Fall Is Black Widow Season
As the air cools and autumn approaches, black widow spiders start making their presence known. Fall marks the beginning of black widow season, when these venomous spiders look for shelter and prepare for the months ahead.
Why Fall Pest Control Matters
Black widows are known for their glossy black bodies and the red hourglass marking on the underside of the female's abdomen. They are typically shy and reclusive, preferring dark, hidden spaces to build their webs. As temperatures drop and the days shorten, they become more active and move into protected spaces: garages, basements, crawl spaces, and outdoor sheds.
Fall is a crucial time for pest control, and not only for black widows. Spiders, rodents, and insects of all kinds start looking for shelter indoors as the weather turns colder, which makes fall the practical time to deal with a pest problem before it settles in for the winter. Black widows in particular are a concern because their bite can cause real discomfort and, in some cases, more serious health problems.
A Fall Checklist for Black Widows
- Clear clutter from garages, sheds, and storage areas, where black widows hide undisturbed.
- Wear gloves when moving stored boxes, patio furniture, or firewood, and shake out gloves and shoes left in the garage.
- Keep firewood stacked off the ground and away from the house.
- Seal gaps under garage doors and around pipes where they enter the home.
- Check sprinkler valve boxes and meter boxes carefully before reaching inside.
Recognizing a Black Widow Web and Egg Sac
Black widows do not spin the neat, flat, wheel-shaped webs that garden spiders make. Their webs are messy tangles of very strong, sticky silk. They are usually close to the ground in a sheltered corner: under a deck, behind stored boxes, inside a meter box, or along the bottom of a fence or woodpile. The female hangs belly-up in the web, mostly at night, which is when the red hourglass is easiest to see.
Egg sacs are round and papery, tan or off-white, and roughly half an inch across. Each one can hold several hundred eggs. An egg sac found in the fall means next year's spiders are already in place, which is why egg sacs should be removed along with the spiders.
Safe and Responsible Treatment
B's Weed & Pest Control Services has served the Reno community since 2002, and B's technicians know the habits and habitats of black widows well. Rather than a blanket treatment, B's focuses on the specific areas where black widows hide and build webs, which eliminates the spiders present and keeps new ones from moving into the same spots.
Safety is a priority. B's uses environmentally friendly methods that are safe for families and pets and pose minimal risk to the surrounding ecosystem, so a black widow problem can be handled without trading one concern for another.
Black Widows Are Not the Only Fall Invaders
The same cooling weather sends mice and rats looking for a warm place to spend the winter, and a garage that shelters black widows usually has gaps a mouse can squeeze through too. Sealing those gaps in early fall protects against both at once. See rodent control in Reno for the signs of rodent activity to watch for.
As black widow season begins, it is the right time to act. If black widows have been spotted around a garage, shed, or crawl space this fall, contact B's Weed & Pest Control Services to schedule an inspection and treatment. For identification detail and bite first aid, see spider pest control.