http://www.aol.com/article/2014/10/17/neighborhood-concerned-by-increase-in-black-widow-sightings/20980214/

I grew up in Utah County in the 70s and 80s. We found black widow spiders every year. I slept in a room often with one and I didn't mess with it. Our house literally crawled with spiders and we had many mice crawling in our house as well.

My parents bought a house bigger than they could afford and kept reproducing to fill it up with kids. Needless to say there were 0 dollars for extermination services. That house hasn't seen an exterminator in going on 50 years if ever.

I remember several summers when we caught a black widow in a jar and we showed other neighbor kids our find. We were told by our parents to leave them alone but we didn't. None of us ever got bitten.

I chalk this up to arachnophobia as people seem to have become more fearful of things. I doubt it would have made the news when I was a kid.

In Arizona we had both black widows and tarantulas. Some of the tarantulas with a leg spread of 12"

We had them a lot when I lived in Utah. Usually in our basement window wells when it started getting cold. One time I put on a sweatshirt and felt something crawling and threw it off and there was a black widow in there. Those things are so creepy but kind of cool to catch them in a jar and look at them.

We had them in the house growing up.


My sister stepped on one when she was about 15. I rushed her to the emergency room and they watched her for several hours to see if she would suffer any effects. We took the squashed spider with us for identification purposes.

She didn't have any problems and they told her that the spider must have used its poison on something else before she stepped on it.

I really hate spiders but not as much as I hate snakes.

Yep, 50's & 60's Fort Union, Salt Lake County. Tons of em. We'd just step on em and kilt em dead. We aren't all still alive but not because of black widows.

Meh, I grew up in South Louisiana. Home of every deadly creepy-crawly thing you can imagine. And all over the place. Year round. Even lived in the swamp for a while. I've had my arm triple in size from some unknown tiny thing bite. Had my eye swollen shut more than once. Am also allergic to mosquitoes.

Do I win the stupidity prize?

I would say your immune system must be totally awesome by now!

LOL! I never thought of it that way.

I was taking a nap in my downstairs bedroom when I was probably a teenager and when I got up, there was a black widow on its back on the floor next to the window near the bottom of my bed. My mother told of a time she had the impression that she needed to check on my brother. There was a black widow on his pillow by his head.

My grandmother did get bit by a black widow when I was very small. It was in a box of clothing she was going through. She had to have the shot they give. She almost lost the finger that got bit. She said the bite hurt more than the shot and they say the shot hurts pretty bad.

So--actually they do bite and they are dangerous.

My dad had some poison that is now illegal that he would put down the drains and in the window wells to keep the spiders at a minimum. My parents didn't have much money, but my mother had our house sprayed by the exterminator every summer.

And, of course, I found one in my garage just before my husband left on a business trip. I asked him to please kill it. He always said things about "it just being part of nature." I couldn't sleep while he was gone worrying about that damn spider. I'm the one who had to get the exterminator to come. He always said everything was just nature.

Like the hornets nest we had in a tree in our front yard. I had 2 very small children. The beehives (in young womens) heard me talk about that hornets nest, so they knocked it out of the tree and stabbed the hornets with forks. I had no idea they did it. He came home from work and went looking for his hornets nest. He was boohooing loud enough for the neighbor to hear and she made her daughter apologize to him for killing his hornets.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2014 03:37PM by cl2.

But we did not tolerate them around people when they were noticed.

Squish squish problem solved.

I only saw one black widow spider in the house. It was on top of the front door. We had a cat face spider on the stairs once. I moved to Missouri, where we deal with the brown recluse. I was bit on the thigh during my first spring in Kansas City. I began putting glue traps under the bed posts; it works!

I see a black widow... I run . I don't wanna be another notch on a gold diggers bed post.

I'm glad I never saw any black widows in Connecticut. No snakes around here either. But I have been bitten twice by spiders which aren't supposed to be able to bite us, including one when I was asleep. Both time were daddy longlegs. I know because I killed them after being bitten. My brother claims it wasn't possible.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/longlegs.asp


There's also two types of Daddy Long legs- The Cellar Spider, which is not venomous to people and another creature that's in the Opiliones family. The former does bite sometimes, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcus_phalangioides
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones

I'm actually surprised the OP is so laissez-faire about Black Widows. They're venomous and can kill children. I'm not a fan of killing something because it looks creepy, but Black Widows are a no-no. I would hate to have my kitty bitten by one and suffer because of it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2014 04:39PM by Itzpapalotl.

