That's funny Pelargonium! :) Icadena, After looking at your pic again it looks like the "mix" is a few inches lower from the rim and the spaces down in there are VERY inviting to widows because they need nooks and crannies to hide in. Can't help wondering if raising the level of the "mix" closer to the rim(and thus making the "shelter" less secure),wouldn't make it less appealing to future tenants. Worth a shot,no? Edit: When/If you do this,First take a hair from your head and set one end into the web,then twirl it between your fingers to simulate prey. Once you know where she is,you'll be less likely to put your hand in her way,thus avoiding potential accidents. Good luck! :) This post was edited by asleep_in_the_garden on Fri, Aug 16, 13 at 19:21

I didn't know much at all about Brown Recluse spiders until I read a thread here on this forum last summer. In June we started seeing a whole lot of spiders inside our house, and because of that GW thread, I started looking at the spiders I killed with a magnifying glass. I was horrified to find they were Brown Recluse spiders. We finally hired a pest control company because I was literally obsessing about the spiders, dreaming about them, scared to put my hand anyplace I couldn't see into, really scared to death. And that was very unusual for me, as I've always "lived" outside and had more than my share of spiders crawl across me, and they'd never fazed me before. But the Brown Recluse are a whole 'nother ball game... I've too found that the best thing for killing them are glue boards. We have glue boards hidden behind all our furniture and along the baseboards, trying to catch as many BR spiders as possible. We've never had a problem with any other bug in our house except brown recluse spiders. :( I don't know why we have so many here. The county extension agent told me he thought it was because we have so many thousands of acres of agricultural crops grown in this area. And also maybe because our house is log and cedar. But we also have them in our shop, and it's a steel building. So who knows?? Y'all are scaring me about the black widows hiding on the tomato plants. At least I will now be aware they might hide amongst the tomatoes, and pay attention. Once as I was feeding my horses, I glanced in my colt's feed bucket before I poured in his oats. To my horror, there was a black widow spider sitting on a tumble weed inside the bucket. I tried to shake it out to kill it, but it hung on tightly with me bouncing the bucket off the ground many times. So I took the bucket up to the house for DH to kill the spider for me, as I was totally creeped out. Lo and behold, when he bounced the bucket on the concrete driveway, a second black widow came from underneath the lip of the bucket. That nearly scared me to death! Two black widows on one bucket at the same time! I felt so lucky it hadn't bitten me as I bounced that bucket on the ground over and over, trying to knock the first spider loose. Or bitten my horse if I hadn't looked in the bucket before pouring his feed inside. I have to say, if I didn't love my new home so much I think I would pack my bags and move back to Murray county! These poisonous spiders scare me so bad it's unreal. I know I sound like a big sissy but they're probably about the only things in life that does scare me.

Black Widows can be lethal. When the kids unearthed a nest last summer priorities, organic and otherwise, became clear: RAID.

They are not a spider to seek the indoors, but finding them inside would not be totally out of the ordinary. It's time to do a bit of 'spring cleaning', just to make sure that you don't have a little population of them. I'd turn the furniture upside down to vaccum underneath real well; slide the 'fridge out to clean under it, move and clean ANY stash of firewood, magazines, etc. The same kind of housekeeping should continue outside, too, as well as the garage and basement, if you have one. We have had to go through all of the outside cleaning around our home, since we've been bombarded with these spiders. Haven't found one inside YET. ;-)