen, if you can see it, contains the characteristic hourglass marking. Unlike the black widow, the hourglass is orange to yellow orange in color.
Although the bite of a widow spider is much feared, the widow spiders are generally non-aggressive and will retreat when disturbed. Bites usually occur when a spider becomes accidentally pressed against the skin of a person when putting on clothes or sticking their hands in recessed areas or dark corners. According to Dr. G.B. Edwards, an arachnologist with the Florida State Collection of Arthropods in Gainesville, the brown widow venom is twice as potent as black widow venom. However, they do not inject as much venom as a black widow, are very timid, and do not defend their web. The brown widow is also slightly smaller than the black widow.
The brown widow builds its web in secluded, protected sites around our homes, often very near our presence. It has a fondness for buildings but will construct its web in all kinds of man-made structures, and even vegetation. Some typical sites include inside old tires, empty containers such as buckets and nursery pots, mail boxes, entry way corners, under eaves, stacked equipment, cluttered storage closets and garages, behind hurricane shutters, recessed hand grips of plastic garbage cans, undercarriages of motor homes, underneath outside chairs, branches of shrubs.
What can you do to get rid of black and brown widow spiders? Carolina Exterminating will devise a plan to assist you in pest management along with helpful tips.
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