I'm not a big fan of Black Widows. Neither is my mother. She used to whack them with a broom to kill them. She went through lots of brooms. I used to think this type of spider was a hazard of living in the desert, but I've since learned that these buggers are everywhere. And they don't all look like how I thought was the only way that a Black Widow appeared.
When I first glanced at this one, the hourglass stood out like normal. I was surprised only by the fact that it was out in the day. I went and got my favorite spider killer, Many Purpose Dust. It's a white powder that my husband doesn't want anywhere near the vegetables, but works great for killing spiders without having to buy new brooms every week. It wasn't until I came back that I noticed the zebra-like stripes on the side. Of course I had to go back in for the camera since this was the second weird widow spider I had seen in our yard this year. I took my photo, puffed it with the powder and went back to checking on the chickens, the reason I had gone outside to begin with.
On my way back in, I saw that the spider was trying to escape the powder by crawling across the patio. And it was even prettier on top. I almost felt bad that I had powdered it. Like I should have captured it for scientific study, surely these things are mutating. Then I went to
Wikipedia. Turns out, there's lots of different looking widow spiders out there. Why they're starting to all show up in my yard is beyond me, but what can you do?
This next spider isn't a black widow, as far as I can tell anyway. But I like him since he is probably the first I've ever noticed in our yard that makes his web in the flat circular way that looks like a net. And he's really colorful. And as far as I know, not poisonous. Which is probably the only thing saving him.
