Is this a black widow?
 

I took a couple pictures of this nasty spider before I squished him... Anyone know if this is a black widow? I've noticed a few of these, a bit smaller, over the past couple weeks hanging out in my garage...

These were shot from about 5 feet away in the evening with flash. If I wasn't terrified of spiders, I probably could have gotten some better pics..

Without a doubt, yes.

Yi! That's about when I put on the body-rubber and apply pesticides generously.

I know it's telephoto, but that first picture looked way too close. :)

And just an FYI, before they mature they look nothing like that. You can see a little bit of the stripes on her still, but they turn black after mating.

Immature black widow
http://kaweahoaks.com/html/latrodect...erus_side1.jpg
http://kaweahoaks.com/html/spi_blk_widow_immat2.jpg

Wow, that's the largest black widow I've ever seen. The ones I've run into are rather small. The red diamond on the back gives her away, but as skibum posted, there's "immature' ones also.

I generally don't mind spiders, but I never liked going into the basement of my friend's house growing up because we'd occasionally find one down there.

It's a red hourglass, and it's on her stomach.

I have lots of Black Widows out here, and while the arachnaphobic among us are scared of them, I must say they are extremely elegant. I kill them when I find them, because I don't want to risk my cats getting bit or hurt from eating one. :lol:
Plus they reproduce like crazy, and I don't want to be overrun.

But I do feel a pang of regret.

Not for me - way to close.

Yes, it's a black widow. They are extremely common here in the Southwest, so common that I must periodically patrol around my house with a can of Raid, and dispatch those in the immediate vicinity. I also captured a desert recluse spider, a close relative of the brown recluse, in my living room.

/cry, spiders scare me.

Spiders ARE scary, but that's what makes them both exciting and fascinating.

Oh my, I had no idea. I see these kinds all the time here.

I found another one today while cleaning the garage... I just need to keep the garage clean and maybe they'll leave me alone :)

In that case it would probably comfort you to know that the immature black widows are completely harmless. In fact, even the mature ones aren't particularly dangerous, since they almost never leave the web and aren't likely to bite you unless they're threatened by you. You're not prey, see.

Nice photo but yuk its a spider !:eek:

And they are not as poisonous as people say. When I lived in Phoenix, I learned that. A guy went to get a piece of firewood and stuck his hand into a "nest" of them. There were roughly 10-20 that bit him. He died from cardiac arrest.

Now the Brown Recluse..... those are scary fuckers, one bite and adios.

There is a spider here in Ohio now that when it bites you, the skin around the bite like dissolves..... that's some extremely scary shit.

BTW GREAT pics.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Ok, i'm just going to officially say that I am extrememly thankful that I don't live anywhere near these fuckers - i'm not typically scared of spiders, but when you can die from one bite and/or have your skin dissolve around the bite mark - no thank you!!

My new find outside today...

http://vestigo.net/images/spider6.jpg

http://vestigo.net/images/spider7.jpg

^Why is one 'thread' thicker than the rest of the web?

It's an argiope spider. It's also called a 'writing spider'. The zigzag pattern helps attract bees and other insects..

My mom calls those writing spiders...first time I ever saw one I about had a heart attack. It was a big, ugly thing with a humongous web.

Another giveaway for the black widow is the black, bulbous body.

/shudders...I hate spiders!

ohh gawd I remeber doing landscaping cutting lawn and walking through webs. I was so freaked out, my shirt would come flying off immediatly.

I liove in the Northwest and although all spiders have venom, we dont have any that will kill you (thank god) but we have some big one. i need to find my pictures to post a few. we do have scorpions in a small region 5 hour away but they are quite small. spiders kinda scare me but they are interesting

If I had thowse in my garage, I would consider selling the house. I doubt I would be able to sleep - I would keep imagining them crawling into my mouth while I was asleep

Black widows like to live in areas that are dark and undisturbed. Cleaning frequently should chase them away. Those are excellent macro photos. Look like something one of my entomologist friends would take.

