Brown Widow Spider
Did you know that there are four types of Widow Spiders in Florida? They are the Northern Black Widow Spider, the Southern Widow Spider, the Red Widow Spider, and the Brown Widow Spider which will discuss in more detail below.
Although the venom of these spiders is not as toxic as the Black Widow, they are still very painful and can cause serious injury if not treated.
Because brown widow spiders (Latrodectus Geometricus) can vary from light tan to dark brown or almost black and may have different markings such as white, black, yellow, brown, and even orange on the back of their abdomen, they are tough to recognize! The picture below is of the red widow spider.
Brown Widow Egg Sac
You’ll notice the hourglass marking on the bottom of the abdomen, colored yellow or orange. The Egg Sac of the brown widow spider is not the same as other widows and has pointed projections, much like the old sea mines.
If you have pictures of this spider or believe a Brown Widow has bitten you, please post your comments below and send the photos to the email address at the bottom of this page.
I have a brown widow living in the corner of my patio – in the same corner is a huge banana spider. The brown widow ate the male banana spider and had it all wrapped up in her web.
I had never heard of a brown widow until we moved here. They are everywhere. We actually get sprayed every three months for spiders inside and out, but they return within a month every time.
Brown widows often appear white, with small red or brown spots. They can also be incredibly dark, like black widows. It all depends on the spider. I have been spotting and killing black and brown widows for years now, and I think the easiest way to spot them is by their irregular webs.
The webs take the appearance of a witch’s broom style cat’s cradle string game. Just a note, sometimes they are aggressive, it depends on the spider. If you aren’t sure whether or not you are dealing with a brown widow infestation, look to the egg sacks. Brown widows have spiky egg sacks!
We live in San Diego. Last fall I found our first brown widow spider with its unique egg sac. It was the only one I saw. Then a few days ago I noticed a few egg sacs hanging from my kids’ trampoline. I decided to do a careful search of our property and I noticed clusters of up to 12 egg sacs under the eaves of our house. My husband got his canister torch and we went to town blasting away at ever spider and egg sac we could find.
I found a brown widow spider living in EVERY single outside toy. Tricycles, swings, kids’ picnic bench, playhouse, patio chairs, they all had at least one brown widow on them. I probably killed around 50 spiders and at least as many egg sacs. I’m almost panicky thinking of my kids playing around outside. I haven’t had it in the past, but I am going to sign up for a pest control company ASAP.
probably should of mentioned we have tons of crickets in the backyard that come out and night that’s whats probably attracting them.
In all my 12 years of living in this house when we moved here i never seen these Brown widow spiders before until a month ago when i was about to walk out to the backyard where the sliding glass door leads out to it.
as i was walking down the steps i stopped immediately and as u would see yellow tape that would say caution this was all webbing a lost like it was from the handlebars to the other side of the wall as if the webs were blocking me from continuing. as i saw 2 of them on the web i never seen spiders like this so i got my hand lighter and lit them up as i continued to walk passed the steps i saw more to the side and under the chairs and tables to my left against the wall of the house i actually saw a HUGE black widow sharing the web with 2 of the brown widows that were smaller and at first i thought maybe that’s what small black widows look like then i saw more smaller ones tons where the chairs and tables were outside so with m hand lighter i just lit all them as many as i saw during this month
i been seeing them pop up in the same spot also along the railing outside of the house leading to the backyard. I go outside at night to get rid of them. Im thinking of just taking all our stuff and breaking it down and throwing it away its all just “Stuff” anyway. I basicly alrdy knew the less clutter the less effect u will see spiders. I still havnt seen an egg since. What i find weird is when i kill the spiders at night when i go out in the morning the bodies are gone. hopefully i can get rid of them i hate spiders hah.
We have a ton of these spiders living around our patio and backyard fence. They’ve infested a picnic table, patio chairs, even some of the plants. I use something called Terro Spider Killer and it works great. If you want to kill a bunch of them at once, I recommend going outside around 8-9 PM since that’s when they come out and are most visible.
I live in Laguna Niguel CA. Tonight i killed about 15-20 brown widows in my back yard as well as a ton of egg sacks. Lots of the widows had the sacks on them. These things are everywhere. I just used Raid and it worked fine. Go out at night with a flashlight.
