Gardeners and custodians should be careful about where they put their hands when doing outdoor work, and wear gloves and a long-sleeved shirt when working around woodpiles and other items stored outdoors that are likely to harbor the spiders. Make sure students and staff can identify any dangerous spiders in your area and know their likely nesting and hiding places. Children should be taught not to tease spiders in their webs or poke at them, and to not put their hands in dark crevices without looking first. The dangers of spider bites should be explained without exaggeration to avoid unnecessary fears. Nesting and Hiding Places for Three Problem Spiders Black widows like dry, undisturbed places such as lumber and rock piles, stacked pots or baskets, rodent burrows, water meters, the underside of bricks and stones and dry crawl spaces.
Females stay in the web.
Outside, it can be found in foundation cracks, cracks in the soil, and window wells. Inside, this spider is likely to be found in basements and on ground floors between stored items, in window wells, in closets, and behind furniture. Outside, it can be found in areas similar to both the black widow and brown recluse. However, if this is considered unacceptable, the spider may be removed without harming it. This may be done by inverting a container of some sort over the spider, sliding a stiff piece of paper over the mouth of the container, and then releasing the spider outside.