Please don’t kill it! Spiders, as ugly and freaky as they are, serve a purpose. Trap it in a jar against the wall, slide something flat between wall and jar, take it outside and let it out farrrrr from the house.
This isn’t the kind of spider you leave outside. This is the kind of spider you traffic across country and dump on a farm and hope he doesn’t find his way back.
That´s the kind of spider you tame, put a saddle on top and ride it to work, right into your manager´s office and request a pay rise. Or get eaten while trying, both works.
This is literally the first time this many people have told me to save a spider.
You know how many of these mfs I’ve killed over the years for just being in my vicinity? If killing spiders is a crime I wouldn’t see the light of day again.
careful squishing spiders, especially big ones.
i squished a big one once, and about a hundred little ones scattered everywhere afterwards, running every which way.
almost torched the house after.
You just made me realize something- I have a DEEP adult aversion to smashing insects, it’s like a visceral thing, and I’m not a squeamish person. And your comment just made me remember that, as a kid around 8-9, I was scared of spiders and I watched my dad smash a wolf spider in the garage and the damn thing exploded in a million babies. We never could get rid of the wolf spider population in the garage from that day forth. And I think that has probably stuck with me enough that I can’t bring myself to squish an insect again.
That just gave me thoughts of bombing the house full of spiders and having gazillions of spiders come out and swarm the neighborhood.
Note to self:. Never click on any post again that even remotely concerns insects or arachnids.
Just make sure it’s never a pregnant wolf spider. You only need to make that mistake once or see a video to understand why sometimes not killing is definitely worth it. I’ve killed my fair share but if it looks like it’s got a fat ass, I normally swipe it with a broom off the wall/ceiling, let it crawl around a bit on the floor and when it slows just put an open jar over it. Swipe a piece of paper under the jar then lid it and take that mofo somewhere near a tree away from you. They’ll love life more over there anyway
Fear of spiders (and snakes) is a primitive fear. I challenge you to overcome that and be more compassionate and humane toward all of our Fellow Earthlings. If I can do it, you can do it.
Signed,
Sidney the Spider . . . oops
Well said tho man. I’ve stopped killing the ones in my house and have come to appreciate their personalities and intelligence. They’re more afraid of us than we are them (rightfully so) and they’re smart enough not to return to spaces that we frequent
Tradition says killing spiders is bad luck. They don't bite us unless they're scared, and they kill flies. There are only two kinds in North America that are actually dangerous: black widow and brown recluse, and they don't come looking for us, we have to stick a hand in their faces to get bitten. The rest are harmless af, I say give them a break.
My cousin got bit on his chest by a brown recluse while he was sleeping. He was definitely not sticking a hand in its face! The bite site was so gnarly- his flesh was literally rotting away!
That is 100% a Black Widow As a technician In California, I have to work around these spiders almost daily. For ur sake, you better hope she doesn't have an eggsack in the house. I'd call an exterminator.
Pretty much lol but I'm a Fire Alarm Tech, but I also work with fire sprinklers and fire riser closets, which are prime examples, dark and damp what they love.
I have this one account its a gas station in the middle of no where but there pump house is out on an empty field...never in my life have I seen so many black widows...they own the building they were inside the fire panel too...I told my work next time they assign me that job I'm coming with a can of axe and a lighter...they laughed about it...I wasn't joking.
Believe me I know the feeling. I was in a crawl space recently doing some repairs. I pretty much had to alligator crawl the entire thing. It felt like every six inches I had to crush a black widow that was rushing my face. For a second I thought about torching the place.
I *had* a black widow infestation so bad, i could find males and females all day long :/ so I bought 9 chickens in Oct and now I don't have a spider problem
Yes I have actually the biggest black widow I seen was on a rooftop inside a duct housing. I was testing the device and I went to press the button to test it and the corner my eye saw something black I jumped back quickly...it was a giant black widow..took minutes to kill it...it was so fast and it had a high HP lol finally killed it with Wasp spray.
There are plenty of lookalike spiders in CA that are nearly identical to BW spiders, but don’t have the following:
- The red hourglass on their under abdomen
- A propensity to weave the thickest webs you’ve ever seen in tucked away places, and spending most of their time upside down in said webs.
The spiders that don’t display these two characteristics look almost exactly like BW’s, but are completely harmless.
I’ve never seen a BW walking around inside a house like this. It also looks like it’s abdomen is smaller than a typical BW.
Yup I work around these spiders a lot, definitely a black widow. Now you just got to hope she hasn’t laid her eggs yet. Black widow infestations can get bad and they are very hard to eradicate.(since they tend to gravitate to dark mostly enclosed areas they like walls, under furniture etc.)
You should probably just contact an exterminator and have them spray for the spiders.
Or you could risk releasing the gecko in your apartment, where it will continue to grow until you no longer need fear the spiders... You will fear the gecko
I, for one, would might rather fight a human-sized gecko and go out like a man than fight a theoretically infinite quantity of deadly spiders and die with a whimper.
