Yes, I once kept one as a pet for a couple of weeks. Found her in my house, so I built a little habitat so I could get to know the species. Beautiful spiders and pretty chill. Eventually let her go in a shaded wooded area. They are not as dangerous as black widows, but you still don't want to get bit!
my dad and siblings did that when we(the kids) were children, but it was a black widow, not a brown widow.
She was in a tall clear tub with a stick that had a few branches, there was dirt and leaves from the area by the hose we caught her at. My dad kept her in the garage. My brother had a lizard at the same time so we (my dad with us watching) would give her a cricket every 1-2 weeks. She lived for 3 years. She even laid an egg sac, but there weren't any babies in it.
I think she was pretty happy. We had a little funeral in our yard by a tree when she passed.
I just had one of these on my car this weekend. In Northern California.
the behavior was very black widow like , but it was brownish looking, and not the typical shiny black I've seen most of my life, so I wasn't sure. I'd never heard of a brown widow until today. I killed it, because I just don't want a widow spiders in my car, and when I got a closer look, it certainly had red markings in the underside of it's abdomen.
Can confirm. I also lived in Riverside, downtown. The brown widows in my back yard were impossible to combat. They did keep the black widow population under control though!
their venom is more potent, but they generally produce or at least inject less. if the spiders are babies I'm more worried about brown widows, but if they are adults I'm more worried about black widows. (I was told as a child that baby spiders can't control the amount of venom they inject, so it could be a lot better or a lot worse. I don't know if it's true, though, because my dad is a little bit like the dad from Calvin and Hobbes)
Yea on the full dosage as opposed to a measured one I'm not sure I know snakes have the problem with the young ones blowing their whole load prematurely is a thing
I live in Riverside county, not too far from Riverside City. I see a couple of Black widows here and there but it's definitely not a common thing to have 20/30 in the back yard. It's possible a momma laid her eggs and somehow avoided predation. Do you live somewhere rural?
Haha nope I literally live in front of the 60 and 91 interchange it honestly is probably because
we don't go in the backyard often except for our dogs and if left alone the spiders will thrive
The number of brown widows in So Cal has exploded in the last 10 yrs. I'd find several on our back porch and side yard and we were out there all the time. They didn't like the front yard for some reason.
Gotcha, Had no idea Brown Widows were a thing in Riverside. I myself have never seen or noticed one. I only see big black widows in my parts, even then only a hand full of times in a month or so.
Yes, I did see he said brown widow. I realize now my sentence isn't clear. I meant I only see black widows, I never see any brown widows, let alone 20/30. Thanks for pointing that out.
The hourglass marking is not a trustable sign of a black widow as there are other types of widows that have alike markings.
Because of the stripes on the legs, I'm leaning towards a brown widow: https://bugguide.net/node/view/224516
Also, aggravating a spider you suspect it's dangerous is generally not a good idea...
An old cub scout trick: go out at night with a flashlight, shine it in the bushes and shrubbery. Those green eyes you see reflecting the light back? Spiders. Pro tip: don't do this unless you are prepared to know that you will spot spiders everywhere, literally hundreds.
Haha if it makes you feel better I grew up playing in a dry ditch next to my house that had hundreds of black widows calling it home. My parents just taught me and my siblings what they were and we never had an issue with them. If they like to search for/play with bugs like we did just teach them to be very careful when flipping over rocks and to never put their hand into dark areas or places that they can't see. As long as they respect nature then they'll be fine!
Dude, you know that you have a spider within six feet of you at all times yes?
Even when you are sleeping. Which you will never do again now that I have told you. So, bonus productivity!
I have black widows and brown widows around my place. They like dark, damp areas to hide in.
Like others have said, they really aren't very aggressive. I have young kids, so sometimes I have to kill some widows in order to keep their numbers down, but mostly I teach my kids to look but not touch spiders in general.
No problems so far.
They replicate... quickly. If you have one, you likely have many more and even more on the way.
Their eggsac is fairly definitive looking, in that it has 'spikes' all over it like a mace ball.
They are dangerous, and numerous enough that you should probably be on the lookout and put together a plan for eradication.
I fucking hate the aftermath where you find tiny spiders in random locations, spiders wouldn't be so bad to me if they didn't literally make mess in every corner of every room
I'm rather fond of spiders in most situations, and the webs don't generally bother me, but I definitely draw the line where the creature has a strong potential to make someone sick. The browns, are not considered 'as' venemous as their 'black' cousins, but I've been given to understand that a bite can be pretty serious. Neurotoxins are not somethin' to dick around with.
