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Black Widow Spiders |
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The joys of living in the country
One of the first surprises I had when I moved to the
California Central Valley was the ubiquitous nature
of spiders.
There are big grey furry ones called "wolf spiders"
that I think are cool. And there is a huge black
furry one that looks like a miniature tarantula
(maybe 2" across) I see running on the ground at
night.
But the red-orange hour glass on the black widow
just plain scares me. They are very shiny black, and
the abdomen can become a swollen sphere almost as
big as the last part of your small finger.
There is also a faker. Its a black spider with a
yellow hour glass but not on the underside—its
on its' back. Yeah, its a total fake "black widow."
Widows are nocturnal. During the day they hide under
pots, under the lips of containers, etc. When I work
around the plants I wear leather gloves.
Luckily the Black Widow is shy, reclusive and not at
all aggressive. When spotted they run for cover.
That is lucky; the funnel web spider in Australia is
aggressive and has fangs that can pierce through
shoes. |
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I can't spray for widows because it would unbalance the ecosystem.
Seriously. There are thousands of types of good insects that you
don't want to harm. So these bad guys have to be killed one at a
time. I can't get rid of all of them, just keep them from taking
over. |
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The END
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