Not knowing your location makes it more difficult to say if it's a black widow or a different member of the Theridiidae family. This includes the common Australian Redback spider so my advice is based on that specific species (Latrodectus hasselti to be exact)

Redbacks are common in urban habitats such as garden sheds, under steps or logs and around swimming pools or piles of rubbish. They build webs in dry, sheltered sites, often with the upper part of the web hidden from sunlight. The spider hides in a funnel-shaped retreat at the top of the web. The lower part of the web consists of a forest of mostly vertical, sticky catching threads.

An effective way of controlling Redbacks is to carry out regular inspections of suitable Redback habitats, searching for spiders and their webs. The spiders may be removed by pushing a stick into the back of the web and twisting the web, spider and any egg sacs around it. If all the webs on a property are removed, new arrivals will quickly become apparent by the presence of new webs.

Surface sprays applied directly will kill Redback Spiders. However treatment must be repeated often to deal with spiders which are carried in on the wind. Such insecticides will also affect many non-target species.

Personally we don't worry about removing them, the bite for the majority of the Theriididae family is not deadly. If you have small children, pets or a pregnant woman on the property it's a different issue ofcourse.

Only precautions we take are to check any potential web sites before putting your hands there oh and to wear gloves when gardening. Realistically it's impossible to live anywhere in Australia without having to deal with spiders and certain species of snake. Snakes are far more dangerous though, atleast here.

I'm from Florida.

I just found a couple more out there today, just as big.... I need to go buy some Raid spider killer soon, so I don't have to touch these things.

This thread makes me sad.

Spiders are overly beneficial to us humans. While, yes, some spiders can be venemous to humans (Like your friendly, neighborhood black widow), rarely, if ever, will a spider bite a human unprovoked. Besides, most spiders (Except for tarantulas, wolf spiders and maybe huntsmen) have really poor eyesight and couldn't tell if you were nearby until you get REALLY close to them (Basically, you'll see it way before it sees you). I never understood people's unbridled fear of spiders.

...But I digress.

Also, if you're finding lots of spiders in your house, then that probably means you've got a bit of a insect problem ;)

They're always in the garage. I haven't seen a single bug in my house in 3 years. I have a pest control service that has come since I moved here, and it works great, but nothing keeps the spiders out.

Interesting note about their poor eyesight: I was taking some macro shots like this one:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zuiun/958769006/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1045/958769006_2fb4c28c48.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Welcome to my web" /></a>

For one of my shots, I have a nice focus when all of the sudden, the spider vanishes. I've had this happen before and usually it's a case of my lens bumping the web, spooking the spider, and he vanishes down his hole. I thought that's what happened in this one case. However, when I took my face away from the camera, I realized that instead the spider must have caught sight of his reflection in the lens, because he had rushed up to it, tried to bite it, and was posturing defensively right up against it. I actually had to clean the lens off from a small smudge where he tried to bite it.

Now, I do have to say that this sounds quite a bit more "too close for comfort" than it really was. My macro rig literally places the end of the lens quite a distance from my face:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zuiun/1701602377/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2283/1701602377_aa022dd308_m.jpg" width="234" height="240" alt="&quot;The Rig&quot;" /></a>

All in all good shots from everyone - thanks!

So are immature windows just as dangerous?

You have no idea. Here in GA they are everywhere. More than once I have woken up with one walking across my arm at night. Ugh..

Man that would be freaky. Where I live there are hardly any spiders. Just little guys.

We do have lots of jumping spiders though, when you try and catch them its kind of frightening because they just hop all over the place.

hokieian if i slept with my mouth open id be more worried about my mates putting something down there than a spider crawling down there!

No, and neither are the males (which look very similar to young females, but with longer legs and a more slender abodmen). They don't generally bite and when they do their smaller chelicerae don't fully penetrate the skin. I don't know if the immature widow venom carries the same toxicity, but that's largely immaterial.

There have been less than a hundred reported fatalities due to black widow bites in the past fifty years. Being bitten by a mature female isn't going to lead to a fun time, but it's very unlikely that it'll kill you.

You guys are so lucky you don't live here in Australia:lol:

i would be moving to another house in another country :eek:

i almost inhaled one when i was about 6. picked up a snorkle off my friends deck and inhaled. felt something crawling on my tongue and spit out a spider. for the longest time, if i saw a spider, i had to kill it. now they only bother me if they suprise me.