Not a Widow. Pretty good sized. Seen on the central coast, California.
Pretty sure it’s not a Recluse, I’ve seen those.
Pretty sure I don’t wanna know.
Or be near.
Or ever see again.
Ever.
IMHO
I’m going with fat or preggers brown recluse
I’m guessing false black widow.
^^^ Beat me to it. Immediately thought “cupboard spider.”
A point of interest and one worth considering, I think:
Scary, to be sure.
NM.
Yeah, brown recluses don’t live in California. Anywhere. Even if they did, that isn’t one.
Why? Because its brown?? Not every brown spider is a brown recluse. Also, there is no such thing as a pregnant spider.
That is interesting (really), but the OP’s pic looks exactly like a female false widow (cupboard spider). Brown widows look like black widows but with a case of vitilgo. They aren’t as dangerous as black widows but still are not to be trifled with. Cupboard spiders, while venemous, do not contain the potentially fatal neurotoxins that spiders in the widow family deliver.
Brown recluse bites are nothing compared to a black widow bite (usually, ymmv but hopefully you will never need to find out).
FWIW, many of us probably have false black widows under our couches right now.
Speak for yourself. I sit on a divan.
Ooh, ain’t you fancy!
I have a papazan chair, so what spiders sit under THAT?
Also, pretty sure they can’t get fat, the way we squishy mammals do. Exoskeleton and all.
That too.
< stage whisper > In reality, it’s the most uncomfortable sofa ever, and I can’t get rid of it because a friend rebuilt and recovered it gratis and I don’t want to hurt her feelings. No self-respecting spider would be caught dead living in its structure. Not even a sweet false black widow!
::shudder::
I saw my first black widow in a pumpkin I had carved for Halloween. I saw my second black widow crawling up the side of my couch. Widows give me a serious case of the willies.
Aspenglow’s article freaks me out.
How 'bout this, then? I was hosing out a diving bootie, and a black widow crawled out onto my wrist. She didn’t live long.
My dad was bitten by a black widow on his calf, and he had an ulcerated wound for weeks.
I like spiders… but I do not tolerate black widows.
Was this before, or after, the chanting?
When someone asks me what the most dreadful moment of my life was, I tell them the time my vasectomy incisions were cauterized: looking down and seeing actual smoke wafting out of a hole in my junk was… well, it was an experience that was not for the faint of heart.
Had I experienced a black widow crawling on me, that would take the cake. I can’t even imagine that without feeling a panic attack coming on.
Ummm. Mostly I just guessed.
Brown, fat. I rest my case.
Nah. I think it’s kind of pretty.
I’m not good at identifying spiders, though.
They’re not after you, though.
I spent a college summer on a dig in Missouri, living basically camping out; we used an outhouse. Which was full of black widows. You took a flashlight to the john at night so you wouldn’t put a hand on one by accident. One person got one bite that whole summer, and he had no reaction (sometimes they’ve got venom, sometimes they’ve recently used it all up so they don’t.) If they had any chance to get out of your way, they did that – you’re way too big for them to eat, and pose far more danger to them than they’re going to risk by hanging around within your reach.
I was freaked out by spiders before that summer; but I got over it fast. Not a technique I’d recommend to everybody, but for me it worked.
That’s Boris, I’m pretty sure.