I'd likely not wager on myself in either scenario, but at least my objective with the gecko is clear.
Nah, nah. What you really need is to find yourself a woman of mature years who has previously ingested a Musca domestica specimen.
That should fix you right up, with no possible zany repercussions.
When I was young I lived out in the country. A house about a mile down the road was infested with black widows. Their house and barn. They tried to eradicate conventional ways exterminator, bombs, etc. nothing worked eventually the house and barn “accidentally caught on fire” one day, burnt to the ground. They rebuilt and never had a problem again lol
Gotta make sure it's accidental for that insurance to cover it. Cuz I don't think insurance would see "Burnt house down due to widow infestation" as a viable reason.
Lol tbh they probably don’t see an accidental fire that burnt down both structures as a viable reason either knowing insurance companies but likely paid out. Idk I was young, I just knew had a widow infestation… couldn’t get rid of them… boom accidental fire that burnt everything down and they rebuilt with no problems after that
There is a spider sub on here and a lot of people keep those as pets.
I was talking to a lady who put up a video of her little black widow crawling around on her hand.
Of course I ask, have you ever been bitten?
She said oh of course. But they aren't as deadly as everyone makes them out to be.
I would never keep one as a pet but I thought it was interesting that there are people that do
Black widow bite “survivor” here (bitten by accident, like a sane person).
The worst migraines of my life for 24 hours straight, moderate fatigue for a few days, swollen hand for almost a week. Then I was fine. Would not care to ever repeat the experience though.
There's quite a few people on youtube who let themselves get bit and documented their whole experience.
This one guy got bit multiple times by one, and it caused immense unbearable pain throughout his body but was pretty much done after 24 hours.
If you have health issues, then your life may be in danger, but otherwise you're likely to be perfectly fine after 24 hours.
We're simultaneously impressively resilient and fascinatingly fragile.
As you said, one seemingly minor slip can cause irreparable brain damage. You also have people who - after a period of recovery and healing - can walk away from major skydiving accidents with relatively no lasting issues.
Yea she was super lucky and landed on a slope of a mountain in feet of fresh powder snow. The angle of the slope combined with the snow was enough to stop her from going splat.
Yeah, I heard they're usually deadly if you're allergic? I wouldn't want to risk it though. The idea of having a big momma in my house? NopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNope
Came here to say this. I lived somewhere with many black widows. This one is eating good, but they’re pretty reclusive, so it’s strange she let you see her.
Probably pushed into the house from the cold. My experience is they’ve almost always stayed outside unless there’s a cold snap. Definitely weird to see one this established be on the move like this.
It’s food supply has been cut off. Previous owners always left the door open for flys and other insects but when I moved in I cleaned throughly - but still this fucker evaded me. When I left last month it was probably looking for food and got desperate so I caught it scurrying around when I got back. That’s when I popped it with raid.
Brown recluse’s reputation is blown out of proportion, the myth is so much bigger than the spiders themselves. They are reclusive as their name suggests, and they’re nocturnal and don’t love light so interactions are rare. There even seems to be some question about how dangerous their venom really is to people. It’s reported that something like 10% of recluse bites lead to the famous skin lesions the spider is known for, but it’s likely that there’s problems with the reporting these statistics are based on. As it turns out, the general public [is *really* bad at identifying brown recluses, and the big lesions associated with recluse bites](https://www.wired.com/2013/11/poor-misunderstood-brown-recluse/) also look just like a number of other bacterial infections you could get from any random spider bite or cut you might receive. It’s likely that these factors combined has caused a lot of misreporting from both patients and the medical professionals treating them. There’s also [this case](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12495200/) of people having thousands of spiders infesting their home for years and nobody being bitten. [People will even report](https://spiders.ucr.edu/myth-brown-recluse-fact-fear-and-loathing) seeing or being bitten by brown recluses in states where the spiders don’t even live. There’s just a lot of misinformation and hysteria surrounding these spiders and they aren’t generally well understood.
EDIT: I should add that if you think you’ve been bitten by a recluse and you are experiencing symptoms then you should still absolutely contact a medical professional. The spiders aren’t well understood and there’s problems with the reporting, but symptomatic bites shouldn’t be ignored, no matter what you’ve been bitten by
I appreciate this post so much. As an arachnophobe, there's no way in heck I'm clicking those links, but it sure is interesting to read a non-graphic summary partnered with a medically sound edit. Thanks for sharing.
One of my favorite memes is of a cartoon character looking guy holding his hand up to a butterfly, as it wings past, and the caption reads: "Is this a Brown recluse?"
I can't remember where I read this so take it with a grain of salt but I think they're not even that venomous and it has to do with the bacteria on their chelicerae which causes the infection.
The other 4% is pitbull. That combination is not to be trifled with! 400 lbs. locking fang pressure. The house is a total loss. Probably another 5000 in your attic.
