Foo - Brown Recluse infestation :(

My wife and I have been fighting this recluse problem since we moved into our new place. It's getting kind of crazy around here. All the rental office did was give us some glue traps, so we set them around all over the place to find the "hot spots". One of the more active areas is in our office. The recluses seem to like to go into the closet, as we strung three traps together and put them in the doorway to the closet. The spiders we catch all seem to be going into, not out of the closet.

Anyhow, other traps around the apartment have caught some as well. With the exception of one jumping spider, all the spiders we've caught in our apartment are brown recluses. These are not the usual non-poisonous brown spiders and small wolf spiders we had at our other place. They're textbook brown recluses complete with six eyes and the correct fiddleback pattern. You can compare the first picture with the Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Recluse)picture if you want.

Our most recent catch. This one was still alive in the picture. I froze it with air duster :lol:
http://www.focushacks.com/photo/brecluse1.jpg

Another big'n from more than a week ago, complete with some baby recluses of which we've caught dozens.
http://www.focushacks.com/photo/brecluse2.jpg

There's at least 15 recluses on this trap, and we've captured at least a dozen more combined on the others.

Any ideas for how to actually control this mess rather than just trap the few who happen upon the stupid glue sheets?

I think I would move out. Those things are bad news.

There's a pretty good chance that if we moved, we'd end up taking some of them with us. I would kind of like a more permanent solution. We didn't bring them here, as we had not many spiders at our last place, but the ones we did have were not recluses.

exterminator

A- I hope you have anti venom handy. As you no doubt are aware, those ****ers can leave a helluva mark if the bites aren't treated very rapidly.

B- A family friend was in an army base in Texas which had a black widow problem. They killed a lot of them with zippo's and WD40. A more sane strategy would be closing all possible entry points, and fumigating the house.

I am fully aware of what a brown recluse bite can turn into, which is why I'm asking for advice. Spiders don't really faze me, but these are, indeed poisonous. I guess I'll have my rental office get an actual pro exterminator in here. If they won't call one in, I'll just call Orkin and bill the property management company.

Recluse spiders hatch out in August so the high number of spiderlings is pretty logical... we now have them on Vancouver Island (a place I visit but don't live) where they have become permanent residents.

If the glue traps aren't doing an effective enough job I would talk to a professional exterminator about removing them.

I hate to see any animal destroyed but Recluse spiders can have a nasty bite that can cause severe complications for many people.

It could be worse... you could have a Funnel Web or Brazilian Wandering spider infestation, both which are far more dangerous since both have potent venom and are not so reclusive.

You'll need to have the house tent fumigated. Ask the manager to have it done, stat, if they refuse call the County health department to get an order for them to do it.

These tents kill every living thing under the tent, you'll sleep better after this treatment.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d126/telehammer/tenting_1.jpg

My dad's friend was deer hunting and got bit by one. It took him many hours to get to a hospital, and when he got there he stayed 4 days. Scary ****. That can be prevented by having anti venom at the ready. So my advice is that you do that in addition to whatever arachnid murdering scheme you come up with.

It's an apartment, so tent fumigation might kill all my neighbors. That sounds AWESOME! I'll be doing this tomorrow. :lol:

Nuke them from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

^^Best Sci Fi movie EVER!!!!!!!!!

I'm quite familiar with closing off air passages from doing asbestos removal. It won't be hard to fumigate just your apartment with the proper equipment.

I am not a spider expert and I did not stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night but I once talked to a person who owned an extermination company in Indiana. The owner of this company had a dead spider in a jar on his desk. That was the only brown recluse he had ever seen after 30 years in the business. At least here they are very rare and avoid people.

Until I moved in here, I'd only seen 2 in real life.

You know, if those really are brown recluse you probably ougt to get the heck outta there.

I'd tell the landlord the place is unlivable, move to a hotel on his or her dime, as brown recluse bites are bad news, and can go up to ten inches in diameter.

The law is on your side; the place you are staying in cannot be considered habitable, and the landlord either better end the lease, or move you and your household to a hotel while they fumigate the place (fumigate as in putting the big tent over.)

I'd tell the landlord the place is unlivable, move to a hotel on his or her dime, as brown recluse bites are bad news, and can go up to ten inches in diameter.

The law is on your side; the place you are staying in cannot be considered habitable, and the landlord either better end the lease, or move you and your household to a hotel while they fumigate the place (fumigate as in putting the big tent over.)

+1.

Ask your adjacent neighbord if they experience the same problem. If not, then it must be isolated in your place somehow. Are you in a ground level room?

those bites can require hospitalization, your landlord needs to do something more than give you traps

call a property lawyer and see if you can move out

Burn Down The House and move to Antarctica.

Your landlord needs to take care of this ASAP!! This picture is of the effects of a brown recluse bite
http://skywalker.cochise.edu/wellerr/hiking-dangers/brown-recluse.htm

I haven't double checked with Snopes to find whether this is real or not but I do know that tissue necrosis can be a side effect of a brown recluse spider bite.

Yes, they are poisonous and can cause serious necrosis. No, they don't usually cause death.

I can tell you that they're given a little more notoriety and fear than is due. They don't just go around hunting for people to bite, and a recluse fang is relatively small. It's not terribly often that they actually nail someone with one of those epic bites that ends up requiring amputation. You have to have the spider pressed up against bare skin (rolling over on top of one in your bed, putting on clothes that has one in it, or pick something up and startle it, etc) in order to even hope to get bitten like that.

