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 saw my first brown widow spider sitting in a web in my garage in Chino Hills, Calif. I killed her with insecticide. I will keep my eyes open for more!!
Hello, i am going on holiday to kisimmee in Florida. Are there black widows there and should i be worried?
brown widow spider has been id in WA on porch with egg sac. beware Washingtonians!
Thank you, your web site and reading other peoples stories helped us to identify the spider that bit my husband an hour ago this morning at10;30 may 23rd 2010, Sorry I have no pictures, But the bite is a small red dot and little redness around it. I washed the bite area and gave him a benadryle tablet and put cortisone on it. So far the redness has stopped and he has had no problems. We live in Ashford Alabama.
I Killed a black widow spider hiding between some cement blocks at the back of our home two months ago and I killed a brown widow Spider hiding in our BBQ grill this afternoon here in Palm Bay Fl. I suggest when moving items that have been sitting for awhile in your yard, Wear gloves and (check it over real good before you grab a hold of it, especially if it has a lip that you can not see under).
okay, so the past couple of days i’ve found two spider on my porch i thought they were male black widows but when i found this site and seen there were brown widows i assumed that’s what they were there was probably 20 egg sacks total matching the description some were hatched i killed spiders and smashed egg sacks but i want to figure out if the eggs were fertile or do they have phantom pregnancies. if not im sure i have at least a thousand of these crawling critters
Hi earlier my brother and I saw three little white egg sacks with points. So anyway there were about 10-20 little brown widows (nickle) size. I was wondering if I got bit by a brown widow, could I die? and how long would it take?
P.S, I was wondering if a wolf spider would do more harm if I were sleeping and wake up 5hrs later than right away?
COMMENT #23 by Tony…Does it have to be LEMON Pledge?
We live in the woods and find black & brown widows frequently. Last summer I picked up a pot on my deck and immediately felt something crunch and get wet between my fingers and the pot rim. Sure enough, there was a mashed black widow under the pot rim. Was not bitten but evidently the venom on my skin caused sight numbness to spread up to my elbow, which went away after several hours. Pretty scary that venom could be absorbed into my skin that quickly without a bite!
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, lets get the word out !!
I live near the coast and a canyon and have been seeing these spiders for at least 2 years. I had never heard of the brown widow. The thick webs were on the underside of everything outdoors. I tried many times to find out what kind of spiders they were as my instincts told me they they looked dangerous. I thought they may have been a mutated black widow. One night I went to turn on the sprinkler and put my hand right on a large brown. Fortunately I broke its leg(s) before it bit me. I ran into the house to get the spider spray. Finally, the news described the brown widow and how it is moving east, more inland. Thanks for all the great tips on this site. In my 60 plus years here I have never seen such a problem here with such a deadly pest.
Fort Myers FL. I was seeing webs on my van and when I looked underneath there were about 30 brown widows and 8 egg sacs. I bought 4 cans of Raid spider spray and unloaded on the van and carport. Havent seen any since. I have 3 boys. Scary.
A 24 yr old girl died Friday from a brown widow spider bite so they will kill you if you don’t get help right away. I believe she did not go to the dr. or hospital and ignored it. She collapsed and went into a coma and never regained consciousness. She had no brain activity and was on life support for almost a week.
I have also seen one that is less common around my house that is skinny but with the same markings for the most part. it has a way smaller thin body and longer legs that stick straight forward and aft. Is this another variety? Anyone know. they do have the glass. sometimes just looks like a red orange dot.
I live in Enterprise Alabama. Very south Alabama. I have a shop full of brown widows. I was always very spider shy but have become accustomed to them now. I used a spider fog that almost killed me and it killed hundreds of them but they were abundant again in a week.
I do a lot of work in my shop and have been bitten several times on the hands. A few times I have seen the brown widow that bit me. Every time it has been a small bite size but has within 5 minutes formed a deep blister filled with clear liquid. Usually turns into a nasty raw sore about the size of a dime and takes about 2 weeks to heal. i have many small scars on my hands from them. I never noticed any cramping or dizziness or anything. I have had muscle aches and cramping feelings were the muscle wasn’t tight just felt cramped. I may have just not associated the two things. My newest one is almost healed. I’ll take a pic next time. :)
First and foremost, THANK YOU for this site!