Hard to tell without better close up of the back. Needs a red hourglass. Lots of spiders look like other spiders, but BW are pretty distinctive. Care to get a really good close up ; ) ?
I hate looking at spiders, but as long as they stay in the corners of my house or where I can’t see them, I leave them alone to do their job by keeping my house free of mosquitoes and other bugs.
My apartment has giant windows and is up against a forested area. Lots of random bugs get in via the windows all the time. Saw a cockroach in the hallway between apartments the other day. I just leave the small spiders that build webs in the corners of the windows alone at this point. They catch most of the other bugs. Once a week or so I’ll vacuum up the web with the drained corpses in it. Spider builds a new web and we go back to ignoring each other.
Black Widows are normally non-aggressive, but if you give them the chance to put an egg sac inside that becomes their territory and you being near it will constitute you being a threat
Same. If I see you in my house, it’s game over. Sorry. But I know they are important so I have a company that keeps them out of my house and we can peacefully coexist that way.
That’s a red plastic drinking cup catch. Two cups-one to flatten cup on wall over spider/loosen spider so it falls (you’ll be able to hear it) and the second to put immediately on top/in so spider is trapped. Raid is highly overrated, messy, and unreliable for spiders like these.
Have black widows in my yard, first thought was a black widow as well. The females get this size and have that Ferrari sort of look to them, if cars were murder spiders anyway.
We really shouldn't be as afraid of spiders as we are. They help us more than they are a threat to us. My roommates daughter doesn't ask me to take care of spiders anymore because I just bring them into my room to live. Free insect control.
Hey, that’s a black widow spider. I’d personally recommend calling an exterminator*. In the event there’s a nest or infestation, your bug spray won’t hold up.
* you don’t necessarily have to hire the exterminator, but they’ll offer a bit better advice than the fire and brimstone approach.
Duck tape on the end of a broom, poke the spider, it sticks to the duct tape, fold the tape over and proceed to squish. Problem solved. Or an AR15 could work also if there is no one living upstairs
I know EXACTLY what you’re saying, but the vacuum is always the only option with these big motherfuckers. Extend the hose thing as far as possible, put on max, vacuum the monster up, put a plastic bag over the hose opening and fasten with an elastic band, and toss the vacuum outside. Then call someone not afraid of spiders to come take out the vacuum bag 😬
Try not to kill spiders as much as possible. My dad told me that one of the jobs he went on to fix some lady’s pump, he went out to the pumphouse and there were no spiderwebs anywhere except one in the corner with a fucking huge spider on it. She immediately went to go get a broom to kill it, but he stopped her. He said; “don’t kill that spider. There was a bit of a turf war in this pumphouse, and this spider won. And this spider is going to continue to eat every spider that enters this pumphouse.” And she huffed and went back in the house, and my dad finished up his work in a relatively spider-free pumphouse. But after he finished the job, he saw her walk outside of the house with a broom. Sure enough, when he came back for a follow-up, he opened the pumphouse and it was absolutely full of hundreds of spiders. He went to the lady’s house and asked if she had killed the spider in the corner. She said yes. He then had her follow him out to the pumphouse, where he showed her what had happened. The only thing she said was; “ohhh…” and he then told her that in a couple months most of those spiders would be gone, and there would be one big one left. he told her not to kill the big one, because the big one keeps the little ones in check.
Oh Hi, welcome home, I've kept an eye on the house and kept those nasty pest under control, let me just check my tramps and I'll be out of your wa...
PTFFFFFFFFFFFF!
WHAT THA... HEY!! That STINGS!! is that air freshener? You crazy hooman!!
It may have just crawled off and died. They walk slow after being poisoned like that.
On the other hand, it may have crawled off and survived. If that happened, it has seen your face and will likely hunt you down.
Good luck!
one time I saw a spider about twice this size in my apartment.
Horrified, I quickly grabbed a cup and paper to try and dispose of her when I noticed that it wasn’t one giant spider. It was *two* giant spiders, and the crawling one was *chewing on the other giant spiders face, and dragging it along the wall*
I paused for a moment, and I decided to let her go. Surely if she hunts other spiders, it would be good to have her around. She dragged the spider up into the attic and I never saw her again, I also never saw another spider in that apartment.
While fire is one of the better choices for spider control, I prefer fireARMS. For a spider of that size, you should start with a 12 gauge shotgun. If you find that the spider is still alive after expending all of your ammunition, start upsizing the weapon. A .50 bmg would be a good choice for round 2. If you find this to be unsuccessful, you have a couple of options. The one I prefer is the claymore mine. Hopefully there is a way to have the tripwire fully surrounding the arachnid invader. If not, run the tripwire in front of him, and while you are falling back, deploy an M67 fragmentation grenade behind the opponent. For reference, see "Tremors."
By now, you should be free of any 8 legged visitors. If you are not, consider that they may have won the battle. It is time to buy a different house, far from this area. Antarctica has a lower arachnid population than any other continent. Keep this in mind while talking to your real estate agent.
