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.

Brown widow spider in web with her egg sac showing red hourglass.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.

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  1. Luke says:

    One other thing, my word of extra caution, watch out for ones that set up their hiding place under the eaves of the roof. They will maintain a long thick strand down to the ground to their main web. Sometimes you might find their lower main web, but not a hiding place. Look out above, a big spider is probably up in a corner of the eaves waiting to drop down on a victim!

  2. Luke says:

    Wow! I posted back in 2008 (#69 and #181) and see now that this menace has continued to spread. I’m still encountering large numbers around my yard in San Diego, despite my weekly seek-and-destroy missions. It’s a chore. I’ve learned where to find them and how to spot the young ones, which are very pale and almost white. I’m even brave enough now to squish the tiny ones with my bare fingers.

    But I can’t enjoy my patio in the evening and night unless I cleared the area that day.

    There is a lot more information on the internet now, for anyone who wants more details on these creatures. Just Google or Bing brown widow spider and your nearest big city.

  3. LindE says:

    I live on a hospital ship, Africa Mercy, that sails to different West African countries, but we however, needed to move the whole crew (ca. 400 crew members) onshore to South Africa because we need new generators. We were very lucky and found an empty college a 2 hours drive from Durban.

    It’s not been in use for 4 years, and everything’s pretty dusty. While cleaning out the Academy (yes, we do have several families with kids who go to school), we found several spider hanging from the ceiling. We also found a dead spider in our dorm room, and another dead one along with a live spider outside the toilets.

    After doing some “research” I found out that these spiders look a lot like the brown widows. Nobody’s had a chance to see if they have the hourglass on them, but they look terribly much like the brown widow.

    We’re staying at this college ’til Christmas, and there are over 40 kids here, so we’re scared some of them might find a spider and start “playing” with it.

    Does anybody know if there are any brown widow in Kwazulu-Natal (that’s a province in South Africa)?
    I’ll try to get some pictures of the spiders.

  4. Reggie says:

    I live in central Utah. I started seeing these spiders about four years ago here.Since then the problem seems to be getting worse. Ive killed three Black widows, and about ten Brown Widows in the last two days. I read an article online, and it said if you find one of these spiders (Brown Widows) you are probably infested with them. Good luck getting rid of them.

  5. Susan Jones says:

    Live in San Diego, CA. Got bit on the neck last weekend while reading the paper on my back patio furniture…didn’t hurt at first – went to E.R. – only was given a tetanus shot – pain worsened over a few days – earache, eye pain…it’s been 1 week and went back to Urgent Care for follow up – doctors here don’t even have knowledge of this new Brown Widow. The only doctor who treated venomous spider bites left town to go Los Angeles. Local hospitals don’t even stock anti-venin in San Diego (I was told). Very nervous about future effect of the toxicity. We have them all over the back yard – kill them daily; sweep porch very frequently. Symptoms seem to still be developing. Very concerned as doctors aren’t able to treat the bites. We are being invaded!!!!

  6. James says:

    So i was outside the other day working around the yard doing my usual stuff (i live on a farm) and i saw one of these in my shed so i was like “that’s a weird spider” and just left it be. Then i was in my basement and i saw TWO, i don’t have a camera, i wish i did so i could show them to you, and then i was outside having a cigarette and i noticed one right near the entrance to my house, i killed that one, once i find a camera i will show the other one i found and post pics.

    I was bitten by one once and i had to go to the hospital, its really painful!

  7. Sharon says:

    Charleston, South Carolina.

    Found Brown Widow spider yesterday in leg of plastic lawn chair, along with 2 or 3 eggs. Squished them all before I even knew what they were.
    The egg sacs were spiked just like pictures I have seen here.]

    I am used to Black Widows since I am from Southern California, but now live in Charleston, South Carolina…..and had never heard of the brown widow until today.

  8. Yuthiz says:

    I just moved over this weekend to a house that was empty for a few months. I found a black widow spider and killed it of course. Someone commented here (I think on page 1 or 2) that if you see 1 black widow expect to see 25-30. Well yesterday I killed 25 brown widows and 45 eggs so I may have only 5 more to go… then to start the cycle again in a week. I am ready for them. This is my house!!!!!! MY HOUSE!!!!!!

