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 been killing what I thought to be black widows. I have gotten 5 so far, now I’m aware that they are the brown widow (after sending a pic to my dad) I’m going to call pest control tomorrow, I have a 6 month old son. I googled them and the egg sacs are exact. I took a photo from my phone, not the best quality and I blasted him with wasp killer prior to taking. I have been here 31 yrs and this is my 1st time seeing them. How do you get rid of these damn things permanantly?
I live in springhill,fl and i found my first brown widow spider( i know it was that b/c i had my bug guy check it out)it was on a outside chair that i had inside the porch. i figured it got inside because my dog broke the screen. i had my buy check the yard and he said he didn’t see any or anything to think i had any more. well yesterday and as well as today i was outside cleanining and i found two more( and we did kill them). my bug guy told me if theres one there is always more. yukie!!! what can i do,or spray or whatever to get rid of them???? i have three kids and a dog( the dog plays outside more) and i don’t want anyone to get bit. plus when we are out and about ( i always check or for the most part try and check) likeat the park,amusement park………etc…..should ibeextra wearyy athat im going to end up seeing one?
thank you
p.s.not a bug person and really very afarid of spidersbut will kill them if i see them b/c of the kids anddog
Brown Widow – El Cajon (San Diego), CA: Just a few weeks ago I was doing dishes and notice the sun reflecting on what looked like strings of something coming off my plumeria plant. When I went out to take a closer look, I saw that an egg sack had hatched an a zillion miniscule spiders which were sliding down their webs. I got my magnifying glasses and took a closer look and saw the hour-glass. I went right in and got the bug spray and killed them off. I asked my sister if she’d ever see a brown widow, and she said yes. She said that her husband’s car, which was shipped to Maui last fall, brought them from San Diego had a spiked egg sack. So please check out items being shipped for BW’s egg sacks. I’m now checking my patio furniture and BBQ every weekend, and squishing them with my flip-flop. Their webs are very strong and sticky. Yesterday I checked a spot where I saw my first adult spider, and unfortunately their was another adult. So check where they have previously appeared, as little spiders grown into big ones. Also, they can hold their breath, so squish or spray!!!
Brown Widows – El Cajon, CA: a coupled of weeks ago I bug sprayed a zillion babies that hatched on my plumeria plant. When I looked out my kitchen window I saw a reflection of a bunch of strings coming off of a leaf I went out to see what it was, I saw miniscule spiders sliding down their webs. The sack was a yellowish color, but they had the body of a widow and I got out my magnifying eye glasses and checked the underside and saw the hour-glass mark. Boy that freaked me out, as I thought of the potential for invasion to my yard!!! Just yesterday, I found a small one and tried to drown in in a glass of water to see what would happen. They can hold their breath… so either squish them or spray, unfortunately other bugs may pay the price. I need to try “windex”. You can tell a widows web from other webs as they are very strong and sticky. I go out regularly now with a flip-flop and check out my patio furniture, and BBQ. Also, I check where I found them in the past, as babies may have grown, and sure enough, yesterday I found another adult where I found my first on last year. PS: my brother-in-law shipped his car to Maui last November, and must of had an egg sack attached as my sister found one in her yard… So check out items being shipped to anywhere for those egg sacks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Response to #210. This is a wolf spider. I just found one in my yard last week and took pictures.
We have brown widows all the time on our lanai, which is completely screened in. EVERY week I go on the hunt and kill about 15 to 20. I think the best way to rid yourself of these nasties is to destroy the eggs before they hatch. Once they hatch, forget it. They are like rabbits.The small babies find little nooks to hide in and before long, your infested with them. And then THEY make more.And so on and so forth. I’ve never been bitten by any so far, but its only a matter of time I’m afraid. We live in S.W. Florida near Ft.Myers. So many creepy crawlies that can hurt ya or kill ya down here.
hello , i caught a spider today of what seems to be a brown widow. I live in SC. I cannot see an hour glass due to its small size. And since i saw this spider on my black widows web since we have tons in our garage. I just love them! do you know of and brown widows in SC? thank you
We live in Hawaii and we have them too. Over the past month I have taken out about 15 of these guys. The population has increased over the last couple weeks so tomorrow I’m gonna spray around the house and see if that helps.
I lived in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, from 1995 to 1997. We had a ton of these under our house. Of course, the internet wasn’t as useful (there weren’t as many websites, etc) as it is now, so I was never able to look up the spiders online, but I used to kill then when I’d see them because I figured any spider with an hourglass on its abdomen was probably dangerous. It’s helpful that the egg sacs are so distinct because that’s how I know, for sure they were brown widows. We probably had over 30 spiders at different times living under our house near our laundry area. So, the brown widows are in the Hawaiian islands, too!
