After carefully considering my options I jumped into action with a can of "Raid Max". After spraying momma and her babes I squirted a little extra between the top of the sliding glass door and the glide. Out popped the dying daddy spider. I really hate to resort to killing anything but this family of poisonous spiders were too close for comfort and with so many hatchlings I feared they would infest many of my plants. Another place Widow's like to nest are under and between crevices of outdoor furniture, and under window sills and around porch screen frames. They also like corners of ceilings and they sometimes nest under the rims of plastic flower pots and under the lips of storage containers. They are rarely found inside homes but outdoor gardeners should proceed with caution. Be safe everbody!
I have found a great website that will answer all of your insect identifications. I have used them a few times and have always had a friendly answer quickly. Although they will not be answering questions for the next week or so. but you still can check there data base.
As always better to be safe then sorry!!! I think your spider is a common house spider or female domestic spider. Not harmful
I have found a great website that will answer all of your insect identifications. I have used them a few times and have always had a friendly answer quickly. Although they will not be answering questions for the next week or so. but you still can check there data base.
As always better to be safe then sorry!!! I think your spider is a common house spider or female domestic spider. Not harmful
I downloaded a photo of a Red Widow today and have included a pic. of mine for comparison. What do you think? My photo is not nearly as good as the published one and was taken in low lit early evening hours, but even so, I think they look amazingly alike.Attachment 13756
I think the making on the back of a widow is more pronouned but I could certainly be wrong. You did the right thing and I would have done the same if I had slightly thought it was posionous.
After carefully considering my options I jumped into action with a can of "Raid Max".
That is not the course of action I would have taken, but then again it wasn't in my house and I rarely have to deal with potentially poisonous spiders.
Wikipedia claims that Latrodectus bishopi is a threatened species, but I couldn't confirm that on the IUCN web site.
flhiker-thanks for that link.I posted a pic of a spider a few weeks ago and never got a response.I'll browse through their pics and see what I can find.It looks like there is a lot of good info there.
Junebug-I would have done the same.