Black Widow

Their are two North American species that are dangerous to humans: Black Widow and Brown Recluse. The female has a shiny black, globular abdomen with two yellow or red markings in a triangle shape. It looks like a hourglass. Males are smaller, lighter in color, with light streaks on the abdomen. The web is irregular, many times found along exterior foundations on slabs, under stones and rocks, behind shrubs .They usually don’t into structures .They will bite if provoked. The bite feels like a sharp pain ,like a needle puncture. After 15 minutes to an hour there will be muscular cramps. Bites are rarely fatal, but you should seek medical attention.

Brown Widow

Because they vary from light tan to dark brown or almost black, with variable markings of black, white, yellow, orange, or brown on the back of their abdomens, brown widows are not as easy to recognize. The underside of the abdomen, if you can see it, contains the characteristic hourglass marking. Unlike the black widow, the hourglass is orange to yellow orange in color.

Although the bite of a widow spider is much feared, the widow spiders are generally nonaggressive and will retreat when disturbed. Bites usually occur when a spider becomes accidentally pressed against the skin of a person when putting on clothes or sticking their hands in recessed areas or dark corners. According to Dr. G.B. Edwards, an arachnologist with the Florida State Collection of Arthropods in Gainesville, the brown widow venom is twice as potent as black widow venom. However, they do not inject as much venom as a black widow, are very timid, and do not defend their web. The brown widow is also slightly smaller than the black widow.