10 posts
And I'm not talking about Peavey speakers. We have a 22' above ground pool in our back yard, a trampoline, a pretty cool clubhouse my 14 yr old step son converted into from a storage shed, a fire pit, and an LED string-light lit back porch. And my grill. Which means...our back yard is the neighborhood 'hub' for the kids in our area.
My wife loves it. I cope.
But during August and September last year, we found and killed....and I'm not kidding.....15+ Black Widow spiders IN OUR BACK YARD. How nobody got bit is just beyond me. Add to the fact that I am a TRUE Arachnophobic, holy shit. I didn't crawl into bed without pulling the covers back and looking until December. True story.
Well....last week, my wife started hitting the yard work pretty hard (she lives for landscaping our yard), and she stumbled across 2 Black Widows (already). SO...I called a highly regarded exterminator, and paid them around $150 to come and specifically 'exterminate' our yard for Black Widows. They seemed pretty knowledgeable about the specific type of chemicals needed to wipe out Black Widows, so I'm hoping this works.
Honestly, I don't care if a neighborhood kid gets bit (as long as they don't freaking die). I care if I get bit. Hell, I care if I even see one. I lose sleep when I see one of those satanic, sent from hell, seething bloodsucking bastages. So I'm hoping the extermination takes. REALLY hoping it takes. The irony of this just sucks.
Joking aside, I hate 'em. I'm like you I guess. They freak me out. I killed several down here in Florida. I went into my office at my old shop and one had set up shop under my desk. I caught the bitch to show my boss. Put it in a jar. When I went to kill it, I turned the jar over and dumped it out. I was ready to mash the fuck out of it. The viscous thing pretended to be dead. It was all rolled up looking injured. I poked it wif a stick. LOL. That bitch sprung to life ready to attack. I Mashed That Bitch!!! Scary creatures.
I'd have to move if they were that prevalent here. My wife would come home to a burnt down back yard. LOL
;D ;D
Snakes, roaches, spiders.... fuck em all. Even crickets. They all freak me out.
Funny story. My ex's mother is scared shitless over snakes. She really pissed me off one day so.... I go shopping for a real looking fake snake. Shopped and looked around for 2 + hours. Finally found one. Coral snake. I knew those really freaked her out.
So, she was spending the night at our house for some reason, and I went to work. They all went shopping and I stayed home. I put a little towel down on her bed, under the covers, put the snake on the bed and sprayed it with armor-all tire shine to give it a slimy real look. I actually bought 2 of the snakes. I put one just under the covers where she would see it when she got ready for bed,, and put the other way down where her club feet would be.
So, she gets ready for bed, I'm in the living room drinking a beer, few minutes go by, and I hear the most horrible sounding scream I've ever heard in my life. ;D She was in tears. So, everyone gets pissed at me and finally things calm down. She go's back to bed, finally, and I hear it again. ;D ;D It was funny as hell. She got so pissed she left and went home. ;D ;D Damn that was fun. :D
We've got Black Widows out here, but the nasty ones are the Brown Recluses. A fellow dart player I know who lives in central Washington got bit on his leg and I saw the pictures at a tournament last month. It looked like a good-sized animal had taken a bite out of him! Apparently, their venom first numbs the entire area so you don't even know bad things are happening, then a good bit of the flesh around the bite dies leaving huge disfigurations. No thanks!!!
We have black widows around here, every few months I throw a couple of bug bombs under the mobile home, just to give them a taste of their own medicine.......
By the way while hiking today in the desert, we ran across a nice little diamond back rattler next to the trail he tried to strike the couple who was in front of us but he missed. They stayed long enough to tell us about the little critter....
I find black widows all the time. I just leave em alone, cuz, really, they are badass insect predators, and they are obviously keeping some other kind of insect in check. I've seen hundreds of them and I think they're kind of amazing at what they do. Also, they really stay out of the way... to get bit by one, I'd really have to be trying, they're always back in some corner or in a crack somewhere. I'm a serious spider fan though--just looking at all the carcasses they pile up in their webs stokes me. For about 400 million years, spiders and bats and other insectivores took care of bug control naturally.
I hear about brown recluses all the time, but I think people mostly misidentify them... they don't actually exist in the region of the country I'm in, in fact they aren't in California at all, except the desert recluse way down south, which has a pretty harmless bite.
We have both black widows and brown recluses. Brown house spiders often look like brown recluses. I just say kill's all. Go Metallica on them. Never been bitten. Never known a person to be bitten by anything other than a brown recluse and even that has been ultra rare. Never seen a black widow inside the house. Once we had a black widow out back in a rock wall. Never bothered me so....no big deal.
Now snakes....those are the things the bother me. I'd rather wrestle a bear than see a dead snake. Those things just give me the creeps.
If you look at the Recluse map Charger posted, you can see Arkansas is right in the middle of that area. So yeah, I can spot one pretty easily (six eyes, violin, crab-like legs, etc..). Thing about those bastards, is they are more likely to be found inside the house. And so yes, they creep me the hell out as well. It's one of those things you live with, but always has you on edge. Kinda like folks in Oklahoma and Tornados. Being the arachnophobic I am, I'd almost rather deal with Tornados. They don't sneak into your bed or shoes. And there are sirens and alerts that let you know they are coming.
And I do agree with Charger that Black Widows do kill a hell of a lot of bugs. And for the most part, they aren't going to come crawling across your leg while in a lawn chair in your back yard. Nor have I found one inside my house. My issue is the shear number of these things we are finding in our yard combined with the amount of young kids that hang out here. At some point, somebody is going to reach into something, or pick up something with one of those bitches in/on it. And if you have ever had the chance to screw around with one, you will find they are rather aggressive.
DM....I'm with ya. I'm ready to move to Alaska. But unfortunately, I really, really love my wife. And her entire family is here. So bolting is, unfortunately, not an option. So now I have a war in my back yard. Thing is, 'normal spider killer' insecticides don't kills these either. So I'm pretty sure somebody may be calling me in to the locals for 'insanity' as the only option I see is burning half of my back yard with a Lysol can and a lighter. Burn the fuckers.
I know it sounds a little 'over the top'. But just today, I found 3 baby Black Widows on my wheelbarrow that I just used yesterday. That means there are a BUNCH more of those little bastards close by that area, spreading out to wherever. I've never seen anything like this. Apparently the 'exterminator' we had come in didn't seem to help. At all.
More to come.
I wouldn't pick one up myself, but I'd have to say in my experience with spiders, black widows are some of the least aggressive I've ever seen. If you accidentally picked one up, or one landed on you, it's probably a 99.99% chance it's gonna start shooting a web and trying to swing off you like most any other spider. And if you have a lot of widows in your yard, well, there is definitely something else there they are eating. But you're gonna do what you're gonna do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRjRA_3Cjl0