Hello, I live in Gilbert, Az. Found this spider on our blow up slip n slide. First thing I thought was that it was shaped like a black widow, but not colored like it. Caught it and saw the abdomen, and became even more confused! The hour glass was orange instead of red. Got on the computer and found out about brown widows! Thanks for all the info and I will have to pay more attention to our patio furniture and such in the future!
I found this black widow in our garage in Temecula, CA. It was very large. I’ve seen black widows before as they are pretty common in Southern California, but this one was huge. You’ll see the egg sac below it as well. We had to kill it. I just found a small..looked like a baby spider inside the house. It had red on the head, but looked kind of opaque on the abdomen. I’m not sure what that one was, but we have an exterminator come and spray now. I’m going to have to tell him about them.
I live in carriere, ms. I’ve seen plenty of Black Widows, but never a brown widow till today. I was dumping my trash today and should’ve known better. Black widows do like to live under the lip(of all kinds of items) I felt the sticky web and turned the can over couldn’t find the spider, but found the egg sack. Sprayed w/ spider-not. Out came this large brown spider w/ striped legs and a red belly. I don’t think I was bit Luckily, but sure made me nervous. THE BROWN WIDOW IS IN MISSISSIPPI. Think I’ve seen a few down by the barn in the plant pots.
We have been noticing juvenile spiders all over the yard. I’ve been destroying them as I come across them in hopes we could avoid an encounter. Today my son was playing in the yard and grabbed onto a small patio table and immediately screamed – he was bit three times. I grabbed the spider and ID’ed as a baby brown widow. The bites swelled immediately to the size of large mosquito bites – we took the precautionary measure and went to the ER. Swelling was reduced in about two hours with no prolonged pain or swelling.
These are all over my yard – I tried reducing sites for them to hide and make webs, used a fly swatter and a vacuum – to no avail – these things are everywhere – all over his play equipment and now we have found one even on our side mirror of our car.
Time to call the pest control people I guess.
saw two today in an upside-down wheelbarrow. one got away, but i caught the lager one with a cup and paper plate. i watched it for a few hours. i’m led to beleive that it is a very smart spider, as it “played dead” several times. the web is EXTREMELY sticky
I was born and raised in FL, and had never seen a brown widow spider until about a month ago. I just moved into an appartment in Leesburg, FL, over looking Lake Harris. We live on the ground floor and have a large screened in porch. We had put a chaise and a few outdoor chairs out there to have a nice place to relax outside with no bugs. Wrong!!!!!! It seemed like over night we started haveing a mass exsplosion of spiders. So I was just killing them as I saw them, not really that freaked out until I looked closely at one and got a glimpse of the hour glass on its belly. Then I thought I was dealing with some odd colored black widows. At that moment I went on a hunt around our whole screened in porch, moveing everything and found 3 full sized and several medium sized widows, I killed them all and distroyed the 10 spikey egg sacks as well. We had informed our apartment company we had seen some bugs and the pest control come out and spray an extra time, between regular treatments. That was aproximently three weeks ago. I thought we were in the clear I had not seen any more till tonight. Out of nowhere yet again we had a sudden exsplosion, I was wlking out about 10:00 pm and saw one a large one with 2 new spikey egg sack and a smaller one in the same web, I distroyed all those. Then I turned around and saw several webs beside my chase looking closer I relized there was more than 20 babys all tiny with hour glasses on thier undersides. I killed them all, but I am very scared. I have never seen anything like this in my life. I don’t Know what to do. After doing a little research online I now realize I am dealing with brown widows, and how dangerous they are. I have two small children my daughter is 6 and my son is 4. I am scared to even let them walk on to our screened in porch.
Also on june 23rd we had went over to visit some family and the kids were running around outside they both came home with a couple of mosquito bites. That night my 4yr old woke up comlaining about his bite hurting him. But this was a new one on his arm on, taking a close look I realized he had been bit by a spider, so I put a meat tenderizer paste on it and wached him ever closely. By friday morning his arm had swollen to 3 times its nomal size and was on fire. I took him to the dr were they gave him antibiotics and steroids. I gave them to him religiously, and they seemed to be working. As we reached the end of his meds, he started haveing what looked like a few bumps on his body at first I thought he was haveing an allegic reaction to something but it was rather mild so I gave him benadryl and watched him he seemed to stop then yesterday he broke out in red splotches all over his body, and they seemto be getting worse,I am going to take him to the dr again today. I’m so worried about him I thought he was in the clear. The dr said it was hard telling what kind of spider had bit him, now I womder If it could have been one of the brown widows. I’m a very concerned mom, who feel like her family is in an aracnoid nightmare.
