Brown recluse - blech!

[Brad Johnson]

For the first time in 14 years I've found a brown recluse at the house. And not just one - there were FOUR of the critters, including a large female. Great, they will probably be by just any time to start filming "Arachnaphobia, the Return".

Thankfully, it was in the garage. I guess it's no real surprise as they are indiginous to this area and I do live on the very outskirts of civilization. Just a pain that I gotta deal with them. I'm not even remotely arachnaphobic, but these little critters definitely get my respect (along with a swift shoe sole or flyswatter).

The pest control guys are coming over tomorrow to spray and dust. I didn't want to do the whole house fog/wrap because it's such a severe pain and I simply don't have the time. We're going to hit the house with preventives every few weeks for a couple of months to keep down the other critters that the recluses prey on.

Brad

[crt360]

I hate those things.  We have spiders out the ass, including the occasional brown recluse.  I got bit by one on the ankle (I think it was in my boot) and it made a nasty hole that took forever to heal.  A friend of mine got bit on his finger and even after it healed it looked like someone had carved a chunk out of the finger.  I've seen pictures of bites that made ours look fairly mild.  I don't kill every spider I see, but if it looks close enough to a brown recluse or black widow I'll hunt it down and squash it.

[Iain]

We got adders. Never seen one. England does have its advantages.

[Brad Johnson]

I can send you some free rattlesnakes. I'll even throw in a couple of stinging scorpions and maybe a bunch of mesquite thorns if you'd like.

Brad

[Stand_watie]

I've smashed quite a few that looked close enough that I didn't want to put my eye right down there next to it in the house. No confirmation on their fiddles from the resultant smush. Found a number of widows outside, none inside though.

Have never seen a rattler or a cottonmouth on my property, but have seen (and killed) a few copperheads. I had a cat killed by a copperhead/mesquite thorn combo infection (the mesquite thorn infection in it's paw migrated into the facial injury from the copperhead). Found a few of the garden variety scorpions in the mailbox and garden (harmless, but painful unless you're allergic, they say).

I'd take tenX the number of all of those in exchange for the fire ants.

How poisonous are adders, Ian?

[280plus]

An adder played a pivotal role in one Thomas Hardy novel I read. That's how deadly they are.

Anyhoo, what area are these with all the nasty critters?

[Iain]

Not as deadly as Thomas Hardy eh?

I kid. I'm sure adders are pretty nasty if you're a small rodent, even a dog, but I've never heard of anyone being killed by an adder. That's partly because they are pretty rare, I've wandered around areas of Devon where there are warning signs about them and not seen one, those areas are shrinking too.

The Snakebite Survivors Club - ignore the 'rambling' review, that was the point, this book isn't entirely about 'the deadliest snakes ever', mainly it is about people.

[280plus]

Really, if Hardy doesn't like your character, you're doomed man.



He causes death by adder but the person was older, alone and what ~1840s I think. They probably killed more back then. Helluva storyteller. Can't remember which book it was.

[grislyatoms]

I am in central New Mexico.

We get sun spiders / wind scorpions here during the spring. Harmless but they are very, very strange looking little critters. We also get vinegaroons.

Sun spider
http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/spiders/Solifugid.htm

Vinegaroon
http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/spiders/Mastigoproctus.htm

There are nastier critters around, but these are the ones I see most commonly.

[Brad Johnson]

Well, they came by and sprayed/dusted today. Flushed out three more recluses in the garage - two pretty small ones (appx 0.5" legspan) and one that the guy looked at and said, "Wow, that's the biggest recluse I've ever seen." Legspan was appx 1.5". He actually went to the trouble to live-catch it so he could take it back to his office and show it off.

Lovely... such a nice thing to be known for.

Hopefully any remaining critters will stay isolated to the garage. I'll probably go ahead and fog it in a week or two just to be safe.

Brad

[Stand_watie]

I'm in east Texas 280.

I couldn't find anything online describing the potential lethality of adder bite Ian, other than the much repeated caveat that 'no one in England has died from adder bite in more than 20 years', but I wonder if that is because of rareness of bites or innocuosness of venom? The mention caught my eye because of the historical thing about Cleopatra and the adder. I wonder if it's the same type of adder.

For all the fright stories you might have heard about American snakes I think they're rarely deadly, and those that are responsible for the most deaths are due to a larger pool of snakebites than a more lethal venom.  I found a good article about taking with a grain of salt "deadliness" claims written in 1910

http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/tech/medicine/ThePoisonBugaboo/Chap1.html

[lupinus]

I don't mind spiders in general, but for some reason latly they have been givin me the heebie jeebies

Now bees and wasps, them little suckers I hate with a pasion unmatchable...except maybe my hate of needles but then they are related so dont count

[InfidelSerf]

I've lived in KS and north western MO all my life.
We have lots of brown recluse.

I have seen hundreds of them and never been bitten.  Generally the main way people are bitten is when the spider is trapped against our skin.
They can't bite through clothing, but often hide in clothing and shoes.

I ran across this description of them.. a good resource with lots of pictures warning may give you heebie jeebies

I find these shedded skins all the time.