Hello, Maddie here (otherwise known by some of the older residents of
the other garden neighborhood (rec.gardens newsgroup, not
uk.rec.gardening) as the olde madgardener) now that I'm
frantically gardening somewhere in Western Tennessee in a warmer zone,
moister climate, low-lands and farmland abounding.........I have a
very serious question: I have now encountered my first and not last,
black Widow spider. I know they're out there. More than I would
have comfortably realised. And especially since last
late summer when I was turning over the raised brick garden to plunk
in the few remaining container gardens and perennials, soil and all
into the raised soil of this bed. The first encounter was the HUGE
wench that was
blatently obvious in the eastern corner which once James, me
Englishman tilled up the soil from my turning it over first by hand
with a shovel, she revealed herself. We put her in a glass gallon
pickle jar, but she eventually died. The second one, right afterwards
was a smaller one (the first was as large as a fifty cent Kennedy
piece, serious!) she was the size of a quarter. She had moved into the
hollow spot on the bottom of a three gallon nursery pot filled with
daylilies. She got squashed, quickly. The third encounter was back
in the raised bed. She had used the roots and soil of some perennials
to make her cave, and I just plunked the whole thing in with the
thought that she'd be overcome and I had buried her alive. I don't
know if she was able to work her way out of the soil since the depth
was a foot down with daylily toes and soil above her to get through.
She's the reason I now have to remember to wear garden gloves or at
least those awesome latex gloves I found where I used to work that we
weren't allowed to use.

Since I have now had my first encounter with the first of many black
widows, my question is this, knowing that I am benevolent and usually
encourage the beneficials in my gardens.....this one is spinning her
capture webs over my window box that is sitting on the end of the
brick sedum and sunny perennials garden. When I was watering the
columbine that had sprung up in the middle of the Turkish toes sedums
that are growing in that long pot, I disturbed her and she huffed
quickly back into the crack where the bricks were meeting the shed
back. As much as I know she'll keep out bad bugs, I need to know if I
should allow her to live her life there and have her many
children....or should I spray her now and keep an eye peeled for
future inhabitants? I've also seen and had it killed, my first
serious encounter with a brown recluse. I kill those. this one wasn't
too close to me, the neighbor showed it to me, and then upon my
insistance, smashed it. I realize that the black widow bite won't
kill me but I would feel like I was having a heart attack, and given
my age now, it could mess me up. The recluse is a no-brainer.
Beneficial or not, one has to use common sense. The widow isn't
agressive, and only bites when cornered. Should I spray her dead and
make her tidy little perfect corner uninhabitable? Before anyone can
ask....I don't have worries about grandchildren getting bit. Only my
absent minded self. And I've alerted James of her home and pointed it
out. He's all for spraying her. I just wondered if I'm being overly
cautious. I could live with her, but have to remember to wear
protective gloves (something I don't usually do, I love the feel of
the soil and I can tell a weed from a seedling perennial by the touch)

thanks in advance to anyone who can just give me an opinion........

madgardener over in the flatlands, gardening in her new Western Faerie
Holler, zone 7b somewhere in West Tennessee