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Latrodectus mactans/black widow spiders sell, release, kill?

What to do with Latrodectus mactans / black widows

  • Total voters
    17
M

medic

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I live in NC and I seem to have a plethora of black widow spiders. I don't mind them outside, but I am starting to find them in my house :( I hate to kill anything, but I'm not sure what to do with them. I found a black widow mother and two eggs under my bathroom sink yesterday. I'm not sure selling is even legal.. not able to find anything specific, and I'm not able to find any rules or regulations of releasing or relocating them. I would hate to relocate them to an area or sell them and it results in someone getting bitten. All of the exterminators I contact say there is not a specific pesticide against black widows, but I should exterminate other bugs which serve as their food source. Any advice is much appreciated.
 
medic said:
I live in NC and I seem to have a plethora of black widow spiders. I don't mind them outside, but I am starting to find them in my house :( I hate to kill anything, but I'm not sure what to do with them. I found a black widow mother and two eggs under my bathroom sink yesterday. I'm not sure selling is even legal.. not able to find anything specific, and I'm not able to find any rules or regulations of releasing or relocating them. I would hate to relocate them to an area or sell them and it results in someone getting bitten. All of the exterminators I contact say there is not a specific pesticide against black widows, but I should exterminate other bugs which serve as their food source. Any advice is much appreciated.
Click to expand...

At our previous house, we had a Black Widow infestation, and our neighbors were infested as well. We tried to kill every BW we saw, but they kept reproducing. Finally, we called an exterminator who told us the same thing your exterminator told you: you can't kill them off by spraying the grounds; instead, you have to kill off their food supply. In other words, you have to kill every one you see and also spray your property to kill crickets and other food-insects.

There is no law against selling your home with BW's on the property. I dare say that most properties in most of North Carolina has had a BW or two on them in the last couple years. BWs are very common here.

Rarely do BWs come into peoples homes. Instead, they tend to infest the perimeter of the home, under vinyl siding, under decks, and in garages.

Don't freak out. :D It'll take some time but you can rid yourself of most of them.
 
In most cases, black widows seek quiet, barely used places in which to build webs, generally in refuse piles, plastic containers lying around the house, under poorly maintained eves, or even the small underhang between your house siding and the ground. The best way to control black widows is simply prevention. Find areas that could attract the arachnids and clean them out. It's similar to mosquito management. Remove the habitat and you remove the problem.

I would do a thorough walk-through of your property and identify areas outside your home that could be attracting black widows. Throw out, use, or recycle old plastic containers (black widows really like unused planters), line the sides of your house with gravel to get rid of that gap between the siding of your house and the ground where the rain splashes down off your roof, clear the area immediately surrounding your house, and use a broom to clean out all of your neglected eves. Once you control the source of your black widow problem, then you can focus on controlling the widows inside your house. Unfortunately, the best way to do that is to simply squash them.

I wouldn't worry too much. Black widows are a lot more common than most people think, it's just that people never really look for them. Sure, their bites are nasty and I certainly wouldn't encourage them to stay around your house, but as far as spiders go they've got pretty mellow personalities. They're kind of like rattlesnakes... they're pretty much puppydogs unless you do something stupid and mess with them.
 
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