Brown Widow

Did you know there is such a thing as the Brown Widow Spider? Yes, it is true.

I'm not sure if I have blogged about this or not. We had a ton of these spiders in our backyard in Huntington Beach while we had construction going on.

I found one INSIDE my house yesterday. In the kitchen! Under the cabinets by the floor. So of course I took a picture before I killed it.

I googled brown widow spider, again. I got many results. I copied and pasted a few comments that some people have said about them:

Dustin Mc
#2. September 27th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

The black widow venom is 15 times as potent as a rattle snake. Though it may inject less venom into an unfortunate victim. The brown widow’s venom is reportedly 2 times as potent as a black widow but it is considered less dangerous because it is a timid spider that doesn’t defend it’s web. The red widow is the most venomous of all the widow spiders but is temperamental to climate and is only found in south Florida. According to Jeff Hollenbeck at bugguide.net who was bitten by a red widow says this about it, “A clear lymph fluid also oozes from the pores surrounding the bite. The muscle spasms are permanent, (at least my case) reoccurring several times a year for several minutes at a time.”

Marie
#1. September 25th, 2007 at 6:24 pm

Just bitten by a brown widow spider in my sleep…the area swelled up and got very red and feverish…then I got very anxious, my blood pressure shot up, cold sweats, pain in muscles…stabbing and hot pains throughout my body, blurred vision, shortness of breath and feels like a very bad flu with a bad headache and stabbing stomach pains. Its no fun and whats more is there are multiple varities of widow spiders…most people don’t realize this, as I didn’t until I researched it a little…even if its little, but has a big abdomen…leave it alone!

Teresa D
#5. December 19th, 2007 at 12:55 pm

Bite by Widow spider believed to be Brown Widow by doctors. Had Extreme fatigue, Weakness, Dizziness, Bad headache, Extreme body aches that led into chills, muscle tremors then to seizure. Per medics, became extremely hypotensive, short of breathe, altered level of conciousness. Emergent transport to hospital. The spider venom not only sent me into anaphalactic shock but also managed to make into my blood system and attacked my platelets. Platelet level dropped to 35. In hospital for a week on pain med drips, blood pressure med because of hypotension issue, and monitoring because of lack of blood platelets. Was very weak for along time after leaving hospital with strange body pains. I survived the Brown Widow Spider bite barely.

Ben
#14. April 27th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

Living in southern California, have a lot of brown Widows here now. With kids it’s a bit scary. The experts say not that dangerous, but the comments above belay that.

After reading all of these comments, it makes my stomach queasy knowing I had one in my house. Right where the babies are crawling around. I hope I don't have any more of these spiders around. I'm scared. If one of the kids gets bit by one of these suckers I would be so pissed off.

Here is the picture of the spider I found


And here is the picture of a brown widow from the web


The same spider, don't ya think?

I think I will be calling my parents' 'bug guy' tomorrow.