Southern Black Widow, female

Description:

Shiny black, with the trademark red hourglass on the UNDERSIDE of her large abdomen. Maybe 3/4" .

Habitat:

Ocala, Florida- lurks in messy cob-webby webs, in low corners of our garage.

Notes:

These are unfortunately all too common in our neighborhood- while I absolutely HATE killing anything, I'm afraid I have had to eliminate about 5 nests, all with at least 2 of the pea-sized , spiky -looking egg sacs- all within 4 days of moving into our new (to us) house. Between the Black Widows, and the also-common Brown Widows and Red Widows, I've removed probably 12 - 18 egg cases- all with a very venomous Mama standing guard! Fortunately they do not appear to be very aggressive- they usually "play dead" by curling up their legs and dropping to the ground. Makes it easier to sweep them up and forcefully evict them into the field next door! (eggs I confess to squishing...)