I was playing tennis and I found a brown widow and so i filled up all my water bottles with water and dumb it on the spider and her eggs over and over again until she got mad. Then I left them soaked and angry. Hopefully i will kill them tomorrow :D
I found a brown widow egg sac in our kitchen behind the garbage can. As soon as I saw the strange sac with spokes sticking out all around it I began to look for the spider. I saw a web under the kitchen table bench spread out to the floor a foot away and two legs hanging below the bench. I went on-line and researched the egg sac to see it matched the picture of the brown widow egg sac. We used Ortho indoor outdoor insect spray to kill the spider because she was hiding in a crevice on the bench as soon as my husband flipped it over to find her.
We need to look under the table top and see if there are anything other egg sacks. Ugh!
Our dog’s paw became swollen and I took her to the vet. That afternoon I checked the shade cover of her x-pen and found the white sac with the little points on it. When the swelling of hour dog’s paw increased I took her to the vet again and also took one of the spiders and the egg sac. Our dog is now on antibiotics as pus has started to come from the infected site. In reading information on the spider, I find there is no anti-venom for it.
Earlier this year, I did find these strange egg cases but did not think much about them until now.
As we were away on vacation and our dogs were boarded at a kennel, I wasn’t aware that I should have checked the shade cover of our pen.
Thanks for all the information on this site. I hope our dog will be okay.
I live in Del Mar, Ca. My Wife and I have noticed a huge infestation of Black, Brown, and now White Widows on our community. We killed over a hundred in just a half block. The White widow are the strangest.
From reading some info these are supposed to be young black widows but this is not the case. These are large adults that have all white on the back orb. Maybe from Brown and Black widows cross breeding? I can only say this is out of control from the normal. We’re talking 1-5 widows every 3 square feet. Nightmare!!
I live in Fullerton CA and we are overwhelmed with brown widows. They used to be attracted to my wrought iron things, but lately I’m finding them on anything wood also. I hung clothes outside to dry and within hours found their webs attached to the clothes. They like dirt too. They are in my bushes and attach their webs to the dirt it looks like. I stab them and smash up the eggs sacks. We used to have a bug man spray every month, but my son has an immune issue so we canceled the bug man. Since we don’t spray anymore they are literally everywhere.
I live in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
I just found one eating a rollypolly at my work.
I was scrubbing the floors when i saw it move out of the corner of my eye and my hand brushed up against it. I’m glad i wasn’t bitten!
How do i get rid of it?
I am in El Cajon, CA. Reading these posts, it seems that we are having a bumper year here for brown widows. I had no trace of the buggers last year in my yard, but this summer I have an infestation on my porch and backyard area. Found the first one when I went to put on my bathing suit that had been drying on one of my patio chairs. I went to put my leg in, and it popped out of the suit crotch area and took off running across the floor. I killed it and studied it as I had never seen a spider move so fast and “leggy”. Sure enough it had the orange hourglass. I studied my porch and upon closer inspection, found lots of cottony sticky messy webs underneath my patio chairs and under my kids water table. Ended up killing about 20 of various sizes.
My landlord sent out pest control, who sprayed, and said they found about 50 of them whilst spraying, but my troubles did not end there. I have been killing 5-10 of these a day for the past month. They seem to just keep coming back, and have a special fondness for my kids’ bikes, my patio furniture, kids’ outdoor toys and the outside of my patio box. Very frustrating. I have gone through 3 cans of Raid and 1 can of oven cleaner so far! I usually leave spiders alone but am worried that my kids will get bit. I moved to this duplex so that my kids could have a backyard to play in, but this summer I am not letting them out there, it’s just not worth them getting bit. I am concerned that these spiders will move into the house too. It’s very strange how I didn’t have this problem last year, yet this year I am infested.
Irvine, CA
I have a three year old, and 11 month old, and the idea of spraying poison makes me nervous as it could have persistent nasty effects on unintended targets. To make matters worse the poisons seem to have limited effect on the spiders.
My small back yard has become infested, and in ~ 20 min I killed perhaps 12-18 spiders and a couple of eggsacks. About six of the spiders were quite large.
I have found that using one of those lighters for lighting stoves, and “RZ-50 dry film lubricant spray” works very well. The stuff is frighteningly flammable, so you need to be careful to not singe your eyebrows or start a fire. The 2-3 ft fireball takes out the spiderwebs, gets the spiders hiding in the cracks, deck furniture etx, and doesn’t leave any visible residue.
