Posted on the community forum for a housing addition near Mustang:

"Everyone check around their homes for black widows. Between two homes we have found 14. Look for very scraggly webs, usually low to the ground. They like cracks in the brick, behind light fixtures or gutters."

and I located two outside my home in Mustang. The good news is black widows don't usually set up shop inside your home unless it's in the garage.

Get the spray and glue traps out. :-)

Is this unusual for Oklahoma? Are we suffering with explosive deadly spiders? I know we were invaded by the grasshoppers recently. We don't need an invasion of deadly spiders. Its too close to major holidays coming up and we don't want people unexpectedly die that their wait all year for these special holidays will just be tragic.

No, it is not unusual. It also isn't unusual in hot weather for the spiders to move indoors. I battled grass spiders at the beginning of the summer but they have died down. We had a lot of orb weavers at the beginning of the summer, as well, all making webs around the outside doors. Creepy stuff, but normal.

There is no "explosion" of spiders. There might just be more food for them, and so they are more prolific this year.

http://newsok.com/drought-has-black-widow-spiders-invading-oklahomas-backyards/article/3601412?custom_click=lead_story_title

Black widows are explosive? That's nightmare material!

http://newsok.com/drought-has-black-widow-spiders-invading-oklahomas-backyards/article/3601412?custom_click=lead_story_title

I think you posted this just to specifically scare me. :-(

Now look what you have done!

http://cdn.head-fi.org/9/9e/9ee6dcec_blackhat-Why-Bunny_Cry.jpg

I posted it because your first response was spider-pocalypse and I wanted you to know that there was a real, natural, non-apocalypse reason for the rise in numbers. That, and general awareness for those who are going to be working in their yards this week, trying to clear out the brush and dead stuff from the dry summer.

Rabbits do not cry from fear.

Well, I am terrified now.

Any spray you use will also kill beneficial insects and our bees are in serious danger, as is our food supply if we kill them all off. Better to squash the spider if you see it or spray around a web only.

Thunder, it's not the ones you see in your house that are the real terror. It's the ones that find their way into your truck in the dark of night, that you wake up from their slumber when you open the door, making them cower, and get angry, from the dome light, then sending their blood into a boil when you sit and squish their little cousins. Yes, it is those spiders, the survivors, the rage filled, revenge must be found, blood lust must be quenched evil doers and biters and venom passers. Those are the spiders you must fear.

Pleasant dreams?!????????

Thunder, it's not the ones you see in your house that are the real terror. It's the ones that find their way into your truck in the dark of night, that you wake up from their slumber when you open the door, making them cower, and get angry, from the dome light, then sending their blood into a boil when you sit and squish their little cousins. Yes, it is those spiders, the survivors, the rage filled, revenge must be found, blood lust must be quenched evil doers and biters and venom passers. Those are the spiders you must fear.

Pleasant dreams?!????????

This is awesome. At least, with black widows, the only affect is a few days of excruciating pain, unlike the brown recluse, which can cause your skin to rot away.

Yeah . . . Those Brown Recluse/Fiddlebacks/Violin Spiders are the ones to REALLY be wary of. And they are EVERYWHERE. Specifically, anywhere you might see an extra raggedly web, but especially in your garage or storm cellar or earthquake bunker or flea market display building material pile. Compared to them, Black Widows are pussies. Except, of course, for the exploding Black Widows.

I hear that some mad genetics engineer is working on a hybrid of a Fiddleback and a scorpion . . .
Disguised as a roly-poly by adding in some genes from a centipede and an armadillo (which carries leprosy, btw).

Yeah . . . Those Brown Recluse/Fiddlebacks/Violin Spiders are the ones to REALLY be wary of. And they are EVERYWHERE. Specifically, anywhere you might see an extra raggedly web, but especially in your garage or storm cellar or earthquake bunker or flea market display building material pile. Compared to them, Black Widows are pussies. Except, of course, for the exploding Black Widows.



