Brown Widows Taking Over?

[Helltaco]

June 4, 2010 in my gazebo I seen the first Brown Widow I ever heard of. At first sight I guessed what it was. I used to see Black Widows all through my yard and even sometimes in my house. I have not seen a single Black Widow anywhere sense I seen this Brown Widow and now they are throughout my yard as the black ones used to be. They look the same to me except for the colors and the egg sac has spikes all over it. What's the deal?

Where have you seen ether spider lately?

 

[compmodder26]

Interesting, according to wiki the brown window's venom is twice as potent as the black widow. However, it's not near as dangerous because the brown widow can't deliver near as much venom as the black widow. Still, seems like a nice guy to have around to take care of pests.

 

[DesertChris]

Also, they Supposedly prefer different types of places than the Black ones....So Lucky us....Two Widow Varieties to squish....LOL
We have both types here too.

How do you like those freaky looking egg sacks??

I haven't seen any Brown ones yet this year, but have killed a bunch of the Black ones so far....and cleared out probably 200 Black Widow egg sacks too....

 

[millworkman]

Browns eat blacks.

 

[Helltaco]

Browns eat blacks.

I was starting to think that. Did you read that or see it or guess it or what?

 

[meinchoh]

Size 10 shoe to both of them - I don't care what pests they eat!

I was starting to think that. Did you read that or see it or guess it or what?

That's why you haven't seen any blacks around...

 

[millworkman]

Read it somewhere but also have first hand knowledge. I used to find and kill blacks and browns all the time till I heard the browns eat the blacks so I stopped killing them. If I found a brown I moved it to the area where the blacks were and haven't seen a black in a couple years. Been bitten by both and can say browns are basically harmless(to me).

 

[DesertChris]

Cool!

last time I looked them up was last summer, back then not much was known, so new info is great!

 

[queequeg152]

found one of these last year here in houston.
im lucky i had a flashlight with me or i would have reached right into its nest.

here's mine.

 

[megahurts]

Damn Nature, You Scary!

FWIW, I've heard if you keep the webbings down, they starve because they dont spin it fast enough to recover to get food or they'll move on.

 

[Helltaco]

Yours looks dead. I took mine to work and charged 50 cents a look. Then I traded it for a pound of fresh Yellow Fin Tuna.

 

[Cayennemist]

They are taking over SD too. Apparently they don't being out in the open unlike the blacks that hide in dark moist areas.

 

[sicman]

june fourth 2010? am i the only one wondering if this date is accurate

 

[DesertChris]

Supposedly they have been in California around a decade.....
Starting down in San Diego and moving North... IIRC
They just got to our area last year.
They were warning kids at the schools, so I looked around/under stuff to check, and sure enough I found a couple.

However, this year I have only seen the black ones so far.

 

[Helltaco]

june fourth 2010? am i the only one wondering if this date is accurate

It was the day I saw the first Brown Widow I never even heard of!! You don't forget chit like that.

 

[Tigahb8]

They supposedly came in on Air Force planes, we have them down here too, but I have not seen one yet, plenty of the
scaredy cat black ones tho! (they will run and hide if given a chance!)