I was watching a show on TV, it mentioned Brown Widows, curious I turn to google, google leads me hear.
That’s when the chills started…
As I’m reading, I’m remembering the black widow looking spider I saw recently when taking out my garbage.
But it wasn’t black, and I’ve seen southern black widows before, so of course it’s just some little garden spider!
I continue reading, then tales of chaotic webs again spring memory to all the messy, run down looking webs that coat my patio and other areas outside my home.
But those are just webs used previously and have been abandoned.
I proceed to tell my family what I believe is going on. We plan to remove the webs tomorrow morning.
I take out the garbage, and take out my hand held flood light with me.
I shine the light in the oh so familiar spot, and sure enough!
There she is…egg sack and all!
I then lower the light ever so slightly, another one… Up in the corner, a third.
All brown widows, all having egg sacks.
I go find my wasp spray and begin to rain death upon them, I use a whole can on the three haha! I then go retrieve a second can and journey to the patio, sure enough, in all those “abandoned” webs sits a widow and egg sacks.
They all are vanquished, none survive.
I will be destroying the webs tomorrow.
I killed about seven or eight in total, really the main reason I’m so concerned is because of my dog.
I already lost one of my babies earlier in the year, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let anything happen to the one I have left!
I live in Houston, TX and if it wasn’t for dumb luck watching a television show and choosing to google, I would probably be looking at a full blown infestation of a creature I wouldn’t have even known about.
I still probably have a problem, but I’m going at it and am going to try my best to bring this threat down and away from my home!
My son found a widow spider in our garage. It had the hour glass on the bottom of the abdomen but looked strange. Upon researching we found out that we have ourselves a Brown Widow Spider. Never new those existed let alone that they were here in Southern Utah. Of course we moved here from Texas so we could have brought it with us….
I live in Southern California and i found a Brown Widow in my backyard. Is it an invasive species?
I just bought a bike on craigslist from a guy in Chula Vista and while cleaning it I came across a brown widow that had it’s web in the spokes. I got some good pictures.
I live in los angeles, (westwood) and was cleaning out some old planters that I knew attracted black widows. Well, not only did I find black widows but I also found 5-8 brown widows. At first I wasn’t concerned when I saw my first brown widow since it didn’t look like the typical black widow, but it was a big sucker so i sprayed it anyway and when it flipped on its back and i saw the red hourglass I was really freaked out. That’s when I went on a rampage and a seek and destroy mission until I ran out of spider spray, gonna buy more spray and going out tomorrow to continue the bloodbath. Never saw them until today or never noticed them. They’re spreading…watch out!!!
Hey #95 – It’s nice and all to observe nature, but for the safety of yourself and other people in the area, you should really kill “Big Momma.” Take some pics, immortalize her however you would like, and then get a STRONG bug spray and get rid of her. It’s just the safest thing to do . . . Furthermore, from what I understand, these spiders multiply and take an area over quite easily, so, Big Momma’s babies may present an even BIGGER problem than Big Momma herself. In other words, destroy the sacs too.
I live in Orange County and i just saw my first brown widow. I was cleaning out a fountain and when we started running water through it again, i saw a brown widow come out of the hole. As i hate spiders, i reacted by killing it but i should have taken a picture. Now i am worried about how to protect my house. i see webs in my house but who knows what kind of spiders made them.
Is there anything i can do or look out for?
Is a brown widow actually more dangerous then a black widow?
This site has definitely helped me with some misinformation I received from our exterminator, who said all the banded widow shaped spiders in our yard was the male black widow species, in which BURBANK, CA is notorious for. Not only does my small nephew play outside, but the love of my life, my Russian blue cat, is a -natural hunter of all creepy crawlies. 1 night I noticed her torturing some insect, & I’m sure now it was a brown widow she spit out of her mouth cos I never understood why if it was a black widow, why didn’t it bite her. The brown’s more docile nature would explain It.
1 thing I can add is, for those terrified of them like me, instead of only hunting for them @ night to spray directly, is not to rid their webs, and saturated their webs with spider spray in. The daytime & by the AM, you’ll find many a widow carcass.
Also, any of those waiting on medical attention post-bite, are being foolish. If it was a indeed a widow bite, you only have amputation or respiratory failure in your future. Had 2 friends wait until the point of gangreen before heading to urgent care, not the way to go.
