[quote author="IrvineRealtor" date=1221568152][quote author="Shooby" date=1221562715]On a side note, has anyone who lives here notice the absurd amount of Black Widow Spiders crawling around this place? I found one about 2 inches long at the base of my entry way. Confirmed it was a black widow cuz of the red hour glass on its belly. When i walk around the neighborhood at night, i'll see about 10-15 of them just chillin on the curb in their webs. If anyone has a dog, i'd watch out, those things are poisonous.</blockquote>
There are several species ubiquitous in our area Shooby. They are present because there are other insects
to eat. Without these guys, we'd have even more bugs on the loose. Be thankful.
Below is an unsavory version of a momo-style post. Apologies in advance to the arachnophobes out there...
There are the irritating but essentially harmless Orb Weavers <em>Neoscona oaxacensis</em> that are the busiest construction workers in the city.
They tear down their webs at the end of each night's hunt and start a new one each dusk.
(Unless, of course, my face happens to tear one down first.)
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v289/GilbertQ/Arachnids/DSCN8893.jpg" alt="" />
<img src="http://waynesword.palomar.edu/images/orbspi2b.jpg" alt="" />
The Black Widows <em>Latrodectus hesperus</em> are prevalent but much more reticent, not laying out webs to catch flying prey.
You won't be walking into their webs in the open.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v289/GilbertQ/Arachnids/DSCN8853.jpg" alt="" />
<img src="http://entomology.unl.edu/images/spiders/blkwidow1.jpg" alt="" />
Hope this helps,
-IR2</blockquote>
Actually, I believe you mistake the orb weaver with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus_geometricus">with the black widow's cousin, the brown widow spider</a>.
Orb weavers build ginormous meticulous webs between bushes, trees, light posts, etc., but brown widow spiders build erratic messy webs at stair corners, edge of pots, lawn chairs, and anything else that they can attach their webs to that are close to the ground. They are easily mistaken for black widows due to the same hour glass underneath their belly, body shape, similar web, young black widows start off as brown and darken to black as they mature, and somewhat similar web location as black widows. However, black widows prefer darker and more remote locations. Such as wood piles, underneath the wheels of trash cans (as do brown widows), and golf bags stored in the corner of the garage when they haven't been used for some time.
Anyway, I am too lazy to find it, but even the OCR did an article a few years back about the brown widow and how it found its way from the south the sunny dry climate of OC. I have seen an out right invasion of this spider at my house, and I have noticed the invasion of their webs from Menifee all the way up to multi-million dollar homes in Orange Park Acres. <a href="http://www.sdnhm.org/fieldguide/inverts/latr-geo.html">From what I have heard, they are not as poisonous in a sense</a>...
<em>"According to arachnologist Dr. G.B. Edwards, in Gainesville, Florida, the venom of brown widows is twice as potent as that of black widows but the effects tend to more localized than a black widow as less venom is injected. The main symptom is severe local pain. The spider is not very aggressive, does not defend its web, and bites are not common."</em>
Personally, I do not feel like finding out for myself, so I do my best to kill them as much as I can. I just wish my neighbors read IHB and would read this thread to find out if they may or may not be that bad. They breed like mofos, and mama spider doesn't kill off anyone just because she is hungry. They also are friendly with one another and allow squatter widows to crash at their webs , and they also don't give a spider's a$$ if they reuse an old web from a dead relative. Of course this is bad feng shui at the crackercakes household. I will say they are not aggressive and will either run up into their loft they built in their web if you disturb them or even play dead if you wash/force them out of their web.
So... all those weird erratic webs you see on mail boxes, the bases of stairs, and hanging down from your pots of plants are not orb weavers, they are widow spiders, they just aren't always black. Let me know when you get bit if it is worse or lighter than a black widow, I want to know.
