Want to Be Free From Black Widows? Here’s How
As summer approaches, you’ll find it’s time to clean out the shed in the backyard. Even organize the garage. Some places you haven’t spent much time in throughout the winter months. But now the lawn is starting to get out of control and it’s time to dig out the mower.
Climbing through the dark, abandoned shed or squeezing into a neglected garage can present challenges beyond moving piles of old stuff (let’s face it, most of our garages are a hoarder’s paradise). Spiders love dark, dry places to shelter. Places that don’t get much traffic from humans. And no spider is higher on the list of arachnophobe nightmares than the infamous black widow.
How to Quickly Identify a Black Widow
When you first venture into that long neglected shed, or peer into the abyss of the dreaded crawl space, look out for webs. Black widows build their webs near ground level, preferring crevices or holes where they can bottleneck prey.
The black widow’s web looks disheveled and uneven — not the quintessential, wispy fly-catcher draped across the rafters. They are layered with a support level on top, tangle level in the middle, and a trap level on the bottom to snare passing meals.
The spider seldom leaves her web. She spends her days hanging upside down, waiting for prey to stumble into her trap. That’s the best way to catch sight of the black widow herself.
Identify female black widows:
Round, shiny black bodies
A red hourglass, triangle or series of dots on the abdomen
Long front pair and back pair legs, with the second and third pairs shorter
1.5 inches in length, including leg span
Identify male black widows:
Oval, dusky brown bodies
White lines and semi-circles decorating their abdomen
Long front pair and back pair legs, with second and third pairs shorter, like the female
0.75 inches in length, including leg span
Are Black Widows Deadly?
Black widows are infamous. Regarded as the most venomous spider in America, the female spider injects venom fifteen times more potent than a rattlesnake’s. Males, on the other hand, do not have a toxic bite to humans.
Fortunately for us, these spiders are reclusive. They tend to build their webs in low traffic areas where you won’t disturb them. Sometimes those rarely accessed areas turn out to be the shed where you keep your rake. And reaching into a nook to grab an old tool without looking is the best way to get bitten.
Black widows aren’t aggressive. So don’t worry about them sneaking into your bed in the dead of night. But they will bite in self defense if they feel threatened. Which may happen if you inadvertently stick your hand in their web. Sometimes their bites go unnoticed — sometimes it feels like being stuck with a tack.
If you are bitten, watch for symptoms including:
Swelling at the site around one or two small bite marks.
Pain progressively spreading from the site to your abdomen or back
Nausea
Perspiration
Tremors
Fever
Labored breathing
In severe cases, black widow venom can affect the muscles in your diaphragm, causing paralysis in the respiratory muscles. It’s always a good idea to contact your local emergency department in case of a black widow bite. There, they can administer antivenom and give you further treatment if you are having a severe reaction to the spider’s venom. On the way, try to move the affected limb as little as possible and ice the bite to slow the venom’s spread into your body.
Healthy people have little to fear from a black widow bite aside from pain. If you are elderly, or have a compromised immune system, these spiders are much more dangerous. Small children are also at greater risk.
While black widows bite thousands of people in the U.S. each year, only about seven of those cases are fatal. But they are deadly. Which means you don’t want them in or around your home. Especially if you have kids.
How to Deal With Black Widows
Black widows love dark, dry, undisturbed areas. So your best bet is to keep all those hard to reach corners dusted and cleaned out on a regular basis. But it’s hard to do that everywhere. Places like crawl spaces, garages, outdoor sheds, storage basements, etc. are more difficult to keep up with. That’s why these spiders gravitate towards them. Cold nights also drive them to look for warmer, more sheltered areas.
Make sure you wear gloves and long sleeves when you make your first forays into those neglected spots in spring and early summer. The less exposed skin, the fewer opportunities a black widow has to give you a dangerous bite.
You can even use insect repellent on your gloves and shoes to discourage an upset spider from giving you a bite.
If you spot a black widow in her web, it may be tempting to try to deal with her yourself. Be careful. These spiders move surprisingly quickly in their webs, and may scuttle towards an attacker rather than away.
Female black widows live three years, so waiting her out probably isn’t the best option either.
You won’t find more than one spider in a single web. Males seek out females in the spring to mate — which often results in the male’s shorter lifespan of two months. Afterwards, the black widow will wrap her eggs in an oval ball of silk. These will incubate in her web for 30 days before hatching between 200 to 900 baby spiders.
Fortunately the black widow is cannibalistic, and most won’t survive their three month journey to adulthood. But one spider can easily give your shed or garage an infestation if it gets the chance to mate.
Your best bet is to call your local exterminator. They have treatment methods that are more powerful and effective than any over-the-counter options. And they know how to use them in an environmentally friendly manner.
For pest extermination and black widow control in Southwest Colorado and Cortez, look up Victory Pest Control. Give them a call today and get rid of the black widows setting up shop in your garage for good.
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