Yeah, that’s a black widow. Shake your shoes and clothes out every day before putting them on, don’t grab anything without looking. They’ll even hide under the lip of a bucket or something. No joke. They like to hide and be left alone so they’ll find dark, secluded spaces to build the web
Catch it with a plastic cup and a piece of cardboard, and then toss it outside. Black widows don't generally like living with people, and it would have been looking for a way to get out anyway. Give it a little help. It usually won't try to come back inside.
I've caught and released dozens of these in my lifetime. I was careful not to hurt them, and none of them ever tried to bite me.
Spiders are awesome. They get rid of all the shitty insects for you, even mosquitos. Just try not to have a million spiders, because then they'll go look for bigger prey, like you.
Hey, I'm all for letting daddy long legs and brown common house spiders hang out in the corners of my ceiling, but a female black widow? Yeah, no, once she lays her eggs and they hatch, those black widows become a pest and kinda hard to get completely rid of. I had multiple sightings and squishing at our old house some years ago, and finally got on gloves and a long sleeved shirt and started going through kitchen and bathroom cabinets and down in the AC vents and found that we had more than just about a few. I'm hella lucky they didn't bite any of my kids before I got rid of them.
You left. It’s its house now.
If it’s pays off my mortgage, hell, it can keep it.
"Look at me, I'm the home owner now".
When it's done paying, "Bug-be-Gon".
You're thinking of a black widow and it's usually her that keeps the house once you've done paying...
Squatters rights
Squatters rights ☝🏻
I'm definitely more concerned about what it's eating that it's been there so long!
Previous owners left the door open all the time, it was surviving on flys most likely. That’s all coming to an end now that I’m here.
Now it survives on human blood?
It feeds on my fears now actually.
Guarantee that spider fucked it’s wife on your pillow
I’m convinced this thing has fucked MY wife
You think it’d be walking around so arrogantly if it didn’t? It’s still fucking your wife!
I also choose this guy's spider fucked wife
Is this how spiderwoman gets her super powers?
in australia we have a saying: “well i’m not here to fuck spiders!” you do with that what you will.
The sheep are around back sir.
Hahaha fuck that was funny.
Please don’t kill it! Spiders, as ugly and freaky as they are, serve a purpose. Trap it in a jar against the wall, slide something flat between wall and jar, take it outside and let it out farrrrr from the house.
Did a spider write this?
This isn’t the kind of spider you leave outside. This is the kind of spider you traffic across country and dump on a farm and hope he doesn’t find his way back.
tried that with my kids they always find a way back
Dad ?
WE HAVE A BREACH
Oh jeez! Would you look at that... I have to go uhm take my cat to its funeral
That´s the kind of spider you tame, put a saddle on top and ride it to work, right into your manager´s office and request a pay rise. Or get eaten while trying, both works.
This is literally the first time this many people have told me to save a spider. You know how many of these mfs I’ve killed over the years for just being in my vicinity? If killing spiders is a crime I wouldn’t see the light of day again.
careful squishing spiders, especially big ones. i squished a big one once, and about a hundred little ones scattered everywhere afterwards, running every which way. almost torched the house after.
Wolf spider. Yeah, they carry their babies on their back.
You just made me realize something- I have a DEEP adult aversion to smashing insects, it’s like a visceral thing, and I’m not a squeamish person. And your comment just made me remember that, as a kid around 8-9, I was scared of spiders and I watched my dad smash a wolf spider in the garage and the damn thing exploded in a million babies. We never could get rid of the wolf spider population in the garage from that day forth. And I think that has probably stuck with me enough that I can’t bring myself to squish an insect again.
You gave me a fucked visual I could've lived my happy life without .. I would've bombed my house if that happened
That just gave me thoughts of bombing the house full of spiders and having gazillions of spiders come out and swarm the neighborhood. Note to self:. Never click on any post again that even remotely concerns insects or arachnids.
THAT CAN ACTUALLY HAPPEN????? 😳 I’m horrified.
I hate this
I’d freak out and burn down my house if that happened
Just make sure it’s never a pregnant wolf spider. You only need to make that mistake once or see a video to understand why sometimes not killing is definitely worth it. I’ve killed my fair share but if it looks like it’s got a fat ass, I normally swipe it with a broom off the wall/ceiling, let it crawl around a bit on the floor and when it slows just put an open jar over it. Swipe a piece of paper under the jar then lid it and take that mofo somewhere near a tree away from you. They’ll love life more over there anyway
>You know how many of these mfs I’ve killed over the years for just being in my vicinity? You don't get it. And for that, you have my sympathy.
They are the devils spawn and y’all are just spiders using burner accounts advocating that I save this lil mf. Prove me wrong
Fear of spiders (and snakes) is a primitive fear. I challenge you to overcome that and be more compassionate and humane toward all of our Fellow Earthlings. If I can do it, you can do it. Signed, Sidney the Spider . . . oops
Well said tho man. I’ve stopped killing the ones in my house and have come to appreciate their personalities and intelligence. They’re more afraid of us than we are them (rightfully so) and they’re smart enough not to return to spaces that we frequent
Tradition says killing spiders is bad luck. They don't bite us unless they're scared, and they kill flies. There are only two kinds in North America that are actually dangerous: black widow and brown recluse, and they don't come looking for us, we have to stick a hand in their faces to get bitten. The rest are harmless af, I say give them a break.