  9. Stephanie W says:

    I was in the bathroom cleaning this morning when I looked over and saw a spider in the lower corner of the wall. I went over and caught it in a Tupperware container and was looking at it when I noticed it had the “red hourglass” shape on it. I knew it wasn’t a black widow because it was brown with kind of striped legs so I began to research online and realized it is a brown widow, YIKES! We just moved form Ohio and I had always feared the black widows and brown recluse but had no clue that now I need to worry about brown widows in my HOME! I have 2 small kids and am worried sick about what to do to get these spiders gone. Any help please?!?!?!?!

  10. matty says:

    In the battle of Man vs. Arachnid, man was victorious once again.

    I quickly dispatched an additional foe that had remained unseen previously. Bringing the enemy body count to four. I knew that smartest and most formidable hostile remained. She was guarding another training camp and seemed to anticipate my advances. I used a flash bang as a diversion then in a classic flanking maneuver I annihilated the camp of young insurgents.

    At this point the last high ranking official realized the overwhelming force that was against her and fled to a nearby crevice. Knowing she could no longer perry blows, she undoubtedly planned her counter attack in a more clandestine manner.

    I then dropped a 500 microliter pyrethroid allethrin “bunker buster” into the stronghold. As a last ditch effort and a display of valiant courage, she attempted a static line drop on me as I raised the garage door, I then engaged her in hand to hand combat and decidedly overcame the enemy combatant.

    It would appear the enemy has been wiped out for now and the territory is again friendly, but one must remain vigilant to their clandestine advances back into this region.

  11. youtube.com/jcmoovee says:

    OC, California

    Me and my Dad have a tradition of going out front and back every couple summers and killing all the black widows we can find. This year, however, there were 0 black widows.

    Instead, a new population of spiders moved in – brown widows. all had hourglasses, and all were brownish or grayish with white marks on the legs.

    We killed 40 of them. and 2 slugs :P

  12. Mike says:

    My family and I are currently vacationing in the Orlando, FL area from upstate NY. At the house we’re renting we have a screened in pool area where my wife noticed a large brown spider by the pool. After looking around a little more, we found 2 additional spiders…all with the familiar orange “hour-glass” shape on it’s belly. After a quick Google search, we found that they are brown window spiders. After reading up on them a little, we realized it would probably be best not to let it bite us. By the time we read that, my father in-law, whom was already out there poking at it was laying face down in the pool twitching. At that point we knew it bit him. lol I’m kidding…about my father in-law anyway.

    I also, against my girlfriends pleads, let them be and didn’t “spray them” like she wanted me to. ha We will not be bringing any of these back with us as souvenirs. I took a couple cell phone pictures and am submitting the best two of the bunch. :)

    Brown Widow SpiderBrown Widow Spider

  13. Kaleb Willstrop says:

    Trying to identify what has been biting me exactly. I have been bitten 5 times now by something that is causing a dime size hole in my body. Depth- can fit an entire cue tip head in the holes when cleaning them out. Massive pockets under the skin of poison and puss. If anyone may be able to help me identify exactly just what the hell is getting me, please email me. if you need a picture of the infected site, email me and ask me for one and ill have one taken for you. thanks

  14. Nancy says:

    Hi,
    I live in Spring Hill, Florida. I was on my lanai this morning and noticed a brown spider underneath the metal support of the screen cage, inside the lanai. I then started to look for more and low and behold-a total of 11 within a 20 foot area including a spiky nest. I found them under the patio chairs, tables and other supports. I immediately went online and found out with photos that they are Brown Widows. I sprayed them all and bagged them, including the nest. I will not tolerate having poisonous spiders around my living space. That just seems like WAY too many in such a small area. I had recently power-washed the lanai and had sprayed off all of the areas to clean them. Now I am seeing the spiders. We have 2 cats and a small dog. I don’t want to see them or my family members suffer from the affects of a bite from one. I am one who would be happy to eradicate them.

  15. cracker cow says:

    digging trenches to lay pipe…felt a slight sting…being a native from Florida I payed no mind…the heat index was very high…thought more that is was from the heat…it was not until much later after the third day digging trenches that I noticed my recovery was not normal…but that did not stop this Southern boy from completing the task….

  16. Ramon says:

    I got bitten by a brown widow while I was camping in Kern River in California. The spider was in my tent I woke up and I found the spider hanging right above me. I looked at it and I grabbed my shirt and smashed it and kept it just in case it had bitten me. It did.
    At first it was like any normal mosquito bite but then it got puss. After 12hrs it was bubbly. I let the pus out but it kept growing. It’s the 3rd day and now my muscles are starting to feel spasms. I’m not waiting to turn black so now I’m at docs.

