Just wondering if anyone has any experience with brown recluse spiders. I live in the way upper region of where it says they can be found, and yet we found one in our house tonight. Dh killed it, and I have been busy making an identification (yep, it's a brown recluse). Anyway, after praying over it I feel better, but just wondering if anyone has any experience with this--what do we do now? I figure many of you live in the middle of their range without giving it a second thought.
We have them here in GA. My MIL was bit by one her whole leg swelled up, turned black and blue, it was awful. We used to have our house professionally sprayed for bugs each month. The bug man told me the thing with spiders is bug spray takes longer to work on them. It has to soak through their skin to kill them (I think most bugs ingest it) so many make it through the line of bug spray into your house before they die. Hubby now sprays our house himself and I haven't seen any spiders inside. He uses this to spray. He sprays inside and out. (bug man only sprayed inside) Spiders (brown recluse and black widows esp) scare the crap outta me.
When I was alot younger out in the boonies I used to leave my tennie shoes outside on the porch during the summer. One day I put my foot in one of them and felt something moving around and took my foot out fast (didn't have my shoe on all the way yet thank goodness) and a huge brown spider popped out and crawled away. I looked it up and it was a brown recluse. I was TERRIFIED! Never have left shoes outside again, and to this day I ALWAYS tap out my shoes before I put them on. I suggest you do the same just for precautions, since you've seen one in your house. I Agree with ABall: Kill them and ask questions later!!!!
Dh punched it dead! :lol: It took me a good long while to ID it for sure. Had to break out a magnifying glass to see the six eyes. Nobody was bit, so we are good there. I was just wondering what the best method was to get rid of them. We have them in this area, but not in abundance, so I wasn't sure if spray worked better than traps. We are highly sensitive to pesticides so I was wondering if traps might work best for a minor problem. I'll look up the spray, too. Online resources suggested a powder???
That spray is one of the recommended ones on the sites I looked at. I'll have to pick some up and pray we don't have asthma attacks. I think I'd rather risk that than a bite cuz they scare the crap outta me, too! I spent a loooooong time in prayer this morning...God hasn't given us a spirit of fear.
We have brown recluses everywhere here.My dh has a coworker that was bit three times over the course of several yrs, had a bad reaction every time too.We put down sticky traps, its about the only thing that works for them.Thats what the exterminater at my dh's work uses as well. Not every bite has a severe reaction.Also this is wierd but IcyHot works for spider bites.It increases the blood flow to the site and heals it very quickly. I actually found a dead one in my bed last year and had a spider bite on my arm at the same time(never got that bad), dont know if it was a recluse bite or just a bad coincidence but it made me creeped out for days.
Oh my stars, I had to leave the site go look those babies up. I agree with Amy, kill them first then ask question. My oh my. I have never seen one of those babies and hope I never do. What part of the country do they live in? We spray every month down here, we have scorpions so bad down here. hate them too. So I spray alot. But, I do have to say one thing that spider is one ugly thing.
We get them lots around here too, but I've never had much problem with them. I did find one last year when I was going through a basket of clothes that I had put aside in the spring to be put away. Make sure you check your shoes, blankets, etc before you use them.
Oh, man. We are really bad here about hanging our clothes up. Dd's closet has clothes on the floor. Guess when I prayed for organization I didn't anticipate having this kind of a reason to pick up our junk! :lol: We found the spider crawling on top of our new used couch. Should I place glue traps under the couches? Where else?
We get them on occasion here. But not often. On the other hand, we are infested with a couple species of widows. It is my understanding that most brown recluse bites do not become necrotic. Still, I would be cautious because when they do, it is nasty. My friend had the top portion of her finger amputated due to a brown recluse bite.
I would definitely get those clothes up off the floor. Glue traps under the couch wouldn't be a bad idea and maybe under the beds as well. You said it was a used couch? Could it have possibly just hitched a ride on the couch when you got it. Maybe you don't have so much to worry about.
I'm thinking it might have hitched a ride and came out desparate for food??? At any rate, it is still being prayed over till my fear is gone! :lol: I'm getting glue traps ASAP...we live a bit removed from stores or I would have gone to Wal-Mart at midnight the evening we found it!
Now, during the winter, hubby doesn't spray inside the house, just outside, so if you are sensitive, you might try just spraying outside first and see how that works for you. Living on a mini farm and right next to 50 acres of woods, we have a lot of bugs, so summertime he does spray inside...
I copied this from an M.D. site, which says it is well documented. We know an older woman who was facing leg amputation due to BR spider bite, who saved her leg with this: Stan Abrams, M.D. The method of application of the mini stun gun for venomous bites is of the utmost importance especially for the brown recluse spider bite. The venom of the BRS has the nasty property of deep penetration and the ability to stay in the system for years, The electrode placement is important... ...The biological basis for the mechanism behind the shock is: The current will influence the hydrogen bonds of the enzymes, destroying their secondary and tertiary structure. The high voltage, low amperage current applied will reduce metal ions and zinc, copper, magnesium, iron, or calcium ions, which are firmly bound to some venom enzymes and are mandatory cofactors for these enzymes. The electric particles interfere with the membrane as well as the positive charged polypeptides, decreasing their cytotoxic properties. Taken together the protective high-voltage treatment for venomous bites is at least in part due to action of the electrical current on the venom itself. Surgery prior to this type of treatment is not the answer since the venom has not been neutralized and the wound will break down again within a few weeks or months. This is well documented.
A boy in our 4-H had a mom who was bitten by one. She had problems for over a year as a result! We are talking SERIOUS stuff here!!! As Amy said, kill first, ask questions later!
Well, I found out that it probably did come with the couch we recently got. It only spent a day or two at our friends' house where the spider likely came from. Our friends felt terrible since they knew they had some at their place and never thought about the couches being in their garage. They have been using glue traps and spray. Guess they are getting more and more common in my area. We are praying the spider we found was a lone ranger coming out of the couch because he was starving to death! :lol: God has been gracious to settle our fears, too. \o/ \o/ PTL!!!! \o/ \o/
Ok well we have them here. THey ARE VERY UNCOMMON INDOORS. However, there is a large completely normal, very creepy looking everyday garden spider that looks EXACTLY LIKE THEM. Found this out last summer when I flipped out-even took apic and compared the thing online -ended up taking captured said spider to a local pest conrol place and she told me that people bring them in all summer long because they thnk they have brown recluses in their houses. She told me unless you find it in a corner in your garage(um, or a couch in the garage!), or it drops from a tree (they like oak trees and higher, hotter areas and sometimes fall....generally they bite people who live in attic type spaces) that you really shouldn't worry. She also informed me that they are MUCH more timid than Black Widows-but the 2 share common areas (so to be more aware of the widows-cuz they'll just come out...ewwww...she was totally right). Anyway-she swaid really the only way to spray for them was with a professional sprayer - and that in general they do NOT recommend it. So you probably might want to vacuum the couch really well (just in case) and it should be fine. (Lots of info for that 1 sentence....hee hee sorry - I was just terrifified so I'm hoping this helps...)
I looked at this one under a magnifying glass. It had three sets of double eyes, which are, to my knowledge, what sets the brown recluse apart from the look-alikes. My friend had someone at her home get bitten in their strawberry patch and, because the person didn't want to get medical attention, ended up with a very bad infection and a long recovery. Still no other sign of anything. We put out glue traps and have barely even found a bug on them (we set out 8). Our house is brand new, albeit in the country. And we have an attack cat who specializes in extermination of anything bug-like. :lol: All in all, we're doing fine with it now....but I keep praying that there are NO MORE!!!