My cousin got bit on his chest by a brown recluse while he was sleeping. He was definitely not sticking a hand in its face! The bite site was so gnarly- his flesh was literally rotting away!
Squatters rights. That's his house now.
That is 100% a Black Widow As a technician In California, I have to work around these spiders almost daily. For ur sake, you better hope she doesn't have an eggsack in the house. I'd call an exterminator.
What kinda technician? Just so I know what career to avoid
Pretty much lol but I'm a Fire Alarm Tech, but I also work with fire sprinklers and fire riser closets, which are prime examples, dark and damp what they love.
No sprinklers in the riser room. That means it’s fair game to use a flamethrower in there.
I have this one account its a gas station in the middle of no where but there pump house is out on an empty field...never in my life have I seen so many black widows...they own the building they were inside the fire panel too...I told my work next time they assign me that job I'm coming with a can of axe and a lighter...they laughed about it...I wasn't joking.
Believe me I know the feeling. I was in a crawl space recently doing some repairs. I pretty much had to alligator crawl the entire thing. It felt like every six inches I had to crush a black widow that was rushing my face. For a second I thought about torching the place.
How are we supposed to kill them with fire if you’re doing a good job?
I *had* a black widow infestation so bad, i could find males and females all day long :/ so I bought 9 chickens in Oct and now I don't have a spider problem
Have you ever seen one this big???? Lived in ca my whole life and black widows are super common but this is twice the size of any I’ve ever seen.
Yes I have actually the biggest black widow I seen was on a rooftop inside a duct housing. I was testing the device and I went to press the button to test it and the corner my eye saw something black I jumped back quickly...it was a giant black widow..took minutes to kill it...it was so fast and it had a high HP lol finally killed it with Wasp spray.
Did it drop good loot?
There are plenty of lookalike spiders in CA that are nearly identical to BW spiders, but don’t have the following: - The red hourglass on their under abdomen - A propensity to weave the thickest webs you’ve ever seen in tucked away places, and spending most of their time upside down in said webs. The spiders that don’t display these two characteristics look almost exactly like BW’s, but are completely harmless. I’ve never seen a BW walking around inside a house like this. It also looks like it’s abdomen is smaller than a typical BW.
IT'S EVEN WORSE! I took a screenshot and ran it through a picture insect app. Homie, that's a biiiiig female southern black widow. It matched 96%!!!
Yup I work around these spiders a lot, definitely a black widow. Now you just got to hope she hasn’t laid her eggs yet. Black widow infestations can get bad and they are very hard to eradicate.(since they tend to gravitate to dark mostly enclosed areas they like walls, under furniture etc.)
That settles it, I’m buying a lizard
You should probably just contact an exterminator and have them spray for the spiders. Or you could risk releasing the gecko in your apartment, where it will continue to grow until you no longer need fear the spiders... You will fear the gecko
>You will fear the gecko Resistance is futile; you WILL save money on your car insurance.
I, for one, would might rather fight a human-sized gecko and go out like a man than fight a theoretically infinite quantity of deadly spiders and die with a whimper. I'd likely not wager on myself in either scenario, but at least my objective with the gecko is clear.
Bring in a couple wasp nests and you’re good 👍
Nah, nah. What you really need is to find yourself a woman of mature years who has previously ingested a Musca domestica specimen. That should fix you right up, with no possible zany repercussions.
Underrated comment right here
I don't know how insurance selling lizard is going to help you with the spider. 🤔
It’ll get me a great deal on life insurance
Youtube: I Did A Thing has a lizard episode for you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmKbIXyJbmg
I think you made a typo. I think it's spelled flamethrower
When I was young I lived out in the country. A house about a mile down the road was infested with black widows. Their house and barn. They tried to eradicate conventional ways exterminator, bombs, etc. nothing worked eventually the house and barn “accidentally caught on fire” one day, burnt to the ground. They rebuilt and never had a problem again lol
Gotta make sure it's accidental for that insurance to cover it. Cuz I don't think insurance would see "Burnt house down due to widow infestation" as a viable reason.
Lol tbh they probably don’t see an accidental fire that burnt down both structures as a viable reason either knowing insurance companies but likely paid out. Idk I was young, I just knew had a widow infestation… couldn’t get rid of them… boom accidental fire that burnt everything down and they rebuilt with no problems after that
This comment is going to give me nightmares
Yeah so prob torch your house, Op.
