At my old place in Eugene, we had hobo spiders up the a#@! On slow evenings, we would walk around the outside of the house and torch them. They were also handy to catch and scare drunk college bimbos with. Several of my girlfriends were so scared of these spiders that they would stay in my room at all costs (which made things easier for me).
As far as the black widows go, my parents brought up several on some garage items when we moved from california. The movers were so scared that they refused to touch the furniture until my mom killed them all. San Diego was full of them!