There's Brown Recluse in my house!

maestrowork

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I just called the pest control but I'm not sure what they can do...

I found an irregular web on my couch yesterday, and a small brown spider . My cat ate the web, but the spider went and hid. I didn't think much of it, but then I went online and realized it looked like a brown recluse.

I have pets in the house so spraying is probably out of the question. I'm not sure what else I can do -- I guess I'll wait for the pest control people first.

Meanwhile, I'm wearing shoes, long sleeves, and gloves...

(I'm a city boy, but I never encountered a poisonous spider before)
 
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maestrowork

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If I could find it again. It had disappeared into hiding.

I'm going to do a search and destroy later this afternoon. I'm usually not mean to spiders but in this case, I'll make an exception.

I'm just worried if I couldn't find it...
 

WendyNYC

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Do you have any of those sticky traps? Put them around where you found the web.
 

cray

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Brown Recluses are mean little m.f.'ers. Kill him twice.


and they can detect even a hint of fear or tension.
relax.
take a nap on the couch -- it'll totally throw his spidy sense off and then when he comes out....blllaammmooo.
 

sunna

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Retreat! Retreat!


I had one in my apartment a few months ago: they swarm into the state every damn summer, carried up by people who live in warmer climates. Not fair!


Little sucker crawled over my arm, juuuuust as I was falling asleep.


Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep that night. But my apartment was spotless for the next month.
 

Haggis

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If you can catch it alive, sneak it into Rllgthunder's house. He's an enty antymol enthomol He likes bugs.
 

Red-Green

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If you don't see me later... that means I'm probably dead.

Don't worry. Ms. Recluse won't kill you; she'll just make a chunk of your flesh rot off. Bitter and paranoid party of one here--I had to have a chunk of my calf cut out because of a brown recluse bite. I recommend nuking anything you suspect could be a recluse.
 
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Times like this I'm glad I live in Scotland. The scariest beast we have here is a rabid Haggis.

Oh. Wait...
 

davids

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I have something even worse in my house-a white recluse!!!!! Like somebody was not waiting for that?
 

joyce

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I know several people who were bitten by one and each suffered horribly. I think the brown recluse has an upside down violin on the top of its body. I'm not sure you want to get that close though. Good luck and I would not be sitting on the couch anymore. Here in Florida we have all sorts of creepy bugs, though I hear Texas cockroaches make ours look like babies.
 

PattiTheWicked

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I think the best solution would be this one:

Sign_SaveOnMLS_400Pixelswid.gif
 

limitedtimeauthor

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If you get a bite, it isn't like you are going to die instantly. Just go to the doctor to get antibiotics or whatever.

The sticky traps work pretty well, placed under beds, couches that kind of thing. They are reclusive - i.e. they like to hide - so that's where you put the traps.

I'm a big fan of spraying poisonous gasses all around the house. Just take the kids and the pets out for ice cream for a while. ;)

But don't be terrified. They are poisonous, yes, but ETA...I went an looked this up on WebMD (still not a doctor, of course:D) ... death is not a common outcome. They also said on WebMD that there are about 13 varieties that are a relative to the brown recluse and look similar, but are not poisonous. So take a deep breath. You're probably okay. (Yeah, and then go get those chemicals. :D)

ltd.
 
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Ava Jarvis

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Brown recluse bites cause necrosis. That means you permanently lose a chunk of flesh. It ain't no "it gets puffy" poison.

Vacuum cleaner, one of those with a long nose and a bag inside. It's a fairly reliable spider killer; if you're still paranoid, stick the nose into a box of Borax and hoof it up (Borax is a desiccant and spiders of all sorts hate that). Depending on the vacuum cleaner, you can also vacuum in a couple of mothballs to poison the damn thing.

Spiders can survive for many weeks without food.

Kill the damn thing.
 

Ava Jarvis

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I thought brown recluses were only native to Australia.

You may be thinking of a tunnel web spider, which are even worse than many, many, many things.

Brown recluses are definitely a North America spider at least. When I lived in the Midwest, you had both brown recluses and black widows.
 

Devil Ledbetter

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It may not have been a Brown Recluse. It may have been a Wolf Spider. They come inside in the fall when nighttime temps drop. Here's a handy spider ID chart.

Just kill it.
 

joyce

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But don't be terrified. They are poisonous, yes, but as far as I know (disclaimer: not a doctor!), you will sort of get the idea you may have a brown recluse bite when it just gets bigger instead of healing up and going away. I'm not sure why the poster above had to have a chunk of leg removed...maybe the bite went unnoticed for a while?

ltd.

I worked for a couple and the husband got bit by one. Within the first hour the guy passed out and had to be taken to the hospital where they realized he'd been bitten by one. He was receiving medical attention almost immediately. For the next year he was contending with the effects of the bite. He had to be placed in oxygen chambers twice a week, his leg almost rotted off and he almost died from the bite. The other person I worked with and it took the poor guy almost two years to get over the bite. His leg almost rotted off. Both people received medical attention pretty quickly. Now I don't know if they were prone to being sickly, and if a perfectly healthy person received the bite it would be no big deal. I just know these two people seemed healthy but their lives were turned to hell after being bitten.
 

Ava Jarvis

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It may not have been a Brown Recluse. It may have been a Wolf Spider.

Wolf spiders don't usually spin webs though. I think they're a traveling spider.

I know black widows spin irregular webs, a sign of daaanger. I don't know about brown recluses and their webs.