Sun 31 Aug 2008
Western Widow
Posted by Will under backyarchaeology, nature
[3] Comments
Watering the plants in the side yard, I tried to dislodge what I thought to be an abandoned cobweb spun between the hose and the house by spritzing it only to discover it was most certainly still occupied by a wet western widow who barged out of her hiding place to see what the hell was going on.
I’m surprised I actually finished watering first instead of just dropping the hose and running to get my cam. Here’s the best snap I got, a macro, from about an inch or so away (any non-arachnipobes who are still here can click to triplify):
Given the lack of definition to the telltale hourglass-shaped coloration on its abdomen, at first I thought it might have been what I’ve heard of commonly referred to as a “false widow,” but it turns out to be the western variety. Yes, the regional equivalent of the “most venomous spider in North America.”
Oooooooo!
Did I kill it? Of course not. Why should I? I’d rather marvel and respect then freak and destroy. And besides, it’s not hurting anything accept the critters it preys on, so instead of harming it I actually apologized for disturbing it and then intruding upon it with my point-n-shoot.
Well, you are nicer than I am. I kill, on average, one black widow (with full hourglass) per day. They come out at night, around the outside of our house and on our patio (and once in our dining room). What bothers me is that they are right at the level where they can easily bite my dogs. So, I’ve developed a shoe-drop technique that has at least a 95% success rate. Sorry, but I don’t seem to be depleting their population too much. Those bitches keep on coming back.
I totally appreciate the concern you have for your dogs. With this one I found yesterday I was thinking the same thing about any potential exposure to our cats, and while there’s certainly a risk I also understand that a black widow doesn’t really want to envenomate anything it can’t take back to its lair and eat.
Shame you don’t have any alligator lizards around your house. They are immune to black widow venom and find them the nomnom. We ourselves are presently experiencing a dearth of the once-thriving reptiles, thanks to our cats, which drove off the ones they didn’t catch and kill.
I’m kinda luck in that I don’t have small critters around and my kids know enough to leave them alone. When I find them in an area where we typically are I tend to use a small stick and twirl them up with their web and move them to places like behind the garage where they can feast on other bugs to the hearts content and reduce the risk for me.
I’ll applaud your for not sending it to bug heaven with a heavy footed squish.