Black Widow Arizona can be a serious threat, yet becoming aware of their signs and how to avoid an infestation can help safeguard yourself and your family’s wellbeing.
Female black widow spiders, distinguished by the red hourglass on their bulging abdomens, will bite if threatened and inject an extremely potent neurotoxin that can cause muscle pain, nausea, sweating and high blood pressure.
How to Identify a Black Widow Spider in Arizona
The black widow spider is an extremely poisonous, dangerous and potentially lethal spider found throughout desert areas and western states like Arizona. If bitten, its bite can lead to muscle cramping, nausea and dizziness; seek medical assistance immediately if bitten.
Identification of black widow spiders can be straightforward once you know what to look for. Female black widows feature shiny jet-black bodies with red hourglass markings on their abdomens; these spiders can grow up to an inch and a half long and their distinct coloring makes them easy to spot, particularly in desert environments. Young spiders, males, or any young black widows with orange and white colors often have only single reddish markings instead of the full hourglass pattern.
Female black widow spiders prefer dark places with temperatures between 65-85 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal web building environments, such as sheds, firewood piles or hollow stumps – although cluttered locations also can provide shelter to these spiders. This could include areas like sheds, firewood piles or hollow stumps in outdoor settings as well as barns or chicken coops in buildings like sheds. They may also prefer dry and dark places between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit as an ideal environment.
If you find an irregularly-shaped spider web in your yard, chances are it contains black widow spiders. Wearing gloves when working outside and regularly vacuuming can help protect against their entry into your home; pest control professionals should be called should any nest be suspected as these pests are adept at fleeing without detection and may require professional removal services to get rid of.
When encountering spiders inside, it’s essential to differentiate between the two most dangerous spider species: brown widow and black widow spiders. An easy way of doing so is analyzing each species’ lateral diagonal stripe on their abdomens: on brown widows it looks more like a finger with an irregular rectangular blotch at its tip while black widow’s stripes form more of a V-shape that points upward.
Black widow spider venom attacks nerve cells and can be hazardous to people, particularly small children and those with preexisting health conditions. If bitten, symptoms include nausea, muscle cramps, headache, sweating high blood pressure and breathing issues. If bitten, keep the area covered until swelling has subsided; over-the-counter medications like aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen may help ease discomfort.
How to Get Rid of a Black Widow Spider Infestation in AZ
Get rid of black widow spider infestation by taking steps to keep the spiders from entering your home in the first place. One key measure for prevention is keeping clutter and debris off walls, ceilings, floors, closets, etc. Black widow spiders often nest within these dark, cluttered spaces and can build webs or lay eggs here. Vacuum or dust frequently to rid these areas from black widow spiders or their eggs that might still exist in them.
When gardening or handling materials such as firewood, wear heavy gloves and denim work pants for your own protection from spider bites. Although black widow spiders only deliver minimal doses of venom when they bite people, you shouldn’t take any chances with these dangerous spiders.
Make sure doors, windows and screens are closed and sealed to avoid spider infestation in your home. Replace any worn or broken door sweeps and window seals to keep spiders at bay. Also consider switching incandescent light bulbs to yellow or sodium vapor bulbs to reduce insects from coming inside, cutting back on Black Widow food supply.
If you want to deter Black Widows from attempting to enter your home, use an insecticide containing boric acid or bifenthrin as an active ingredient to spray baseboards and closets containing them at 18-24 inches from surfaces like walls in short bursts – this should keep them away and may even kill them! This should deter Black Widows from climbing walls of your home and kill any that try climbing them!
When encountering a black widow spider or its egg sac, don’t crush it; doing so could release many new spiders into the environment. Instead, carefully drop it onto a hard surface where it won’t be disturbed before disposing of it immediately.
As far as Black Widow spiders go, one key reminder should be that they only attack when feeling threatened or trying to gain entry to your Arizona home. Make sure that hiding places are eliminated and regularly clear away webs so as to deter these spiders from making themselves at home in Arizona homes.
