Has anyone seen a Black Widow Spider in person? And if so what did you do?

1. Yes
2. Screamed like a second grade girl

I have not. I would try to kill it. It deserves death because she killed her husband.

That’s weird I was just thinking about that…

A few years, back at my parents house. I found big black spider on a cinder block. I looked closer and noticed it had red shape on it’s back. It wasn’t a perfect hour glass shape so I’m not sure if I was a black widow or not. Ether way it didn’t matter because it was dead.

Yep. I examined it and shook it a little and handed it back to the entamologist. (that’s probably spelled wrong).

We find them quite frequently in Maryland. They seem to be lurking in the sheds, woodpiles, etc. Black widows are far more common and less deadly than most of us think. But they are the most dangerous venomous spider in our area and certainly in North America.

I have arachnophobia and was convinced they were going to invade my home after seeing one. A quick call to an entomology professor at UofMD calmed my fears (a very tiny bit!).

He did tell me not to spend too much time looking at them, but rather to look and see if there are more around, a nest perhaps. I’m not that brave; I opt for the squish and run method. My apologies to any entomologist or arachnid lovers.

Coming from Southern California black widows were a part of my life. I was always more fascinated by them than I was scared. When I was
younger I would examine them with a magnifying glass (they are way scary looking magnified). Also, they multiply like crazy so after “playing” with them I would always find something to smash them with even though killing spiders is very taboo for me. I have been bit a total of three times and either I have good immunities to them or they don’t get enough poison into me, because it was no different than an ant bite. I had a friend who would capture them in mason jars and watch them fight too see who lasted the longest. He had one for months that he named Big Mama that finally died. I know it sounds cruel but hey, we wee noted kids and discovery channel wasn’t around yet so…..

edit**the last sentence, “we wee noted” is actually “we were bored” kids, iPhones sheesh.

@lady: lol, that sounds pretty fun actually. No I haven’t seen one, but I would scream, grab a shoe, and kill it.

It would be a race to kill it before I had a panic attack if I saw one, that’s for damned sure.

Yes we have plenty of them where I live. I just step on them.

Yes. (squish!)

All the time. It’s just a part of life in So. Cal. These are the only spiders I allow my wife to kill (we have cats and the idea of one of them trying to eat it and…uh, I can’t even think about it). I won’t go anywhere near any spider. She is always so anxious about it, especially if the spider is on a wall, or underneath a ledge. Yikes!

They are actually pretty benign and keep to their own territory…we kill them a lot in our area. I would be much more scared if I saw a brown recluse.

@lefteh Thank you that is exactly what I would do!

Spiders and insects always freak me out, but I don’t like to kill them. So I would probably see one, scream for a good 5 mins, then maybe do a “OMG-is-it-on-me????” dance, and lastly run, run as fast as I could.

They are also common here in North Carolina. I usually stop and watch her for a while (the males are so much smaller, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one), make a mental note of her location, and then move on.

@syz Why make a mental note why not just kill it?

Why kill it? If I know where it is, I can avoid it.

The other day I went to the mail box, brought the mail in the house and proceed to go to the bathroom and do a little reading. While sitting there, a black widow crept out from between the letters and crawled down my leg! Needless to say, I had a mess to clean up. I stomped the sucker after I probably scared it to death with my screams!
I yelled at my hubby when he came home from work because I had been seeing the webs around the mailbox for a while and I had been bugging him to go spray it down. I am deathly afraid of even daddy long legs so to actually kill a black widow was a miracle for me!

Spiders of all kinds freak me out no matter how big or small, poisonous or not. I always whimper, panic for a bit, and hesitate killing them. I definitely don’t want them running about though making spider babies to attack me while I sleep and eat my eyes (thanks to two fellow Jellies, this is what I think of when I see spiders) so I eventaully muster up enough courage to kill them.

@Allie Even teeny jumping spiders??? D:

mangeons: Teeny ones are quite fast, so yes, even those. And jumping spiders… oh hell yeah.

lol. those spiders are pretty damn fast ;)

@Allie: I know! There are some fellow Jellies here who have no sympathy, and enjoy tricking us into looking at a huge terrible picture of a spider by posting an unlabeled link. It’s happened to me twice. It’s very mean. Both times it happened, I had nightmares about being eaten by spiders.

i saw one….i stared at it it looked cool but tried to stay away

I can’t believe no one cars that I peed all over myself. :-(

Here in Arizona, black widows are just a part of life. They aren’t malevolent creatures out stalking humans for the pleasure of biting them; they are the lowest level of predator and are very reclusive.
They are very poisonous (especially to little kids), so I destroy them when I find them, but you have to do it quickly because all they want to do is get away and hide.
Bites are generally the result of entrapment, meaning it’ll bite in self defense if you sit on it etc.
Here’s a link, just for fun- http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/black-widow-spider.html

I probably have three out on my patio right now. Preferred weapon is a heavier flip-flop, because their webs are very strong and the fly-swatter gets hung up sometimes.

I am not scared of anything expessially spiders I will pick them up with my bare hands my friends and family think I am crazy because I always pick up spiders with my bare hands the thing you have to watch is if they bite you but I don’t really care because there is always someone to help anyways spiders are on Earth for a reason spiders help the universe because if we did not have spiders then we would have ton and tons of bugs and misquostos did you know most misquotos carry diseases that is why I am not scared of spiders most people say just kill them but if you read this all the way through you will know that spiders help the universe and us humans to!!!!!!! bye gotta go

@harrypotterfan That’s a lovely sentiment and welcome to Fluther but please use punctuation!

Gosh,@syz – you’re so picky~ :)

@Judi, aww, I felt bad for you…

My first experience with a black widow was at summer camp. Lets just say I didn’t sleep in my tent the first night…

No, but I saw one at the movie premiere on TV! Bu duhm BSHHH

Drown them in Clorox. Every time.

Wow… wth was I thinking when I wrote that? ^^

I screamed like a little girl, then I squooshed it, then I screamed some more.

I’m looking at my response to this three years ago and I seriously don’t understand the joke I was attempting to make…

Ummmm, I can’t figure it out either. Hah! I think it’s funnier that way…

I’m just appalled at everything I wrote on this question… seriously, what was I thinking?

Meh, I’ve had those days. I’ve gone back to old questions/comments of mine and started wondering if I was on crack. :D