Oh geeze. Black widow is pretty obvious. Jet black and shiny. Their silk strings are much tougher than other spiders, so if you come across webs that seem particularly strong, it might be from a black widow.He smushed the spider, but he thinks it was a black widow. Said it burned like fire! And he is not wimpy. The bite looks much better since he took Benadryl.
My mom found one when we were kids, so we'd know what they look like. She kept it in the kitchen in a jar with holes punched in the lid. The spider made an egg sac. Mom thought that was cool too. She had planned to let the spider loose way back up on the hill... yeah, planned. The eggs hatched before she did it. So many tiny little spiders swarming through the lid holes. eek! She sucked them up in the vacuum. We weren't allowed in the kitchen for most of the day. oh my