Found: Black widow in apartment

[Thoreau]

Ok, I've always had a bit of insectophobia in general, but spiders, especially the really creepy kind, have always held a special spot on my list.

A couple weeks ago I had the front office send in the exterminator to take care of some little bugs I'd noticed (one maintenance guy called them 'water beetles' but I'm not sure of that.) Anyway, I told them to come back yesterday as well because the little buggers were still showing up. Of course, the idiot blond at the front office didn't bother relaying that info to the pest control company, and nobody showed up. (They only bring them out on Thursdays too, which sucks.)

Fast forward to about an hour ago. I went to the front door to check for package delivery notes that UPS/FedEx/etc. leave out there sometimes, and on my way back in I noticed a crapload of dead water beetles all in a small spot on the carpet about 4-5in in diameter. I looked just above that (about 4 inches off the carpet) and was greeted by this asshole:

Yay Spiders!

Being rather freaked out, I ended up taking a crappy photo, but it gets the point across. After deliberating for a bit I decided to go with the vacuum method, even though I'm sure anyone with half a brain can see a flaw in that theory. Luckily, the dust bin is clear on my vacuum cleaner, and was recently emptied, so I could see inside and verified that the motor managed to chop him into thirds before depositing him among his water beetle prey. So no, he won't be crawling back out any time soon... or ever.

Anyway, now I'm kinda freaking out. How the hell does one facilitate an impromptu apartment extermination that would take out a black widow? Kinda hard to sleep with the thought of one of those pricks crawling onto me and sending me to the nearest ER. (I'm not aware of any specific bite/sting allergies, but I also don't want to find out about new ones if I have them...)

And yes, I intend to bitchslap the front office brutally tomorrow, and demand a revisit immediately from the pest control company. In the meantime, ARGH!!!

 

[Train]

do you have any other pics? I'm not positive thats a black widow. I've seen several of them, they typically have shorter legs, and thier markings are red not yello. But it oculd just be a bad pic.

EDIT: Also, black widows are incredibly reclusive, you wouldnt find them as easily as you describe, unless they were ont he move, they usually hang out in complete darkness where they can be undistubed for long periods of time. 1 in 3 houses in the USA have black widows in them, its just that 99% of them are never even seen by humans.

 

[zanejohnson]

black widow bites are overrated, my wife was bitten once... didnt require an ER visit...she got sick for about a day and then was fine again.... and by sick i mean, she had a weird headache, felt poisoned, but nothing serious...

 

[Q]

Scary and Train is right that might not be one. MIGHT

 

[Pheran]

Paging Syringer.

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: zanejohnson
black widow bites are overrated, my wife was bitten once... didnt require an ER visit...she got sick for about a day and then was fine again.... and by sick i mean, she had a weird headache, felt poisoned, but nothing serious...

You just set yourself up for some of ATOT's great jokes I'm sure.

 

[Thoreau]

I actually wasn't 100% sure on it being a black widow myself since I couldn't get a shot of it's underside without getting way too close for comfort. I've only ever seen one in my life other than this (the other most definitely had the telltale hourglass shape on it) so I wouldn't be too surprised if I'm wrong.

The rather large collection of food that it had accumulated, however, would be something I'd expect to see, but again, *shrug*. I did fail a science class project in junior high once because i refused to do an insect collection, so I'm not very well versed in bug identification.

Sure looks like one to me tho =)

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: Thoreau
I did fail a science class project in junior high once because i refused to do an insect collection

ahhahaha

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: Train
do you have any other pics? I'm not positive thats a black widow. I've seen several of them, they typically have shorter legs, and thier markings are red not yello. But it oculd just be a bad pic.

It's definitely a bad pic... handheld with a 70-200mm lens, onboard flash, and a razor thin DoF from having the aperture at 2.8. Unfortunately, the other half dozen I snapped came out even worse, so unfortunately I don't have anything else to offer in the photo department.

 

[xavier es]

it is a black widow, they are fairly common here in arizona. i leave them alone and they do the same. they don't just crawl up on you ,they stay in their web or hole. if they are in my way i just smash them. i ve been bit, it not much worse than about 3 wasp stings at once.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: xavier es
it is a black widow, they are fairly common here in arizona. i leave them alone and they do the same. they don't just crawl up on you ,they stay in their web or hole. if they are in my way i just smash them. i ve been bit, it not much worse than about 3 wasp stings at once.

Still creepy, hehe. (North Phoenix here.)

I've gotta give the little fella credit tho. He tore up the water beetle population for me =)

 

[Adul]

sounds like your exterminator is next to worthless

 

[ELopes580]

Originally posted by: Pheran
Paging Syringer.

STAT!!

 

[kinev]

I'd say you had a Brown Widow.

The yellow/orangish hourglass and the banded legs are pretty telling. One of the best ways to tell is by the egg sack (if there was one). Brown widow egg sacks have little protrusions coming off of them (like spikes). Also, the brown widow's silk is very, very strong, just like the black widow. If you tug on the web (which, like the black widow, looks like the spider didn't know what she was doing and is all "messy") and it feels like it will hold with a lot of pressure, you probably have a widow.

The good news is that brown widows are not aggressive at all. I've actually seen them "play dead" and curl up into a ball when their web was disturbed. Black widows don't do that. They tend to defend their nests when they're disturbed.

That all being said, I would have killed her, too.