The Little-Known Lakewood Ranch Spider: The Brown Widow

When you think of unwanted spiders that may find their way into your Florida home, you properly first think of black widow spiders and brown recluse spiders. These are the two most dangerous spiders that you can encounter, but they aren’t the only ones. The brown widow (also called house button spider, grey widow, and brown button spider) can get into your home just as easily as brown recluse spiders or black widows. There’s a good chance you’ve never even heard of them, so let’s take a look at some of the details of this not-so-secret spider.

Identifying a Brown Widow Spider

Brown widow spiders are closely related to black widows. They also have a distinct hourglass shape on their body, but theirs is bright orange or yellow instead of red. They are slightly smaller than black widows and are usually brown or grey, though they can appear to be black. Brown widows have a striped pattern on their legs that can also help identify them.

Brown widows can also be recognized by their distinct egg sacs. Unlike many spiders, the brown widow’s egg sacs have a spiky, tufted appearance. These pokey-looking, cream-colored egg sacs are a sure sign that you’ve found a brown widow web. Their webs look extremely disorganized, tangled, and messy. They can be found in any dark and quiet corner of a home or yard. These spiders have even been known to make their webs around clothing in a closet, or in the inside of a shoe!

Brown Widow Bites

Though brown widows can bite, they are not known to be aggressive. If a brown widow does bite a human, it’s probably because she thought her egg sacs were in danger. Although they are venomous, their bites are not much different than a non-venomous spider. The initial bite may hurt, and there may be some redness around the area. However, a brown widow bite does not come with the dangerous symptoms and side effects that brown recluse and black widow bites bring.

Brown Widows in Your Home

Brown widows will often come inside in search of dark, quiet areas to build their nest. This can be in a basement, closet, or garage, but it can also be in unused furniture, in clothing, around shelving, in plants, in shoes, and in any storage area or shed. Brown widows are attracted to food sources, which means that the more bugs you have, the more spiders will follow. In order to prevent brown widows from making their home in your home, you’ll need to cut down the number of insects in and around your home.

In order to do this, Keller’s Pest Control can help you target pests in your home to prevent brown widows and other spiders from coming into your home to find food. If you already have brown widows crawling about your crawl spaces, Keller’s Pest Control can help with that, too. Though brown widows aren’t particularly dangerous, we’re sure you don’t want them in your home. We can take care of them. And, while we are at it, we can keep an eye out for more dangerous spiders as well. Give us a call today to get started!