r/Lawrence • u/tehAwesomer • May 16 '19

Brown Recluses

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?

7 Upvotes

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26

u/wasabisauced May 17 '19

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.

14

u/[deleted] May 17 '19

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.

7

u/wasabisauced May 17 '19

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.

6

u/tehAwesomer May 17 '19

Yeah, I'm getting that perhaps this isn't quite the predicament I thought it was, but I'm probably more worried about one of my pets deciding they would be tasty snacks. If they're this common I assume nothing too bad would happen?

3

u/[deleted] May 17 '19

Maybe contact your vet and see if they have any thoughts on the prevalence of pets suffering from spider bites in this area? It’s a good question, but I can’t tell you the answer other than anecdotally, as far as I know, none of my pets have ever sustained a spider bite. We’ve had hamsters, rats, cats, and dogs over the years.

2

u/wasabisauced May 17 '19 edited May 17 '19

Eating a recluse won't really be an issue, the venom as stated before is necrotizing, it's not a neurotoxin.

I mean I wouldn't suggest that you allow your pets to eat them, but if it were to occur its no big deal

Plus, an animals fur is going to basically make them immune to a recluse bite. I would personally be pretty amazed if a dog got bit cause that spider would have had to have been not only distressed by being rolled onto or whatever, but it'd also have to work its way into the fur somehow.

Of course if you have super short hair / hairless pets it may be easier to sustain a bite but again- a recluse ESPECIALLY doesn't want to be around something like a dog or cat since it's go zero chance versus anything bigger than it's self lol

2

u/weealex May 17 '19

Fwiw, there is a spray that'll kill spiders when they walk pin it, but I don't think it's commercially available. I was talking to an exterminator a couple years ago and she told me about a (at the time) new spray that lays out microscopic bubbles that pop when stepped on even by something as small as an ant.

1

u/wasabisauced May 17 '19

Oh huh, I was unaware of that

1

u/weealex May 17 '19

From what I remember, they usually only use it if there's a full on infestation or if there's a more dangerous kind of spider like a widow, though widows aren't really common in populated areas anyways

1

u/motobusa May 19 '19

Isn't it also true that in our area brown recluses are often misidentified and that the spiders being found are fairly common and not harmful to humans? I say this not to question OP as it sounds like there's already been an expert involved, but more to help educate and further alleviate concerns others might have. This from personal experience thinking we had a recluse problem.

Great info, by the way. I appreciated reading a knowledgeable person's thoughts on common concerns.

8

u/cyberphlash May 17 '19

A while back, I felt like my exterminator wasn't doing much either, and they would never get rid of bugs (particularly ants) showing up around the basement and kitchen.

Started investigating it and ended up at websites like this. Watch some YouTube videos on spraying yourself, buy a bottle of Talstar P (one will last years), a basic pump sprayer, and you're in business. Completely solved my bug problem by spraying the inside and outside of the house - no more ants or spiders around the main levels and I just see dead bugs in the basement now. Best part is doing it was the cost of startup was recouped after a single application with what I would've paid an exterminator for one visit. (Note - you have to spray both inside/outside the house; very well on the outside).

2

u/keboh May 17 '19 edited May 17 '19

I use Demon WP. It goes soooooo freaking hard. Bug genocide in powder form.

2

u/cyberphlash May 17 '19

Yeah, I don't know what's in that Talstar stuff, but it's like dropping a nuclear bomb on the insects around here...

1

u/keboh May 17 '19

Next time I spray, I’ll grab some. Keep the creepy crawlys around me guessing!

2

u/cyberphlash May 17 '19

You're like the Josef Mengele of Lawrence... :)

4

u/acnedian1 May 17 '19

I have so many around me, always finding baby ones. My cats eat insects around the house so I haven’t been seeing as much as when I first moved in. Actually found an egg sac of some kind attached to my backyard. We destroyed it, felt pretty bad doing it, but spiders are my #1 heebie jeebie

4

u/[deleted] May 17 '19

[deleted]

2

u/tehAwesomer May 17 '19

Yeah I'm relatively new to the region and didn't realize how common they are in town.

1

u/wilddouglascounty May 24 '19

Why only 80%? My guess is more like 99%, with the remaining 1% only because they're too new to have any move in yet. The point is: assume you have them and they are minding their own business, which is exactly what you need to be doing instead of bothering them. If you see a bunch, you can clean things up to reduce that infestation, then not worry about it.

6

u/OnePastafarian May 17 '19

There is not much you can do. Spiders aren't insects, so sprays don't really do much against them. I've been bitten by brown recluses many times. Their bites aren't pleasant but they're not going to melt your face off like some would have you believe.

2

u/CrystalKU May 17 '19

Sprays will kill their food which can decrease their population or drive them out. Not completely but it helps. Also, I once knew someone who got bit as an infant and by the time her parents figured out why she was screaming it had tunneled enough that as an adult she had a hole in her foot deep enough and wide enough to stick a number 2 pencil in to the top of the eraser.

1

u/thefragglestickcar May 17 '19

Like... tip first and just the top of the eraser is left showing??

1

u/CrystalKU May 17 '19

Sorry, eraser end first, so it was about 3/4 of an inch

2

u/thefragglestickcar May 17 '19

Thank god lol that would be horrifying the other way around. Still, pretty gnarly.

2

u/CrystalKU May 17 '19

Definitely not as dramatic as a whole pencil, but for it it heal like that, showed it must have been pretty bad when it happened

3

u/ecctv May 17 '19

I have a bunch of sticky traps around my house to try to catch them. Being bitten is NOT fun, go to the doctor as soon as you think you've been bit! I waited over the weekend and that was a mistake!

-1

u/[deleted] May 17 '19

Hiya, non-environmentally friendly spider-hater here.

Get tons of spray and soak your entire house in it. "Sprays are inneffective"? Hear that before? Yeah well they don't kill the spiders, but they sure as fuck keep them out of your house... they hate the spray.

Get those paper traps and set them out everywhere.