Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys hope you can help me. I discovered about a week ago that the spider web around the rain drain that is six inches from my front door belongs to a sizable black widow. Saw it when I was getting the paper I quietly closed the door and I have not seen it since then. I have tried looking up the drain with a flash light and mirror but have not seen anything. Will widows move if bothered? I have shaken the drain and took away a dried up jerusalem cricket that it killed and poked the web a bit to try and lure it out. I dont want to kill it or anything just move it away from the front door. I think spiders are cool I just dont want the possibility of little black widow spiderlings hatching and coming into the house. Should I destroy the web or will it just rebuild it or should I just go on with it and spray bug spray up the drain? Is this the time of year that their eggs hatch? I didnt see any eggs but they could be further up the drain. Any advice would be appreciated thank you.

One possibility is feeding the spider. Place/toss a fly, or cricket into the web, and wait for the spider to emerge from its drain retreat to feed. When the spider gets to the prey, twirl up the web, spider and all, onto a forked stick, shake it off into a jar or bucket with a lid, and remove the spider to wherever you want. You will want to place the prey far enough from the drain that it can't dart back up the instant you start twirling up the web. I would also have a bucket ready, as the spider may immediately drop from the stick on a silk dragline. If the spider does this, simply hold the stick higher in the air-keeping it away from your body- and lower the spider into the bucket. Then you can trap the spider under a glass jar, and either slide a piece of paper or card under the mouth of the jar, or invert the bucket to capture it. If you try this technique, you will want to be VERY CAREFUL. Widow spiders are clumsy on the ground, but quick and agile in their own webs, AND they can climb up the stick rapidly, so make sure it's long enough, or your container is handy if you need to drop the stick in a hurry.

If that doesn't work,I would destroy the web, and wait to see if it rebuilds. Unless their web is destroyed, adult female widows will stay in the same web their rest of their lives. If she rebuilds in the same place, and you can't poke, rattle or otherwise remove the spider from your drainpipe, I'd say spray. Widow spiders are very sensitive to pesticides, so it shouldn't be hard to take care of it that way. That, or you could try vacuuming it out. Widow spiderlings are very tiny and could easily get into your house.

Thanks for the info. I have seen her a couple of times since the post I dont think she will to hard to catch now. She comes out at night and works on the web. She is a very cool looking spider and I have rarely seen them around here so I think I will just move her to a different location. If I move her will there still be potential eggs up the drain that can hatch or will they die without her care?