  17. Amy from Florida says:

    I live in a little town in Florida called Homosassa. I have 2 small children and a few dogs and cats. Today my mother was out cleaning our pool(which is above ground) she was cleaning the outside of the pool with bleach and out came two of these spiders!! I have never seen one of these but knew right away it was a widow because of the hourglass figure underneath the belly. One is a lot bigger then the other and a lot darker too. She called me out there to show me what she found and they seemed to be dead from the bleach, so i took some tweezers and picked them up and put them in a container with a lid waiting for the arrival of my husband to show him what we found. He said that they were poisonous right away and I said it was a black widow and he told me NO that it wasn’t a black widow so the investigation that I am I went right to the computer and found this sight and a few others with pictures of these UGLY critters and I was right!

    I knew it was some kinda widow. Now I am scared to let my kids swim or play outside and to know that there are probably millions more in our yard is gonna give me nightmares. I hate spiders period but to know and see some that are deadly makes it WAY WORSE! What in the world will we do now. How do we get rid of them? What if there are more? what if they get me in my sleep? I want them gone and how do I make sure they are gone FOREVER! I don’t want anything to happen to my babies or my fur babies! (animals). Please HELP ME !

    Scared and Freaking out in Florida!
    Amy

  18. Bronson Mejia says:

    I raise Brown, and Black Widows from start to finish and have every growth stage and guarantee you I have a picture that would surprise you of a baby Black Widow. I am an expert at raising and finding Widows.

  19. Zane Whitworth says:

    Red Ants will kill Black widows. I was watching some red ants climbing on a trailer, could not figure out what they were after. A closer inspection showed an ant had gotten caught in a very poorly made spider web. Careful inspection found the black widow. I knocked the spider to the ground where several red ants were; they proceeded to attack the spider. By the time the fight was done there were probably 30 red ants attacking the spider. When it was dead they drug the body far away from the opening to their bed. I guess the little guy caught in the web was calling for help. It was a very interesting discovery.

  20. KAREN/DANIEL says:

    WE LIVE IN BUENA PARK IN ORANGE COUNTY AND JUST RECENTLY HAVE COME INTO CONTACT W/THESE DIFFERENT KIND OF SPIDERS…..STILL UNSURE AS TO WHAT KIND THEY MIGHT BE…THEY LOOK SIMILAR TO THE BROWN RECLUSE…… IT HAS A BIG BUTT,6LEGS AND 2LONG FANGS IN FRONT.W/BLK/BROWN STRIPED LEGS…

  21. ryan tosto says:

    are these brown widows found in Yakima, Washington because I’ve seen a few in my bathroom that look very similar. they look like a black widow but a lot smaller and brown. please give opinions!

  22. DR. Bowlby says:

    The brown widow spider has made it everywhere in the US. They are poisonous but will not inject large quantities like the Black widow also Brown widows is 2 times more potent than Blacks are and blacks are 15 times more toxic then our average rattle snake so if bitten by anything that you are unsure of seek your nearest DR> or emergency room its always better to be on the safe side and go then stay and the problem erupts to other issues like (loss of platelets, kidney failure, liver failure and or death) TREAT ANYTHING WITH CATION!!!!!

  23. Megan says:

    I live in Fullerton CA, and about two weeks ago I found a black widow on my front porch and so I put it in a jar to examine it. Just today I was picking up a towel that had been hanging over a chair in my backyard and unfolded it. The thick web of the brown widow made it harder to unfold and that’s how I noticed it. It was sitting right next to it’s egg sac. I’m very frightened of spiders so i threw down the towel, but the brown widow stayed inside it. So I went back with a jar and caught it as I had the black widow. So now I have a black widow and a brown widow. I never knew there was such a thing as a brown widow or any other type of widow before today. It’s an exciting discovery, besides the fact that everybody else’s encounter sounds like where there are one, there are many. I’m not sure what I will do with it, probably feed it and watch for the spider-lings to hatch. After that, their fate is unknown. But I definitely will not kill them.

  24. Jessica says:

    I live in central Florida.. we just moved here in June, and after a few weeks we found a brown widow on our back porch with about 5 egg sacks. My husband got rid of them and cleaned off the back porch from top to bottom with a vacuum and insect repellent, and in doing so found another widow. today we were standing out front and saw several smaller spiders, not sure what they were, but then dangling in the window sill (outside) there was another brown widow, huge… I took some pictures through the glass from the inside, but they didn’t come out to where you could see her markings.. we have a 2 week old baby, and two other children… I am terrified of one of my kids being bitten. What can we do to rid our house of these things??? We have also seen several wolf spiders.. I know they are not as dangerous, but I want them gone too! Any advice, please!!

