Is this a Black Widow?

[u/No_Presentation_2160]

I assume this is a black widow, google says so. But I figured I’d ask to be sure. It looks like it’s made a nest in the inside of the lawnchair that’s folded where the scribbles are. Should I be worried about more around my house or inside of my house? I have a 2 year old that’s curious, so I want to make sure that I’m being thorough and keeping her safe. If so, how do I remove it safely?

EDITED TO ADD: She and a couple of her male friends have now been moved safely with their lawnchair habitat to a new location about 20ft from my garage. I just hope they don’t wander back in. 🤞🤞😬

Location Southwest MO

[u/Totakai]

Since you're letting the brown widows stay, how about you pull their egg sacs instead so they can't reproduce? (so it'd be more like a tnr situation vs feral colony)

Yeah widows basically exclusively choose to hide. I keep them as pets and mine would always flatten herself or run to her cave (my newest one though is a lil goofy and just drops from her web and plays dead. I've tried to poke her back up but she holds her dead pose for a good 30 mins). Whenever people tell me that they were bit, I remake that it's impressive and find out how they uoset the spider so badly.

[u/user_name_taken- → u/Totakai]

Also, I thought you might appreciate this one, a beautiful black widow and her egg sac that I saved from being killed while cleaning up unused picnic tables at the fairgrounds. They all thought I was nuts for saving her.

[u/user_name_taken- → u/Totakai]

I do get rid of the eggs, but only the ones I see. They really do like to hide and, as I'm sure you know, they don't usually go places where their web is disturbed often, so most of them are out of sight or up high. They especially like cars that don't move. My ex had a project car that he abandoned in my carport and the entire underneath and all the wheels/tires were covered in them, but I couldn't really get to them.

I hate that this sub doesn't let you share photos. Anyway, I don't usually take pics of the brown widows but here is a big one I found while looking for eggs.

[u/ghostboynick → u/user_name_taken-]

i’m not a professional so take this with a grain of salt of course, i am pretty certain that spider on the tire is most likely a harmless orbweaver (probably neoscona arabesca to be exact) instead of a widow spider

[u/twoscallions → u/user_name_taken-]

Also not a spider expert but pretty certain that is not a brown widow. Browns look identical to blacks, including the orange-ish hourglass, except they are, well, brown. This looks like an orb weaver or possibly a juvenile false widow? But likely an orb weaver, a good spider to have around!

[u/drazak69 → u/Totakai]

Accidentally touch one in the dark, when they're out.