Two common California spiders are the black widow and the long-legged cellar spider, sometimes mistaken as “daddy long-legs.” The black widow’s bite can be painful and deadly. The cellar spider just builds messy webs. Both (eight-legged arthropods) spiders like to live in garages, eaves, attics, barns, and many other protected places where they can easily catch and eat other insect pests. Brown recluse spiders, as their name implies, are reclusive. These nocturnal spiders emerge from their retreats at night and actively hunt down prey, or may wait for prey to land in the small area several inches from their retreat. Although they do not build webs to capture prey, they do use silk to build a retreat in which they hide during the day. As dawn approaches, they may seek shelter in dark places such as in clothing or shoes. In nature, recluses are found in cracks and crevices in and under rocks. Brown recluses are readily found under trash cans, plywood, tarps, or rubber tires and in boxes.