Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I killed four Brown Widow spiders on my patio today along with about a half dozen egg sacks. From what I've read they are venomous but, how venomous are they? Do they get more venomous as they get bigger? How harmful would a sting be to one of my curious 16 pound Bichon Frise dogs? I have tried to eliminate these spiders using over the counter insecticides without success. Is there a better way to rid my patio of these spiders?

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/110167brown_widow4.JPG-med.jpg
Link

Here's one of the pesky fertile bugs

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What a Blessing: it is mandatory to grow old but growing up is not.

Here is a link to a paper that was put out by the University of California Riverside's Dept. of Entomology.
http://spiders.ucr.edu/brownwidow.html

How did you train it to lie on its back?