& those collecting in jars to relocate are just-crazy. They do not have a problem populating, no one wants them, & are too dangerous to keep as mere insect control. A daddy long legs can do the same thing without harming you.
If u handle your insect problems, the spiders will not need to infest your property. Use the yellow light bulbs for the porch, & do what u can to deter widow food, because widows don’t migrate
I swear I started having flashbacks of that movie Aracnaphobia.
I started seeing these brown widows around my apartment complex in August of 2009. Killed the few I saw around the trash cans and at the bottom of the building next to the foundation. Then low and behold a week later I started seeing them everywhere. Least to say I began the search and destroy method while waiting for the exterminator. I smashed 53 of them and about 20 egg sacs with the spikes on them. I work on pools and spas for a living and have now been finding them everywhere I go. If you see them I would definitely give the exterminator a call as well as some spider spray from your local hardware store. I have kids and would not want any of these cockroach-like breeders to infest my place.
If you see ONE then there are many more on the way. I have even been seeing them around other homes even during the winter season. Dec. thru Feb. 2010 so far.
Rep: Pam Garcia #372. February 2nd, 2010 at 3:54 pm. -I feel so bad for you. And you’re Dr told you you had a Staph infection? Didn’t culture it to be sure?!
I hope he gave you antihistamines and a topical antistetic. Somtimes holistics help. I hope can find something works, good luck
Hate to say but that sounds like a brown recluse bite, those are recurrent, and the only real answer is to immediately excise the bite and affected tissue. Otherwise the symptoms reoccur and spread. It’s a nasty cycle that can spread with out limit. Personally I get plug in spider alarms, Krylon silicon caulking gel, and check for any entry points. Mostly we have tarantulas, scorpions, and rattlers. I have seen the traditional blk widows: WD-40 kills them. We also check for brown recluse, and violin spiders..
But I was looking for info because A friend in LA was bitten repeatedly by a spider that caused swelling around the eyes.. The Apartments were fumigated with something toxic enough that the tenets were sent away, and that worked. But it was 6mo ago and they are coming back.
By her description it is either black or brown, although I think the size of a Quarter or 50 cent piece is fear talking. What are the odds your Brn widow is the culprit? frankly, I am not sure it’s even the spider that is causing the symptoms. how common is swelling of the eyes as a singular symptom of frequent bites? She thinks they are biting here there. But has never seen actual bite marks, so I think its a result. Who ever heard of a spider that bites your closed eyes in the dark? If it were her lips and a rash I’d say Redivid….
deanna vanosdale
#4. October 7th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Sorry, no photo. 78 y.o. man living in Naples, FL was bitten by something about 4-6 mos. ago. Didn’t pay attention to it as it continued to grow w/ infection. Within 1 mo. after bite, lost sight in one eye (continuously going from one Opthimologist to another, test after test with NO specific results), then irregular heartbeat (back to emergency for meds. to regulate) now walking w/ use of walker. 2 mos. ago showed the bite to regular Dr. (now the size of tearing a dollar bill in half, quite deep w/ black center surrounded by progessive inner very pink to dark pink/red outer ring. Dr. drew circle around it stating: if it goes outside the circle he drew..your in trouble!? Thank you for comments and information (I believe he’s very much in d e e p trouble)
I was bitten by a garden variety spider while watering my plants. I had an immediate bad reaction and took benedryl. Then went to the
Dr. who gave me a shot. I got better slowly.
I was just on the phone when a black widow appeared on my kitchen counter amid some papers. I quickly killed it, tho. it tried to get away.
It left an oozy clear sticky looking substance with about 5-6 small
specs in the ooze. The back was solid black and very round and large.
I live in N. San Diego.
Do black widow spiders live in Louisiana??? If they do i dont want to move there
I live in Northwest Florida.. and about two weeks ago, I removed the tarp off my kayak (been sitting there for several months on a trailer) to get it ready for spring fishing. I worked several hours on it, cleaning etc… and I can’t even remember if it was Sat afternoon or Sunday morning, I had this HUGE itch on my left shoulder. I reached to scratch it and almost freaked out. I found 4 good size lumps within several inches, 2 right off my shoulder and 2 about an inch down my back and they were about an inch apart. In scratching, I removed the blisters. From then on.. things went downhill.