  25. Bekah says:

    I left my 14 month old’s stroller folded on the front porch for whatever reason, it’d been a couple weeks and bad weather was coming so I decided I should check for mildew, clean it up and bring it inside. When I opened it, about 3 brown widows came crawling out. Freaked me out pretty bad. Sprayed the stroller w/ Ortho home defense, waited a couple days,planning to clean the insecticide off of course b4 putting little Jac back in…SO. When I opened it, thinking they would be dead by now as I’d saturated it, 2 or 3 more came out. I said screw it and put the thing by the road w/ a sign on it warning people not to pick it up (as it looks brand new.) Fiance comes home (fiance who I always pick on for being arachnophobic) and wants to know why the $200.00 stroller is by the trash. GGRRRRR! So I dragged the blasted thing to the back patio, sprayed it w/ disinfectant, and proceeded to attack it w/ the hardest pressure setting on the hose. O.M.G. They were coming out faster than I could smash them!

    Must’ve been all in the little dark spaces under the stroller’s tray and wheel covers and all….literally I sprayed and shook and sprayed more Ortho (which deems pretty useless unless you use about a pint on just one of them!) and more disinfectant and more water…for about an hour b4 they stopped coming out. Then inspected all crevices, and sprayed for about another 20 minutes, put it in front of the outdoor A/C unit and it was dry and spider free by the next day. That same day, I was mowing the lawn and something made an angry noise and a round metal piece shot out of the side and it died. I imagine some hot burned up oil came out w/ it. This was all Saturday. Sunday I noticed what looked like a cigarette burn on my arm. I was confused because it didn’t hurt and I figured I would’ve had to be pretty drunk to receive a burn like that and not feel or remember it.OH. I also clean crime/death scenes. I had a 1 month decomp cleanup Sat. evening, and had to take Rx pain meds after b/c using a Sawzzall to cut up a contaminated couch cause my carpal tunnel to flare. I also take Neurontin, a nerve pain inhibitor, daily to keep the carpal tunnel at bay. So it took me awhile to put all these factors together and figure out that it just might be a spider bite and the meds may have prevented me from feeling any pain @ first.

    The blister popped yesterday, (mon.) and that’s when it began to have a bit of a pitted look and a red ring around it. I keep circling it and taking pics, it hasn’t grown that much, the pain is minimal but gradually increasing. Treating w/ tea tree oil as I am told it works wonders for spider bites and staph. I worked in an ER for 2 years, but now have no health insurance so i am being stubborn and haven’t sought medical Tx, but from what I am reading, there isn’t much they can do unless it becomes a boil that needs draining or the flesh begins to necrotise..God forbid. Killed 3 more and an eggsack on my front porch last night and am officially freaked out!

  26. AM says:

    I am convinced that our beagle was bit by a brown widow. We have seen the spiders and egg sacs in our garage and on our lanai. Presumably they are in the yard too.

    A couple months ago our 6 yr old beagle went out in the yard and a few minutes later was crying at the door. He came inside holding up one of his front paws like it was hurt. He wouldn’t let me touch it though, yelped every time I tried. He also had a “droopy” tail. He came inside and laid down on the floor and his muscles in his back legs were pulsating – he seemed like he couldn’t move (paralysis?). He has a history of seizures so we thought he was having or had just had one. But he was alert, looking at us, etc. – not normal for seizures.

    Over the course of the rest of the day, every time he got up to walk around his leg muscles would start to pulsate and he would end up on the ground shaking. We still thought he was having a seizure(s). He had only had 3, very mild ones in the past, spaced really far apart, so we didn’t have any meds or anything for it. And of course it was a Sunday, so the vet was closed and the emergency vet had proven pretty useless with previous problems.

    Monday, took him to the vet because the problem was still ongoing. Less muscle spasm but he was still favoring his one paw and FREAKED out if I tried to touch him ANYWHERE. This is a mild mannered dog who lets 2 year olds pull on his ears and eyebrows without a sound. So we knew something was wrong. Of course while at the vet he did not exhibit as strong of symptoms so it was hard to demonstrate the problem. :(

    The vet suggested it might be a spinal injury of some kind and sent us home with anti inflamatories. I didn’t bring up a spider bite because the thought hadn’t occurred to me yet (up until this point I still thought he was having seizures…)

    Over the next couple of days I started wondering if he was having a neurological problem because he was pacing, circling, etc nonstop. And he still got freaked out if you even ACTED like you were going to touch him, let alone ACTUALLY touch him.

