Windsor, NJ Pest Control Local Services

I was at a Windsor residence conducting one of our inspections that comes with our home protection plan service packages (HPP). I wasn’t expecting anything too unusual on this sunny spring day, but, as I learned a long time ago, the day of a pest control technician is often filled with many “surprises” waiting for us around the corner.

Today I came across a beautiful shiny black spider. It was about a half-inch long with shiny black legs. I later saw that had an interesting hourglass marking on its abdomen. For those who don’t know spiders, it may have looked like just another harmless house spider. But don’t be fooled by appearances. This “itsy bitsy” spider was none other than a Black Widow — the most dangerous spider found here in New Jersey.

Poisonous spiders are those spiders whose venom can cause a serious reaction in humans. Fortunately, there aren’t that many of them. In New Jersey, the most common poisonous spider, by far, is the black widow. This spider gets its ominous name from its most unusual behavior — after mating, the female will, on rare occasion, eat the unsuspecting male spider!

Although black widow venom can cause a serious painful reaction, death is very unlikely. Even though their venom is much more toxic than the venom of a rattlesnake, a single spider just can’t inject that much of it in a single bite. If medical treatment is obtained soon after the bite, most symptoms can be alleviated. Also, you only have to worry about the females. The male black widow’s fangs are too small to break human skin, and the juveniles of either sex are also harmless to humans. Only female black widows can bite through a person’s skin and inject enough venom to cause a painful reaction.

As shown in the photo, this spider was a proud mom that just had lots of newly hatched spiderlings. The female lays several batches of eggs that may contain several hundred eggs each. However, very few, perhaps a dozen or so, manage to survive the incubation period. The vast majority of them are cannibalized by their sibling spiderlings. Talk about a spider-eat-spider world!

Needless to say, these young homeowners were nervous — and for good reason. Nobody likes spiders breeding and multiplying in their homes, especially ones that are poisonous. Also, there were two curious toddlers at home. This was a serious situation and I took all preventative measures to get rid of this spider infestation. Now, the spiderlings would not develop and potentially harm anyone in this family. I also reviewed preventative measures with the homeowners to reduce potential spider harborage areas in and around the home.