I had no idea what bit me but I knew it wasn’t good. I had previously aggravated an old injury in my neck and could move it a little more than half way, well after that bite, it got really bad… I couldn’t hardly move it at all, so made an appointment with my chiropractor. He sent me back to get a massage and the lady doing it said she had the exact same markings about 7 years ago on her chest and it was a spider bite. I never saw or felt anything biting me so I am still wondering. I did finally go to a Dr and he said I had Merser. Well.. I KNOW I didn’t from all the research online on spider bites. All I know is that something bit me and from looking at the picture, I think one of the widow’s got me because you can see two little spots and then their appears to be three poison pockets. After taking two strong antibiotics, I was finally able to remove the black parts and they are now healing, but still itching like crazy. I wish there were more pictures of widow bites so people might be able to figure out what bit them. It’s been a terrible two weeks.. with horrible neck, shoulder and back pain, terrible muscle spasms and chills and fever.
Oh.. before I started and a few days after the antibiotic, the burning continued in cycles. It burned like it was a crater and had a raw feeling to it, then a few minutes later, it started itching like there was no tomorrow then the pain. OMGGG.. it hurt like nothing I’ve felt before. It would continue doing this over and over again… until finally the meds kicked in and the cycle was broke. Now it just itches like crazy and it seems to have developed a rash around the bite (with the two little spots in the picture. The other 3 spots are healing and no longer bother me). I hope no one has to go through this ever… it’s been a terrible experience that I never hope to go through again.
Picture of a Brown Widow Spider
They are everywere in So. Cal. The problem with them is that they are non aggressive — thus they don’t mind sitting under your patio chairs. But really, how often are you bitten by a spider? If you see one, your are not taking care of your yard — or at least have not been there for that long. Keep your yard clean and if you see them — spray vinager on them. For a week or two after spray with water. No spider wants to live where we do. The brown widow is here to stay — i live in a normal cookie cutter house and had 200 in my yard (a repo). A little viniger and good house keeping will do wonders. Remember if you keep your yard clean they wont live there. If bitten go to the ER, but dont worry. There has been not one spider bite death in california in 10 years.
John
We recently discovered a brown widow spader in our kitchen. Could you please advise me as how to get rid of this spider. Will it be possible for you to answer my request by e-mail? Thank you and kind regards, Rita.
How can I get rid of these stinking spiders. At any given time I could go in my back yard and find 20 of these monster brown widows without looking very hard. I have a three year old daughter, even though they don’t pose much threat I still worry. In the two years we’ve lived here in Torrance Ca, the spiders have been here and still I haven’t seen one in the house so at least they are outdoor pests?
Hi, we live in Southern California and have just recently been INFESTED by the brown widow spiders. Originally, I thought they were male black widows, but did some investigating and found out about the BROWN widow. We had a pest control guy come by yesterday and he mentioned that originally they were only located in Florida, but have migrated to CA.
He also mentioned that they are infamous for spinning there webs exactly where you wouldn’t want them to. This possibly explains me finding three webs and egg fars. One under my boys pitching matching, one under their quad and one on the door handle to the garage. I elected to use some WD40 and flame making sure the adults and eggs were dust!!
i got bit last night and it is about the size of two quarters and is swollen, please help.
From Venice,CA 1/2 mile from beach. Rarely see black widow’s. Found over 20 brown widows today for the first time ever and killed probably fifteen of their pods. Under patio furniture, a stepping stool, ALL over the trash cans and just went outside with the flash light. Window awnings and the tv dish as well. I would really like to know where this is going. From zero to 30 in no time.
my wife said “what is this?” we knew it was a spider but it was weird, bulbous round brown/white stripe-ish back.. I looked it up b/c I knew it was dangerous.. it just looked sick and I knew nothing could look that crazy and be benign.. so we put it out our window .. I should have killed it instantly but I didn’t know then what I googled now.. too bad.
wow, we live in New Rochelle, NY who would think we’d get that kind of spider here? we did just pull up our rugs.. I guess anything can happen we live on first floor and right outside our window is dirt garden and we do get ants all summer long..
can someone with knowledge on these things (spiders) say if it’s possible to get this kind of spider in NY or did someone plant this bugger in our apt.?
I had a fairly large brown spider that was shaped like a black widow (which I have in my storage shed). this one was brown, busily making a web on my car hood. It had two white spots on its back.
