Me v. Black Widow

Since moving into our brand new home a little over a year ago Jonathan and myself have come in contact with a total of 5 black widows (6 if you count the one I found in my classroom storage closet).  First of all NONE of them were found IN our lovely new home...all outside.  2 were in the garage, 1 was on the back porch, 1 near the foundation in the back yard, and the one I found today was on our fence.

Yes, we have an exterminator scheduled to come BUT when we talked to the exterminator who does a lot of work in our neighborhood we found that the main problems in our area are ants (yes, I agree) and black widows (yes, I agree).  Ugh...creepy.

Ok, so here are some tips/things we've learned in dealing with black widows.

1.  You'll never doubt that it is a black widow.  They look exactly like you have seen on TV.  Totally black and very shiny.  Like they are wearing a hard black shell and they have the bright red hour glass on their belly.  It is easy to spot the red hour glass because they hang upside down (belly up) from their webs...like they're warning you that they are crazy poisonous.  Before I had seen a black widow sometimes I would see a blackish spider and wonder if it was one but once you've seen one in person yourself you'll know exactly what it is...I promise.

2.  I always assumed the black widow was a fairly small spider...like maybe the size of my pinky nail.  No, that is not the case.  Black widows are pretty big.  Not tarantula size or anything but the body is probably bigger than my pinky nail and with the legs spread out it is larger than a quarter.  To me, that is a big spider!  EWW!

3.  Don't try to kill them with spider bug spray.  What always happens when you spray a bug with bug spray?  They run away and you can never find them again.  1.  I don't want dead bugs in my house.  2.  I don't want my dogs to eat a black widow...they love eating bugs.  Kill them with wasp spray.  I use wasp spray because it shoots really far in a thick straight stream.  It is a total over kill (no pun intended) but I rather be safe than sorry.  Also, our wasp spray makes a sticky foam so nothing can escape it.

Here is the spider before the wasp spray. I couldn't get a good picture of the red hour glass. This was already too close for comfort.

Here she is after the spray.  She's a goner for sure!