Spider, Black Widow

Black widow spiders can be found around wood piles, and are frequently encountered when homeowners carry firewood into the house. Webs are usually built near the ground (occasionally within dwellings). Normally, webs could be found in trash, rubble piles, under or around houses and outbuildings such as privies, sheds and garages. They can be found under eaves, in storage bins, underneath unused construction materials, inside wooden toy boxes, firewood boxes, outdoor toilets and sheds, meter boxes, and other undisturbed places. These spiders can be found on the underside of ledges, rocks, plants and debris, wherever a web can be strung.

The female black widow spider rarely leaves her web. The web she constructs is an irregular, tangled, criss-cross web of rather coarse silk. This same web may be rebuilt or changed on an ongoing basis depending upon her needs. This female spider spends most of her daylight hours there. She is often found hanging upside down.

The female captures her victims with her silk, wrapping it around the prey . After the covering of the silk, the prey is killed by an injection of venom. The prey might be eaten immediately or reserved for a later feeding. She stays close to her egg mass, defensively biting anything that disturbs her or her egg sac. Egg sacs are oval, brown, and papery. They hold from 25 to 750 or more eggs, which have an incubation period of 20 days. Newly hatched spiders are predominately white or yellowish-white, gradually acquiring more black and varying amounts of red and white with each molt. Growth requires two to three months, with older black widow spider females dying in autumn after egg laying. The female black widow stores sperm, producing more egg sacs without mating. Some black widow spider females live more than three years.

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