    I called the vet and asked if it might be a spider bite and they said no. But I am convinced it was. I started googling neurological symptoms in dogs and everything started pointing towards a spider bite. Since I knew we had brown widows around here I guessed that might be the cause.

    He did get gradually better after a few days. It took a long time before he would let me touch his front paw – I figure that is where he was bitten.

    We buy “Spider Killer” spray at Home Depot and spray our lanai every couple of months – we get TONS of spiders out there for some reason. I worry about my little guy out in the yard now – his nose gets him into trouble and I don’t want him to get bitten again :(

  27. Ben says:

    Hi,

    I live in Belgium and in Belgium its know that many spiders come in trough the harbor, but never really saw a living black widow, or brown widow.
    but couple days back i noticed a this little spider in our bathroom.

    No I don’t know if its got the hourglass on its belly, but it has marks on its back here’s a photo:

    Is this a brown widow spider? Some people say it is…

  28. Scott Murphy says:

    Yes. These are very dark makings, which I have never seen so dark, but it is a widow, nothing else looks like these potent predators.

    Scott

  29. Scott Murphy says:

    I wrote this letter to Gordon Grice, who wrote Lives of predators, a nice story on black widows kicks the book off. The links will need cut and pasting, but you can skip them if you like. Scott murphy, Sarasota Florida, (Brown widow central)

    A macabre scenario for you to consider,

    Dear Sir,
    I am a Sarasota Fl. resident, well known and not prone to emailing anyone I do not know at least in passing. However, that said, I live in an area which is totally infested with Brown widows, and a splash of blacks just for flavor. My family and I recently moved from one nice area to another, the later was spider central. Any house has at least 10, some more than 50. They take up the spot right under the outside window sill which is both protected from the elements, and hidden from the daylight. At night they drop down to the ground and lay out a network of 45′ angle runners, sometimes several feet long, and hunt very successfully. This former African spider is on a tear here in Florida, and UF even has a research program of some sort running, or at least they did. You are never more than 200 feet from one in this town, they are everywhere. I am sure this is known to you.

    Anyway, I enjoyed your stories, and wanted to offer a possibility to you. As to why the venom is so cataclysmic in strength,…What if a widow bites and fells a large animal in the vicinity of a spreading colony of sisters. Just for arguments sake, this animal decides not to flee but rather to drop dead right then and there, or there anyway, not so much then. This animal now attract a huge supply of insects, enough to insure a deep level of species penetration into that environment. The death of the initial sister who inflicts the bite, if that occurs, would be inconsequential compared to the windfall it would provide to its sisters, and its progeny. These spiders seem to be really, really unconcerned with other species exerting pressure on them, they simply eat the invaders, with relish. So this type of strategy makes some sense in that light, as most other in situ predators would not want that kind of activity near the home front. Also, The toxic power, which is unreal to say the least, (of 0.0009 mg venom / gram body weight will kill 50% of mice) has its roots in conservation of precious resources, similar to venomous snakes. Dry bites indicate real dedication of its hard wired behavioral patterns to conservation of its smallish venom resources.

    The enormous power of alpha latrotoxin conserves resources, and provides a distinct advantage over all threats, including us. Spiders are a really misunderstood link in the system, but these Brown widows are really aggressive and very poisonous. In case you have heard the stories of them being to small to inflict any real damage, when I took out the garbage tonight there were two on the barrel, and one was just a hair shy of two inches in length. Last year I caught one which was two inches in length, and tan like light coffee. These also change color under dark conditions, and when old and living in the dark, they are nearly black. I can discern no real difference anatomically in the fang department between them, though the Blacks are clearly faster to run and faster all around. And yes, I know several people who have been bitten, why that is the case is a function of my work here. Thanks for the story, Here are some pictures of someone’s pet brown.

    Scott Murphy

  30. Fred says:

    since moving to Florida we have been doing battle with all kinds of roaches. we were delighted when a web popped up near our front door and started filling with dead ones. last night i finally caught a glimpse of the spider in question, brown widow (as a kid i really dug spiders) anyways it was not at all aggressive, it fell out of the web when i started to take the web down and played dead. i used some cardboard and cup and moved it into the woods where it can continue helping me with my roach problem.

