I’m originally from Ohio and the black widow’s reputation made it seem pretty scary. After moving to the San Joaquin Valley they seemed pretty alarming the first couple of times. But as you said, you get accustomed to being around them. They are pretty timid which is why the biggest danger is bumping into one that is hiding. I bought a house while living there and was crawling around in the crawl space below the main floor. I noticed that the rat traps had black widows by each of them. I thought about spraying to kill them but then got thinking it might be the dumbest thing I ever did. There were no bugs in the rest of the crawl space and it seemed they might actually be my friend. True symbiosis. They never bothered me in the house and I left them be in the crawl space. They are kinda cool looking; very shiny black.
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I’ve never seen one, but know a guy who was bit by one. That is a scary spider. He was hospitalized for quite a long time.