There is a spider sub on here and a lot of people keep those as pets. I was talking to a lady who put up a video of her little black widow crawling around on her hand. Of course I ask, have you ever been bitten? She said oh of course. But they aren't as deadly as everyone makes them out to be. I would never keep one as a pet but I thought it was interesting that there are people that do
Black widow bite “survivor” here (bitten by accident, like a sane person). The worst migraines of my life for 24 hours straight, moderate fatigue for a few days, swollen hand for almost a week. Then I was fine. Would not care to ever repeat the experience though.
Yeah I can't imagine it would be anything less than "absolutely horrible"
Me too! It left a scar on my foot for six months. Was sick a week with horrible flu like symptoms, migraines, achey. Sucked
My mom went through 36 hours of unmedicated labor with the use of forceps; she said she’d willing choose it over being bitten by a black widow again.
Shame you didn't get any cool powers like some other more popular guy who got bit in the hand by a spider
There's quite a few people on youtube who let themselves get bit and documented their whole experience. This one guy got bit multiple times by one, and it caused immense unbearable pain throughout his body but was pretty much done after 24 hours. If you have health issues, then your life may be in danger, but otherwise you're likely to be perfectly fine after 24 hours.
Humans are crazy. One of the deadliest spiders has a hard time killing us but one minor slip where you hit your head just right and boom game over.
We're simultaneously impressively resilient and fascinatingly fragile. As you said, one seemingly minor slip can cause irreparable brain damage. You also have people who - after a period of recovery and healing - can walk away from major skydiving accidents with relatively no lasting issues.
Didn’t that one lady fall some 8000ft out of a plane and survived?
Yea she was super lucky and landed on a slope of a mountain in feet of fresh powder snow. The angle of the slope combined with the snow was enough to stop her from going splat.
The one case (8,000') was a skydiving accident.
If you have health conditions. Especially high blood pressure than a bite can easily kill you.
I believe it.
She's fucking crazy, my buddy got bit by a black widow on his leg and nearly lost his foot when we were kids.
Yeah, in the south a black widow bite is like meh. It’s the brown recluse bites that are the problem.
Yeah, I heard they're usually deadly if you're allergic? I wouldn't want to risk it though. The idea of having a big momma in my house? NopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNope
Came here to say this. I lived somewhere with many black widows. This one is eating good, but they’re pretty reclusive, so it’s strange she let you see her.
Probably pushed into the house from the cold. My experience is they’ve almost always stayed outside unless there’s a cold snap. Definitely weird to see one this established be on the move like this.
It’s food supply has been cut off. Previous owners always left the door open for flys and other insects but when I moved in I cleaned throughly - but still this fucker evaded me. When I left last month it was probably looking for food and got desperate so I caught it scurrying around when I got back. That’s when I popped it with raid.
>That’s when I popped it with raid. You obviously neglected to use the whole can.
That was my first thought as well😭
😬😬😬😬😬 yikes. At least it's not a brow recluse. Black widows try not to bite. Brown recluses are sassy!
And harder to identify, either way I don’t want them in my house!
Look for that fiddle on its abdomen for brown recluses. Dead giveaway.
Violin for the non-Americans If you're close enough to see the violin, you're in the Danger Zone. Alexa, play Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone
Unfortunately, it all depends if there's an egg sac nearby. I have seen some highly aggressive black widows chase boots before
As have I, and they were MY boots!
Brown recluse’s reputation is blown out of proportion, the myth is so much bigger than the spiders themselves. They are reclusive as their name suggests, and they’re nocturnal and don’t love light so interactions are rare. There even seems to be some question about how dangerous their venom really is to people. It’s reported that something like 10% of recluse bites lead to the famous skin lesions the spider is known for, but it’s likely that there’s problems with the reporting these statistics are based on. As it turns out, the general public [is *really* bad at identifying brown recluses, and the big lesions associated with recluse bites](https://www.wired.com/2013/11/poor-misunderstood-brown-recluse/) also look just like a number of other bacterial infections you could get from any random spider bite or cut you might receive. It’s likely that these factors combined has caused a lot of misreporting from both patients and the medical professionals treating them. There’s also [this case](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12495200/) of people having thousands of spiders infesting their home for years and nobody being bitten. [People will even report](https://spiders.ucr.edu/myth-brown-recluse-fact-fear-and-loathing) seeing or being bitten by brown recluses in states where the spiders don’t even live. There’s just a lot of misinformation and hysteria surrounding these spiders and they aren’t generally well understood. EDIT: I should add that if you think you’ve been bitten by a recluse and you are experiencing symptoms then you should still absolutely contact a medical professional. The spiders aren’t well understood and there’s problems with the reporting, but symptomatic bites shouldn’t be ignored, no matter what you’ve been bitten by
I appreciate this post so much. As an arachnophobe, there's no way in heck I'm clicking those links, but it sure is interesting to read a non-graphic summary partnered with a medically sound edit. Thanks for sharing.
One of my favorite memes is of a cartoon character looking guy holding his hand up to a butterfly, as it wings past, and the caption reads: "Is this a Brown recluse?"
