Spider ID?

[Sheltowee]

Another one for Uncle Randy’s forthcoming Critters, Varmints and Pests subforum. Any of y’all got an ID on this spider? Red stripe runs most of the way down the top of the abdomen. Located in central Colorado.

 

[Dsnow9]

Looks like a male black widow to me.

 

[David58]

That would be a widow. Just recently did some looking up about them - wowsers, there's a whole raft of different kinds of widders!

David
NM

 

[Sheltowee]

That would be a widow. Just recently did some looking up about them - wowsers, there's a whole raft of different kinds of widders!

David
NM

Even with the coloration on the top of the back? I thought the red markings were on the bottom but maybe not.

 

[Dsnow9]

Even with the coloration on the top of the back? I thought the red markings were on the bottom but maybe not.

On a female the red hour glass. Make looks like that. Or slight variations. Camp was full of them last year on my cow elk hunt. Named the camping spot black widow point. Killed a male on the pillow two nights in a row. This one looks a bit younger than yours.

 

[FairWeather]

Hell no.

 

[kwyeewyk]

The ones around my place are white/yellow/greenish when they're young and then get a red bolt down the back of their abdomen, then they turn black and the red hour glass underneath comes as they mature.

 

[okie archer]

Black widow. Don't get bit.

 

[mtmuley]

Black widow. Don't get bit.

What happens if you do? mtmuley

 

[David58]

Even with the coloration on the top of the back? I thought the red markings were on the bottom but maybe not.

Go look up the spider on Wiki. There is a ridiculous list of widow spiders around the world, and a handful in North America. Quite a varied appearance, fortunately not all are as poisonous as the "classic".

Latrodectus - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[elkantlers]

I was expecting an Idaho version of the Spider bull. Disappointed..

 

[Gr8bawana]

We have so many of those darn things around here it's ridiculous. I've gone out at night with a flashlight spider hunting sometimes and I think the most I've killed in one night was 16 adult black widows.
That doesn't include all the baby widows that haven't turned black yet.

 

[Hem]

Two springs ago every gopher hole on my property had a Widow web. Never had them before, none this year.
Pretty amazing how fast they could retreat out of sight if disturbed.

This became an added freak out in the subdivision. Rattlesnakes were the first. Then someone claimed they saw a wolf, the uproar being the kids were no longer safe at the bus stop.

 

[gouch]

Black widows are one of the most common spiders around here. When I was a kid we would go out at night with flashlights and hunt them. We would whack them with sticks. In the daytime we would wiggle their web with a stalk of grass and smack them when they came out looking for a meal. As I got older, I found it was more fun to throw grasshoppers into their web and watch them dispatch the little critter.

When I was in high school some guys went out one night with flashlights and .22s to hunt black Widows. I don't know how many they got but the hunt ended when a spider ran toward one of them and he managed to shoot himself in the foot. I have known several people to get bit by them but the hole in that guy's foot was by far the worst wound I have seen inflicted by a Black Widow.

 

[JustinsDad]

I have been bitten by 2 black widows. My buddy has been bitten 4 times because he was a water meter reader and they were always in the meter boxes. They swell up a lot and hurt a little for a few days. No big deal. My wife got bit by a brown recluse and that hurt for months. She still has a scar from that. Black widows are not that big of a deal as long as you aren’t allergic to them

 

[grizzly_]

 

[hank4elk]

Just had one appear next to the toilet tank. Smash,flush.
Got bit by brown recluse as a kid. Knee swelled up and it lasted over a month.
Dad drained it one day finally. It was gross.

All this while Violin spiders where discovered in town and they will kill you.

 

[LuketheDog]

All this while Violin spiders where discovered in town and they will kill you.

I remember when my mom went through that craze when we were kids, we had black widows all over, but suddenly "The brown recluse will KILLLLLLLL YOU!!!!" I found out later they didn't even live in that part of the country...

 

[hank4elk]

I remember when my mom went through that craze when we were kids, we had black widows all over, but suddenly "The brown recluse will KILLLLLLLL YOU!!!!" I found out later they didn't even live in that part of the country...

And they said the brown was not in town. I caught one in a jar and dad had it examined at the local collage.
Sure thing.
I still have a divot scar in my knee.