I appreciate the sense of urgency some of you are displaying, but this isn't an evil death zombie spider species. It's just like any other spider. It will only attempt to kill something that it can eat (not people or animals) or in self-defense if threatened. I can say I've been a lot more careful around my apartment lately. Regardless, it sounds like I'm getting a real exterminator in here to put these things out of their misery. I'm not going to die of a brown recluse's killing spreee, though.

What size are those guys? If they're larger than a quarter, then they're not likely b. recluses. If they are small, ..... sucky.

What size are those guys? If they're larger than a quarter, then they're not likely b. recluses. If they are small, ..... sucky.

Look at the size of the carpet fibers. They aren't too big.

Only one I've seen in my apartment was larger than a quarter with its legs spread out, and I squished that one. Most are about the size of a dime or smaller, with the biggest one shown in the above photos being about a nickel with its legs spread out.

we had a few that werent recluses i got a friend to lend me his pocked gator(breed is unknown but its one mean lizard and can kill a small bird) the spiders were gone in 3 weeks

sorry for resurecting this thread but it has particular interest to me. I am terrified of spiders anyway and have a stong phobia bordering on hysteria. Since breaking my back 2 years ago It has got even worse if that is possible. I thought a spider had run over my bare foot and jerked so quickly that I broke several small muscles supporting my spine. Ended up unable to stand or walk for 3 months .

My answer... I have spider proofed my house. You need to look at where they can breed and where they can enter the property. I have not had a single large spider in my home for 2 years !
First they are mainly nocturnal so make sure any windows open at night have some flyscreen pinned or taped accross the opening . (take a powerful torch outside at night and see what is crawling around your external walls ! )
Secondly you need to put some expanding type draft strips all around your opening sashes of your windows. It is amazing how narrow a gap they can squeeze through ! don't leave a single hole or gap anywhere. You need to be systematic and thorough.

Third remove any unwanted foliage or ivy from your external walls. Don't give em anywhere to hide or breed near the house. The guy that had the tent fumigation ought to think about removing all the ivy first ? crazy!

Then systematically go round the place and seal up all the holes you can find with expanding foam. Particularly around waste and service pipe and cables coming through the walls.

Then you need to remove things that spiders like to hide in ie cardboard boxes piles of stuff on the floor etc. Don't give em anywhere to hide or breed.

Check the closet thoroughly. There must be something attracting them there. seal all holes and gaps particularly to the roof space where pipes and cables come through.

Think about putting brush draft strips to the bottom of the doors and close the doors at night to stop them travelling around your home so freely.Or there are some rubber strips you can attach to the bottom of the doors.

If you have central heating radiators spray between the panels and fill all the gaps to the back and underside of wall furniture like dressors and ward robes etc.

Think about sealing your clothes in clear bags in the closet or whereever you keep them. I religiously shake my clothes and shoes out every morning .

At night I check around the bedroom carefully and throw back the covers turn the pillows etc and then I can sleep peacefully. I have pulled the bed away from the wall all round since waking up and finding two huge house siders on my bed one night.!..one was 3" across !..

Hope that gives some useful ideas. The most important of these I would say is to seal windows and doors and use flyscreen on open windows at night, good luck

Do NOT get bitten.


I had a crater-sized scar on my arm for a year...eventually got a tattoo over it.

It will burn concentic circles in your flesh, then kill you. I had to go to the E.R.

Dipper, there are still precisely zero medically-verified deaths cause by the brown recluse. Most of the epic necrosis hand-rotting-off type cases are usually the result of a secondary infection to the festering sore. Since the recluse bite stays open and seeping for so long, it's vulnerable to other things. If covered and treated with antibiotic ointment, most brown recluse bites heal on their own over time without any complications.

Bug bomb is what I'd do. Were I grew up, as well as where I lived for college, we had major spider issues, (although not poisonous ones, boo to that) I'd find a 4+ hour block where you and the wife, and anything else you want to live can be out of the house, and set off a ton of bug bombs. Like triple dose for the square footage recommendations.

The first time I did it at my college place, it was 20kish square feet with a full basement. I did 3 in the basement, 2 on the main floor, and 2 on the second floor. There were no bugs for months after that, then each spring and fall, I'd do 1 in the basement and 1 on the main floor, and that kept the spiders to just the occasional one in the corner of the basement for the rest of the time I was there.

But if you do that, make sure all the food you want to keep is covered, and re-wash all your pots/pans/plates/etc before using.

With fish, cats and gerbils, that sounds like a royal pain, but better than dealing with these wretched arachnids.

With fish, cats and gerbils, that sounds like a royal pain, but better than dealing with these wretched arachnids.

Hmm, we just had a dog, so it was easier for us, but with gerbils (if you let them roam free when your at home) I'd be slightly concerned about them chewing on something that got a healthy dose of bug bomb coating, and for the fish, hopefully the tank is easy to move outside also, otherwise you might only be able to do the basement, and then only at recommended doses.

As for the cats? Leave them in the house :D

Gerbils are contained in terrariums.

Oh, and this wolf spider I found on the MUP a few months ago says HAI GUYS! He just hopped right up onto my hand.

http://www.focushacks.com/kc-bike/2007-07-28-tc/images/img_1260.jpg

I actually like spiders. Just not BRs.


And yes, I just posted that picture so there would be at least one good heebie jeebie photo on this page.