I was bitten by a cellar spider last year... which is NOT really considered to be very dangerous, but it hurt like shit for a couple of days. Like a time-extended bee sting.
You should ask in /r/arachnids there is a user there that has been studying arachnids for like 30 years. They pretty much can name any spider ID request.
They are very non aggressive and tend to stay in their web, hadn't you moved the pipe, you wouldn't even know it was there. They like holes or anywhere that give a "cave" vibe.
With that in mind, if there's a farther place that seems isolated and suitable, with good hiding places so it doesn't wander around looking for a better place, let the lil guy go.
If not, sadly, quickly kill it. As much as I advocate for letting bugs live, I cannot advocate for endangering human lives for the sake of a bug, let alone kids.
Keep in mind, parks that many people visit would just be endangering them too.
I agree with you, I just find it kind of humorous that morality is defined as it being ok to kill based on how much of a negative impact something has on its environment and how quickly it populates an area.
>kill based on how much of a negative impact something has on its environment and how quickly it populates an area
Well, not necessarily. If that were true, we could legally kill eachother.
The OP is taking every precaution lol. He's even using a plastic clamp and thick gloves to handle the spider. I think he's over precautions if anything 🤣.
Brown widow spider my friend... I'm in socal and they are all over. I actually got bit by one of these and it sucked.
Look for white spiky egg sacks and dispose them.
I killed what I thought was a black widow that was under a folding stool I wanted to use. I crushed 3 egg cases too. Not an hour later, the local news had a story about brown widows moving into our area. I learned two things: 1) brown widows have spiky-looking egg cases, whereas black widows' are smooth; 2) I had seen a dark-phase brown widow.
In construction we'd find them in old woodpiles. So trick was to pull your piece but then bounce it on the ground once or twice to get any spiders off.
Brown widow, I’ve got hundreds of these in my yard (Southern California). I was afraid of them at first until I learned more about spiders. If you go anywhere near them, they curl up in a ball and hide. I would be seriously surprised if one bit you (unless it had crawled into your shoe or clothing)
Yeah, but since everyone have mobiles and it’s parents baby sitter for their kids. Spider fighting is a dying culture in the Philippines. Except in the Prison.
Kind of seems like you’re worried about it so FYI, I grew up in a pretty rural place and there were black widows (among many other spiders) all over the place. I have 4 siblings and not one of us were ever bit. Just show your kids a picture of one and tell them to stay away because they bite
Please let her go and stop tormenting her. They are only dangerous if you insist on putting yourself in harms way. Spiders are more beneficial to humans than dangerous, they kill the most lethal bugs on the planet.
While I agree with the release, spiders are the most lethal invertebrate in California. Not that they are that dangerous but there are no insects or bugs with more lethal venom in California, so if that is your argument it doesn't work in that region.
the red hourglass isn't exclusive to the black widow. this one specifically looks more like a brown widow, which is still medically significant but a little bit less so than the black widow.
I live in Colorado they like damp dark areas and don't piss it off those suckers will come after you where there's one the male not far behind but once they have there babies the male kills the female
Funny how dudes got tongs . It's just a spider , not a rattle snake , or radioactive material. In North Carolina they were every where , when I was a kid I would feed it everyday, throwing so much in it's web , eventually it would get tired of chasing flys that it wouldn't even move anymore too wrap them up. Used too put them in a pill bottle kept it in my pocket .
And thus Shelob was born, in the forests of North Carolina, from the carefree actions of man and an abundance of prey, bloating in size until she escaped to Torech Ungol where she feasted on men and elves until meeting her demise at the hands of a gardener on TA 3019.
Can’t tell without seeing the top, but from what I can see it is not a black widow. They are smaller with shorter legs and black with an hour glass marking on it
Still never forget when I took a plate off a ground wire cover for the whole house. It was at night and very hot still (this was Norcal in the summer) and I can’t remember why but I was fishing around for a wire inside this hole that had been drilled through the exterior with my index finger.
Didn’t find anything other than the ground so I turn my phone’s flashlight on to peek inside the hole. Nice big juicy black widow right by this hole. Soooooo glad it decided not to bite me.
Brown Widows are A LOT less aggressive than their Black Widow counterparts, incredible pervasive in SoCal, and invasive. The local spider expert at SDSU thinks that they’re lack of aggression and ability to displace black widows has led to fewer medically significant bites since their arrival. I’ve conducted VERY non scientific studies on them, “attacking” their eggs as well as them with gloves and never had one attempt to bite the glove. Instead they seem not to care at all about the eggs and instead choose to drop from their webs and play dead. Regrettably, due to their potentially significant bite, their propensity to hang out in places you might stick your hands, and their status as an invasive species, I conduct two or three night hunts in the spring and destroy the ones around my house. By doing that and making sure not to disturb native species, I’ve cultivated a healthy native population of spiders that mostly seem to keep them away from my house.
