Black Widow Spiders Are Here In Jasper and North Georgia!

Hello again, it’s Mike Stewart with the faith pest control podcast. Here at Jasper, Georgia. We do this podcast as a community service to educate all the fine folks that live in Jasper, Georgia. Live in Blairsville, Georgia live in Blue Ridge, Georgia, and anywhere in the north Georgia mountains. We want you to be educated and know what bugs or problems and what bugs you know, maybe something you just need to be aware of, but they’re not a problem. It’s all to educate the consumer on how pest control can make a difference in your life and have a pest free home. The expert who knows bugs better than anybody in Jasper, Georgia is my good friend and colleague, Fred Talley. So friends here today and he’s going to talk about something that has been scary to me my whole life. Black Widow spiders. Ooh, even the name is scary. I’ve always thought the spiders do they bite you and can they can they do really big damage? I mean, tell us all about the black widow spider. All right, Mikey. Spiders are considered beneficial to us as humans due to the fact that they prey on on other insects. There are at least two species in North Georgia that are dangerous to humans. And one is the Black Widow, which is it’s actually very common throughout the state. I probably see more black widow spiders than I see any other spiders. It’s that common? It’s kind of a shiny black with an hourglass design under the abdomen. very distinctive. Do you ever see one you won’t ever forget it. They make really irregular type webs and they’re being around trash piles, you know lumber, stacked up around rock borders and cracks and crevices. They’re very common around homes barns, you know sheds out any kind of outbuilding shop building rock walls. Ironically enough, they’re fairly timid. And they don’t usually buy unless you try to handle them. Now the other dangerous species in Georgia is a brown recluse and they are not as prevalent as Black Widow. They’re actually fairly uncommon. This podcast is going to be specifically about the Black Widow though. We may do a podcast on her brown recluse in the future. I don’t I don’t know. But this is about the Black Widow. So it it’s the most venomous spider in North America. However, Black Widow bites are are rarely fatal, but they can be extremely painful. The Black Widow female, is like I said earlier, it’s fairly easily to recognize by her shiny black body and her red hourglass marking on the underside of her abdomen. I don’t know really what causes this but the red marking on the abdomen can also be two separate spots of red as opposed to the connected hourglass type figure in maybe that’s just the different species of Black Widow I’m not 100% Sure. The female body can range in size from about a quarter inch to half inch. The male is is about half that size, only about an eighth to a quarter inch in diameter. The males are completely back black. And you actually I don’t I’ve never even knowingly seen one. The color of the immature spiders kind of fairly new newly hatched spiders or a yellowish white and you know as they grow they they develop that black color and the females will develop the red hourglass or the red dots on their abdomen. The egg sack is generally a spherical shape you know round shape like an orb, about three eighths inches in diameter. Looks kind of like a cloth sack if you will. Sometimes you get if you ever see one is pretty distinctive. You probably won’t forget it. Nick contains about an an average of about 250 eggs. The when the young spiders emerge
Well, once she feels the egg sack they go through an incubation period about About a month, usually during the spring and the young spiders are spiderlings as they’re called, are then they’ll disperse themselves or be distributed to different geographical areas through the process called ballooning and ballooning is is a process where the young spiders will release some silk like a web and they’re picked up by the wind and in scattered in can be you know, in whichever direction the winds blowing, and they can travel 10 miles and travel 100 miles. male spiders, the spiderlings the juvenile males normally reached maturity in about 50 to 90 days. So, you know, month and a half to three months where it takes a female about 110 240 days to reach maturity. Many of the spiderlings that are hatched she’s gonna review remember I said during her 50 or approximately 250 eggs, but many will be eaten by predators, predators, as well as their own siblings. The adult female lives about one year before the male’s only live about four months. Amazing little tidbit that I picked up over the years is the adult females can actually live without food for up to an average of about 90 days. The web of Blackwidow is at best irregular it generally comes across as a tangled mesh of thread when compared to like symmetrical webs like the JoRo spider creates and the orb weaving spiders in the tunnel web spiders they’re they’re very symmetrical webs and Black Widows is kind of an abstract if you will. They’re commonly seen around homes, gardens and barns. They’re very very very common to see black widows in North Georgia. The Black Widows pretty shy nocturnal, usually hanging on the wed UPS web upside down so that the you can see the distinctive hourglass. The Black Widow can tend to be more aggressive if they’re protecting an egg sack. But they’re they normally are only induced to bite you if they’re pressed against your skin. Black Widows are mostly found outdoors. Their webs are normally in built in dark, quiet undisturbed areas such as inside barns. which I would consider inside the barn outdoors. Anyway, this doesn’t rain in there, it’s still got a dirt floor, under rocks, debris, wood piles, stuff like that. Cold weather and drought can and does drive this drive the Black Widows into buildings in manmade habitats. Barn cellars garages, storage sheds crawl spaces they I’ve actually found them in the downspouts of rain of rain gutters on houses found them in brick houses have weep holes to allow the moisture behind the brick to escape. I’ve found them in weep holes you can find them in furniture, park benches is very common water meter boxes very common electrical boxes, the protective cover over a propane tank, propane tank propane gas tank if you live in rural America and have you know get propane delivered very common around here to find them. In those covers. Only female Black Widows by males and juveniles of both sexes do not buy. Like I said earlier bites normally only occur when the human will trap the spider against their skin. When when a person is bitten, the spider injects a neurotoxin that with their saliva it’s mixed with our saliva that causes adult pain and can cause cramping in the muscles.
