But there is something worse than having a poisonous spider in your home This is what makes the brown recluse a significant problem. It isn't just that they have venom with necrotic properties or that they enter homes, it's that it is not uncommon for a home to have several dozen brown recluse spiders.
What brings these spiders into a home in the first place? Are some homes more prone to having a brown recluse infestation? Let's take a look. There are two primary reasons any bug or wild animal will enter a man-made structure: harborage and sustenance. The brown recluse spider is no different. And the easier it is for them to get in, the higher the probability that they will.
So, while a home with holes, cracks, and gaps isn't necessarily "more attractive" to a brown recluse, it is more susceptible to invasion. There are two ways a home can be attractive to a brown recluse. If the exterior of a home has weeds and overgrowth, a woodpile, construction materials, rocks, or other hiding places, the brown recluse will feel welcome.
Inside a home, they can be found hiding in closets, attics, basements, and crawl spaces. They prefer still, dark, secluded areas to hide in, and feel most comfortable if there is a lot of clutter. A small blister usually appears and the surrounding bite area becomes swollen.
Symptoms include restlessness, fever and difficulty sleeping. An antivenom has been developed but it is not clinically available. Call a physician or go to an emergency room immediately if bitten, and take the spider along for identification purposes.
It should be noted that not all brown recluse bites result in ulcer formation, and that bites of other arthropods may cause similar reactions in people. Female brown recluse spiders deposit eggs in a silken egg sac, which is off-white, with the outer covering loosely woven. Each sac contains between eggs. The eggs hatch in days and the spiderlings undergo at least one molt within the sac before emerging. The development period egg to adult averages days.
Indoors, male brown recluse spiders live an average of days, and females live days, but years is not uncommon. The female spins an irregular web in undisturbed areas, like the garage, attic and basement. The web is not used to catch prey, but rather as a retreat. Outside, brown recluse spiders are typically found around rocks, piles of inner tubes, utility boxes, woodpiles, under bark, etc.
These spiders have been found in such places as cedar shake roofs. Inside the home, brown recluse spiders can be found in almost any undisturbed area. They are most commonly found in boxes, among papers, and in seldom-used clothing and shoes, although they can be found in corners, underneath tables and chairs, or in crevices such as those found along baseboards, doors, and window moldings.
Storage areas such as closets, bedrooms, attics, crawl spaces, and basements are the preferred nesting areas of brown recluse spiders. In commercial buildings, brown recluse spiders may be found in heat tunnels, boiler rooms, attics, basements, storerooms, and garages.
With respect to food, brown recluse spiders prefer live small prey, such as cockroaches and crickets. These volcano lesions can leave open wounds the size of a human hand, and take months for the damaged, gangrenous tissue to slough away. In these cases, opioids, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics and skin grafts are necessary, and deep scaring may result.
Immediately after a bite, clean the area with soap and water, apply ice to decrease pain and swelling, take acetaminophen for the pain and elevate the area above the heart to prevent the spread of the venom. There is no commercially effective antivenin, so if you suspect that you have been bitten by a brown recluse, go to the emergency room immediately and bring the spider for identification purposes.
Brown Recluse spiders are not aggressive and they only bite if they feel threatened. This may occur when a person puts on an item of clothing infested with a spider or rolls onto a spider in their sleep. Their penchant for building webs in boxes and old furniture can also result in contact bites. Most bites occur during the summer when humans encounter these spiders in attics, barns, basements, closets and woodpiles.
When threatened, brown recluses typically play dead or flee to avoid conflict. This spider typically bites when pressed against the skin, such as when it becomes tangled in clothes, towels, bedding and work gloves. Many people are bitten after putting on clothes they had not worn in a while or they had left on the floor. To avoid brown recluse spiders, keep clothes off the floor, store clothing and shoes inside plastic containers, and shake out items before wearing or washing.
Move your bed away from the wall and remove any skirts and items stored below to prevent a spider from crawling onto the bed. Items worn or used occasionally should be stored in plastic bins and bags, especially if they are found in garages or other dark storage areas. To remove outside threats, reduce trash and brush piles, woodpiles, boxes, plywood, tires and trash cans, especially if they are next to your home. Seal cracks around doors and holes around electrical wires and plumbing.
Using pesticides to control spiders is often ineffective because they can use their long legs to walk over the chemicals. Sticky spider traps and fumigation have proven to be more effective.
Are suspicious brown spiders haunting your home? We carefully conduct a home pest inspection of your property looking for potential entry points and signs of pest activity that are often difficult to detect. This comprehensive pest and termite inspection is the only way to determine the real root of a pest problem, as well as the best way to solve it.
A medical professional should be consulted if there are medical concerns. Although urban myth purports that they are found throughout the U. Brown recluse spiders are endemic only to the American South and Midwest. Relocation of the brown recluse can occur in boxes or items moved from its native range. These usually are isolated events and do not result in an entire area becoming infested.
Many conditions are mistakenly diagnosed as brown recluse spider bites, including Lyme disease, diabetic ulcers, reactions to medication and bacterial infections. Due to misinformation and fright, many people identify harmless spiders as brown recluses. They are also referred to as fiddleback spiders due to a distinctive marking on the thorax, which resembles a violin. Brown recluses have uniformly colored legs and abdomens; so any spider exhibiting distinct color variations and patterning on the legs or abdomen is not a brown recluse.
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