I live in Mission, Texas (deep south, about 10 minutes from the border). I don’t ever remember seeing these spiders, and a few days ago I found that they had infested everything on my patio. My 3 year old son has lots of dump trucks and outside toys. They had made nests/egg sacks inside almost every one of his toys. I’ve been cleaning them out and spraying and killing them and smashing their egg sacks, plus spraying wherever they had made nests. I’ve been using Bengal Roach Spray, and Hot Shot spider spray. I’ve also sprayed Ortho Home Defense Max and put granules that say they help to kill/prevent spiders. From what I’ve been reading it seems like these things are spreading like wildfire. I don’t mind garden spiders, but now I’m trying to eradicate every pest in my yard to get rid of them.
Where did these things come from? Think maybe Katrina blew them over? I have found TWO in the last month. I was told there is no anti-venom for the brown widow.Is that so? The first one I saw, had an abdomen as big as a dime!
I have seen two of these recently. one had a back end the size of a dime ,& the hourglass was glowing neon orange. The other one, my son found under my carport late at night when he tried to capture it in a jar, it ran under a piece of furniture I was re-finishing. I stayed up all night long. Refusing to sleep till I killed it! About noon the next day I caught that sucker, placed him in a jar with a alcohol cotton ball.He was just a small one. But you could see that orange spot on her underside. Where did these things come from? Do you think maybe Hurricane Katrina blew all these strange things over here?
I just found and killed 5 brown widow spiders on my side deck and on my sliding door. I wish I took a pic of them but I know there are more when I find them I will email the pictures to you. I knew what they were because last month they did a news report here in socal but they were in orange county but now they are here in rialto, ca.
I have found about 6 eggs sacs on my outdoor trash can. Also, black and brown widow spiders in the area. Will bug spray kill the spiders in the egg sac, if not how do you get rid of them? I am in Lakeside, CA.
Oh, I forgot…I live in the Sunland/Tujunga area of Southern California. Also, the brown widow doesn’t seem to shy away from sunlight unlike the creepy shadow dwellings of the black widow.
I’m a textbook case for ” not being aware of garden ‘dangers’. Recently I was watering my backyard with a garden hose and the little bugger (brown widow) climbed up the garden hose (frm its coil in the bushes) and up my wrist to the underside of my forearm and bit me!
Since there were some mosquitoes and ‘no see-ums’ around I didn’t think much of it. I did feel a sharp prick there but attributed it to a deer fly bite. Along with a few mosquito bites I noticed this one blister/bite on the forearm underside. I made the mistake of squeezing it some thinking that with anticeptic and neo-sporin it would go away.
I waited a week (big mistake) before noticing the redness spreading and the swelling increasing. When my arm swelled up, and the bite-site starting to shoot ribbons of infection up my arm I went to Urgent Care where I received a 7 day supply of heavy duty antibiotics.
The bite-site became raw and basically became an open wound requiring bandages. My arm hurt like heck until (while changing bandages) it drained itself (about a 3/4 shot glass full of pus). Then the pain went away but for 3 more weeks I had an awful wound where I had to change the dressing every 12hrs or so.
Now, 1 month later, I still have a bruise at the site but the worst is well over. The most alarming thing about the whole affair is that the brown widow spider was very colorful and on quick glance resembles your average garden insect (ie color and all). The thing to remember is it’s SHAPE. It looks very much like a black widow in shape(!) Forget the color! It’s the shape (yeesh) that’s the give-a-way. Live and learn I guess.
Found a brown widow spider in the bathroom of my duplex last week. Didn’t see where to post the close-up photo so I’ll email it. This lucky spider was carefully placed in a pill bottle with a piece of paper towel and shipped to the UC Riverside Entomology Department. They are researching Brown Widows, although not specifically for LA County, and more info can be found online.
Just noticed two more in the front yard that made intricate webs. Hopefully they’ll stay out of the way because I really hate to get rid of them…
In the past 2 months I have found a total of 6 brown widow spiders on my front patio. I live in the panhandle of Florida and have never come across these spiders until recently. One was crawling around on the chair I sit in every morning, and I’m pretty sure the bites I discovered on my back this morning are from a spider. I decided to take a look around and discovered an egg sac underneath the BBQ grill.