You can develop some sweating and and vomiting. The pain of the of the bike reaches maximum intensity in about one to three hours and generally will subside after about 12 normally no more than 24 hours. Very, very, very rare for people to die from Blackwidow. But the the ones that greatest, greatest risk, though are are juveniles, young children, who weighed less than 30 about 30 pounds. Some interesting myths and curious I guess facts about Black Widows is, you know, is it a myth or a fact that female spiders always eat to male after mating. Contrary to this popular the belief, the male is seldom devoured by the female after mating, the male usually after copulation, the female, the male disengages and just kind of lingers nearby. And he actually lives kind of like a parasite feeding on the prey captured by the female. Another myth or fact that Black Widows will bite aggressively when being disturbed. And that’s a myth as well. Black Widows are not normally aggressive unless, like I said earlier, that she’s trying to protect an egg sack and, and they will bite only if pressed, you know, against human skin, what normally happens is they will typically retreat to the furthest corner of their web away from the human or away from you. Another myth or fact is, a buy by a black widow spider is comparable to a rattlesnake bite. That’s, that’s a myth. Also, the venom of the black widow spider is 15 times as toxic as the venom of the prairie rattlesnake. But a single bite by Black Widow is very, very, very rarely fatal. Because only there’s only a minut amount of the toxin, the neurotoxin that’s ingested or injected. And then another interesting fact about the Blackwidow is its web is extraordinarily song strong. I did not know this actually, I discovered this somewhat by accident. They may not have seen it and seen these parts is it’s been known to snare animals as large as a mouse and I have seen them catch mice. But one thing that the webbing is used for that I was totally ignorant to, is in some rifle sights scopes, though use the webbing thread if you will, as the crosshairs in those scopes. I thought that was kind of cool. It faked pest control, we offer a free consultation, and we offer 100% money back guarantee. If you hire faith pest control to get rid of your Blackboard or problem, that at the end of 30 days, you’re not 100% Happy, we’ll come back and retreat your home for free. And we’ll keep on trading it for free until you tell us that you are happy. That still doesn’t make you happy, we’ll give you back every penny spent on the original treatment. Plus, we’ll pay you an additional $25 for your time and trouble just for fooling with us. Bottom line is you’ll be happy with the service we provide. Or you won’t pay us a penny period. If you feel like what I’ve said makes sense. Call fights pest control today 770-823-9202 and ask to speak to me Fred tally. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions that you may have. Well, Fred, thanks for that in depth explanation about what to be concerned about when it comes to black widow spiders. I’m not as scared as of them as I was before this, this episode. So thanks for all that great information. You know, this podcast is known as a community service for all the fine folks in Jasper, Georgia and surrounding areas in North Georgia. And you can subscribe and like and share this podcast and apple. You can do it on online on the website at Faith pest control.com You can do it in Amazon, Google and Spotify. Anywhere you go to get podcasts. You can listen to the faith path, pest control podcast or you can read the transcription. But the main thing is use this information to keep your home pest free. And until next time. This is the faith pest control podcast. We’ll see you then.Hello again, it’s Mike Stewart with the faith pest control podcast. Here at Jasper, Georgia. We do this podcast as a community service to educate all the fine folks that live in Jasper, Georgia. Live in Blairsville, Georgia live in Blue Ridge, Georgia, and anywhere in the north Georgia mountains. We want you to be educated and know what bugs or problems and what bugs you know, maybe something you just need to be aware of, but they’re not a problem. It’s all to educate the consumer on how pest control can make a difference in your life and have a pest free home. The expert who knows bugs better than anybody in Jasper, Georgia is my good friend and colleague, Fred Talley. So friends here today and he’s going to talk about something that has been scary to me my whole life. Black Widow spiders. Ooh, even the name is scary. I’ve always thought the spiders do they bite you and can they can they do really big damage? I mean, tell us all about the black widow spider. All right, Mikey. Spiders are considered beneficial to us as humans due to the fact that they prey on on other insects. There are at least two species in North Georgia that are dangerous to humans. And one is the Black Widow, which is it’s actually very common throughout the state. I probably see more black widow spiders than I see any other spiders. It’s that common? It’s kind of a shiny black with an hourglass design under the abdomen. very distinctive. Do you ever see one you won’t ever forget it. They make