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Black widows get a bad rap. I believe there is an icon of evil showing a black widow.
They are one of the most common spiders here in CO. There are 5 varieties. They live about 3 years. The new young spiders are the ones that are most commonly found inside houses. They are usually just looking for a place to hide. They prefer places that are not out in the open for their webs (like in a window well,,,). They rely on their web for food and rarely hunt outside of their web for food.
I recall seeing adult female black widows as new tenants during winters in outdoor rodent bait stations that I checked every month. Those I would squash out of a desire for the black widow to not scare the mice away from the bait.
Forget about trying to eliminate their food source. Forget about treating your lawn. You are too late now to have an impact anyway. If you do intend to prevent them from getting into your house, spray with a repellant pyrethroid in the late summer around doors, windows, and foundation edges outside.
If they are already inside, use your vacuum cleaner. A tiny squirt of an aerosol pesticide will kill the spiders (et al) and limit your pesticide use.
Old webs have zero impact on new spiders. They will hang there for a long time, so there is an improvement in ambiance by removing webs.
Black widows get a bad rap. I believe there is an icon of evil showing a black widow.
They are one of the most common spiders here in CO. There are 5 varieties. They live about 3 years. The new young spiders are the ones that are most commonly found inside houses. They are usually just looking for a place to hide. They prefer places that are not out in the open for their webs (like in a window well,,,). They rely on their web for food and rarely hunt outside of their web for food.
I recall seeing adult female black widows as new tenants during winters in outdoor rodent bait stations that I checked every month. Those I would squash out of a desire for the black widow to not scare the mice away from the bait.
Forget about trying to eliminate their food source. Forget about treating your lawn. You are too late now to have an impact anyway. If you do intend to prevent them from getting into your house, spray with a repellant pyrethroid in the late summer around doors, windows, and foundation edges outside.
If they are already inside, use your vacuum cleaner. A tiny squirt of an aerosol pesticide will kill the spiders (et al) and limit your pesticide use.
Old webs have zero impact on new spiders. They will hang there for a long time, so there is an improvement in ambiance by removing webs.
