DENVER — Exterminators and spider scientists report hearing about more black widow spiders in the Denver metro area this year than in years past.
"It’s been a really good year, for whatever reason, for black widow populations," Paula Cushing said.
Cushing is the curator of invertebrate zoology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and has a collection of dozens of the spiders.
"Don’t be worried about them. We all have them in our yards here in Colorado. We probably all have them in our garages," she said. "Even if you do encounter one, if you brush by one of the webs, the spider is going to run away from you."
But that's little comfort to homeowners like Alison Toppen, who found a black widow on her porch last week.
"I thought finding one, not a big deal," she said. "But then I found that a lot of people in the neighborhood are finding a lot of black widows."
One neighbor found a half dozen spiders on her back porch.
"I really don't care for them," Toppen said.
So she called an exterminator -- who had trouble fitting her in.
"We're really, really, really busy, scheduled about every half hour," exterminator Josh Hutchinson said. "Black widows have been kind of heightening up in the last two years."
The exterminator isn't necessary, Cushing said. When the spiders bite, which isn't often, their bite is rarely deadly, she said.
"It’s not going to kill you, but you might wish you were dead. Because apparently the pain can be excruciating," she said.
There is anti-venom available at doctors' offices, she said.
"If you find them in the home, get rid of them, put them outside or kill them," Cushing said.
But if they're in the yard or garage, she said it's fine to leave the spiders be.
"A lot of time they can be dry bites because a spider doesn’t want to waste metabolically expensive venom on something that is not prey," she said.
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