Black Widow deterrent

[EE_Bota]

I have no idea how to keep them away, but your question got me thinking. I used to run a horse farm that had them absolutely everywhere. I only see them occasionally on my farm now. Of all of them that I've seen, and we're talking thousands here, I've never once seen one that was acting even slightly aggressive. I've had them on my hands and arms probably a hundred times and they just simply crawl off.

Has anyone else seen them aggressive? At first, they bothered be because all I thought of them kinda like a rattlesnake, but now I don't bother with them at all.

There are some aggressive species, but in the US, they are not aggressive, and people get bitten by:

Hurting them physically, like mashing them, etc, but not enought to kill them outright.

Their eyesight is poor, so sometimes a person will get a finger on their web, and they rush to bite thinking it is an insect.

I studied them pretty good because of this thread, and their poison is a neurotoxin, so it can be remedied, usually with no damage. Then I studied the Brown Recluse, and they use a cytotoxin, and those are the ones that frighten me. Even those, it is claimed that 90% of the time, people have no issue, but I have see cases when large massed of flesh slough off...and sometimes that actually leads to death.

In my study...I got the answer to one question...I have seen BW spiders with a yellow hour glass instead of red. I was concerned it is a different spider, but it turns out that the male has the yellow, and their poison glands are considerably smaller.

 

[stravis]

There are some aggressive species, but in the US, they are not aggressive, and people get bitten by:

Hurting them physically, like mashing them, etc, but not enought to kill them outright.

Their eyesight is poor, so sometimes a person will get a finger on their web, and they rush to bite thinking it is an insect.

I studied them pretty good because of this thread, and their poison is a neurotoxin, so it can be remedied, usually with no damage. Then I studied the Brown Recluse, and they use a cytotoxin, and those are the ones that frighten me. Even those, it is claimed that 90% of the time, people have no issue, but I have see cases when large massed of flesh slough off...and sometimes that actually leads to death.

In my study...I got the answer to one question...I have seen BW spiders with a yellow hour glass instead of red. I was concerned it is a different spider, but it turns out that the male has the yellow, and their poison glands are considerably smaller.

Interesting to know. Thanks for the education.

I've known a couple of folks who were bitten by a brown recluse. I've seen the damage they can do and avoid them like the plague.