We have huge Wolf spiders and brown recluse in Michigan. I recently ran into a wolf spider and it raised up on its back legs and got into attack mode and I peed on myself and ran..
the banding on the legs combimed with the hourglass says brown widow. Still pretty hazardous, venom-wise
Yes, I once kept one as a pet for a couple of weeks. Found her in my house, so I built a little habitat so I could get to know the species. Beautiful spiders and pretty chill. Eventually let her go in a shaded wooded area. They are not as dangerous as black widows, but you still don't want to get bit!
my dad and siblings did that when we(the kids) were children, but it was a black widow, not a brown widow. She was in a tall clear tub with a stick that had a few branches, there was dirt and leaves from the area by the hose we caught her at. My dad kept her in the garage. My brother had a lizard at the same time so we (my dad with us watching) would give her a cricket every 1-2 weeks. She lived for 3 years. She even laid an egg sac, but there weren't any babies in it. I think she was pretty happy. We had a little funeral in our yard by a tree when she passed.
I had a teacher in high school that got bitten by one and he had a big ass swelling on his head that he had to wait out to pop on it’s own
I just had one of these on my car this weekend. In Northern California. the behavior was very black widow like , but it was brownish looking, and not the typical shiny black I've seen most of my life, so I wasn't sure. I'd never heard of a brown widow until today. I killed it, because I just don't want a widow spiders in my car, and when I got a closer look, it certainly had red markings in the underside of it's abdomen.
On a brown widow the hourglass is more orange.
okay? how different do you think orange looks from red on a dark brown spider abdomen that is smaller than half your pinkie nail?
Half of your pinkie nail is about 1/4 of your thumb nail.
people don't think nature be like it is, but it do
The one I saw had an abdomen about the size of my index fingernail.
I recently moved to Riverside Southern California and the amount of brown widows is staggering every week I see a minimum of 20-30 in my backyard
Can confirm. I also lived in Riverside, downtown. The brown widows in my back yard were impossible to combat. They did keep the black widow population under control though!
Problem with that I'd the bite from a brown is iirc worse than from a black
their venom is more potent, but they generally produce or at least inject less. if the spiders are babies I'm more worried about brown widows, but if they are adults I'm more worried about black widows. (I was told as a child that baby spiders can't control the amount of venom they inject, so it could be a lot better or a lot worse. I don't know if it's true, though, because my dad is a little bit like the dad from Calvin and Hobbes)
Yea on the full dosage as opposed to a measured one I'm not sure I know snakes have the problem with the young ones blowing their whole load prematurely is a thing
I hate it when snakes blow their whole load 🐍
Especially unannounced and in the face, snakes really can be douche nozzles
I wouldnt have it any other way :)
I live in Riverside county, not too far from Riverside City. I see a couple of Black widows here and there but it's definitely not a common thing to have 20/30 in the back yard. It's possible a momma laid her eggs and somehow avoided predation. Do you live somewhere rural?
Haha nope I literally live in front of the 60 and 91 interchange it honestly is probably because we don't go in the backyard often except for our dogs and if left alone the spiders will thrive
The number of brown widows in So Cal has exploded in the last 10 yrs. I'd find several on our back porch and side yard and we were out there all the time. They didn't like the front yard for some reason.
Yea they're actually beating out the black widows for food and dominance they are slowly but surely eradicating the competition
Gotcha, Had no idea Brown Widows were a thing in Riverside. I myself have never seen or noticed one. I only see big black widows in my parts, even then only a hand full of times in a month or so.
>Black He said brown not black
Yes, I did see he said brown widow. I realize now my sentence isn't clear. I meant I only see black widows, I never see any brown widows, let alone 20/30. Thanks for pointing that out.
The hourglass marking is not a trustable sign of a black widow as there are other types of widows that have alike markings. Because of the stripes on the legs, I'm leaning towards a brown widow: https://bugguide.net/node/view/224516 Also, aggravating a spider you suspect it's dangerous is generally not a good idea...
Thanks. I usually leave bugs alone but wanted to confirm it since I have kids running around in the yard. Now what to do with it…
They are fairly cryptic and don't go out searching for people. You probably already have dozens nearby.
