Re: black widows

**N* S* <N*@PlantSoup.Com>**

Somehow missed the original query - 

In So Cal (San Diego area) black widows prefer dark, undisturbed places.  It would be unusual to come across them in the open, but if you have places with nooks and crannies, you'll definitely find them.  I find them, for example, in covered irrigation valve boxes, in cracks between bricks or blocks in walls, in stacks of firewood, when I pull apart stacked plant containers (plastic, ceramic, etc), in the undersides and rims of empty buckets that I stack and store upside down. They LOVE our garage and my toolshed, especially in corners or behind ledges where no one disturbs them but they have access to their insect prey.

I wouldn't worry about kids finding them in fruit or places like that because, again, they avoid lit locations.  That said, if you have anything stored near the fruit trees that the kids would likely be interested in exploring, then be sure to clean those areas out regularly.

I suggest going through your garden to look for places where black widows might like to hide, then squishing them when you see them (with a shoe or piece of wood, but NOT with your hand, for obvious reasons).  I've vacuumed them with a shop van in our garage. 

Move things around as much as possible so that if you don't actually encounter and kill the spiders, you've at least disturbed their home and (hopefully) encourage them to move even deeper into hiding.  

In your search, you'll no doubt come across small, cottony white blobs, pea sized or slightly larger.  Those are black widow spider egg clusters.  Squish those, too.

University of california cooperative extension has a page on their website about managing black window spiders 
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74149.html

I've never heard of any predators sold for black widow spiders which isn't surprising since they are not considered to be an agricultural pest.  

If you want to discuss this more, contact me off line.

On Jun 22, 2012, at 8:43 PM, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:

> On 6/22/2012 12:46 PM, Mitch Shirts wrote:
>> Any suggestions for getting rid of Black widows? Are there any natural
>> predators?
> 
>  
>> I'm in the suburbs of San Diego and recently I've seen a bunch in
>> my yard. I've got kids at home that like to roam my garden and pick and eat
>> fruit and I don't want them to get bitten, but I also don't want to spray
>> any hard core chemicals if I can help it.
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