Straight Story 5, Black Widows - 0

[The Straight Story]

Killed 5 of the little bastards today, including one with a huge egg (add about 2000 to my score for that one).

Right outside my front door.

Last Tuesday I nearly got bit by one, I opened the trash can and was putting something down inside it my hand was about 3 inches from it, it was not happy :)

Two of em today we about as large as I have seen them here (Southern CA).

Total count since I first starting fighting them is around 13/14.

I hate em :) Will get some pics of some soon, I am usually more interested in killing them then going inside to get the camera. My luck they would jump on the lens anyway...

[huskerlaw]

1. Southern CA?!?!

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

I am so calling you if I see one of those bastards anywhere near my apartment.

Ugh. I was unaware they they existed in this part of the US...shit. :scared:

[The Straight Story]

2. I am in Bakersfield, and I got a ton of em around my house

One of them is especially wily, she sneaks up under the wooden siding where I can't get her if I get close enough to kill.

4 times now I have missed her. Tomorrow though is a new day and I got my hammer out now (smashed a few tonight with it).

Scariest episode though:

I came inside when I first saw a few of em to tell my wife. We were heading out to look and my daughter opened the door and said there was one on the inside screen (she is 6) I thought 'well, every spider to here will be a black widow now' and I looked and she was right - a big fat one.

They are beautiful, but I won't risk having them here. Might try to catch one as a pet though...

[huskerlaw]

3. Did I mention....EWWW?!

I'm spider phobic in the best of circumstances, but there's something about those creepy bastards that REALLY freaks me out. Aside from the poisonous thing.

I'm in Los Angeles, and we get those gross spiders that like to build their webs in the trees (in fact, tis nearly the season...), but otherwise, we seem to be fairly spider-free. Or at least, I like to think we are. ;)

[The Straight Story]

4. Well, if ya need some excitement I can ship ya some

:rofl:

[huskerlaw]

5. NO THANKS!!!!

:D

[DarkTirade]

6. You're 11 or 12 up on me. (2011 up if you count the eggs.) :)

I'm just glad that I noticed the first one I killed before it noticed me... it was back in middle school and I was sitting there, waiting for the bell to ring. My bus was early, so I was waiting a while. Then I noticed a spider sitting a few inches away. Right next to my leg.

I can't even claim much bravery for that one. It wasn't even until AFTER I squished it that I saw the hourglass pattern on the body and I realized it wasn't one of the orange fakers that live here in FL. We have these little spiders that pretend to be black widows to scare off predators. :) Similar hourglass pattern, but they're usually dark brown with a yellow/orange hourglass, not black with red. And the body shape is different.

And it was a damn good thing we found the second one before it found us too... because it made a nest in one of our porch chairs. The chair it chose? The quarter sized one we'd bought for my little sister. This was before I went off to college, so she would have been about five or six at the time.

I'm also glad I never lived out in the middle of nowhere like my brother did for a while... there are some scary spiders that live in rural areas here in FL. Not that many dangerous ones, just scary. Like the ones who make 10-15 foot wide webs. If they live near a stream or small river, they like to make a web across the river. Or the one that got into his house that was almost tarantula sized. They couldn't kill the damn thing for weeks, it kept scampering away before they could get it. So they named it Methusela, for it's ability to survive. :) Even when they finally got it with a big blast of bug spray, it still scampered away. They found it dead a few days later, on the other side of the house. The body alone was about an inch long. From the size description I'd guess it's probably actually the Carolina wolf spider, but some of them live as far south as here in FL. Not dangerous, just scary lookin'. :) And fast.

[Kali]

7. have you noticed that you are getting them in almost the exact same places?

My experience with black widows is that you can't really get rid of them - a new on alway takes the squished one's place, so I just learned not to put my hands where I know they will be. I used to obsess about getting rid of them, but after having been stung or bitten by just about everything else that can, and never having been even walked on by a widow, I am not so nervous of them. I'm sure that could change at any time but for now I don't worry about them - if their webs get too unsightly I get a stick and scrape it all up (broom doesn't work that well, their webs are super-sticky).

