I lived amongst a tremendous population of black widows for a few years. First, the web is characterized by a "chaotic" pattern, odd zigs and zags that look disorganized. I have never seen one similar to the picture posted above. Often you don't see much of a web because it is tucked away into a crevace. I have seen them mostly up high or in dark corners, under box flaps that haven't been moved in a long time, and twice on gate/ door latches (that oddly were very often used and yet the spider didn't seem to mind). Most black widows will not bite, in my experience, though obviously they can and they do much damage. One gate latch experience involved a garden gate accessed multiple times a day. (These stories make us seem like weirdos for living so closely with the spiders, but this was a very buggy place and spiders are good bug control!) My daughter had tied a piece of cloth on the gate that had to be pushed out of the way to unlatch the gate. We had noticed a spider but didn't pay it much attention because it ran into a crevace when we moved the cloth. We eventually realized it was a black widow and killed it. Another similar story was a storm door. That spider definitely touched my hand more than once when I would forget about it. Again, eventually realized what it was and killed it. Another time, we were moving heavy boxes and when my husband set his down, he realized he had carried this box with his hand a couple inches from the black widow. We literally saw hundreds of black widows, a couple dozen living on our seldom used front porch, and never were bitten. This is not at all to diminish the experience of the posters who were bitten! I would love to hear an update on that, as well as details on how they were bitten! But my point is that they aren't generally terrifying creatures. Wear gloves when handling areas that aren't accessed often (garages, attics) and don't be a moron like we were and let spiders live in places you do touch often. If you live in a place prone to them, I wouldn't have pillows on your porch furniture. Knock out your shoes before you put them on. They aren't likely to seek you out.
