Do black widows have a smell

there's been a really strange smell in my back yard the last few days. it smells pretty bad, but not its definitely not a chemical, decomp, or fecal type smell.

i just finally figured out the source to be under the stairs out there, and i looked under there and the only thing out of the ordinary was the massive amount of spider webs with very large female black widows in them.

do black widows have a smell when the population is large? or is this most likely not it?

I've never smelled black widows when I've had them in garages in houses I've lived in, but I've never had a huge population of them, either. If the odor just became noticeable recently, I'd suspect something else, since the spiders must have been in that location for awhile. I'm wondering if some smelly insects like stink bugs, ladybird beetles, etc. have found their way into your house in a protected spot you just haven't uncovered yet.

At any rate, good for you for realizing BWs just aren't as deadly as people make them out to be.

Maybe what they kill smells

no one knows because any who got that close died