San Diego, CA
I just walked out on my back porch to take the trash out and encountered these! A total of 3 spiders, and it looks like to me there are 2 black widows and 1 brown widow. The research I found said the one’s legs are not completely black because she is immature. I’m really freaked out! I killed them, and I looked for egg sacks and couldn’t find any.
We live in Las Vegas, Nevada, and we just found a brown widow on our patio. While we’ve seen many black widows in this area, this is the first time in my 17 years here I have seen this particular species. I was surprised to read it is indiginous to such distant locales, but, due to the fact that Las Vegas is so transient, attracting people from all across the U.S., it’s isn’t as uncommon as one might think for varying species to have been brought in with new residents. We’ve seen this with the brown recluse, as well as certain types of scorpions not originally found here.
I live in Temecula,CA so I’m pretty familiar with black widows. Earlier today I found a black widow on my back porch and I killed it(they’re little buggers). So I kept looking around and found 10 more on the outside walls of my house. They were all full grown females, one was about 2 inches with legs. We got some poison spray and sprayed along the base of the walls to keep them away. However, I went outside today and found 3 more. 1 with an egg sac. Anyone know a good way to get rid of those pests?
Thanks!
I have found numerous types of spiders, I live in Ohio the worst I found is a brown recluse in the bed room and bathroom.
Hello, My mother has recently ended a daycare center. and my father got some of the car seats from outside, And they were LOADED with brown widows and they have been inside of my house unnoticed for about 5 days. I think I have killed them all with bug spray but i keep seeing baby ones around the daycare room. What should I do leave it alone or keep trying?
Old Town Florida: I saw one of the brown widows knowing what a black widow looked like i thought maybe it was a good spider looking like a bad one since it was brownish tan with an hour glass, well a friend of mine said it was bad so after looking here i went on a killing spree there was about ten diffrent big ones and about 40 sacks around the shop and thats just what i saw, no telling how many are really there i think the news sould tell people about these
i live in Marietta GA i found a brown widow in my window but there were no egg sacks do i have to worry is there a possibility that there is an infestation going on in my house
how much poison does it take for a brown widow to kill a grownup or a kid because I’ve never beenn bitten by one and there’s some in my parents yard and in her porch. PLEASE REPLY THANK YOU
I just killed a very LARGE brown widow. I had no idea what it was until I called my boyfriend. I told him there was a light brown spider, with darker brown at the joints and it had a bright orange spot under its belly and asked if it should die or not. I blasted the crap out of it with Raid so I don’t think it will be giving me too much of a problem. Then I decided to do research. Come to find out, it was a brown widow. I think we might have an infestation because I’ve seen a lot of spiders that look like this. I baby sit in addition to having a toddler in the home…and not to mention my 8 nieces and nephews that are over on a regular basis. I’m proud of myself though! I have a slight phobia of spiders, by slight I mean I run way crying if I get too close to a jumping spider.. Its time for the boyfriend to go on spider detail again.
Irvine, CA
My wife found one on our patio last night. I had previously brushed away webs that were crackly like black widows webs (but never saw any black widows). Never heard of the brown widow before, but apparently they’ve taken over SoCal. Spread the word.
I live in Memphis, Tn. I found this spider on my wall near the ceiling in my den. No one was bitten. I just want to know what kind this is. I have never seen one like this and I am afraid of all spiders.
Covina, California
Found one of these Brownies yesterday and googled brown widow found this blog and figured I would add another California find to it.
Yesterday i found a black widow on the outside of my window in a littly knook with 4 spiky little brown egg sacs i think i interrupted the consumption of her mate.
this morning i found what i think is a brown widow eating it’s mate i told my dad to kill them but he still hasn’t i have two small siblings so i’ll make sure he does it today.
I’ve seen these eggs around my back porch for a couple of years and didn’t think too much about it… I hate spiders but I figured they were eating bugs and whatnot so I let them be. The other day I came upon a brown spider with the hourglass shape and figured out from this website that it was a brown widow!! I had no idea they existed! It also turns out that the egg sacks I have been seeing were their sacks, they all have to go now that I know what they are!!!!! YIKES!
After finishing that comment, I decided to look around my house. I think I found at least three of them, one between my refrigerator and cabinet, two underneath the door of the same cabinet. There’s also some webbing under my sink cabinet but i don’t see spiders or sacs.
