Bug Facts

Are brown widow spiders more poisonous than black widow spiders?

The answer is the brown widow spider has recently overtaken the urban southern California from Los Angeles to the Mexican border. They are one of the most common spiders around urban homes and are very abundant. They are actually less toxic than the native western black widow spider. However, immature black widows have a similar striped pattern before they turn completely black so one must be careful to differentiate bites by immature black widows which will probably generate stronger symptoms than a brown widow bite, but by misidentification, brown widows will get the blame.