Because of their wide distribution and secretive habits, black widows
are difficult to control. Basements, outbuildings, and garages should be
cleaned frequently, and black widow webs and eggs destroyed. If
accessible, the spider may be dislodged from her web with a broom, and
smashed. The use of a blowtorch, where there is no fire hazard, is
effective for both spiders and egg cocoons. Insect sprays, in general,
are ineffectual.
Brown recluse spider
and its venomous relatives
Until recently the black widow was considered the only spider in the
United States dangerous to man. In 1955, physicians in Missouri and
Arkansas began treating persons suffering from the bite of the brown
recluse spider, whose poison caused serious damage to the skin at the
site of the puncture and often produced a severe systemic reaction
sometimes fatal to young children.
The spider is approximately ⁵/₁₆ inch in length, dark brown to fawn,
with long legs. A violin-shaped spot on the upper side of the
cephalothorax (head portion) is the only noticeable identification
giving rise to another common name—fiddleback spider. It is also known
as brown spider, or brown house spider.
Little has been published on its life history, but it has been reported
from Kansas, Illinois, the Gulf Coast, and from Tennessee to Oklahoma.
It is extending its territory westward and has recently been reported
from southeastern New Mexico and southern California. People are
contributing to the rapid geographical spread of this species by
unknowingly carrying it across state lines in their luggage. The brown
recluse spider, according to Paul N. Morgan, research microbiologist at
the Little Rock, Arkansas, Veterans Administration Hospital,
“constitutes a hazard to the health of man, perhaps greater than the
Black Widow.”
[Illustration: _Brown recluse spider_
(Photo—Division of Dermatology Dept. of Medicine U. of Arkansas Medical
Center)]