I’m a little freaked out here because my kids are in the kitchen all the time. Now I’m worried they’re all over my house, inside and out.
As far as we know we haven’t been bitten yet but tonight when I was making chicken on the grill, I noticed a weird looking brownish spider with white spots on its’ back. I sprayed it with bug killer, then I came in the house and googled it, then found this site. I didn’t think it was a brown widow, as I live in Lodi, CA which is the northern part. Then I saw a comment from someone who’d lived in Manteca and had them there, so I got curious. I went back outside to look for it and couldn’t find it, but then I began looking all over my back patio.
I saw one attached to my garbage can. It had a sticky web that came from the can to the ground, and it was tan with white spots on its back, and something reddish orange on its abdomen. It was shaped like a black widow, but smaller. I’m pretty convinced it was a brown widow. As I have 2 kids aged 2 and 6, I didn’t stop to take pictures, I killed it. I didn’t see the spiky egg sac, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. During the day tomorrow, I’m going to check things out. I have a swing set outside that my kids love to play on, and I’m not looking forward to any bites!
i Have recently spotted a spider in and around the outer window seal of my house it is about the size of a black widow with a larger than normal abdominal looks like a black widow but has 2 red lightning bolts on its back out stretch the legs and its about the size of your normal pocket watch dose anyone have a clue as to what this is it posses a possible threat to family dog and i am allergic to bees and my pose a problem to me.
I got stung 3 weeks ago. I didn’t even think I got stung. I was working on my car and felt this sharp prick. I thought it was a piece of metal. When I pulled the facia down I notice there was a brown widow in there. My hand started to swell slowly, the next day I knew I got stung. It was like a really bad FLu, for about a week. finger took 2 weeks to get better.
This is a follow-up from my post last July. I’m an A/C contractor in Baton Rouge, LA., and have been coming across these spiders now in about 1/2 of the A/C units I open up to service. I’ve found that you will usually spot the unique “spikey” egg sacs before you ever see the spiders as they’re very shy.
I came upon a very troubling scene the other day when I found what I first believed to be a black widow. On closer examination I noticed that the spider was a very dark brown overall instead of black and the hourglass pattern on the abdomen was orange. I hope the black and brown widows aren’t interbreeding. I worry that the brown widow’s stronger toxin will merge with the black widow’s more potent venom delivery.
For those wondering about treatment there is a insecticide product called “Suspend SC” that you can find at some do-it-yourself pest control stores or order online. It comes in a concentrate and you spray it around the home inside and out. It dries to a fine crystalline powder and that residue will stick to the feet of spiders when other inscecticides won’t. The spiders actually ingest the poison while cleaning their legs. (from what I’ve read, spiders are usually immune to typical residual insecticides for that reason) I’ve used it and it kills the other household bugs as well.
I think with a little extra caution about where you stick your hands around the yard you can avoid getting bit. As shy as the spiders seem I believe that you’d have to almost grab one to get bitten.
I am in San Diego, CA. I have been finding lots of these brown widows outside the house. A few months ago, they were on the front page of the local paper. They are not native and were brought here within the last few years. They are THRIVING here and taking over. The experts here are telling people to kill them when they see them.
I think I was bit last summer. Two small bites on my back from gardening. They were very painful the next day, the lymph nodes in my leg were huge and painful. My back was very sore and I was achy all over. After two weeks, the bites turned black and they still hurt…lasted about 6 weeks!
I kill them!
There are many spiders in Louisiana and I have been biten by many(Luckly I never got hurt). There were also spider eggs in a flowerpot, and I was bitten by one of the spiderlings. The eggs were a light yellowish color. and they were connected with spider webbing. ( That’s how I knew thay were spider eggs. If you have any idea what the spider species were please e-mail me a stitchspace @yahoo.com.
We live on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southern California. We;ve been invaded by brown widow spiders too. It’s encouraging to know we’re not the only ones obsessed about these spiders. My husband and I recently came across the brown widow spider about two months ago. We didn’t know anything about them until they took over our backyard and now our front yard. Luckily they have not made their way into the house, yet. We routinely go out spider hunting every other night with flash lights in hand, can of bug spray, leather gloves and hard sole shoes to kill any suspecting brown widow out for her evening feedings. We’ve killed over a 100 spiders around the parameter of the yard. We’ve had the professional bug experts out to our home three times in the last 4 weeks. They even brought out the head Bug guy to see what was going on in our yard. I think they thought we were crazy. But all these blogs reassures us that we;re not. After the first trip out by the bug experts we killed 30 more, the second trip another 15 plus egg sacks, the bug guys just came out last week and we’re hoping we’ve got them under control. They told us to always destroy the webs and check the next day to see if another has formed, if so then they’re still more out there. In every case of the more then 75 encounters we weren’t sure until after dark with our flashlights and found them in their new webs in center stage. We sprayed them, they dropped onto the ground then we stepped on them. The only way to get rid of them is to keep killing them and their eggs. Kill….kill….kill. It’s an obsession. I think I’m going to my garage now to look for an invasion. We shall prevail, long live the human race.