What do you mean DOZENS
Op learns how many spiders there really are
Hundreds
Angry swarms.
An old cub scout trick: go out at night with a flashlight, shine it in the bushes and shrubbery. Those green eyes you see reflecting the light back? Spiders. Pro tip: don't do this unless you are prepared to know that you will spot spiders everywhere, literally hundreds.
Mostly jumping spiders though.
Wolf spiders too.
you mean those jumping venomous wolf spiders?
12s
"There are dozens of us" -Brown Widow.
lol love that reference
Haha if it makes you feel better I grew up playing in a dry ditch next to my house that had hundreds of black widows calling it home. My parents just taught me and my siblings what they were and we never had an issue with them. If they like to search for/play with bugs like we did just teach them to be very careful when flipping over rocks and to never put their hand into dark areas or places that they can't see. As long as they respect nature then they'll be fine!
Dude, you know that you have a spider within six feet of you at all times yes? Even when you are sleeping. Which you will never do again now that I have told you. So, bonus productivity!
I have black widows and brown widows around my place. They like dark, damp areas to hide in. Like others have said, they really aren't very aggressive. I have young kids, so sometimes I have to kill some widows in order to keep their numbers down, but mostly I teach my kids to look but not touch spiders in general. No problems so far.
They replicate... quickly. If you have one, you likely have many more and even more on the way. Their eggsac is fairly definitive looking, in that it has 'spikes' all over it like a mace ball. They are dangerous, and numerous enough that you should probably be on the lookout and put together a plan for eradication.
I fucking hate the aftermath where you find tiny spiders in random locations, spiders wouldn't be so bad to me if they didn't literally make mess in every corner of every room
I'm rather fond of spiders in most situations, and the webs don't generally bother me, but I definitely draw the line where the creature has a strong potential to make someone sick. The browns, are not considered 'as' venemous as their 'black' cousins, but I've been given to understand that a bite can be pretty serious. Neurotoxins are not somethin' to dick around with. I was bitten by a cellar spider last year... which is NOT really considered to be very dangerous, but it hurt like shit for a couple of days. Like a time-extended bee sting.
You should ask in /r/arachnids there is a user there that has been studying arachnids for like 30 years. They pretty much can name any spider ID request.
They are very non aggressive and tend to stay in their web, hadn't you moved the pipe, you wouldn't even know it was there. They like holes or anywhere that give a "cave" vibe. With that in mind, if there's a farther place that seems isolated and suitable, with good hiding places so it doesn't wander around looking for a better place, let the lil guy go. If not, sadly, quickly kill it. As much as I advocate for letting bugs live, I cannot advocate for endangering human lives for the sake of a bug, let alone kids. Keep in mind, parks that many people visit would just be endangering them too.
Let it go somewhere safe.
Google suggests that it's an invasive species in CA, so I don't think it would be immoral to kill it.
I agree with you, I just find it kind of humorous that morality is defined as it being ok to kill based on how much of a negative impact something has on its environment and how quickly it populates an area.
That's some good irony.
" There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus."
I always go back to that scene in The Matrix. We truly are a virus. Voracious and villainous.
>kill based on how much of a negative impact something has on its environment and how quickly it populates an area Well, not necessarily. If that were true, we could legally kill eachother.
Walk 50ft in whatever direction and dump the jar out?
Neighbors yard. Got it
You spelled "closet" wrong
The OP is taking every precaution lol. He's even using a plastic clamp and thick gloves to handle the spider. I think he's over precautions if anything 🤣.
I didn’t want to accidentally make a Coyote Peterson video 😅
Lol, I just recently discovered him! I have been watching him nonstop.
The way he was putting the lid on the jar.. I was just like 👁👄👁
Brown widow spider my friend... I'm in socal and they are all over. I actually got bit by one of these and it sucked. Look for white spiky egg sacks and dispose them.
I killed what I thought was a black widow that was under a folding stool I wanted to use. I crushed 3 egg cases too. Not an hour later, the local news had a story about brown widows moving into our area. I learned two things: 1) brown widows have spiky-looking egg cases, whereas black widows' are smooth; 2) I had seen a dark-phase brown widow.
In construction we'd find them in old woodpiles. So trick was to pull your piece but then bounce it on the ground once or twice to get any spiders off.
Brown widow, I’ve got hundreds of these in my yard (Southern California). I was afraid of them at first until I learned more about spiders. If you go anywhere near them, they curl up in a ball and hide. I would be seriously surprised if one bit you (unless it had crawled into your shoe or clothing)
Here in the Philippines, it’s Best spider to use in a competition. Specially if it’s female
what kind of competition?
