I moved from suburbish Houston to Cypress and discovered that we have Black Widow spiders out here. I had never even seen one in my life, then while mowing the lawn I see two of them. ****in A. A big one and a little one, which I assume means that there are a lot of little ones somewhere else. I sprayed the **** out of both of them but the big one disappeared into the grass so not sure if I killed it.
They like dark quiet places (woodpiles, storage buildings, etc...) so just watch where you put your hands. Also have really poor eyesight and don't move all that fast, so they're easy to squish with a small stick or rock or gloved hand or shoe or whatever. Smaller one could have been a male, their fangs aren't long enough to bite people; the female ones hurt but not any more than a wasp or scorpion. Oh, and squish any egg sacs you find:
Thanks. I wonder if I caught them in transit because they were kind of out in the open. They were on the edge of my property, along the street where the grass from my yard meets the curb. They were at least 15 yards from the nearest structure, which would have been my or my neighbors' back patios (neither of which are dark/quiet places). There is however an opening for the sewer near there. Maybe they came from the sewer and set up shop temporarily?? I called an exterminator and I could tell he thought I was spouting BS, but I showed him a picture I took when he arrived. He was very surprised that I saw them where I did. (Yes, I know that the exterminator can't really do anything unless he sprays them directly, but I'd had them come by the week before and they offered to spray again for free if I saw anything so I took them up on it.)
