One of my biology teachers (with a fondness of spiders that I share) has done a few studies in the Bay Area and found that black widows were significantly more common than previously thought, and far from rare. The few cases of black widow bites is mostly because well, they aren't agressive. They'd much rather be left in peace and if bothered, tend to run first and bite only as a last resort.
Part of the problem lies in their IDing characteristics. Who's going to turn a spider over onto its belly to look for a red hourglass marking before squishing it?? Not many people. In any case, not all widows have that prominent, easily IDed red hourglass mark. There's also a widow spider common in California that's not even black (its brown, varying shades of it if I remember rightly).
In any case, they aren't dangerous to humans if you take the few simple precautions most spider sites recommend (most important is the wearing of gloves when handling non-frequented places outside): http://ipm.ncsu.edu/AG369/notes/black_widow_spider.html
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Date: Sep. 3rd, 2007 02:41 am (UTC)From:Part of the problem lies in their IDing characteristics. Who's going to turn a spider over onto its belly to look for a red hourglass marking before squishing it?? Not many people. In any case, not all widows have that prominent, easily IDed red hourglass mark. There's also a widow spider common in California that's not even black (its brown, varying shades of it if I remember rightly).
In any case, they aren't dangerous to humans if you take the few simple precautions most spider sites recommend (most important is the wearing of gloves when handling non-frequented places outside): http://ipm.ncsu.edu/AG369/notes/black_widow_spider.html