I saw one before and the red hourglass on her underside was very obvious even though I never picked her up. She was trying to hide in the inside of a wheel of my nephew's toy truck which my 18 month old cousin wanted to play with. Because the truck was outside and covered with dirt and sand, I decided to clean it before letting the baby play with it and when I saw the black widow spider, I was very glad that I made that decision. Can you imagine what might have happened to the baby if she had been bitten by a black widow spider?
As a sort of obsessive spider aficionado, quite phobiaic of them, still (still!!), I can tell you that they move differently from many types of spiders and the sounds their legs make are quite different. They are NOT aggressive at all. They prefer to remain hidden. The shape of their cephalothorax is also unique, along with the layout of their eyes, as is with the shape of their abdomen. You would never mistake one for anything else, once you have seen one, well before you enjoy their red markings.
To be sincere, though, there are many more arachnids with far more lethal poisons afang than the lowly black widow.
She wasn't aggressive at all and she tried to hide in the wheel. I kind of felt mean when I shook her out and crushed her so aggressively into the ground that you couldn't even see that there had been a spider there, but my instinct to protect my little cousin was much stronger than my pity for the spider.
Of course, and, WELL done!
I can not even remember the number of the ones I have turned into drying paste.
I have no love for them, just an obsessive something.
An online friend of mine is very creeped out by spiders, especially by what he calls their
"frenetic micro-movements." I agree with him, the way they move is icky.
They all seem to have their own movements, though.
While too many legs is always going to be creepy, at least we can take solace in the fact that there are no flying spiders.
Have you ever studied trapdoor spiders, though. I have seen many hunting spiders - not just web spinners; I am talking about hunters - which ambush their prey by clamoring into the air and pulling them down, paralyzing them with their bite, but a trapdoor spider is the most aggressive I have ever seen. They set a trap and sit in wait, then when prey is near they have a "web/net" set in their "trapdoor" which they can quickly close around their prey. Very aggressive!
... and they are extremely creepy looking. Again, completely unique!
If you can not hear them, then maybe you should have your ears checked.