One time in the early 70's I was working the graveyard shift at a powerplant propane rail car receiving area and had to go to the bathroom. Opened the outhouse door and there in a huge web was a black widow the size of my thumb. I drove to the main plant.

I can't imagine how bad that bite is. What does treating such a bite entail? How long are you sick? I got stung by a scorpion in my armpit when I was a kid and it felt like a hot poker. But the pain went away after 30 min.

a woman in my neighborhood was killed by the bite from a brown recluse (bad in arkansas) when i was young. she was working in her flowerbed.
ryan

My Sons friend got bit last year. Poor little guy, he was lucky. I stuck his foot into a shoe he had in the garage and felt a pin prick on his toe. He complained to his Mother and she looked inside. To her horror she shook out a momma and 3 babies. She took him to the hospital. Within 30 minutes the bite had swollen up and he was running a fever of 103. The fever lasted 3 days and the poor little guy could barely move he was in such pain. The toxins effect the nervous systme and even breathing is really painful. Thank Gawd he was bit on the toe (less circulation) and he may have been bit by one of the babies and not the momma.

The Doctors said they could provide the anti-venom but of he ever got bit again they would not be abe to administer it. Also, the anti-venom can actually effect you worse then the bite.

I had a buddy who got bite when he was in HS - he was 6'4" and weighed 260lbs. He was pretty messed up for 4 days with a high fever and incredible muscle pain. Said the only way he could even breath decent was when he was in a scalding hot shower. He got nailed on the thumb. BTW - he became a Airbourne jump master with 300+ jumpsand saw 3 tours in the gulf. Has busted bones (compounded factures) in his legs and arms as well as his share of all sorts of illness overseas. He says the Black Widow bite was by far the worst experience he has ever had.

Ya, I don't like dem lil bastids much...

Are you still talking about spiders?? :D

That's pretty scary. A coworker's friend of mine once caught one and put it in a glass jar with tiny pin pricks for air. Well, 100's of babies hatched and were crawling all over his house.

I think he and his family ended up moving.

dohhhhh!

On my way out the door I spotted the tell tale signs of a "widow web" around the base of our B-ball hoop. I lifted it up and sure enough I saw about 5 of the bastids and may a dozen babies not to mention at least a dozen egg sacs.

A little chemical warfare and a shop vac later...no mo widders!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1151610215.jpg

I lost count last year, but I definitely killed over 400 including two inside the house. This year there haven't been as many, and I haven't been keeping count like I did last year. I've probably been averaging about 1 every other day. Over ten this week so far. This time of year there are more of them. There are less in the winter. I mostly use a MAP gas torch to get in the cracks and crvices they like to hide in, unless they are hiding in wood or plastic then it's hands (with gloves) or poison. I actively hunt them at night when they come out of their daytime hiding places. That's when they are easiest to find and kill.

Lube Chemical warfare is your best option don't take chances.
Of course Living in Texas isn't there a saying that everything is bigger in Texas. :)

yup, we got some good *****...if I didn't know any better I would swear that we are involved in some pretty funky stuff that gets sent to our friends in the jungles and desserts to drop more than a house fly or two! Pests are pests. We also have a whole bunch of products that take care of biologicals - a small application and no organic matter is left! Heck, we even have bio-generators that can generate lipid eating bacteria buy the trillions in only an hour. Private companies can do many private things...the R&D labs are pretty cool to visit but I don't spend too much time there any more!

A nice thing about Texas is that it's an agricultural state so anyone can buy any pesticide if they know where to go. Unfortunately, I don't know of anything that kill spiders without direct application.

damn, i hate spiders. i have mixed feelings about killing them tho, i dont know if i hate mosquitos more. maybe the BW are too large to eat skeeters,.? i read somewhere that spiders put a serious hurting on the bad insect population. good thing the black widows are easy to spot. give me a big BAT colony anytime.

I have a bat house nailed up on my chimney about 2 stories up. They come out at night and eat. Way cool when we have a cookout and they start the bombing runs. Some people just screem and run inside. I won't get into the hours of entertainment the cat supplies trying to hunt them. :)

Crap -- I read this thread a few days ago and lo and behold, I found this beotch in the corner of the garage this afternoon. Took a couple pics (it didn't move) and then kilt it...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1151821078.jpg

I figure there are more, so a call to the bug guy is on the list for this week.

ChrisC - you don't know ya gott'm till you look. The webs are easy to spot and they normally don't make a web above 3 feet. They like dark courners and are shy unless they have a egg sac then they get aggresive

You kill them buy a direct spray, squishing or burning them. You can also take away their food source but they will not die by a general spray unless it gets on them directly.

I saw on the Discovery Channel some women sprayed hair spray on them - it didn't kill them directly but they couldn't move out the web and ended up dying.

Mike, I'm not saying you're wrong, but a friend of mine moved into a new house where the whole neighborhood was infested. After everyone in the neiborhood complained the builder sent out exterminators to spray a few times, and it took care of them. Maybe the exterminator located the actual spiders, and direct sprayed them? But somehow they took care of them.

Could be. The guys that spray do a pretty good job of getting into all the dark spots. Spraying will also kill their food source and they will die or move on.

The under dock on the pond has a bunch as well. I might burn through 10 cans to nail them all. I think I will place a call to the town to spray it. I will try to get some pics - pretty scary cuz our Boy plays under it - no more!

You're gonna think I'm crazy, but, having lived in Black-Widow-Land most of my life, I can honestly say that while I have seen my fair share of them, I've never been bitten by one. They are very predicable in terms of where they live and are known to be very shy. Therefore, I am very careful when I need to poke around in areas where they might be hiding. Hell, I don't even put a shoe on unless I check it first. I never allow my bare skin to get into an area where they might be lurking and if I do find one, I either leave it alone if it's in an area that I don't need to access or I carefully catch it and move it way up onto my hill and release it.

I have a hard time killing an animal that isn't bothering me. That's just me, but I do understand it when others feel differently (which is most people, I suppose). ;)

By the way, can you see her eyes? I see at least six of them. Pretty cool, I think.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1151531147.jpg

Scott, as an adult I agree, but young kids are not capable of being careful like adults are. When kids reach into a black widow's nest it will bite, and young children can die from a black widow bite. Last year the six year old boy who lives across the street was bitten by a black widow. He spent three days in the hospital, and all they could do is give him morphine to take the edge off the pain. The black widow anti-venom cannot be given to children under nine because it is more deadly then the black widow bite to young children. He was in a lot of pain the whole time even with the morphine. The spider that bit him was on the playground equipment at our local elementary school. I have killed a few black widows on the undersides of the playground equipment at the park down the street from us. I'd much rather kill the spiders then take chances with my little girl's life.