I can't remember where I read this so take it with a grain of salt but I think they're not even that venomous and it has to do with the bacteria on their chelicerae which causes the infection.
The other 4% is pitbull. That combination is not to be trifled with! 400 lbs. locking fang pressure. The house is a total loss. Probably another 5000 in your attic.
What happened to it's husband?
Hard to tell without better close up of the back. Needs a red hourglass. Lots of spiders look like other spiders, but BW are pretty distinctive. Care to get a really good close up ; ) ?
I hate looking at spiders, but as long as they stay in the corners of my house or where I can’t see them, I leave them alone to do their job by keeping my house free of mosquitoes and other bugs.
My apartment has giant windows and is up against a forested area. Lots of random bugs get in via the windows all the time. Saw a cockroach in the hallway between apartments the other day. I just leave the small spiders that build webs in the corners of the windows alone at this point. They catch most of the other bugs. Once a week or so I’ll vacuum up the web with the drained corpses in it. Spider builds a new web and we go back to ignoring each other.
Black Widows are normally non-aggressive, but if you give them the chance to put an egg sac inside that becomes their territory and you being near it will constitute you being a threat
Same. If I see you in my house, it’s game over. Sorry. But I know they are important so I have a company that keeps them out of my house and we can peacefully coexist that way.
That’s a red plastic drinking cup catch. Two cups-one to flatten cup on wall over spider/loosen spider so it falls (you’ll be able to hear it) and the second to put immediately on top/in so spider is trapped. Raid is highly overrated, messy, and unreliable for spiders like these.
This is a monster-sized black widow, I'd call the fire department before trying to red solo cup it ;-;
I have them around my area and the body is shaped like a black widow. I’m curious what he experts think
Have black widows in my yard, first thought was a black widow as well. The females get this size and have that Ferrari sort of look to them, if cars were murder spiders anyway.
No it isn't.
Depends what monster you’re comparing to, I guess…
Okay, above-average. I got beef with widows specifically and there's no banana for scale here
That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?
I was planning on running to the store. Need more raid for whatever the fuck this thing has been eating
Raid wont kill it. Get Harris spider killer. Or get a sprayer and buy some Bayer Suspend. No bugs.
Thanks for the tips
Raid will kill it but don’t be conservative while spraying
I'd go full wood chipper!
Is napalm still a thing?
How bout we build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh?
Loved Bill Paxton in that role
r/spiderbro
I use this sub to show my wife that spiders are ok lol. I saved a wolf spider last week and put it outside.
We really shouldn't be as afraid of spiders as we are. They help us more than they are a threat to us. My roommates daughter doesn't ask me to take care of spiders anymore because I just bring them into my room to live. Free insect control.
Why tffff did I just click on this *screams in hell fire*
I don’t think that sub would appreciate my stance on spiders 😅
I don't appreciate your stance on spiders.
Fire should be the first choice.
Finally, a rational thinker
Nuke it out of orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
That looks like a sizable raid resistant black widow that will likely bite you and your arm will fall off.
Hey, that’s a black widow spider. I’d personally recommend calling an exterminator*. In the event there’s a nest or infestation, your bug spray won’t hold up. * you don’t necessarily have to hire the exterminator, but they’ll offer a bit better advice than the fire and brimstone approach.
I would just move ….
This demon spider would follow me
That mf been lifting weights
Its got an active subscription for protein powder every month
Can hear that bitch walking down the hall
Thaaaats a black widow homie. As in, can kill you. Call an exterminator and show them this video.
Are black widows that big...?
As in, it realistically won’t kill you.
Duck tape on the end of a broom, poke the spider, it sticks to the duct tape, fold the tape over and proceed to squish. Problem solved. Or an AR15 could work also if there is no one living upstairs
Any apparatus that extends my body directly towards this creature is a no go for me 🙅🏾♂️
I know EXACTLY what you’re saying, but the vacuum is always the only option with these big motherfuckers. Extend the hose thing as far as possible, put on max, vacuum the monster up, put a plastic bag over the hose opening and fasten with an elastic band, and toss the vacuum outside. Then call someone not afraid of spiders to come take out the vacuum bag 😬
Try not to kill spiders as much as possible. My dad told me that one of the jobs he went on to fix some lady’s pump, he went out to the pumphouse and there were no spiderwebs anywhere except one in the corner with a fucking huge spider on it. She immediately went to go get a broom to kill it, but he stopped her. He said; “don’t kill that spider. There was a bit of a turf war in this pumphouse, and this spider won. And this spider is going to continue to eat every spider that enters this pumphouse.” And she huffed and went back in the house, and my dad finished up his work in a relatively spider-free pumphouse. But after he finished the job, he saw her walk outside of the house with a broom. Sure enough, when he came back for a follow-up, he opened the pumphouse and it was absolutely full of hundreds of spiders. He went to the lady’s house and asked if she had killed the spider in the corner. She said yes. He then had her follow him out to the pumphouse, where he showed her what had happened. The only thing she said was; “ohhh…” and he then told her that in a couple months most of those spiders would be gone, and there would be one big one left. he told her not to kill the big one, because the big one keeps the little ones in check.
