A Texas Woman’s Terrifying Encounter with a Deadly Creature

While living in Lubbock is a relatively mild lifestyle with few major threats, there are still some hazards that you have to keep an eye out for.

A couple of the most common dangers Lubbock locals are familiar with are tornados, and our crazy drivers. Although it’s more common to be on tornado watch than actually have one touch down, it’s still something to be conscious of. Honestly, the drivers are probably the most dangerous. I swear, the number of times I see people nearly run off the road by idiots merging without checking their blind spots is astronomical.

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Another common threat in Lubbock that tends to slide under the radar is the highly venomous spiders that live here. Especially during this time of year when the cold is gone and all the bugs are active again, spiders come out and make themselves at home wherever they feel like they can catch said bugs.

You will often find them in your yard, hiding in shaded areas to avoid the hot Texas sun. While there are some spiders that are find to have around, and they actually help get rid of unwanted bugs, there are a couple that you really don’t want on your property.

Two of the most dangerous spiders you’ll come across in Lubbock are the Brown Recluse and Black Widow.

This weekend, I had my own encounter with one of the biggest black widows I've ever seen. It was hiding between a planter and the side of my house, so when I pulled the planter away from the wall, I was met with a big surprise.

I quickly grabbed some pest spray and gave it a good douse before it could get away. It curled up a bit, obviously unhappy about the spray, but it wasn’t quite dead yet. So, my partner grabbed our weed-killer that is basically just super concentrated vinegar, and gave it a good spray with that.

Fortunately, that did the trick, and it was definitely dead. My partner then cleaned up the web and threw away the spider’s crumbled-up body in the dumpster. Thankfully we found it before it had a chance to potentially bite one of us or our dog, but we will absolutely be more mindful of this in the future.