really irregular type webs and they’re being around trash piles, you know lumber, stacked up around rock borders and cracks and crevices. They’re very common around homes barns, you know sheds out any kind of outbuilding shop building rock walls. Ironically enough, they’re fairly timid. And they don’t usually buy unless you try to handle them. Now the other dangerous species in Georgia is a brown recluse and they are not as prevalent as Black Widow. They’re actually fairly uncommon. This podcast is going to be specifically about the Black Widow though. We may do a podcast on her brown recluse in the future. I don’t I don’t know. But this is about the Black Widow. So it it’s the most venomous spider in North America. However, Black Widow bites are are rarely fatal, but they can be extremely painful. The Black Widow female, is like I said earlier, it’s fairly easily to recognize by her shiny black body and her red hourglass marking on the underside of her abdomen. I don’t know really what causes this but the red marking on the abdomen can also be two separate spots of red as opposed to the connected hourglass type figure in maybe that’s just the different species of Black Widow I’m not 100% Sure. The female body can range in size from about a quarter inch to half inch. The male is is about half that size, only about an eighth to a quarter inch in diameter. The males are completely back black. And you actually I don’t I’ve never even knowingly seen one. The color of the immature spiders kind of fairly new newly hatched spiders or a yellowish white and you know as they grow they they develop that black color and the females will develop the red hourglass or the red dots on their abdomen. The egg sack is generally a spherical shape you know round shape like an orb, about three eighths inches in diameter. Looks kind of like a cloth sack if you will. Sometimes you get if you ever see one is pretty distinctive. You probably won’t forget it. Nick contains about an an average of about 250 eggs. The when the young spiders emerge
Well, once she feels the egg sack they go through an incubation period about About a month, usually during the spring and the young spiders are spiderlings as they’re called, are then they’ll disperse themselves or be distributed to different geographical areas through the process called ballooning and ballooning is is a process where the young spiders will release some silk like a web and they’re picked up by the wind and in scattered in can be you know, in whichever direction the winds blowing, and they can travel 10 miles and travel 100 miles. male spiders, the spiderlings the juvenile males normally reached maturity in about 50 to 90 days. So, you know, month and a half to three months where it takes a female about 110 240 days to reach maturity. Many of the spiderlings that are hatched she’s gonna review remember I said during her 50 or approximately 250 eggs, but many will be eaten by predators, predators, as well as their own siblings. The adult female lives about one year before the male’s only live about four months. Amazing little tidbit that I picked up over the years is the adult females can actually live without food for up to an average of about 90 days. The web of Blackwidow is at best irregular it generally comes across as a tangled mesh of thread when compared to like symmetrical webs like the JoRo spider creates and the orb weaving spiders in the tunnel web spiders they’re they’re very symmetrical webs and Black Widows is kind of an abstract if you will. They’re commonly seen around homes, gardens and barns. They’re very very very common to see black widows in North Georgia. The Black Widows pretty shy nocturnal, usually hanging on the wed UPS web upside down so that the you can see the distinctive hourglass. The Black Widow can tend to be more aggressive if they’re protecting an egg sack. But they’re they normally are only induced to bite you if they’re pressed against your skin. Black Widows are mostly found outdoors. Their webs are normally in built in dark, quiet undisturbed areas such as inside barns. which I would consider inside the barn outdoors. Anyway, this doesn’t rain in there, it’s still got a dirt floor, under rocks, debris, wood piles, stuff like that. Cold weather and drought can and does drive this drive the Black Widows into buildings in manmade habitats. Barn cellars garages, storage sheds crawl spaces they I’ve actually found them in the downspouts of rain of rain gutters on houses found them in brick houses have weep holes to allow the moisture behind the brick to escape. I’ve found them in weep holes you can find them in furniture, park benches is very common water meter boxes very common electrical boxes, the protective cover over a propane tank, propane tank propane gas tank if you live in rural America and have you know get propane delivered very common around here to find them. In those covers. Only female Black Widows by males and juveniles of both sexes do not buy. Like I said earlier bites normally only occur when the human will trap the spider against their skin. When when a person is bitten, the spider injects a neurotoxin that with their saliva it’s mixed with our saliva that causes adult pain and can cause cramping in the muscles.
