Introducing, The Brown Widow
Black Widow Competition. It’s the Cousin, Latrodectus Geometricus
Materials – Arachnids…
Not the usual subject, Brown Widow Spiders, but an interesting one.
How many of you know what a Black Widow Spider is? The Latrodectus Hesperus – the Black Widow variety or true widows of the wild. And now, how many of you knew there was a widow more potent than the Black Widow? More importantly, the Brown Widow Spider aka Latrodectus Geometricus.
Never in a million years would I have thought I’d run into one of these widows, count it; now 4 separate encounters. Color may vary, but the one’s I’ve had the pleasure to meet have the classic, RED hourglass markings and two-tone – brown and black leg bans. Four of four have had egg sacks, so we are dealing with arachnids protecting their own. Again, not something I’ve run into often, actually ever. More so over this past year (2023/2024), I would say summer to late summer months.
Those of you who have Arachnophobia be aware; great movie by the way. Jeff Daniels, John Goodman, Julian Sands… more, however, I can’t remember off the top of my head (which is beside the point here). Pick up the Arachnophobia DVD, Prime Video or Blu-ray. I don’t BETA there for those Sony fans, sorry, another great piece of tech lost to history.
For those of you who want facts on the widow species, check out the following link, it’s a UF IFAS Extension page on “brown widow spiders”. Click for more details on the Brown Widow Spiders here in Florida.
Highlights and Takeaways
- Brown Widow, just as dangerous as it’s cousin, the Black Widow, along with three others – Souther, Northern and Red Widows.
- Most commonly found in SRQ, the Brown Widow variety
- Including South Florida, widows can be found in So. Cal, CO, Arkansas, MS, AL and GA.
- More importantly, invasive
- Venom, and Risk, while typically found in their dark corner (see picture), Brown Widow venom can be more potent than it’s cousin
- The Widows like their corners, builtin protected areas, eaves etc., boxes, shutters and pool cages!
Let’s get to prevention and control, as I said, four sightings in the latest months.
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- Clean Up, often
- Outside, inside, vacuum webbing and all.
- Don’t forget to clean out the vacuum!
- Clean up debris piles, look for ‘shelter in plain sight or shelter in place’, a good hiding spot for Brown Widows
- Call a professional, pre/post clean up
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Takeaway
Clean, clean and clean some more. High pressure washer, wet vac… create a cleaning routine and stick to it. Remove debris, seal up holes and cracks etc.
Be vigilant. Honestly, I had no idea, par for the course I guess. There are all kinds, to many to count sometimes, here in the southern swaths (maintained, cleared, or mowed parts) of Florida. Time to get a move on this cleaning. I’ll follow up with an update at some point, for now; I’ll leave you to it. Thanks for dropping by, don’t forget to leave a comment, follow us on X – @salleetech. I’ll post more pictures, this assumes more encounters… so, I’m hoping the subject lives on as reference material or good to know! Cheers.
Resources
Brown Widow Spiders – UF/IFAS Extension – Brown Widow Spiders