How to Get Rid of a Black Widow Spider in Your Home
To keep Black Widow Spiders away, ensure there are no places for them to hide or build webs in your home. This can be accomplished by regularly and thoroughly cleaning all secluded areas like basements, closets, attics and garage as well as regularly and thoroughly vacuuming all carpeted areas in addition to regularly vacuuming the floors themselves – this will also remove food sources like flies, beetles and crickets that attract them as well as switching from incandescent light bulbs to yellow sodium vapor bulbs will further decrease insect entrance while further diminishing food sources that attract Black Widows Spiders.
Reduce the potential entryways that Black Widow spiders could use to gain entry to your home, such as open firewood piles, stacks of pots and clutter in your garden, overgrown bushes vines and shrubbery too close to your house, as well as sheds and garages storing items outside the home as potential hiding spots for them.
Black Widow spiders can also be kept away by filling in any holes and voids where they might gain entry, such as door sweeps, caulking around windows and doors, and making sure all screens are secure. Furthermore, limiting outdoor lighting as well as keeping yard debris trimmed away from the foundation of your house can help thwart their efforts of seeking refuge within it.
If a Black Widow has found their way into your home, they should be killed quickly and effectively using an insecticide spray pesticide that does not leave behind harmful residues. A non-residual spray pesticide will quickly stun or kill these spiders without leaving behind any trace.
Avoiding Black Widow infestation by reaching out to an experienced Gilbert pest control company is essential – they will be able to identify which type of spider exists in your home and treat accordingly, hopefully averting a serious infestation.
It is vital that if you believe you have been bitten by a Black Widow spider, that medical attention be sought immediately as their bite can cause severe and life-threatening symptoms such as muscle cramps, fever, nausea and headaches.
How to Get Rid of a Black Widow Spider in Your Yard
As a general guideline, Black Widows can be deterred from entering your yard by eliminating their food source – insects and other creepy-crawlies around your house. To do this, reduce their numbers by using sticky traps, clearing away rotting vegetation, pruning ivy near walls or windows regularly and changing outdoor lighting from incandescent bulbs to yellow or sodium vapor varieties that attract less desirable insects that Black Widows might find appealing prey nearby. Additionally, yellow-tinged lights attract less desirable insects which will make finding prey more difficult for Black Widows when entering your yard!
As another strategy to reduce spider populations in your yard, simply removing their webs can also help. For optimum results, remove these webs during the day when spiders are most inactive – which typically means the morning. Webs can easily be identified by looking for dark, protected spaces that often remain undisturbed such as garage or basement spaces, piles of firewood, stacks of lumber and vegetation close by that often go undisturbed. To locate existing webs simply look out for dark corners where no activity occurs (indoors these include spaces such as garage or basement rooms); outdoors look out for piles of firewood stacked lumber piles near close-growing vegetation as signs that there might be webs present!
Black widow spider webs tend to be disorganized, crisscrossed and tangled, making them appear disorganized to untrained eyes. Because these webs are built so close to the ground, it makes it easy for Black Widows to capture prey. Bites from Black Widow spiders may cause severe discomfort that includes nausea, sweating, fever or elevated blood pressure if any bite occurs – for this reason medical attention must be sought immediately if such symptoms emerge.
To deprive widow spiders a place to build webs, install door sweeps and seal window openings with plastic film; avoid stacking wood; trim tall grass; remove brush piles; repair screens when necessary and use insecticides specifically designed to kill Black Widow spiders in order to stop them entering your house.
Homemade repellents made of vinegar and water may also work. Spray it directly on spiders or their egg sacs to kill them quickly, or add essential oils that have been properly diluted and are safe for children and pets to the mixture.
If you find it impossible to exterminate Black Widow spiders on your own, professional pest control companies like ACTION Termite & Pest Control offer professional removal. Their specialists have experience safely extracting dangerous spiders from large infestations while offering advice that may prevent future issues from cropping up.