You can develop some sweating and and vomiting. The pain of the of the bike reaches maximum intensity in about one to three hours and generally will subside after about 12 normally no more than 24 hours. Very, very, very rare for people to die from Blackwidow. But the the ones that greatest, greatest risk, though are are juveniles, young children, who weighed less than 30 about 30 pounds. Some interesting myths and curious I guess facts about Black Widows is, you know, is it a myth or a fact that female spiders always eat to male after mating. Contrary to this popular the belief, the male is seldom devoured by the female after mating, the male usually after copulation, the female, the male disengages and just kind of lingers nearby. And he actually lives kind of like a parasite feeding on the prey captured by the female. Another myth or fact that Black Widows will bite aggressively when being disturbed. And that’s a myth as well. Black Widows are not normally aggressive unless, like I said earlier, that she’s trying to protect an egg sack and, and they will bite only if pressed, you know, against human skin, what normally happens is they will typically retreat to the furthest corner of their web away from the human or away from you. Another myth or fact is, a buy by a black widow spider is comparable to a rattlesnake bite. That’s, that’s a myth. Also, the venom of the black widow spider is 15 times as toxic as the venom of the prairie rattlesnake. But a single bite by Black Widow is very, very, very rarely fatal. Because only there’s only a minut amount of the toxin, the neurotoxin that’s ingested or injected. And then another interesting fact about the Blackwidow is its web is extraordinarily song strong. I did not know this actually, I discovered this somewhat by accident. They may not have seen it and seen these parts is it’s been known to snare animals as large as a mouse and I have seen them catch mice. But one thing that the webbing is used for that I was totally ignorant to, is in some rifle sights scopes, though use the webbing thread if you will, as the crosshairs in those scopes. I thought that was kind of cool. It faked pest control, we offer a free consultation, and we offer 100% money back guarantee. If you hire faith pest control to get rid of your Blackboard or problem, that at the end of 30 days, you’re not 100% Happy, we’ll come back and retreat your home for free. And we’ll keep on trading it for free until you tell us that you are happy. That still doesn’t make you happy, we’ll give you back every penny spent on the original treatment. Plus, we’ll pay you an additional $25 for your time and trouble just for fooling with us. Bottom line is you’ll be happy with the service we provide. Or you won’t pay us a penny period. If you feel like what I’ve said makes sense. Call fights pest control today 770-823-9202 and ask to speak to me Fred tally. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions that you may have. Well, Fred, thanks for that in depth explanation about what to be concerned about when it comes to black widow spiders. I’m not as scared as of them as I was before this, this episode. So thanks for all that great information. You know, this podcast is known as a community service for all the fine folks in Jasper, Georgia and surrounding areas in North Georgia. And you can subscribe and like and share this podcast and apple. You can do it on online on the website at Faith pest control.com You can do it in Amazon, Google and Spotify. Anywhere you go to get podcasts. You can listen to the faith path, pest control podcast or you can read the transcription. But the main thing is use this information to keep your home pest free. And until next time. This is the faith pest control podcast. We’ll see you then.