I have looked on every spider website and have yet to see a picture of one like it.
I don’t like spiders so, I grabbed a small stick and knocked it off, then stepped on it.
can you tell me what kind of spider this sounds like?
Thanks
Debbie
hi,
i have been noticing spiky eggs in Utah and i don’t know if there deadly or not but they are not aggressive.
I live in Coronado, CA and have killed over 20 brown widows with egg sacks around my property in the last 2 days. They are EVERYWHERE. under almost all my patio chairs. on every trash can. in all my trees and bushes. Under my eves. I have warned my neighbors. I am afraid to let our pug go in our backyard.
We took her for a walk tonight around the block and took along a flashlight and my gallon jug of insecticide. She almost walked through 3 brown widow webs at the base of trees and poles. I killed 5 more of them on the walk.
I sprayed my yard and trees today. I may hire professionals if that didn’t work.
I feel like John Goodman in arachnophobia.
Just took our Christmas decorations out of the attic and there was a spider on one box. I sprayed it and continued on. When I went back and looked, it was brown and had an hourglass on the tummy. That’s when I found this site. I just wonder how many more that I don’t see are lurking nearby.
i live in southern Colorado and we have a lot of black widows and they usually don’t attack humans but just pay attention
Today my co-worker took a brown Widow off my back. I’m so lucky
to be alive!!!
It’s really interesting. I have always been warned of the Black Widow because I live in Florida. I grew up in South Florida, but now reside in North Florida. A few weeks ago my husband was doing some cleaning around our porch and came in to tell he had found dozens of Black Widows under the porch. Now our porch/deck is about 4 ft. off the ground so it’s easy to get under. He said not to worry and that he had taken care of them all. I didn’t think anything of it.
That was until a week ago when I was doing some rearranging of the furniture to start preparing for the holidays. We have a heater that resembles a fireplace and I started to move it to the opposite side of the room. I found many spiderwebs and noticed the eggsacks myself, 10 to be exact. I brought my husband in and showed him, he said they were black widows. I had to correct him because I’ve seen Black Widows nests before. We got rid of them of course, but looked it up to find out what they really were. Brown Widows!! I have 2 young children and I freak out when a mosiquito bites them- my some suffers from severe allergies.
Well we found 27 more eggsacks in the front doorway taht we never use. I opened it up to let some fresh air in the house 2 days ago and there they all were- all 27 of them and at least 4 spiders. I live in the middle of nowhere. Heavily wooded so we get all kinds of creatures here. I’ve had bats in the house. My husband had to remove a opposum from the house as well as a small raccoon. We found out that when they made the hole for a 2 inch pipe in the kitchen a 12 inch hole and never sealed it. So we’ve had some excitement around here.
Not to mention the 6 and 5 ft. rattlers we discovered at the bottom of our porch one day, but that’s been about 2 yrs. ago.
Our backyard has a bunch of these brown widow spiders and egg sacks, I’ve sprayed the ones that I found on the sand box and bikes and around the other spots where my kids live. For the most part it looks like they curl up and die but I’m afraid of how many I haven’t found and what to do if they get into the house or live in the closets. I don’t know if have the house tented is a safe thing for us since we have two young children but I’m really tempted.
Brown Widow Spider
Not bitten, just found a brown widow spider in Tustin, CA (Orange County). Was courious to learn about the unusal markings, because we are use to seeing the traditional black widows in this area.
I live in Monterrey, Mexico and had a black widow make her web in door hinge of shed behind my house. One day she had caught a small lizard. The lizard was easily 3 inches long. That tells you how fast their venom can work.
I just caught a brown widow that was out on the patio. I am about to let her go. Most people squish spiders. I am not Buddhist but I’m not taking any chances with my karma.
I live in Ky. Only once have I seen a black widow in my lifetime but I hear a lot of people tell me they have seen them around the apartment complex I live in. The one I saw though was at least twice as large as the ones I’m seeing in the pictures on this site. No Kidding! It was a black widow because of it being so large, when it got to close to the edge of it’s web, it flipped upside down on the web hanging on the underneath. That’s when I saw the red hourglass figure.
Hi,
On Halloween 2009 outside in the backyard A brown spider spun down & crawled on my sister’s head until my brother got a broom and pushed it down.! It came down from an orange tree, (fruit)
I never knew there were such things as brown widows.