So I'm doing some yard work....

[shawn474]

I am in the process of finishing a stone patio that I started last summer. I had the tumbled stone stacked neatly in the back yard and I was in the process of arranging them in a pattern that fit. I grab one of the stones and on the side is a black, round spider with red markings. Remebering the numerous hours on the Discovery Channel, I yell to my wife to get our 3 year old's bug vacuum if you don't own one, GET ONE. This thing has come in handy more times than I care to remember.) I suck it up and stick it in a mason jar and get on the internet. Sure enough, this sucker is a Black Widow spider :eek:(female and very venomous - has the hourglass on the underbelly of the abdomen).

This shook me a bit knowing that I have a small dog and two small children that spend the majority of the time playing back there. Does anyone know of a good spray that will kill these things but still be safe for pets and young children? If I find one in the house, you bet your ass I'm moving!!!!!!

[dorokusai]

Seven from Home Depot. Anything is toxic but as long as you dont drink it, you'l be ok. Wood spiders of all kinds come with the territory since you border the park.

[Rivrrat]

They're pretty normal around here, but I hate them anyways. it's one of the only things I'll kill on sight.

[GV#27]

yikes:eek:Apparently a bite is VERY painful.There is an antivenom but it has potential side effects.Thankfully no one in your family was bitten.

[obieone]

Google 'Demon WP', or e-bug.net , It gives instructions on how to use the product.
I'm surprised you found one that far north. I've seen nests of them working on HVAC equipt. down here in SC. Just pay attention to what your touching, where gloves.

[audiobliss]

Yeah, I've seen QUITE a few around in our yard and under the house. Even seen a few brown recluses on the premises.

It was amazing one time, though. We had those decorative cement blocks around a tree to trim a flower bed at one time. Well, they're angled so there's a space between the brick and the one beside it, and under/above each brick. Started pulling up those bricks one day to move them, and found a few black widows. I know I found three, maybe four. But the scariest thing was, one of them was GOODLY the size of a nickel. Well, ok, maybe a dime. But that's pretty daggone large for a black widow in my book!! :eek:

[WilliamM2]

I'm not surprised you found one that far north, they are all over Michigan as well. But I am surprised you found one this time of year.

I wouldn't freak out about it, a Black Widow rarely bites, they usually retreat. For as many of them as I have seen around here, I have never heard of anyone getting bit.

[hearingimpared]

Shawn I'm glad to hear that nothing bad happened! Spider bites can be nasty.

[avelanchefan]

Pfft you guys are wimpy....try living in Arizona! Especially when the Tarantulas start to do there "migration". Thats always fun to see. :eek: Buddy of mine lived in their migration route, would end up getting at least a half dozen or so of them in his house a year, but would see closer to a couple of hundred in his yard for about a 2 week period.

[Dennis Gardner]

Black widows stay outdoors for the most part.............the brown recluse spiders that run under my bed gives me the heebie jeebies. Nothing like body parts rotting away and falling off............................http://www.highway60.com/mark/brs/casestudy_necrosis.asp

[Zero]

Wait a minute - you actually had to google up an image of the Black Widow to properly ID it?

[F1nut]

A brown recluse spider put my father in the hospital for a week. Nasty effers!

[BAD ASP]

My unit was on a s & d when my buddy was bitten above his boot by what turned out to be the vietnamese version of the brown recluse. We were hacking around out in the bush for 5 days, on the third day we had to have him airlifted out. He almost lost his leg. He spent a month in R & R and then was sent home. I hate spiders,,,, all of them.

[shadowofnight]

Out here in central CA , anywhere dark and low to the ground is damn near guaranteed to have them( B Widow ). You learn to pick things up in the garage by their sides and not with a hand underneath anything.

Never have bothered me though...kinda hard to be afraid of a spider when you used to handle just about every species of venomous snake. A girlfriend I had a long while back got bitten by a brown recluse , even though it healed well the pictures from the time of the bite were nasty. Her husband ( At the time ) didnt want to take her to the hospital, said it would get better all on its own :eek: One of the reasons she divorced him :) I'd take a widow hit before that sumbitch.

[BaggedLancer]

Wow, looks like either of those things biting me would ruin my day. Luckily those don't come up this way. You guys can keep them all.

[jtgranby]

Shawn

Keep them on your side of town or I'll send my snakes over.:D

JT

[obieone]

I worked with a guy who got bitten by a crevice spider, said it took FOREVER to heal.
He also told me about the effects of a brown recluse bite- the muscle just disolves, and you just have this 'sink hole' in the area that was bitten.
Friggin creepy.

[shepx2]

Google 'Demon WP', or e-bug.net , It gives instructions on how to use the product.



I swear by Demon WP stuff. I use it just twice a year, and rarely get any bug problems. Nothing else comes close to it's effectiveness.

[Jstas]

Seven from Home Depot. Anything is toxic but as long as you dont drink it, you'l be ok. Wood spiders of all kinds come with the territory since you border the park.

Dude, it's spelled Sevin and it's chemical name is Carbaryl.

Sevin is the commercial name for it and Ortho, as well as several other companies, sell it as Sevin.

It's potent stuff. It is a carcinogen too and it will take you down faster than that black widow can so follow precautions well. It will take out pretty much any bug you got including good ones and bad ones. Even just the residue is enough to wipe out an entire hive of honeybees. But if you want to kill nasties and creepy crawlies, that will do the job. There is safe stuff out there for humans but probably not nearly as effective.

At this risk of being accused of being an "encyclopedia" again because for some reason the idea of actually knowing and understanding the world around you is grounds for being mocked by small-brained twits, I know this for a reason. I have a fairly large container of Sevin in my shed because of a wood ant infestation I managed to inflict my parent's yard with from a mulch delivery one year. That was the only stuff that killed those ants good and the guy at Lowes told me all about it.

[mrbigbluelight]

At this risk of being accused of being an "encyclopedia" again because for some reason the idea of actually knowing and understanding the world around you is grounds for being mocked by small-brained twits,

The Encyclopedia Butt-tanica ?


;)


Brown recluses scare me. The Floor Tech at work has some major plastic surgery on his neck from a recluse bite he got years ago. Bit him close to his juglar vein.