Didnt realize the photo quality is shit until now, sorry bout that.

Used to see black widows everywhere here. Never do, any more. These gals n guys have moved in instead it seems.

This one doesnt seem particularly bright as far as spiders go, it was starting to wrap up the leaf that got blown into its web.

They’re aggressive AF, and they’re everywhere here. Black widows seem to be sorta hermits. They will hide if you pay too much attention, but not the brown ones, they dont seem to shy away from shit. I find their spiky egg casings everywhere - lawnmower shed, garage corners, toolboxes used infrequently. Found one in my car a couple months ago (that was fucking fun - i went apeshit looking for the mama that put it there. A month of waiting to be bitten by an unruly spider.)

  • Zezzy [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    9·
    4 months ago

    Learn your local spiders. Moved into a house with a ton of spiders, but after learning to recognize them it turned out only Black Widows were dangerous, and they stick to themselves in sheds and don’t bother us

    Now as long as they don’t touch me I’m good with spiders. Love this one’s color!

    • Feinsteins_Ghost [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      11·
      4 months ago

      Recluse and black widows are the two to be worried about here. I got bit by a recluse about 15 year ago. Two months of hospital visits, pain, rotting skin, and more pain. Still have a big ass scar about the diameter of a small grapefruit right below my right knee where i was bit and the skin and muscle below died. But i did get some great pain drugs while in the hospital so who can even say if its bad or not.

      Everything else is mostly friendly, or not to really be worried over.

      • Are_Euclidding_Me [e/em/eir]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        4 months ago

        Brown recluses scare me, mostly because I’m not sure I could recognize one. I know they’re “fiddle-backs”, I’ve looked at photos on the internet, but I still have no confidence I would correctly identify one if I saw it. And I’m not super scared of spiders, I tend to just let them continue on with their day, so I’m worried I’ll see a brown recluse, be like “neat spider”, forget about it, then get bitten because I didn’t know it was brown recluse!

        Black widows don’t scare me because I know exactly what they look like and where they like to hang out, so they’re easy to avoid.

        • booty [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          2·
          4 months ago

          I’ve got that same problem. I live in a brown recluse heavy area and I’m certain I’ve seen them before, but I’ve never knowingly seen one, you know what I mean? I’ve definitely looked at a brown recluse and been like “oh, a wolf spider” and carried on with my day lol

          black widows are my favorite, though. very docile, pretty much only make their webs out of the way, very predictable where that’s going to be, big enough to be noticeable, very distinct appearance, and also they’re probably the prettiest kind of spider ive ever seen in person

    • Feinsteins_Ghost [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      4·
      4 months ago

      Apparently they’re quite aggressive towards black widows in particular. I used to see tons of the black widows, but now its just these. I wonder if it’s because they are taking over the black widows, or if it’s just anecdotal.

  • Alisu [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    4 months ago

    Wikipedia says their venom is less dangerous than black widows, and that they are natural predators to black widows. It says nothing about eating the males, so I got confused if they also do it