They can be very common at some locations and times. During the course of a summer a female may lay several egg sacs. Each egg sacs contain from 25 to 400 or more eggs. Egg sacs are suspended in the web where the female stands guard nearby. Newly emerged spiderlings are not cannibalistic until 10 to 14 days after emergence, whereupon they may suddenly become highly cannibalistic.
Males generally require fewer molts to mature than females.
Widow spiders feed on a wide variety of arthropods. Red imported fire ants have been reported as their main food in cotton fields of East Texas. Boll weevils, grasshoppers, June beetles, and scorpions are also known prey. They are found in houses, outhouses, cotton fields, trash and dumps. Webs are commonly found in spaces under stones or logs, or holes in dirt embankments, and in barns, rural privies, and other outbuildings.