Black widows in the coop. Bit me.

[ameliadanielle]

Make sure they are black widows. In Georgia I haven't seen a real black widow in years. Brown widows have pushed them out and taken over. The good thing is brown widows venom is localized, it doesn't go through the blood stream like black widow venom. They're also less aggressive. If the egg sacks are smooth, you have black widows. If the egg sacks look like spiky balls you have brown widows.

We had families of brown widows living in our garage. We had to spray the garage with poison. We don't have any spiders in the backyard since we put the chickens out there. They eat them when they find them.

 

[kristaschics15]

In Georgia I see them all the time. Black not brown. But valid point.

 

[ameliadanielle]

I've had a hard time telling them apart sometimes and have to look at the egg sacks. What part of Georgia are you in? I'm in south Georgia. It's weird. We always had black widows around here but over the past few years the brown widows have taken over. They seem to be extremely prolific. We even had one move into our mailbox for some strange reason.

 

[kristaschics15]

I'm in south east GA near Savannah.

 

[ameliadanielle]

We're in Douglas. Closer to the west side of Georgia.