Hey Dawn,
Send me your picture at badspiderbites [at] gmail.com and I’ll get it posted for you!
Jen
@ Shannon Leviner – Get an exterminator!! We have an old drafty house made in the early 1900’s too & whenever I think we are OK without an exterminator, nope everything from spiders, roaches, to wasp come back. I know how you feel, I have two children myself & it frustrates me whenever I let time go by without having the exterminator come in. They aren’t really that expensive like some people think. Mine comes by the house quarterly (about every 3 months) for $75.00 & they take care of every pest I have. And trust me, it will be the best thing you ever invested in.
This year, we are absolutely OVERRUN with these poisonous spiders! I went out last night with a flashlight, as they really love to come out after dark. It took my breath away, there were so many, all in and around my many flowers and bushes, and I am not normally squeamish about spiders. I also found multiple egg sacks under the wood beams of my fence and under the eaves of my house. If you are a gardener, BEWARE. The brown widow loves vegetation of all kinds, including flower and vegetable gardens.
We spray around our foundation regularly with professional products, which unfortunately do not appear to have any effect on the brown widow. I called an on-line store (for those who like do it yourself pest control) and was advised that spiders are hard to get rid of and need direct spray, usually with a wettable powder or dust. I have an organic garden, so I am going to try the least toxic of his recommendations first, which is ECO WP, a wettable powder. I am going to spray the creatures at night as that’s when they seem to be most active. Will let you know if it does any good. I hope so, because at this point I’m afraid to even pull weeds!
Forgot to add that I am in El Cajon, California
We have them here too, in Yorba Linda, CA. It is a constant battle with them. I found six small ones under my kids water play table! I actually found 5, the 6th crawled up my leg and bit me while I wasn’t looking. That was yesterday and I feel fine, just a little redness where she got me. I can deal with Black Widows because they are fiercely territorial, so you usually find only one in a patio chair. the Brown Widows don’t seem to mind company and have parties in our teak furniture. 9 in one chair alone, yeesh!! Diligent cleaning keeps our 1 year old explorer as safe as he can be and the our 5 year old daughter knows to stay away from webs.
Just found one of these next to my house in Carbondale, Illinois. I live a long way from where these things are supposed to be.
I am from Ontario California, and I have seen an increase in widow spiders lately. Not a good thing, since I have 2 dogs, and a 3 year old who loves to run around the yard. The other day I found a dead widow by my front door, and thought it was a black widow, it was so dark, but then when I looked closely, I noticed light brown stripes along it’s legs. I just ignored it, and thought that it was just a different shade of the black widow… until today. This afternoon I was out back with my daughter, watering my rose bushes which are up against our dividing fence, when all of a sudden a huge widow drops down from the top beam.
I was so startled, and went inside to get bug spray, and when I came out to get it, I noticed it was lighter in color (a decent brown) with light tan stripes on it’s legs. There was no doubt that it was a widow, since it had the huge rear end, and the red hour glass, but man, the colors of it looked like so many of the other spiders running around here that I’ve always thought were harmless. Now I beginning to think that the smaller spiders that have the same look, may indeed be little brown widows. That’s a scary thought! If this indeed is true, than I have a serious problem on my hands. I’m a little freaked out right now. Before tonight (when I finally googled it) I didn’t even know Brown Widows existed, being from So Cal we usually only see Black Widows, now I’m realizing that there is a whole other monster out there waiting to attack my kid. Frightening, that. :( No Bueno!
Yesterday, I found a Brown Widow and her egg sacs in my waste container in Long Beach, CA. I was quite taken aback by the female’s magnificent beauty, however, I didn’t hesitate to removed the egg sacs. As I did so, she played dead (as a later found out) and it was quite a show she put on.
I have the egg sacs secured in a 35mm film container. At this point, I’ll either dispose of them, or donate them to the invasive species research center at UC Riverside.
Killed this one last night on our back porch. I’m attempting to link the photo since I see no email at the bottom to send the pic to.
I appreciate reading the many comments and observations regarding this spider from around the country. I’m located in San Diego and have lived in this home for 27 years. To the folks who think we’re spider haters for killing the Brown Widow species I’d like to mention a few things. I’ve co-existed wonderfully with black widows on my 1/4 acre plot and always had a policy of relocating the ones that moved in to the living spaces. This was my uniform treatment of all spiders, my whole life, as learned from my mother who felt they brought good luck.
