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Western Black Widow
I’m getting pretty efficient at capturing the brown widows (Latrodectus geometricus) around my apartment building. I’ve learned that quicker is better. A fluid motion with the open jar underneath the spider through its web will startle it, causing it to roll up into a ball and “play possum,” falling nicely into the bottom [...]
Brown Widow vs Honey Bee
Last night, I couldn’t resist collecting more brown widows (Latrodectus geometricus). My cluster is up to seven, now. You might be thinking that I’m crazy for keeping even one live venomous spider in my apartment, let alone seven. First of all, their bite isn’t as bad as you might think. According to the [...]
Brown Widow, Redux
I captured a few brown widows (Latrodectus geometricus) tonight outside of my apartment. They had all made the underside of my old car their home, setting up their distinctive “messy” webs from my tires or my bumpers to the ground. Brown widows are very timid – even more so than their locally found cousins, [...]
Porch Light Visitors III
The day after photographing the brown widow last week, the web had been removed. I was relieved that the venomous spider was gone, yet disappointed at the same time. A spider – venomous or not – isn’t a threat to anyone unless provoked. I was sure that if let be, it would live out his [...]
Brown Widow
While walking to the end of my private street to get the mail, I passed an unusual sighting: a brown widow (Latrodectus geometricus). I’ve seen many black widows – there everywhere in Southern California – but never a brown. Here’s an interesting fact about the spiders:
The name “widow spiders” came from the belief that the [...]