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Im thinking of maybe moving to Albuquerque with a friend and i was wondering if its a safe area and im pretty afraid of spiders.. so moving from south east michigan, would there be more spiders that id see compared to here? any other facts about the area are welcome. just main concerns of spiders and crime rate.
I've been here since end of summer '05. I have seen about 2 black widows, 0 brown recluses and one pair of tarantulas last year then one more in my back garden a few months later. A neighbor across the street got bit by a brown recluse last summer and someone I know working up on Montoya/I-25 in a warehouse got bit too.
ahh. i dont care if they're dangerous, is it common to see them?
ABQ is Spider Central.
I've never been around so many @#$%$ spiders in my life, and I've lived overseas, coastal TX AND Florida. OTOH, I've gone from totally phobic, running screaming from the room to "dang, it's a spider, where's the broom?", so I suppose something good came out of it.
I've had several spider bites while sleeping, including the most recent one that I suspect was either brown recluse or similar based on the resulting infection. All of this was INSIDE my apartment. So yes, you WILL see a lot of spiders here.
HOWEVER...the pest control guy did give me some good advice. He said part of the problem where I am is that there is a lot of shrubbery outside the triplex, especially around the windows, and that's what attracts the spiders. Less shrubs and greenery and more desert landscaping, the less spiders I'll see. (Or so he said, I'll find out when I move later this year.)
Fortunately most of the spiders are harmless (or so I keep repeating to myself, LOL!). There's a fuzzy brownish one that everyone here calls a jumping spider, it's supposed to be harmless. I was at a client's house one afternoon and spotted one high on the wall near where we were sitting. I started scooting my chair back and the client comments, "Oh it's just a jumping spider, they're harmless and my GF doesn't like me to kill the spiders." I replied, "Well, that's good to know because you're between it and me, so it will land on you if it jumps."
He found a broom and killed it.
I still chuckle when I think about the look on his face as he thought that one out.
To be honest, though, if you have regular pest control services where you live, and shake shoes & clothing out before you put them on, you won't have any more problems here than anywhere else. What I see most of now that my landlord has the pest guy come out every spring are the daddy longlegs, and they really are harmless. I think the problem with my rental was it had been vacant for a while before I moved in and the landlord never had the premises treated until I complained and so did the guy in the back unit. I never see spiders at work.
You might also consider finding housing with refrigerated air instead of swamp cooling. The A/C units have filters, which tends to help a little with bugs (and a lot with pollen). Swamp coolers have no filters and blow all kinds of stuff inside.
I've never been around so many @#$%$ spiders in my life, and I've lived overseas, coastal TX AND Florida. OTOH, I've gone from totally phobic, running screaming from the room to "dang, it's a spider, where's the broom?", so I suppose something good came out of it.
Seriously? I had more spiders in my house in Austin, Las Vegas (NV), Eugene OR, Tyler TX, where I grew up outside Seattle, and in my college housing Eastern Washington... Honestly, I think here is the fewest I've ever dealt with. I've been in my house for 1.5 years now and I think I've killed 4.
I go out monthly or so and shake a plastic cup full of insect killer around the foundation, but that's all I do to keep them away.
As for Brown Recluse spiders... everywhere I go, people claim their neighbor, co-worker, in-town friend was bitten.
The following pages all claim that they don't live here:
(Not trying to be snotty, it's just that I have this conversation at least once a month with people who SWEAR they live here. People we aren't experts in the field.) Now, to be clear, a few may be here, hitched a ride in a produce truck, hung out in Grandma's trailer, whatever, but there is NOT AN ESTABLISHED POPULATION OF BROWN RECLUSE SPIDERS IN NEW MEXICO.
It's not just here.. a "friend," a "landscaper," and a "guy I used to work with" have all been bitten by a brown recluse in Washington state... I'm not saying these spiders aren't nasty, I'm not saying these people didn't get bit by a spider. I am saying they're not the problem here you're going to hear that they are.
Seriously? I had more spiders in my house in Austin, Las Vegas (NV), Eugene OR, Tyler TX, where I grew up outside Seattle, and in my college housing Eastern Washington... Honestly, I think here is the fewest I've ever dealt with. I've been in my house for 1.5 years now and I think I've killed 4.
I go out monthly or so and shake a plastic cup full of insect killer around the foundation, but that's all I do to keep them away.
As for Brown Recluse spiders... everywhere I go, people claim their neighbor, co-worker, in-town friend was bitten.
The following pages all claim that they don't live here:
(Not trying to be snotty, it's just that I have this conversation at least once a month with people who SWEAR they live here. People we aren't experts in the field.) Now, to be clear, a few may be here, hitched a ride in a produce truck, hung out in Grandma's trailer, whatever, but there is NOT AN ESTABLISHED POPULATION OF BROWN RECLUSE SPIDERS IN NEW MEXICO.
It's not just here.. a "friend," a "landscaper," and a "guy I used to work with" have all been bitten by a brown recluse in Washington state... I'm not saying these spiders aren't nasty, I'm not saying these people didn't get bit by a spider. I am saying they're not the problem here you're going to hear that they are.
-Z
my uncle and my brother got bit by one, It did some serious damage to my unlce's leg, but I guess the doctors dont know what they are talking about, I guess they had never seem a brown recluse bite and just suspected it was.
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The Brown Recluse Myth.
