Black house spiders are so named because of their habit of building untidy looking webs at the corners of windows, doors and crevices. This spider produces venom that may cause local pain, nausea, vomiting and sweating. It has also been associated with at least one case of skin blistering and inflammation. Bites are not frequently reported, possibly due to the relatively nondescript all black appearance of this spider (as compared with the redback spider or the white-tailed spider, for example).