Excelsior
August 9th, 2007, 01:26 AM
So I'm doing yard work in my back yard on Tuesday. I move a pile of old cardboard and see a huge black spider (body about 1/2 inch, legs an inch on top of that) on one of my porch steps, wrapped around an egg sack. I'm about to apply some blunt force in the shape of a 2x4 when something about it strikes me as odd. The legs were almost crab-like, and the carapace was shiny black.
"Danged if that doesn't look like a Black Widow," says I. I try to spot the underbelly to see if there's the telltale red hourglass, but I can't see it since it's fast against the egg sack. So I go inside and do a Google image search for black widows. I study the pics that come up, and my certainty ratchets up to about 85%. My wife checks it out (from a safe distance) and agrees, but stops me from applying the aforementioned blunt force.
"If that is one, there might be more," she wisely said. "Let's call someone."
So I call an exterminator, tell him my theory, and he shows up within an hour. He takes one look and says, "Yep, that's a Widow. Not only that, that's a monster of a Widow. She's so full, one bite on the neck or a vein and there'd be no saving you."
Yes, the exterminator was impressed. That should say something.
So he scoops it into a Tupperware container and seals it up, then does the Bristol Stomp on the eggs. In the container it plays dead, and curled up the hourglass is plainly visible. He says that there might indeed be more, so he offers to spray my yard, to which I hastily agree.
But wait, there's more.
While he's setting up, I point out the fact that my house is on a crawlspace. "What are the odds that there's more under there?" asks I. He obligingly pops the hatch, peeks in and says that he's not going under there because he doesn't want to die. He can see "skeletons" of Widows, hanging in webs and white with mold.
The thing is, I saw those same skeletons two years ago. In the fall (I never go under the house in spring or summer on general principle) I laid sheet plastic down on the dirt as a vapor barrier and saw three of four of those things. I never thought anything about them, since I couldn't see any distinctive markings. But yes, those were dead Black Widows. Under my house. For the past few YEARS.
So he sprays everything and promises to check back in a week, when everything's good and dead.
Yes, one of the most lethal spiders in North America was setting up condos in my crawlspace. Mere feet from where I, my wife and two children sleep.
I've gotten rid of the heebies, but I've still got the jeebies.
"Danged if that doesn't look like a Black Widow," says I. I try to spot the underbelly to see if there's the telltale red hourglass, but I can't see it since it's fast against the egg sack. So I go inside and do a Google image search for black widows. I study the pics that come up, and my certainty ratchets up to about 85%. My wife checks it out (from a safe distance) and agrees, but stops me from applying the aforementioned blunt force.
"If that is one, there might be more," she wisely said. "Let's call someone."
So I call an exterminator, tell him my theory, and he shows up within an hour. He takes one look and says, "Yep, that's a Widow. Not only that, that's a monster of a Widow. She's so full, one bite on the neck or a vein and there'd be no saving you."
Yes, the exterminator was impressed. That should say something.
So he scoops it into a Tupperware container and seals it up, then does the Bristol Stomp on the eggs. In the container it plays dead, and curled up the hourglass is plainly visible. He says that there might indeed be more, so he offers to spray my yard, to which I hastily agree.
But wait, there's more.
While he's setting up, I point out the fact that my house is on a crawlspace. "What are the odds that there's more under there?" asks I. He obligingly pops the hatch, peeks in and says that he's not going under there because he doesn't want to die. He can see "skeletons" of Widows, hanging in webs and white with mold.
The thing is, I saw those same skeletons two years ago. In the fall (I never go under the house in spring or summer on general principle) I laid sheet plastic down on the dirt as a vapor barrier and saw three of four of those things. I never thought anything about them, since I couldn't see any distinctive markings. But yes, those were dead Black Widows. Under my house. For the past few YEARS.
So he sprays everything and promises to check back in a week, when everything's good and dead.
Yes, one of the most lethal spiders in North America was setting up condos in my crawlspace. Mere feet from where I, my wife and two children sleep.
I've gotten rid of the heebies, but I've still got the jeebies.