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I live in southwestern Ohio, a place where I heard they can be found. I was sitting at my desk when I noticed this thick guy chillin’ on my wall. I’m not afraid of small spiders, but I am scared of big ones. It moved a little until I reacted. I went to get a paper towel wad and squash it when all the sudden it just vanished into thin air, so I can’t get a closer look at it. Can’t find it. I did some research and can’t come to a conclusion on if it’s a brown recluse or not. I’m new here so I hope I’m putting this in the right subject. Not sure if it will embed the image but here.
"As suggested by its specific epithet reclusa (recluse), the brown recluse spider is rarely aggressive, and bites from the species are uncommon. In 2001, more than 2,000 brown recluse spiders were removed from a heavily infested home in Kansas, yet the four residents who had lived there for years were never harmed by the spiders, despite many encounters with them."
It sounds as if most people do not have to worry. Just respect them and give them some space.
I can't seem to get the image to come up . But a Brown Recluse (we call them fiddlebacks) has a perfect fiddle shaped mark forward of the abdomen on the carapace. They also have only six eyes instead of eight like other spiders. They aren't a "thick" critter. They are rather slim but their legs can spread out the size of a fifty cent piece. They are also pretty much hairless. Not fuzzy at all.
I can't seem to get the image to come up . But a Brown Recluse (we call them fiddlebacks) has a perfect fiddle shaped mark forward of the abdomen on the carapace. They also have only six eyes instead of eight like other spiders. They aren't a "thick" critter. They are rather slim but their legs can spread out the size of a fifty cent piece. They are also pretty much hairless. Not fuzzy at all.
All of this fits the description, but we don’t get many spiders bigger than jumping spiders in my house, so it looked big to me, but all descriptions of the size line up. The one feature that I’m not sure lined up is the eyes, because I didn’t get a good look.
"As suggested by its specific epithet reclusa (recluse), the brown recluse spider is rarely aggressive, and bites from the species are uncommon. In 2001, more than 2,000 brown recluse spiders were removed from a heavily infested home in Kansas, yet the four residents who had lived there for years were never harmed by the spiders, despite many encounters with them."
It sounds as if most people do not have to worry. Just respect them and give them some space.
Should I worry if I made it mad and possibly injured it? It’s been over a day, so I hope it just ran away.
Brown recluse have a distinguishing mark, kind of like the red hourglass of the Black Widow. For the Brown Recluse, it’s a violin shaped mark on its top side, darker brown against the spider’s lighter brown. Scroll down when you get to the site on this link to see a magnified image.
I had an infestation of them when I moved into my new home. As NVplumber said.. they are NOT thick. Rarely will you see them out in a lighted room with a person in it. They really are reclusive. They are generally pretty small. When you see the 'fiddle' on the back.. you don't have to guess if that is a fiddle... it's pretty distinct.
The necrotic reaction to a brown recluse bite is actually not real common. Lots of people are bitten and never know it.
You can always set out some glue traps. That's the best way to deal with them anyway (aside from paying a lg amount to have your house dusted).
it's possible, but probably not likely. without being able to see whether there's a fiddle it's hard to say.
re: fisheye's article, sounds like my place in OK years ago, although i probably didn't have 4,000 of them. maybe half that many
never had any trouble with them though.
I don't believe it is a Brown Recluse from my studies. Please someone weigh in, as I'm curious.
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