/dead

Hmm...rapid increase in spiders. Earthquake swarm in the state this year. Thunder out of Xanax. Yup...could mean only one thing. Something has broken through the crust!

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lanyfwaijj1qzuixyo1_500.jpg

Good one, Venture . . .

Yet that spider looks more like a Sesame Street Spider than a REALLY Scary Spider.

(Maybe if the camera took a shot down into the lightwell it might capture the drained carcasses of Big Bird, Burt, Ernie, The Cookie Monster and those Two Old Guys in the Balcony . . . But until then . . . =)

Thunder, it's not the ones you see in your house that are the real terror. It's the ones that find their way into your truck in the dark of night, that you wake up from their slumber when you open the door, making them cower, and get angry, from the dome light, then sending their blood into a boil when you sit and squish their little cousins. Yes, it is those spiders, the survivors, the rage filled, revenge must be found, blood lust must be quenched evil doers and biters and venom passers. Those are the spiders you must fear.

Pleasant dreams?!????????
975 Damn you! Why couldn't I wait until morning to read this?! :eek:

You guys making Thunder cry. :-(

I have a bug company spray quarterly...like $75 a quarter and it seems to work well

Thunder, it's not the ones you see in your house that are the real terror. It's the ones that find their way into your truck in the dark of night, that you wake up from their slumber when you open the door, making them cower, and get angry, from the dome light, then sending their blood into a boil when you sit and squish their little cousins. Yes, it is those spiders, the survivors, the rage filled, revenge must be found, blood lust must be quenched evil doers and biters and venom passers. Those are the spiders you must fear.

Pleasant dreams?!????????

That was great :bow:

This one's for you, Thunder . . .

3DsaXfNgQZ4

(And that was a great one, Kevin! Unlike this one.)

Over a period of a couple of weeks, I watched dozens, maybe hundreds, of tiny, whiteish, spiders build a massive--if gossamer--engineering project out in the garage. It was like the biggest cobweb ever and went from the garage door track, down to a lamp on an old desk, and back up to another point on the ceiling with lots of web in between. I don't know if these nearly microscopic specimens could fly or if they just took turns jumping at a target while spinning out web material until they hit it or what. I just couldn't bring myself to disturb all their hard work . . . Until, one day, I opened the garage door and the wind blew it all away.

I have a bug company spray quarterly...like $75 a quarter and it seems to work well

Again, think about what you are doing. You're spraying poison in your home (hopefully not outside your home) to kill insects that are generally beneficial. To quote Joni Mitchell (IIRC), "Give me spots on my apple, but leave me the birds and the bees". We need to think about the consequences of our actions. Perfect lawns, perfect fruit, insect-free homes may end up having serious repercussions, if not for us, for our grandchildren.

Paving paradise and putting up a parking lot probably accounts for much of the apparent migration of spiders to Mustang.

(Ref. Post #1)

This one's for you, Thunder . . .

3DsaXfNgQZ4
That's hilarious. I've gotta find (or figure out how to make) one of those before halloween.

I'm glad the video played for you.
I keep getting one of those annoying "an error occurred" messages (unless I click on the first vid in in the que at the bottom of that one).

The dog costume looks pretty easy to make.
And your dog will love you for it.

Plus, you might be able to hire your pet out to enhance the local "Haunted House" experience: Imagine a large, quick, creature that can share both venom and rabies with one bite. You might consider investing in a motel-sized can of shaving cream to enhance the rabies effect. Or maybe some foamy toothpaste.

By golly . . . This could be one more sales opportunity for The Golden Goose Flea Market!!!

I am going to show this to Becky and have her to make one for Taz.

If she could make a Tasmanian Devil mask for the dog (without infringing on any Warner Brothers copyrights or trademarks) that could be a nice touch . . . Now you have an aggresive, rabid, venomous creature.

Like those Golf Ball Spiders in Australia.
(Except for the rabies part.)