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12-05-2004, 08:02 AM

writes:

Here the main spiders are black widow (both the passive and the leggy
aggressive types) and brown recluse. Our big worry is whether we can
get them all killed off before they take over, or eat us alive. My
tenant got bit by one in her bed yesterday. One reason I keep atropine
on hand is for spider bites. And if you're gone for 3 days, when you
come back the house will be chock full of black widow webs, to the
point that it looks like a movie spook house (no kidding). Hanging
dichlorvos no-pest strips helps esp. with the black widows. Doesn't
seem to bother the wolf spiders, either, tho we don't see many of
those anyway.

I wasn't aware there was more than one type of Black Widow spider. There
is another that looks very much like a BW but does not have that true
hourglass on the shiny black body. They are the ones that are more
commonly in buildings and are not poisonous (except the "normal" spider
venom that can cause blisters if they bite you). I've seen people
(including my own son) refuse to go in sheds, etc., thinking they were
BWs. BWs seem to prefer dark, moist places. Growing up in eastern
Washington, I had to deal with them whenever I went into the pump house,
scary stuff! However, that was the only place we ever saw them besides
dirt cellars. They weren't ever in the garden which I always worried
about when picking tomatoes (yes, fields full!) since that was dark and
moist in those vines.

Here in western Washington, BWs are not common but they are present. The
Brown Recluse is more common and that is the one that scares me! BWs are
not hiders but the BRs are, or so I understand it that way. I've not
knowingly seen one, but they are very much on my mind when I see a brown
spider I don't recognize. shiver

Glenna

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