  31. Kari says:

    Just found brown widow spiders in my garage in Seminole, Florida.
    Took a great picture and looked it up online–no denying it’s a brown widow. I have a 4 year old little boy and can’t seem to find any information on whether it could be fatal to small children. I almost assume it could be but no cases shown. Guess I know what my husband and I will be doing this weekend…cleaning out that darn garage!

  32. Machine says:

    Great…I live in S.West Fl. and just found a Brown Widow spider and 3 eggs in one of my tomato plants. I am all for a stable environment but this is too much. Just two weeks ago I was working in the garden and noticed webbing but didn’t see a spider…Thought well that’s good it’ll keep the pest insects away. Then today I saw a strange brown orb body with a distinct orange mark on the underside tucked under a leaf with 3 eggs right next to it. I went inside and got a mason jar, and with a 2 foot long stick was able to remove the spider and eggs.

    Moral of the story…Keep an eye out they are EVERYWHERE!!!

  33. Ryan says:

    I saw the web in my garage in Buckeye AZ, i just figured the web was torn up because it was low to the ground on our recycle garbage can and i moved the day before. When we got home my wife stopped me to ask if i know there was a black widow in our garage so i went over to check. What do you know i was like man that’s two in the web but when i took a closer look i noticed she was brown and had a red hourglass shape on the underside and little red dots down her back.

    I decided to jump online and see what this spider was (didn’t know there were different widow families.) the web was strong and silky when i started to rip it down it sounded like i was tearing fabric and was a very poorly put together. The male was a whole lot smaller about three times smaller than the female. I have a 2 year old and 2 week old and worry that there are more around my house so i am going to start checking more now than ever so my girls do not get hurt. Thanks for everyone’s comments and descriptions they helped alot.

  34. Laura Irrgang says:

    Is this a brown widow?
    I live in Northeast Texas, near Greenville.
    It is a beautiful spider and has the hourglass shape on its abdomen. It has very vivid orange, yellow, and white markings on its back.

    Brown widow

  35. Hulda Anderson says:

    I had never heard about the brown widow till my daughter-in-law told me about them. I have had several black widow spiders and have been successful at killing them with normal wasp spray (you have to put the spray on thick). Your web site is fantastic and I thank you for sharing this information on all of these spiders. My daughter-in-law is having a big problem with brown recluse spiders. Can you give us advice on how to get rid of them. Thanks again

  36. Evan says:

    ahh crap i picked up an empty can today and a spider that looks a lot like this crawled onto my hand. do they live in south texas?

  37. Al says:

    I live in Los Angeles. Every now and then I’d eliminate very large Black Widows in my back yard. I began spraying Malathion and other insecticides and stopped seeing the BW. However, I’ve since started seeing Brown Widows (and I don’t mean one or two – there have been lots of them) particularly in my BBQ pit, and beneath my lawn furniture. I thought the BW’s had evolved and mutated. In my 61 years I had never heard of this spider. From where did they originate?

  38. Jan Stratton says:

    I live in Norman, Oklahoma, just to the south of OKC, and this spider has taken up residence outside my glass patio door. It’s been there for several weeks.

    Picture of a brown spider

    After I wrote this post yesterday, I looked for her last night after it got dark, and she was there repairing the web. From the inside of the door I could see an hourglass shape on the abdomen, so I decided to take another look at Brown Widow Spiders online. I didn’t know there was such a thing, but I think that’s what it is. Can you tell for sure?

    I tend toward the “live and let live” philosophy when it comes to critters, but this one is in a spot that could easily put her in my hair, or on my face or shoulders if I walk through the web and she’s in it. I don’t want to be posting one of those ugly spider bite shots on my blog.

    I’ll see if I can get shots of her belly before I get rid of her. I haven’t noticed any egg sacs, but they’ll get the axe too if I find any.

    Thanks for your website!
    Jan

  39. Katie says:

    So we live in swfl (cape coral) and bought our house a year ago. Before we purchased this house it sat vacant for like 3 or 4 years, and the bugs TOOK OVER! The entered outside of the house was COVERED in spider egg sacs that now after the research I’ve done today, have found out were brown widow sacs. And when I say covered I mean HUNDREDS on EACH window shutter and then hundreds upon hundreds more in the yard and all over the garage and garage door and lanai…..