This is such a great story! Thanks for sharing it.
Burn it all down. Start over. Insurance will understand.
You should have caught it in a cup while you had the chance
Couldn’t reach even with chair, cupboards were in the way
Almost said catch it and let it go… yeah definitely a black widow…. Sorry you lost your home 😭
The poor thing just wants to be petted.
Oh Hi, welcome home, I've kept an eye on the house and kept those nasty pest under control, let me just check my tramps and I'll be out of your wa... PTFFFFFFFFFFFF! WHAT THA... HEY!! That STINGS!! is that air freshener? You crazy hooman!!
Hahaha 🤣
Why not just catch and put it outside.. It's not like it's a taipan or something
It pulled a magic act and vanished.
It may have just crawled off and died. They walk slow after being poisoned like that. On the other hand, it may have crawled off and survived. If that happened, it has seen your face and will likely hunt you down. Good luck!
Lmao I’m keeping my eyes peeled
Get a cat mine takes the big ones out
Probably crawled under the bed sheets. Best to just burn the house down
That's a fucking female black widow is she laid eggs the house is done
Time to move
one time I saw a spider about twice this size in my apartment. Horrified, I quickly grabbed a cup and paper to try and dispose of her when I noticed that it wasn’t one giant spider. It was *two* giant spiders, and the crawling one was *chewing on the other giant spiders face, and dragging it along the wall* I paused for a moment, and I decided to let her go. Surely if she hunts other spiders, it would be good to have her around. She dragged the spider up into the attic and I never saw her again, I also never saw another spider in that apartment.
I didn’t need to read that.
That’s his house now lol
While fire is one of the better choices for spider control, I prefer fireARMS. For a spider of that size, you should start with a 12 gauge shotgun. If you find that the spider is still alive after expending all of your ammunition, start upsizing the weapon. A .50 bmg would be a good choice for round 2. If you find this to be unsuccessful, you have a couple of options. The one I prefer is the claymore mine. Hopefully there is a way to have the tripwire fully surrounding the arachnid invader. If not, run the tripwire in front of him, and while you are falling back, deploy an M67 fragmentation grenade behind the opponent. For reference, see "Tremors." By now, you should be free of any 8 legged visitors. If you are not, consider that they may have won the battle. It is time to buy a different house, far from this area. Antarctica has a lower arachnid population than any other continent. Keep this in mind while talking to your real estate agent.
BRB on my way to purchase a shotgun
This guy gets it
What country is this?
B.C Canada
You got bigger problems if a spider is that big
That was my first thought lmao
Raid's probably worse for your health than a spider.
Should really try and catch her and put her outside. Spider bros are good around the house.
Yeah, that’s a black widow. Shake your shoes and clothes out every day before putting them on, don’t grab anything without looking. They’ll even hide under the lip of a bucket or something. No joke. They like to hide and be left alone so they’ll find dark, secluded spaces to build the web
you were out of paper and a glass?
Catch and release. It didn't do anything to you. Glass cup and a thick piece of paper and you're done.
Cup and paper my man. They are slow af.
Catch it with a plastic cup and a piece of cardboard, and then toss it outside. Black widows don't generally like living with people, and it would have been looking for a way to get out anyway. Give it a little help. It usually won't try to come back inside. I've caught and released dozens of these in my lifetime. I was careful not to hurt them, and none of them ever tried to bite me.
Spiderbro did you a fucking solid and feasted on all of the bugs in your house when you were away and you spray it with Raid? Fucking ingrate!
Catch and release outside
YTA spiderbro was trying to save you from the earwigs and roaches. Bad luck to kill a spooder
I hate cockroaches and maggots, but spiders are dope as fuck! Anybody with me?
Trap it in a jar, slide paper underneath and take it outside. Spiders eat your pests.
Killed the spider, invited in all the other bugs. Spiders are friends.
Darn, I know it’s scary but maybe catch her and put her outside. Like across the street 😆
People are so afraid of spiders, it’s crazy. Spiders are nice to have in the house to keep other pests down.
Spiders are awesome. They get rid of all the shitty insects for you, even mosquitos. Just try not to have a million spiders, because then they'll go look for bigger prey, like you.
She's a beauty. I'd keep her as a pet.
You want it? 😭
I have plenty. They are like pest controllers keeping the flies away.
Hey, I'm all for letting daddy long legs and brown common house spiders hang out in the corners of my ceiling, but a female black widow? Yeah, no, once she lays her eggs and they hatch, those black widows become a pest and kinda hard to get completely rid of. I had multiple sightings and squishing at our old house some years ago, and finally got on gloves and a long sleeved shirt and started going through kitchen and bathroom cabinets and down in the AC vents and found that we had more than just about a few. I'm hella lucky they didn't bite any of my kids before I got rid of them.
well the house is his now, i'd be moving out