The last three years here have seen an invasion of the African brown widows that has actually seemed to displace the native black widows. Those are rare on my property anymore. I can say I wish I’d eliminated all those spiky, cream-colored egg sacks that started appearing under my many garbage can (for greens recycling) handles a few years back!! The population has exploded. For the last year I have killed every brown widow I encountered and today I realized I need to step up the battle or lose it.
These noxious spiders are now encroaching into my garage and storage buildings as well as my HOME, through some old wooden framed windows. The BEST thing I can say is that these spiders thankfully announce themselves in a unique way in that their “disorganized” webs are sticky and unmistakable when you put your hand (or head!) into it. It is hard to remove and distinctive. You can catch the buggers hunting along the web if you’re lucky. Maybe you see them in a crack or crevice.
I haven’t tried poisons yet and seeking advice on that is how I got to this website. Anyway, I am doing some things in advance of chemicals which includes a good clean-out of the garage, storage and yard areas. One huge bit of advice I can offer is using a Shop-Vac (mine is a 16 gallon) to catch these guys when seen. For some reason they generally allow themselves to be sucked up (this technique goes for houseflies and Argentine ants as well.) If they are in crack, I use a long slender screwdriver to coax them out or smash them, in conjunction with a crevice tool on the vacuum hose. They have never walked out of the canister again!
With the ants (horrible problems here and probably in many areas), when they are vacuumed up I spray only the entry spot with Home Defense and this is very effective. I’ve got a lot of suggestions for chemical treatments from the posts I read and now look forward to waging a winning war on these brown widow non-native invaders. It is sad I agree, but when I walk through an area at my home and feel the sticky web on my hands and body I know they have too much reign here!!!
i have fine a brown looking spiders it looks like a Brown widow spiders what do i do with it?
I just found one brown widow and five or six black widows and a nest of eggs(6 total) in a gas station trash container not the trash can but the cover part at a gas pump and I’m in south Louisiana in thibodaux.
I am officially freaked out! These spiders are all over the house. And I really mean everywhere! Fridge, shower, under the kitchen table and chairs, cabinets, I think you get my point. I had no idea they were poisonous. Also, we have blue wasps that have tried to take up residence as well. The favorite food of the blue wasp is a black widow. Ugh! Our house was built in 1912 and is very drafty. We also have a German roach infestation which caused the whole cycle to begin. Can anyone help me determine how to rid our house of these pests? I have two young children and a dad who can’t get around and is allergic to wasps.
fresh pics of my little monster…. & i am not so sure everyone here is totally freaked out and hates spiders.. i do hate them but only when they are in my home or in a place near my home where a dangerous spider could meet one of my dogs or a small child, my nephew is always into everything… and these guys are not exactly hiding under the porch or up in a corner of the garage…they are building nests under the patio table so they could drop on your leg when you sit and under the chairs you sit on…. to me that is not cool…
Hi Folks, I am in Port St. Lucie, Fl. I don’t know where to begin to describe to you the insane amount of Brownies in my garage. They are everywhere. So far I have never been bothered by them, maybe it’s because I loved the child’s book “Charlotte’s Web”. I do admit I get rid of them when I can’t get into my car without one hiding under the handle. I do this by using a small shop vac to suck the little Brownies up. I them drop them out of the bucket in a field by my house and let them enjoy the chance to heal and thrive. Don’t be fooled by hysteria. They perform a vital job as dos any spider in our eco system. So if you need some relief suck them up andrelease them elsewhere. They deserve it as they work hard at cleaning up other pests for us.
so cali checkin in!
found one today under a plastic patio chair… noticed dog hair caught in the unmistakable krazy tangle of patternless webbing a BW spider always spews, i checked the dark recess of the molded chair & saw the little guy hiding so i knocked him out into the light of day & Holy crap! i have never seen one before never even heard of any thing but a black widow but here was a light tan, striped like a tabby cat ‘widow’ spider with an orange hourglass under his belly..?… i find black widows all the time around my house and garage … here in so cali they are in every dark corner of a carriage or under a pile of bricks or lawn tools you name it..