[The Straight Story]

9. Same and new places:

Before it was front of house, left of the door. 3-4 of them on a regular basis.

Then I found the one in the trash (other end of the house).

Tonight some new areas - to the right of the door but no evident web (I was laying mulch and they came out from under the concrete next to where I was laying it).

And as I mentioned one was trying to get into the house (although I think the cat would eventually get it).

My main fear is my daughter and all her friends who come over and play. My neighbor (next door) said he had seen a bunch at his place as well.

The most odd place I found one (which is kinda spooky) was on the garage door handle, on the opposite and in the recessed area. Only reason I noticed it is I check for those things now and say it's legs hanging out just before I reached out (looking as I reach now, just in case).

[Joe Fields]

8. I used to live in Pahrump, Nevada. And not only did we have

Black Widows by the hundreds to contend with, and all of the egg sacs, but it was almost impossible to keep scorpions and centipedes out of our house, in the desert environment.

I would go out at night with a flashlight and hunt black widows. Before we would go to bed, we would have to lift the covers from the bed and shake them to make sure no creepy crawlies were in bed. The bed was pulled away from the wall, and the bedding could never touch the floor. We would have to shake our clothing before we put it on, even if it had been hung in the closet, and we would have to bang our shoes a few times before we put them on. These were daily rituals that we had to perform. It wasn't uncommon to kill a scorpion a day inside our home. (and that was with a bi-monthly pest exterminator visiting us.

We could go out 25 yards away from our house and catch as many scorpions as we wanted.

[The Straight Story]

11. That sounds rather....

Sucky! :)

My dogs, especially wiggles, plays with anything that moves for about 20 minutes before he eats it or squishes it.

Have not seen any out back though, I think both dogs have scared em away out here :)

[Kali]

13. and after you check your bed and lie down, you look up

and there is a scorpion on the ceiling and you know it was all for naught:rofl:
I know the routine, all too well!

[krispos42]

10. This is why I'm glad I'm in Minnesota...

All the creepy-crawlies FREEZE TO DEATH for like six months out of the year. In fact, in about 6 weeks they'll be dying by the brazillion!!!

Woo-hoo!

[The Straight Story]

12. How many is a brazillion

:rofl: I still love that joke...

[krispos42]

14. As far as Bush is concerned?

Let's have him count for us...


"One, two, three, um, er, 'many'. Heh heh."

[Downtown Hound]

15. There was a time in early 2004

not long before I joined DU as a matter of fact, that I kept coming down with a mysterious sickness. My face would get all flushed, and I would get this really terrible fever. My boss took one look at me one day and told me to go home, that it looked like I was turning into a monster. And no, I never went to the doctor. I probably should have, I had insurance, but I was quite a hard (dumb) ass back then.

Not long after this happened, and after at least a week of lost work, I decided to vacuum underneath my couch. I hardly ever vacuumed under my couch, it was really an amazing stroke of fortune that I did this time. And I found not one, but two black widow nests underneath it. And where had I been sleeping lately? On the couch, because a spring on my bed mattress was broken (don't ask how). Suffice it to say that I proceeded to bomb my apartment with insecticide immediately.

That was in Humboldt County, and my place was literally on the edge of a gigantic redwood forest. My back yard, and then literally thousands of square miles of redwoods. As much as I miss it, I don't miss the bears rummaging through my garbage can at night or coming right up to my window, or the black widow spiders under my couch.

[The Straight Story]

16. Beautiful country up that way

My wife's X lived up that way a spell....you ain't him are ya? :rofl:

[Downtown Hound]

17. Assuming that picture is her

then no I'm not, heh, heh. You're a lucky guy though. :)

[The Straight Story]

18. Tis indeed her

And thankfully you are not else she would grab my laptop and rip ya a new one....

:rofl:

[Downtown Hound]

19. Thank goodness indeed!

:hi:

[Evoman]

20. Holy fuck.

Up where I live, Black Widows are mythical, killer spiders. In fact, whenever we get one (usually from shipments from the states), there is a big alert and I think the city makes exterminators come to your house.