Every morning when we go outside it seems like we’re walking into one big spider web. Seems like bits of web are catching us at every turn. We’re just hoping it’s not the newest poisonous invader whose work we keep running into.
According to a story on KTLA.com the Brown Widow spider in invading SoCal.
Originally from South Africa, the brown widow spiders were first spotted in San Diego in 2004. . . Experts say they have multiplied by the thousands and have been found as far north as Carlsbad and as far south as Imperial Beach. . . The brown widow’s venom is more potent than the venom of its cousin, the black widow, and one bite can send a person to the hospital.
We think we saw one on our fence the other day. Ouch.
[Link: KTLA]
RSS Feed-Posts
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Ummm.. I’m not sure if all spider eggs look like that, but the table by the pool in my complex in covered in them on it’s bottom. Yikes. I live right by La Costa..
We found one at the Village Grille. The eggs exploded with hundreds of baby spiders after the waitress took a swat at it.
Couldn’t help feeling bad for the little crawler…
If you see the spikey egg sack, thats it. And they are everywhere. They like the underside of fences , tables, and the like. They love our compost bin.
I would guess that I have seen and destroyed 50 egg sacks in the few months I have lived at my new house, and had to deal with several of the adults as well. We have cats and kids…cant also have the widows, unfortunately.
Our patio furniture had about 7 of them just hanging out in different areas. I used my wife’s “signature move” and they were all dead. More potent that the Black widow? Yikes!
There are tons of the brown widows in our development in La Costa area… creepy!
We first saw these brown widows on the Gulf Coast of Florida in the mid-90’s. The Dept of Agriculture told us the eggs had been borne aloft from Africa on the high altitude winds of Hurricane Andrew and that these spiders–smaller than black widows, but more toxic- were spreading throughout the Florida peninsula. Their egg sacks look like velcro balls, with each one hatching roughly 400 young. Our pool lanai was infested with them. And once we became aware of the infestation, we began to notice their egg sacks everywhere. Sorry to learn they have made it all the way to California!