Friday, August 20, 2010

Black Widow and Egg Sack


It seems we go through seasons when black widows are more prolific. I found this one well established under a bucket. I removed the spider (although gorgeous) and her egg sack.
Posted by Julia Posey at 7:57 AM
Labels:

10 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 20, 2010 at 10:50 AM

    I hate those things and they are everywhere! I was thinking that they weren't so bad this year until it got hot this week. That seemed to bring them out.

    I've never seen a spiky egg sack like that. Are they always like that over there? I know there is more that one species of Black Widow but I can't seem to find much information on that. We're in Simi Valley. A year ago we moved across town and the ones here have slightly different markings than the ones at the old house.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Julia PoseyAugust 24, 2010 at 9:12 PM

    Most of the sacks are spiky around here. It's amazing how many they will have hoarded in one area. No wonder they are so prolific.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 25, 2010 at 7:25 PM

    Not being from a warm climate, I am always amazed that people take these babies in stride. In Buffalo, the worst I have to put up with are those terrible centipede type things with all the millions of hairs... those are awful. And the normal urban stuff. Deadly spiders... way worse.

    ReplyDelete
  4. libJanuary 10, 2011 at 5:21 AM

    I am just wondering if black widows are only endemic to north america

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ramshackle SolidJanuary 10, 2011 at 10:36 AM

    HI Lib,

    Unfortunately, no. Black widows are part of a family of spiders called Latrodectus which range all over the world. In Africa they call them button spiders. They don't have the hourglass but have red markings on a black spider and otherwise look the same to me. In New Zeland they have a Katipo spider that is basically a black widow with a fancier hourglass.

    cheers,

    e

    ReplyDelete
  6. libJanuary 11, 2011 at 5:29 AM

    I had been keeping this black spider with this red hour glass on its underside for a week, it laid an egg sac that looks exactly like the one your pic, everybody is in doubt if it is a black widow because I live here in the asia pacific region.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ramshackle SolidJanuary 11, 2011 at 11:52 AM

    It sounds like a black widow to me. Be very careful with it. It's almost certainly in the Latrodectus family if it looks the same and has red on it's belly. I'd also be really careful with that egg sack. When they hatch the babies are very, very small. Unless your enclosure has a very fine screen they may escape into your house or yard. Their bite is very potent and can cause a grown person to be painfully ill for days - death is rare and usually only happens with very young, or very old.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousNovember 14, 2012 at 8:11 PM

    I thought it was brown widows that have the spikey egg sacks. They can look black sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousJune 16, 2014 at 11:30 PM

    Me too the brown widows can vary in patterns but there spiky egg sacks are usually a good indicator of geometricus.I found a pure black spider here that has spiky eggs but it has a velvet texture to the abdomen and is jet black.please take a look at Theridiidae>Latrodectus geometricus Brown Widow spider Female DSCF1530 in our link below https://www.flickr.com/search?user_id=48991563%40N06&sort=relevance&text=Theridiidae%20Latrodectus
    They are a tricky Genus due to variable colors and markings

    ReplyDelete
  10. mgdjmbJune 5, 2016 at 12:34 PM

    I just found this exact spider and three spiky egg sacs under my pool treatment area lid 😫😫😫 I had to get rid of them. Thank god it didn't bite me!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)