Thank you for the information. The spiders here had gray legs instead of brown and a small head, smaller than the pictures. One bit me on the leg in the neighbor's garage and the second years later in my bed, on my face. I had both pain from the bite and itching. I am also allergic to the sting of yellow jackets and have been stung on several occasions, carefully chosen by the insects including once during an outdoor church service and twice outside my home with the insects stinging in the exact same place on my right forearm just above my wrist (that is the times outside my home). I have been chased many times. Fortunately, they don't like to chase very far.

I am too, also have VERY sensitive skin and allergic to pretty much everything. You have to really take care of those injuries so you don't get infections.

One year, BF and I went camping with a friend and the Deer Flies were out in full force, even though we had Off! I was bitten pretty badly and ended yup developing an infection that left my legs in bandages for two months. I told tourists that a pack of rabid chihuahuas had attacked me. :)

ETA: I'm sorry to hear about your kitty, puckpasser. I hope she heals ok.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2014 09:06PM by Itzpapalotl.

Found her with a high fever and swollen oozing back leg. The dead spider was 2 feet from her bed in the basement. Didnt check out as a Recluse spp. (we're in Colorado) but had great big fangs to deliver the venom. Now we are visiting the vet every other day for bandage changes and hoping it eventually heals.

Had the house professionally treated for the first time ever just two onths ago, too.

I'm willing to bet that most of the widows Monson talks about were white.

Nice day for a white widow. Nice day to...start again

I grew up with black widows all in my garage. They never bothered me. I see them all the time in Utah! And it's funny that people in Utah FREAK out about Brown Recluse media hype (not even native in Utah) but black widows aren't a huge deal. Black widow is way more dangerous... even though bites are rare.
I've never known some one bit by a Black Widow, though I've seen hundreds. My friend used to catch them and zap them in the microwave O_O

Actually, brown recluse can be more dangerous. They operate in a different way. Your flesh gets eaten over time if you get bitten. And then, if it gets into your bloodstream, you're pretty much dead without an extended hospital stay.

Had a former relative (from ex-husband) that has his own tree surgery business. Got bit by black widows (and everything else) on a regular basis. No big deal. Got bit by a brown recluse and ended up in the hospital with plenty of flesh missing from his leg. Not fun to deal with. Took several months for him to recover.

People are no treating recluse bites by using a taser on the area after a bite.
http://insects.about.com/b/2008/12/22/brown-recluse-bite-grab-a-stun-gun-and-zap-away-the-pain.htm

I'm skeptical of Brown Recluse horror stories, since misdiagnosed spider bites are a huge problem. I've had many Washington, Utah, Oregon area friends who claim to almost losing a limb or dying due to a Brown Recluse (though they don't even live in that area). Turns out, they didn't even bring in the spider to be identified, or even witnessed being bit by a spider, but the "Dr said it was a Brown Recluse."

Not saying that's what happened to the person you know... but there hasn't been confirmed brown recluse deaths, and most of the skin problems from bites have been misdiagnosed, or infected from not keeping the bite clean. Black Widows, on the other hand, have killed people.

In the early 80's, my husband was bitten by a brown recluse in Orem.

He paid no attention and the meaty part of his thumb began to swell and turn colors--the telltale red, white and blue. He was rushed to University hospital and they were able to save his hand, but it was touch and go (!)


Kathleen Waters

I'd have to ask him again what his arm looked like at the worst point, but he went in and got treated because his friend saw it and told him he needed to go to the ER. He got in in time. I saw what it looked like a few weeks after they had incised and debrided his arm. No, brown recluse are nothing to mess with.

Shouldn't they be White and Delightsome Widows?

Seriously though, I have been bitten by a brown recluse and still have the scars from it. Took months to heal and the scars ended up much larger than the initial bites.

Same here! Still have the scar.

Yep, and there are two main species here in Utah:

The main most harmful one is the Mormon Church Variety as it is the most dangerous and poisonous of the two.

The other species that liked to hang out in our home's window wells.

Hm, I mean, I could get hit by a car too. It's probably more likely than getting bit by a black widow. We had widows growing up (I killed one when we were watching television that was just walking across the carpet in back of us). I got stung by lots and lots of bees and wasps, also bit by a couple house spiders but never a black widow. At least black widows like to hide and are not aggressive like the hobo spider.

I have heard people say that exterminating spiders can actually exacerbate the problem. If they exterminator gets all the spiders but a black widow, then they reproduce without any competition. I figure the best thing I can do to get rid of black widows is to encourage proliferation of the spiders I like-- regular house spiders, grass spiders, jumping spiders (they are so dang cute, I'm serious...and totally harmless to humans)...

When we first moved here there were black widows, we found several. A year later we cleaned the garage again and found maybe 3. Is my plan working? I hope so...

We had black widows in Colorado, but I don't remember them being a nuisance. They just went about their spider business and left the humans alone.

I get house wasps now, and I just zap 'em with hairspray. I like it better than bug spray.