Black Widow page header

Black Widow

  • Scientific Name: Latrodectus
  • Nicknames: Red hourglass spider
  • Length: 0.5" - 1.5"
  • Color: Black, Red
  • Aggressive? If Provoked or Disturbed
  • Do They Bite? Yes
  • Poisonous/Venomous? Yes
  • Disease Carrying? No
  • Invasive Species? No

The Black Widow

Black Widow Spiders are extremely poisonous arachnids. Their venom is 15 times as poisonous as the venom of the prairie rattlesnake. These venomous spiders are found in warm and temperate climates all around the world. They live in dark places, in drain pipes, under logs and rocks, etc. Their bite rarely kills humans. The female will lay 300-400 eggs. The spiderlings (baby spiders) are not poisonous but they are cannibals, eating each other.

  • Females are about .5 inches long, 1.5 inches when the legs are spread.
  • Females and males have a shiny, globular abdomen.
  • Females and males are black and sometimes brown.
  • Females usually have a reddish hourglass shape on the underside of her abdomen. Some species have a series of red spots and two crosswise bars on the underbelly.
  • Males about half the female's size, with smaller bodies, and longer legs.
  • Males usually have yellow and red bands and spots over the back as do the immature stages.
  • Newly hatched spiderlings are predominately white or yellowish-white, gradually acquiring more black and varying amounts of red and white with each molt.
  • Juveniles of both sexes resemble the male and are harmless to humans.

How Do We Remove Them?

One of the pest management experts at McMahon Exterminating will visit your home and provide a proper assessment and ID the bugs that are infesting your home or property to better understand the type of insects or pests that they are dealing with to properly coordinate a plan that will work best for you.

We help educate the customer on things that they might be able to do to help deter the pests as well, and will try to prevent this from becoming a reocurring infestation.

The treatment will begin and we will monitor the situtaion closely to make sure that the numbers are being depleted in the area. We want to try to deter the insects from coming to your area as opposed to just chemically treating them, as that will only be a short term solution for you but ith McMahon's C.A.N. initiative and our three easy steps — Canvas the area, Act on those results, and Negate re-entry for the pest, we can work to getting your home to pest free status.