
IS THERE ANY SUREFIRE SIGN IT’S A BLACK WIDOW SPIDER WEB? Inside the house, they might take up residence inside boxes, seldom-worn shoes and around the corners of rooms that don’t get a lot of foot traffic. Near the house, black widow spider webs can be found in and around garages, sheds, attics, crawl spaces, cracks in the foundation and underneath window eaves. Outdoors, you’ll find black widow spider habitats around crevices in stone walls, rodent burrows, woodpiles, under bushes and rocks, and even in the lower branches of trees. The webs are constructed during the day and always near sources of food, such as caterpillars, mosquitoes, grasshoppers and other similar prey.īlack widows are shy spiders and prefer to build their webs in secluded areas. Sometimes, these spiders will rest above the web, dropping down from as far as 10 feet onto their unlucky meals. The widow will typically either sit upside down in the middle of the tangled center, or retreat to the ground and wait for prey to get caught in the web. The central area consists of a tangle of threads, and the bottom portion of the black widow web is where the vertical ‟traps” for crawling prey are weaved. At the top, strong supporting threads secure the web so that flying prey and debris can’t easily rip the web free. There are three structural levels to the web. The uneven web of a black widow might look disorderly, but it’s actually carefully planned out and constructed. WHAT DOES A BLACK WIDOW SPIDER WEB LOOK LIKE? In fact, in World War II, black widow silk was used to make crosshairs for gun sights. Their silk is so strong, if you waved your hand through it, you’d hear it rip. Because of this location and the strength of the black widow’s silk, leaves and other debris will often get tangled in the widow’s web. It’s also typically constructed close to the ground. Rather, it appears haphazard, tangled and crisscrossed. There isn’t a discernible pattern at first glance.

The thing that strikes most people about black widow webs is how chaotic they appear.

WHAT ARE THE KEYS TO BLACK WIDOW WEB IDENTIFICATION? Are you worried about black widows in and around your home? Learn to identify a black widow spider web and you’ll always know what type of spider you’re dealing with, and when it’s time to contact a pest management professional.