    Anyways after seeing ones belly in the mailbox today (there’s prob 6 or 7 alive in my mailbox right now!) I noticed the orange hourglass which confused me because the spider wasn’t black and I had never heard of a widow in any other color. So I got online and discovered that widows come in many colors and I’m fortunate enough to live in a house INFESTED with brown ones!!!

    ICK!!!!! I just killed one 5 min ago INSIDE the house! That was the last straw. I have a 6 mo old who’s starting to crawl and I don’t care if I have to have the pest guy come here EVERY day, I will win this battle and they will be banished from this house!!…. Side note I can NOT believe I haven’t been bitten yet. The chair I go sit in to smoke outside on my lanai has several underneath it. I have sat out there several times a day for a year now and they’ve never bothered me, except to freak me out.

  40. Steve says:

    What type of spider is this? I googled spider with black stripes, and came up with nothing that looks like this … well, I was going to send two photo’s but do not know how to link pics to here … :O(

  41. beth says:

    I recently moved to the desert region of Southern California. I am staying with a group of people while setting up to get my own place. My thing is that the entire garage is filled with black widows. They say that this has been an ongoing problem for them and the neighborhood for years– the only way to completely get rid of them would be to “fumigate the place”. All in all, the black widows stay out of the actual house and can be avoided. They’re a pest you learn to get over in some ways since you never see them unless you go into the garage itself.

    Two days ago, however, we found something new. This is a brown spider, almost caramel in color, mid size but with the shape of a widow, a series of gold markings on the back and an orange hourglass on the belly. We killed it on the back patio, and then began seeing more as the days went on. Usually early evening (not as nocturnal as the black ones), and a lot less concerned with staying hidden. They are bashful when bothered, and have a tendency to “play dead” by shriveling up for extended periods of time. Shy as they might be, though, they don’t stick to cracks and corners like the black widows. They pop right out, like to be mobile, like to lay a lot more egg sacs than the black widows. A man in charge of a spider exhibition at the museum in LA said that they have moved into the region primarily through cars and cargo, and that anywhere you might normally find 1-5 black widows, expect to see 20-30 brown ones…

    Fumigation is sounding GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  42. Watersurgeon says:

    First, great web sight. Thanks for putting this up.

    I’m in South Orange County, California.

    I just found one of these Brown Widows in a down stairs bathroom a few days ago. Just walking around like it owned the place. Only way it could have gotten in was the fact that the kids left the front door open.

    We normally are pretty active people in our yard and rarely if ever find Blacks and frankly I never even knew a brown existed until the other day when I looked up this strange looking spider.

    My daughter was moving some chairs around on our front porch to sit down for lunch last weekend. I told her we needed to turn the chairs over to check for spiders. Sure enough all three chairs had these brown widows hidden in the nooks underneath. Not to mention egg sacs.

    We washed off the chairs and discovered that these brownies don’t drown like other spiders. Also the web is a real pain to get off of the chairs you need a strong jet of water or scrub it down with soap and water.

    I toured our yard and discovered 50+ of these spiders. Under patio tables, chairs, fire pit, ping pong table, you name they were hiding in in it. I found babies to full grown adults.

    Went to Home Depot and found some specialty spider insecticide. Used up a whole can in the yard. They don’t die easy even from direct contact. Based on what I saw I think all need to invest in some bulk concentrate and use my back back commercial yard sprayer to deal with the problem.

    Glad I caught the problem before someone got bitten.

  43. MikeC says:

    I live in Westminster, CA (so cal). Been noticing LOTS of these brown widows since about 2 years ago. Almost funny how unnoticed they go if you have never had an encounter (been to SO many friends houses and freaked them out by pointing out all of their brown widow webs in their backyard.)

    They are truly everywhere. While I rarely see black widows anymore, I can often spot webs (or potential webs) from yards away. Pretty much anything low to the ground. If you have a picnic bench, for example, you almost certainly have at least one widow underneath. Tables, chairs, toys, lawn mowers, you name it. I have never encountered one in the house and would imagine that they wouldn’t prefer it, although I have read several posts claiming their existence indoors.

    After killing a bunch of the brown ones vs. the black ones, I noticed that the brown ones will “play dead” much better than the black ones. DON’T JUST SPRAY. We had one SOAKED the other night, and while barbecuing an hour later we began to see him (her?) crawl away slowly.

    Seems the woodsman lore saying of “low to the ground is where black widows are found” doesn’t apply to the brown ones either. Seen several of them eye-level on jungle gym equipment/window sills.

