Do You Really Need to Worry About Black Widow Spiders Here in New Jersey?

Black widow spiders definitely have a bad reputation. If you listen to the stories their bite will bring down a full grown adult. In actuality, death is not a likely outcome from an interaction with a black widow, but significant pain still is. Here are a few steps you can take to decrease you chance of a black widow bite.

1. First step, know your enemy. It is important to know both what a black widow looks like as well as the habitat in which they are likely to be found. Black widows have glossy looking black bodies.  They can be distinguished from other spiders by their distinctive red hourglass marking on the underside of their abdomen. Their body shape can sometimes make it appear that there are two separate red triangles on their underside instead of an hourglass. Males are smaller than females and may have red or white spots on top of their abdomen. A female black widow has a body that is approximately ½ inch long and a leg span of roughly 1½ inches, whereas the male is significantly smaller.
2. Black widows do not like to be in open areas. Outside, they are often found in stacked wood piles. Inside, they can be found in a variety of places including storage areas of basements where there are lots of places to hide. Although you can come in contact with them at almost any point during the year, they are most active in the summer months. 
   Wood piles are a very common place to find black widows. If you are getting wood for a fire pit this summer, take precautions. First, look carefully at the pile to see if you can see a spider. If it is dark out, a flashlight is a useful tool. If possible use gloves when taking wood from the pile.
3. If you are doing a summer clean-up of items stored in your basement or garage you may not want to go into the boxes with bare hands. Gloves can make a significant difference if a black widow tries to bite you. If the items you are cleaning up are not in air-tight containers, you may want to dump the items out of the box instead of sticking your hand in to move items around.

If you do find a black widow in your home, there is a good chance there could be more. Although there are over-the-counter spider sprays, they are often ineffective. Your best option is to work with us! We will conduct an inspection of your home to determine possible entry points as well as use effective treatments for spiders. Finding the entry points is important because without habitat modification and blocking access points, the spiders will return.