Spiders, spiders everywhere

One thing that I was warned about when I arrived in NC was that there are 2 spiders that you need to stay away from, the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse. I was told by several people that they have never really seen either around here. I have seen plenty of spiders and some that I had never even seen in books. However, recently I found what I thought was a black widow. Today, I spotted another black widow while I was watering my roses. This time I was positive of what I saw. I always knew what the body shape was like for the Black Widow but Thought that it would be harder to spot the red hourglass on the underside, but it was very easy to spot and was a really bright red color. I called my sons over and showed them (Every spider that they had seen they called either a Black Widow or a Brown Recluse.) We watched it crawl on the rocks and then I sprayed it with pesticide. It crawled into a hole and disappeared. We saw another spider that was smaller and had the same shape but had orange colored circles on the side of the abdomen. After reading more about the Black Widow, I think I saw the male Black Widow. I don't have a fear of spiders and will generally leave them alone outside, but I could not allow this type of spider to be that close to my house and where the kids would be.

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