    Use Raid (ant/roach) – which surprisingly seems to work better than the “spider killer” spray I have tried. With the spider spray they simply stopped, but with raid they actually keeled over and curled their legs back. Be sure to step on them. Clear out their webs and keep a close eye on just how quickly you see new webs.

    Go in your backyard tonight, grab a flashlight and look down. You are probably guaranteed to find at least 5.

  44. Jill says:

    I live in Santee, Ca. Just discovered these things everywhere when we decided to clean our plastic lawn furniture. As soon as we sprayed the bottom of the chair with some simple green they would crawl out. I didn’t know that these were brown widows when we first saw them, but after researching the web I now know for a fact. I also discovered their spiky little egg sacs.

    I have really been keeping my eyes open and have discovered them on my trash cans. I have been totally obsessed with these spiders and want to get rid of them. I had my husband go out at night to look for more. Bring a flashlight and you will be sure to find some. We found them under his truck, under the side column of our house, the big green meter box on our neighbors driveway. I have been warning my neighbors and so far 3 more houses have confirmed them. It is scary the amount I have seen in the past five days. With 2 small children and 2 dogs I don’t want any bites and want to get rid of them. Wondering if is even possible. We will not give up….

  45. Barbara says:

    I live in Clearwater, Florida, which is in the Tampa Bay Area. I had been thinking for a long while that I had Black Widow spiders in my mailbox, but after a little research, I figured out they were actually Brown Widows. I noticed their egg sacs more prominently than the spiders themselves. I have been shaking out my mail for a long time. I have sprayed with household spider killer a few times, plus I have swept away the egg sacs. I know now that I need to destroy the egg sacs, along with the adults and webs! I have a picture on my phone but cannot get it to upload. Sorry! Thank you for this site!!!

  46. Betty Alexander says:

    I live in San Antonio,Texas,out in the country,we saw two black widows,my husband killed them.he bought some seven ten powder and spread it over the garage floor,we counted 50 black widows the next day,all dead,I’m sure there were some we didn’t find.It was very scary.

    if you can find 7-10 dust it will control them.

  47. Yesy says:

    I live in the island of Puerto Rico and I have a brown widow spider situation in my front yard. When I first saw the spider and the eggs I was curious and did some research on the internet . I Didn’t like what I saw since they were under the chairs I have on my porch and I have three kids. I spayed them and kill them . That was a couple of months ago. Yesterday, I saw three of them hanging underneath the chair again. I killed them, the eggs and put one on a jar. It is brown and has an orange hour glass mark. I don’t have a picture yet, but I will.

  48. Jon says:

    Hi,

    I live in SW Florida, and yes there are lots of critters here, I came to this site after killing many brown widow spiders on the front porch, I knew they were widows because all widows have the hour glass. I’m not an expert but I did reports on spiders and the study of them for school when I was younger and some things I learned stuck.

    Widow spiders are dangerous but they don’t attack, unless you poke around at them, I was sitting on a patio chair recently that had a couple adults and egg sacks under the plastic chair in the little crevices, they didn’t bother me they just wanted to live there because at night I like to leave the porch lights on, and when you do that all the bugs fly in and this is where spiders can feast, where ever you see a dead junebug hanging in a web string the widow is not far but stays out of sight.

    Now I didn’t sit in the chair knowing the spiders were there, sha.. I just decided that since the dead bugs from the lights being on at night were starting to increase, I had better sweep, it’s usually the fruit spiders and wolf spiders that were around so I don’t worry about them much, but I decided to turn over the two patio chairs and see if there were any webs under them, and bam! there was three adult brown widows with eggs and and bunch of young, all just stay under the chair even though I was sitting there at the evenings regularly.

    Spiders know that you will kill them and they just try to keep you from seeing them, but take them very cautiously since they are poisonous.
    You don’t have to run screaming but you do need to have a pest control company to keep up your home, the stuff at the store is workable but you will keep needing more and more. Just have a company do it.

    The spring and summer months is when they flourish, keep you Lani’s swept and your light areas that are on at night. Don’t leave stuff out where spiders can crawl in and under, spray and keep everything swept and hosed, and have regular pest control, and you can live a normal life. Keep things screen tight where possible.

    Jon in Florida

  49. Jason says:

    I’m in Isle of Palms SC and have been trying to catch this huge black widow for three days… little witch was fast tho… I caught her an hour ago though and ill have pics soon its as big as a half dollar

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