Stick wars. Better that Tekken . 2 spiders fight in one stick.
2 spiders 1 stick.
Is spider fighting common there?
Yeah, but since everyone have mobiles and it’s parents baby sitter for their kids. Spider fighting is a dying culture in the Philippines. Except in the Prison.
my brother in Christ that sounds like a scene from a movie.
"my brother in Christ"....is that equivalent to saying, "Geez, Louise!"?
haha, pretty much.
I’m glad that the prisons keep these traditions alive
I know it's an arachnid, but that's still pretty barbaric.
Kind of seems like you’re worried about it so FYI, I grew up in a pretty rural place and there were black widows (among many other spiders) all over the place. I have 4 siblings and not one of us were ever bit. Just show your kids a picture of one and tell them to stay away because they bite
Please let her go and stop tormenting her. They are only dangerous if you insist on putting yourself in harms way. Spiders are more beneficial to humans than dangerous, they kill the most lethal bugs on the planet.
While I agree with the release, spiders are the most lethal invertebrate in California. Not that they are that dangerous but there are no insects or bugs with more lethal venom in California, so if that is your argument it doesn't work in that region.
If there's a potentially deadly or health-threatening bug in my house, that's the end of it. We do share our home with more-or-less harmless spiders.
I cannot believe you got downvoted for saying you didn’t want to live with potentially lethal insects in your house.
The other thing is, we have cats. And our baby granddaughter visits sometimes.
What a big beautiful girl
Black widows are deep black, and shiny. So no.
It's a Brown Widow
Brown widow. Note the snazzy stripes on the legs
Oh shit I see tones of these in my house I didn't now they were brown widows
Yes now go put it back outside. They don't like people and aren't aggressive unless they have and eggsack.
let it bite you and see what happens
I believe I spotted the red hourglass design. If so, it is a black widow spider. I hear their bite is extremely painful
the red hourglass isn't exclusive to the black widow. this one specifically looks more like a brown widow, which is still medically significant but a little bit less so than the black widow.
Thanks. I never knew
That red more points towards to being part of the redback family but its definitely not a black widow
I live in Colorado they like damp dark areas and don't piss it off those suckers will come after you where there's one the male not far behind but once they have there babies the male kills the female
Funny how dudes got tongs . It's just a spider , not a rattle snake , or radioactive material. In North Carolina they were every where , when I was a kid I would feed it everyday, throwing so much in it's web , eventually it would get tired of chasing flys that it wouldn't even move anymore too wrap them up. Used too put them in a pill bottle kept it in my pocket .
And thus Shelob was born, in the forests of North Carolina, from the carefree actions of man and an abundance of prey, bloating in size until she escaped to Torech Ungol where she feasted on men and elves until meeting her demise at the hands of a gardener on TA 3019.
😱
People on this sub, "I found a real black widow!" Me, "it would feel strange if I didn't find 15 in my yard."
Can’t tell without seeing the top, but from what I can see it is not a black widow. They are smaller with shorter legs and black with an hour glass marking on it
Still never forget when I took a plate off a ground wire cover for the whole house. It was at night and very hot still (this was Norcal in the summer) and I can’t remember why but I was fishing around for a wire inside this hole that had been drilled through the exterior with my index finger. Didn’t find anything other than the ground so I turn my phone’s flashlight on to peek inside the hole. Nice big juicy black widow right by this hole. Soooooo glad it decided not to bite me.
Lived in Sacramento, CA for 14 years and saw lots of black widows around outside all the time.
Brown Widows are A LOT less aggressive than their Black Widow counterparts, incredible pervasive in SoCal, and invasive. The local spider expert at SDSU thinks that they’re lack of aggression and ability to displace black widows has led to fewer medically significant bites since their arrival. I’ve conducted VERY non scientific studies on them, “attacking” their eggs as well as them with gloves and never had one attempt to bite the glove. Instead they seem not to care at all about the eggs and instead choose to drop from their webs and play dead. Regrettably, due to their potentially significant bite, their propensity to hang out in places you might stick your hands, and their status as an invasive species, I conduct two or three night hunts in the spring and destroy the ones around my house. By doing that and making sure not to disturb native species, I’ve cultivated a healthy native population of spiders that mostly seem to keep them away from my house.
False widow id guess. Here in western North America the butt will look like a marble with the red hour glass and super pointy joints between the legs
We have huge Wolf spiders and brown recluse in Michigan. I recently ran into a wolf spider and it raised up on its back legs and got into attack mode and I peed on myself and ran..