I live in largo Fl. out side of Tampa and I was out side today cleaning up my yard.When I was bring my kids toys up to the house when I saw spider webs with the sacs all over there toys. They are bikes and big wheels ect… We have a few of them.I took a stick and moved the web and sacs and that’s when I saw the hourglass shape.I knew it was a widow spider. I just didn’t know what kind it was.So I looked it up on my computer and I found it .It’s definitely brown widows. When I looked outside for more I found a lot more. They were every where. I can’t believe we haven’t been bit .My kids play with there toys almost every day. I think there more afraid of us then we are of them,but you never know what kids are going to pick up (mine are 2 1/2 and 5). I know it sounds mean but I killed them all with a stick. I would rather do that than have them( my kids) get bit or put poison down. People should know if there is one you can BET there is more.If I’m not mistaken it said on another site that the black widow can have 25 to 900 baby’s out of the sac and it’s probably about the same for a brown widow. I’m not sure if that’s right but even if it isn’t 25 is a lot.
How about having them in your cellar if you live in Pennsylvania? I keep seeing dead dried up brown spiders with red bellies down there. Am I in denial? I have a 55 gallon fish tank there-do I spray anyway? If I buy a plug in device I am afraid I’ll chase them upstairs to the living quarters of the house!
Are there black widow spiders in Michigan?
My husband just got bit….a bit of swelling on the neck @ bite site. I will send pics…..help
Bonnie
Just doing some spring cleaning for our annual Memorial Day party and ran across 6 egg sacks in a messy web under my bench on the front porch. Didn’t see a spider though, but the bench is dark brown outdoor wicker so maybe it was blending in – it was dusk when I found it. We’re in Orlando, FL. I didn’t think to take pictures before hitting them up with the propane torch. My 4 seasons pest control treatment was Friday :-p guess i’ll call them up and ask them to dig around.
I just went outside and cleaned my grill today. When I opened up the bottom where my propane tank is I found a very large black spider with a red hour glass on it but the egg sack was spiky. In the middle of the grill where the oil drips into the pan I found another spider with a red hour glass marking but it had like a tannish belly and it was not as large as the other spider. I am sure I will see more as I believe that once I see one there will be more later so I will take pictures next time.
hey those widow spider photo were so awesome i vote 1,0000000000000
i was riding a pedal kart that my friend gave me and it was sitting is his front yard for about 5 years and i was cleaning it and a big black widow (like 2 inches spread out) and i caught it so i thought ill wash it out with water. so i was walking it up a hill and i feel something on my hand. it was a spider and it was big and brown and had spots. it looks like one in the photo.
Im pretty sure that I have these spiders in my home. Last summer I found like 4 beside a window in my house INSIDE!! Now they have showed up again… The thing is is that they are small, and I am so scared that one will get to my little girl who is just 7 months old! There was one hanging above her crib like a week ago and I killed it! Im freaking out!! What can I do? I know that these are the ones because when I found them last year, and I saw the orange hourglass shape on their bellies, but these seem to be younger than the ones I saw last year… And I know its them because of the bulb like butt and their color… Somebody please give me some advice!! I hate to have this type of fear in my own home.. What kind of steps should I take to get them out of my house, then to prevent this from happening again?
I live in Buena Park Ca. We have always had a problem with Black Widows, but this morning I found this ugly brown spider with an orange spot under the a patio chair. After going to this web site, I now know that it was a Brown Widow.. YUK ! She is now in Spider Heaven, and hopefully all the others that I got with the bug spray.
is there any in Vancouver B.C.?
Patty there are special insecticides that will kill the Brown Widow along with any other type of spider, if you are interested you can place and order from this place which is located in Georgia and they will ship you the product along with a small pump sprayer, all you do is mix it with water and spray it directly on the spider of the web, the liquid then drys and stick to the web which the spider then eats which will result in her death, www.acepestcontrolproducts.com
As to the subject of the venom of the Brown Widow spider, according to Dr. G.B. Edwards, an arachnologist with the Florida State Collection of Arthropods in Gainesville, the brown widow venom is twice as potent as black widow venom.