Insects and vertebrates
Spider extermination and removal
Every spider carries some toxicity. In Utah, one of them matters, and it needs a protocol rather than a spray.
How to know it is a black widow
Jet black and glossy, with a red hourglass on the inside of the abdomen, which is why you usually see it when the spider is hanging upside down in the web. The web is the better tell in practice, because you find webs long before you find spiders: a widow's web has no pattern to it at all, just a tangle, and it is unusually strong. Push a twig through an orb weaver's web and it tears. Push a twig through a widow's and it stretches, and you can hear it break.
Why one treatment is rarely the end of it
Widows spread by hatching and then ballooning, putting out a strand of silk and catching the breeze, so new arrivals land wherever they land and easily attach to areas all around the house. They also spend nearly all their time on the web, which means a widow will build on a surface that has just been sprayed. Proper identification plus frequent free retreatments is what keeps them outside, because the return visit is the treatment for this particular spider.
Nature's Way — Fully insured and bonded. Utah applicator licence 4001-18960. Call (801) 513-4106.
Why this one is worth a call rather than a broom
Black widows produce a neurotoxin. It causes severe cramping and it is genuinely dangerous for young children and elderly people, which puts it in a different category from a wolf spider in the basement. Emergency service is available, and a free FaceTime inspection lets you show somebody the web without going near it.
Do not clear the web first · where it is built tells a technician a lot
Where they sit
Undisturbed and sheltered, every time. Window wells that collect leaves, the underside of deck framing, behind anything stored against an exterior wall, the gaps in retaining walls, and garage corners near the floor.
And the ones you keep
Not every spider has to go. Customers regularly ask for the widows to be dealt with and the orb weavers left alone, and because one applicator does the whole visit, that is a decision he can make on the spot.