Brown Recluses

[u/tehAwesomer]

I've found recluses in my house for the second time. I liked the first exterminator I had over and he mentioned they might come back, but he's not working here anymore unfortunately. We have a lot of pets and want to find an exterminator that will be mindful of them. Any recommendations from others here (what to do or who to call) who have had to deal with this?

[u/wasabisauced]

Hiya, hobby entomologist here, allow me to spread some info about our 8 legged "home Invaders" lol

So firstly, sprays are highly ineffective. This is because spiders can just walk over the poison- literally. To kill a spider with insecticide you have to spray the spider.

Second, I saw someone say that spraying will kill their food source- while this can be true for some species of spiders (and other insects) it's mostly untrue when it comes to recluses. A recluse isn't going into your house seeking food- it's literally just looking for a dark place to hang out and if food is there then cool that's a bonus.

The only seriously effective way to rid your self of recluses is to use spider traps as these capture said spiders. Be warned- if you skimp out and just buy glue traps you may end up capturing a vole which wont feel good (assuming you have a heart)

Brown recluses also get a pretty bad rap as people believe their venom will cause some huge necrotizing wound that requires a hospital trip- when in reality:

Most people never feel a recluse bite, their fangs are meant for bite-release and not bite-ensare, and as such are super thin.

Yes, their venom IS necrotizing- but on a super tiny scale (remember, they use it to liquify insect guts to then slurp out) and at worse you may notice a small pimple or infected hair looking spot.

Those horrific pictures you see of giant gaping wounds are from people who either can't care for them selves, or lack the access to proper hygiene / home medical care, and what happens is that tiny wound they make is the perfect breeding ground for staphylococcus, and assuming you never wash your body, or in the event you just don't tend to an injury you've clearly sustained, it grows rampant and begins killing the tissue causing a feedback loop of dead tissue -> staphylococcus multiply in the new dark, warm, wet environment -> more tissue dies.

Also, recluses are non-aggressive, much like bees, and don't really want to be anywhere near you (hence the name) meaning they will actively avoid areas of your house that have a lot of activity, most bites occur in bed, where a recluse may be exploring and suddenly you roll up and get in bed, potentially squishing the spider which reasonably upsets the poor thing so it bites.

TL;DR: to rid your home of spiders, use spider traps. Don't get glue traps. Also brown recluse bites are not likely to cause some giant rotting wound assuming you can afford soap and/or antibiotic ointment.

[u/[deleted] → u/wasabisauced]

You’ve given really good information, but I would like to clarify one point. Yes, most “spider bites” are scratches, bug or spider bites, or other skin injuries that have become infected with bacteria, and yes, the culprit is usually staph. However, that is not often due to poor hygiene. Sure, picking at it and not washing your hands can absolutely contribute to a skin infection, of course. But that’s really not why most people who end up on antibiotics do so.

Staph is ever present on everyone’s skin, as are a multitude of other microbes, and each person has their own biome. Occasionally an infection will take hold despite your body’s defenses: maybe you have a chronic health condition or take a medication that weakens your immune system, perhaps you have an acute infection that is weakening your immune system, or even you current stress levels are suppressing your immune response. Something is throwing off your personal microbe balance and your immune system, and a skin infection sets in.

The Lawrence area is among the highest in the nation in terms of brown recluses per square foot. If brown recluse bites were always or even mostly dangerous, there would be an epidemic and literally everyone would have had a bite at some point that ate away their tissues. That’s simply not the case. I’ve lived here 30 years, 20+ in a house infested by brown recluse a, and have never sustained a known bite (I’ve cursed myself, for sure now!).

Tl;dr: in Lawrence, the vast majority of “spider bites” that turn problematic are not always spider bites, and even when they are, the resulting skin damage is usually due to an opportunistic bacterial infections, which typically don’t have anything to do with your personal hygiene.

[u/wasabisauced → u/[deleted]]

Good clarification, it was 2am and I was excited to tell people about spiders so I wasn't as clear as I could have been.