Arachnophobia

Our home happens to be a nursery for black widows. They got here before us so,
we have had a hard time convincing them that this is our house. While Joe and I were tearing off siding on our recent repair job we found this big mama. I had seen one living very near here last summer. I had attempted to kill it but it escaped under the siding. Joe killed this one shortly after I took the picture.

Later that night, almost dark really, Ruth and I were out cleaning up the broken pieces of old siding and trim. We were very near the spot where the large spider had been found earlier. Ruth started to pick up a board next to the house. I happened to be closer to the wood that she was picking up, saw some movement out of the corner of my I and said “Whoa!” Another huge black widow in virtually the same spot!
That was a week ago.
Today Ruth was headed out the door with the kids to go shopping. With two kids ahead, two behind and one in her arms, she steps out the door and with a scream of horror she comes face to face with this:
So you can gauge the size of this one the trim the spider is on is about 3" wide.

Ruth told the kids to stay where they were, not to touch the spider, then went to get the camera. This spider was dispatched with a flip-flop.

We often find juvenile black widows that have two gray stripes running from the front end of their abdomen up over their top and down to their spinnerets. They also have a gray hourglass on their underside, not red. I wish I had a picture for you.

I have gotten really cautious about moving stuff outside and going under the house. But you can usually tell when you are in their neighborhood. Their webs are extremely strong compared to other spiders, which can alert you before you run into one.