So, I have black widows in my kitchen.

Post #2.

I had a black widow in my kitchen once. They're abundant in the area. They're territorial, so that means they don't infest. If you see one, there probably aren't many more nearby.

I do as my neighbor does: tell them you're coming. Bang around, and never reach blindly, especially under things like furniture. They're usually under things. I'm not afraid of them... in the same way I'm not afraid of being murdered and left in a ditch by a psycho. If it happens, it happens. Fear is the Mind-Killer. Random Dune reference. It's late.

Hope you don't have to plotz.

On my spider situation, I have webs starting in the 3/4 or 5/8 inch between a cabinet and the wall.

Thus I have to take that whole area apart - which involves a lot of effort - to get to the webs.

I get it that spiders aren't after me.

I didn't explain. I found webs, and removed them, followed them, found them in my indian bells, took the bells to the sink, and washed them, and watched a big widow climb up the sink several times, me trying to wash it down, forget it, I killed it with a sponge.

I'm a spider fear person in the first place.

Color me unhappy.

The good bit is that I like my neighbors, and they may help.

I mostly get what you are saying, Arjuna. Indeed, I renovated my garage back in Los Angeles, replete with widow nests, but that was a while ago.
I'm more freakable now.
Maybe I need to write a screenplay about the black widow and the sink...

This may be a case of completely wrong information from an internet buddy, but I'm thinking black widows don't do webs so much... they make dens.

Maybe the webs were from some other spider and the black widow was hunting?

I get the fear. Irrational phobia-wise, I'm actually more freaked out by centipedes than spiders. Spiders are mostly good guys in terms of ecological balance.

Now the brown recluse is a different ball of mojo. I've seen what they can do. (Work in Hospital... My world is full of disasters) I've memorized what they look like and inspect every spider I see for the signs. I've yet to actually meet one outside a natural history museum.

I'm not prone to advising Orkin, but they can bring the holocaust to your dusty corners. I'd do it if the fear was getting to me.

If your neighbors have special insight about it... share, ok?

Beats the hell out of an area household that accidentally imported a fecund female brown recluse recently. I didn't get to see the dog, but I saw pictures of what happened to the leg before it was amputated. I'm pretty inured to icky ****, but this **** made me say ick.

I'm with you on the spider thing. I've heard that every baby primate has an innate fear of any object that looks remotely like a spider. I'm thinking there's some very deep genetic memory there, harking back to a time when primates were much smaller critters and spiders, on average, much bigger nastier critters. It still feels like a sensible response.

Ooooh... this could work. The symbolism, man... the symbolism.

Interesting cross-post...

I think they made a movie about that... was it "Them"?

I recognize these spiders but I don't just know they are widows. The neighbor telling me they have them corroborates my fear. I didn't have time to see a violin, etc, on the underside of the spider working the sink. But I recognize it, from back in LA. Indeed, some of my black widow fear is from my family.

Are there close mimics of black widows?

I might have posted on this. I was buying a bottle of something at walgreen's and for some reason the checker started talking about a spider bite... thus I got that she sat on a log locally and was bitten by a brown recluse. Well, not immediately locally. And was hospitalized and so on.


Tell me more about not-webs.
Back in Venice, I associate nests, but didn't run into these webs.

With any luck, I'm wrong..

The neighbors seem to be super smart re their persons and their jobs. Too bad they want to leave.

The next thing I was going to look up on google images was re spiders that look like black widows. I dunno, these are **** kickers.

re the first post and that long number..

that was my earlier post on the subject. Good luck on finding it.

Thanks, dog.

The brown recluse has an abdomen that is monochromatic light brown. The cephalothorax contains the violin. Can you tell it got my attention?

I don't think there are any spiders that have the same appearance as a female black widow. They have a shiny black bulby abdomen. On the underside is a ruby hour-glass. They're actually beautiful.

It probably deserves more research.. all I know is I've never seen the web a black widow makes.. if they make them. Typically it would be like this... say there's a wooden board you dropped on the ground and left. Some time later you go to pick up the board... when you pick it up, put on a glove and just toss it upside down... this is the typical hiding place of a black widow. Or say in your basement there's an old cabinet and you decide to move it... same thing... look for a black widow. There will only be one. Smush it.

Ok, now my primate is freaked out. No... really, as long as you're careful about awareness of what's in the environment... you're good. Look before you leap.

Honey, I don't have time to look at spiders' undersides... as they climb.



Not railing at you, Arjuna, you've been helpful.
I think I am unlikely to find a brown recluse.

Wrong. Well, the males are little, bitty brown thing, but the big, black females build webs like beavers build dams. Usually in the corner of a room if they are inside, and they aren't the least bit pretty. They usually start high up, like behing the header of the drapes, then run one network to about floor level and another horizontally across the edge of the ceiling. If they're not in a web, they are looking for a home.

I swear, I read the tag on this as "Pets"

Oh, the movie "Them" was about giant ants, breed not specified. Much of it was filmed in the Los Angeles "River".

Oh ya, the 1954 version is so cool. It used to run on TV at around 1230am long before cable. I have a vivid memory of watching it one night while babysitting after the kids had gone to bed (back in the 70's boys could actually be babysitters....difficult to imagine these days with the sexual abuse scare and all)

You know, there's not a lot of things that make me prefer the geography of where I am to the geography of where I was brung up, but this is one of them: no black widows, no tarantulas, no rattlesnakes.

(I know the tarantulas are benign, but I still don't like finding them on the loose...)

You really sure about those tarantulas? They are big and could pack a nasty bite, if nothing else.