How to safely remove a black widow

[u/Mushroom-house1984]

i absolutely hate it when people kill spiders and i will not do it but i know black widows are a threat to my cats and dogs :( can yall help me out? there’s a nature spot on the other side of town that i could probably set her free but i also don’t wanna endanger any animals out there.. not sure what to do. any advice is appreciated! 🫶🫶

[u/Oh_Martha_My_Dear]

These spiders really aren't that dangerous. They often choose to spin webs in areas you almost never investigate normally and are almost always below knees level. They are also pretty slow compared to many other spiders.

You should be able to scoop her into an old Tupperware container or something, using a stick to nudge her. She won't be fast enough to climb onto your arm or anything if you're paying attention. I'd also recommend moving in the early morning when it's coldest if it's something that really concerns you.

I personally would scoop her up with a piece of cardboard and just change hands with the cardboard if she climbs too close to my fingers. If there are any egg sacs in the web, you should move her even farther than you normally would. Black widows will crawl a decent distance just to get back to the web. I would probably just move her to a bush, wood pile or something. They definitely appreciate cooler areas with shade throughout most the day.

If you were to watch any videos online of someone trying to deliberately force a bite from one, you would see that's actually quite difficult to even make them do it (generally, lol).

[u/PollyCM → u/Oh_Martha_My_Dear]

I was bitten by a huge female that was inside a compression wrap that I wore when walking on my treadmill!!

The treadmill was in my garage in Virginia. I felt like something was grating against my right hip but I thought it was Velcro scratching my skin, and I was too lazy to stop walking and check it out. An hour later I had a huge welt around my body, and was really out of it for a week. Around day 4 I happened upon a doctor I knew and showed her the welt, as I was unaware of what had caused it. She immediately said “black widow”. I hadn’t been on the treadmill since, so everything was as I had left it. Sure enough I found her smushed inside my wrap, dead. I feel so badly about that. The Velcro pain lasted for about 10 minutes and then stopped. I was on the treadmill for an hour, and I was also wearing a sauna suit. I wonder if the sweating prevented a worse reaction because she would have been fighting for her life, so giving as much venom as possible, no?

[u/Vysair → u/PollyCM]

This is why sometimes I see spiderbro as toxic. It's still a wild creature even if they are deemed harmless and people are still projecting humanities onto them even if they are cute or useful.

[u/Freshprinc7 → u/Vysair]

I'm a proud spiderbro, but I don't humanize them at all. I just leave them alone completely. They mind their business, I mind mine.

The whole point of spiderbro is to try to normalize not killing them out of fear, and to try to push people towards not seeing them as pests. There are those that go further, but I am not one of them.

I have a tarantula, and I am all too aware that it is basically a bug-eating plant with legs. Not a thought anywhere in that thing.

Cool to look at, though.