I took some pics and will upload later i think they are pretty good we will see…didn’t have the right lens handy ……… freaky looking thing i tell ya!.
watch out under rarely used patio furniture, bbqs etc…they love that stuff.
Found a mom with some babies (sadly most had dispersed) under a plastic lawn chair today. Killed them with Hot Shot spider killer. I live in Los Angeles in the Valley. We also have an alarming number of black widows around the property as well. Not happy especially since I have an extremely curious 2 year old!
Wow, I just found one of these brown widows that I though was white widow!
I live in San Clemente, CA which is a beach town in southern Cali. I caught and fed this spider to my B52 Venus flytrap, haha!
Apopka, FL.
Just found a brown widow hiding out under a beam of my lanai enclosure. Noticed a widow web and to my surprise found a very large adult brown widow.
I have 2 small dogs, so this became a serious concern. I flung it in my pool skimmer. When it’s good and dead I’ll take a post-mortem photo to post.
I have killed over 100 brown widows at work in the past two days. I live in Southern Alabama and it seems like these spiders are starting to take over my shop. I have sprayed “Home Defense” all over the place twice in the past 6 months and they just keep coming back! Any ideas on what I can to to get rid of these nasty spiders?
I live in corona California, and last night I killed four of these things. In the past 3 years I have seen a significant increase. Sad part is they resemble a garden spider except in body shape, and the hourglass. There seems to be more of these brown then there are black ones. Seriously considering hiring pest control, since I have never seen so many spiders at any given time.
Nickie,
If you send me your pictures at badspiderbites [at] gmail.com I will post your pictures under your comment for you.
Jen
I’ve been catching and raising widows for many years,they are very interesting. I would like to know how to post some pictures of them.
My daughter bought a jeep wrangler from Gonzales, Louisiana. This is close to New Orleans. The jeep was infested with the brown widows. My suggestion is spray with suspend just like a normal professional would spray your house and outside of your house. First time you spray then spray 3 months later then every 6 months. This is the BEST. I could not believe how well it works on all insects. You can get it off line or may look up places that sell it. It comes concentrated so will last a couple of years. I love this spray. It kills everything.
I used to work at a mental/forensic hospital. Certain residents who needed close supervision were required to sit in large plastic seats located outside on the cement patio. We had a number of residents on our building who had spider bites, which became severely infected with MRSA and led to being hospitalized. None of the staff had heard of Brown Widows until one of our curious nurses discovered egg cases under her swing outside her home and Googled them. She informed me as the manager of the building where the majority of bites had occurred and we searched beneath the chairs and discovered brown widows. She was being ridiculed for not knowing the difference between black widows and our common brown recluse. Not until I copied pictures of the spiders and their unique egg cases, along with info about their venom did other people take her seriously.
We were told by our maintenance staff that spiders were not killed by residual spray and must be sprayed directly and that the spray did not kill the hundreds of babies in the egg sacks. I found three huge sacks on my porch tonight and am calling my pest control company first thing in the morning. I have a 7-mo. old granddaughter who loves to explore the porch in her walker and the sacks were right where she could reach them. I also have two very curious small dogs, who love to nudge or chew anything that moves. Scary!
I live in Northwest GA. My husband and I were cleaning or backyard and moved a pool…. it was covered in Brown and black widow spiders! I have 3 kids. what do i do? we got some spray and will be spraying tomorrow. Lord, I hope it works.
Judging by the comments I take it this is a website for people who hate spiders.
That’s a shame because without spiders to keep the eco systems around them in check, we would be overrun by flies, beetles, moths and worst of all, mosquitoes and roaches.
I have several brown widows living peacefully outside my apartment and I enjoy watching them setting traps for their prey. I would not like to be bitten by one but I know it is highly unlikely. You could poke one with your finger and it will undoubtedly retreat.
Grabbing one from it’s web is definitely not a good idea though and I can see the danger they potentially pose to curious children. That being said, we need to realize we live in a world we are outnumbered by bugs and we should be more aware of what is dangerous and what is not and we should educate our kids early, not just the dangers but the benefits these creatures have on the environment too.
One should feel safe in the knowledge that 94-96% of the creepy crawlies on this planet are entirely harmless to humans and those that are a real danger are mostly defending themselves. So we should respect their personal space where possible and to avoid danger in our homes, take better care when dusting out closets and be sure to check inside old work gloves and boots.