The southern Okanagan region represents the northern most extension of the Sonoran Desert.  With just 13 inches (330 mm) of annual precipitation on average, and loads of sunshine, our desert environment provides excellent grape growing conditions.

The Black Widow spider is symbolic of desert regions, found in all 4 deserts of the SW USA.  They are quite abundant in the Okanagan, often found near our in-ground irrigation valves and occasionally in the winery.  While the venom is highly toxic, they are fortunately quite shy.  Caution is always recommended.

Easily identified, the females are shiny black and often found hanging upside down from their web, which is an irregular sticky mat of spider silk.  Their size is about 2 cm (1”) across.  The red hour glass is generally visible on the belly.

Black Widow spider photos courtesy of John Sleep.