Brown Recluse Spiders (home builders, neighborhood, scorpions)

[Lake Junkie]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

Anyway, it's foolish to live in fear. No matter where you go there are spiders and snakes and flesh eating bacteria and brain eating microbes, and MSRA and heaven only knows what else. Just live your life and stop worrying about stuff.

20yrwsinBranson

That's remarkably good advice.

[lifelongMOgal]

Yes, brown recluse spiders are all over Missouri. They like houses with dark, damp basements and periods of inactivity in the home (vacation homes/cabins). A great place to find brown recluses and identify them is if they have died in the bathroom tub or shower.

In addition to spraying the outside entrances to the house and any spiders I find in the basement, I use those "sticky glue traps" designed for insect monitoring to catch the brown recluses inside the house. The suggestions about shaking out shoes and plastic storage crates are good. Also, keep bedding from coming in contact with the floor as there is no sense providing a ladder.

Inside my house spiders die! Outside, if their webs are not cluttering up the outside of the house, they are welcome to eat as many flies and 'skeeters as their webs can hold!

I think I was bit by one of those brown buggers this summer as I had a bite-welt that did not behave well. It finally went away after a couple of weeks without necrosis or other side effects. If it had begun to fester I would have visited the Dr. immediately.

Take proper pest control measures and it shouldn't be too much of a problem. It will be difficult to find a state in the US that doesn't have some kind of undesireable pests.

[L.D.S.]

I killed 15 in one day at an apartment in Jasper, Ar.

I've also been bitten inside the same apartment and have a permanent scar on my left hand.

[mamagator54]

Brown Recluse!
Yes they are here, but then they are almost everywhere. Before my husband and I moved to the Ozarks, we did extensive research on the flora and fauna of the area.
I was more worried about the copperheads then the spiders... but I have always been a snake-o-phobic
We found a Brown Recluse First Aid Kit online and ordered 3 of them. One for the truck, one for the camper and one for the cabin. Luckily we have not had to use it.
Brown Recluse First Aid Kit - Spider Information is a good site dealing with the Brown Recluse.
The First Aid Kit we ordered came out of Ava, MO. Which is where we moved too.

Good Luck.

[joetownmom]

FYI....they are present. I killed two yesterday in an elementary classroom in the Ozarks.

[bfe13]

We live just south of Ozark. My son who was 8 years old at the time was biten several times by a brown recluse while he slept. He unfortunately turned out to be highly allergic to the venom. He was taken to Springfield hospital and spent 5 days in childrens ICU. He made it through with some battle scars. It changed the way we keep house. We move furniture alot. Sweep corners and everywhere we think a spider would hide. We constantly spray too. You can never get rid of all of them, but you can try. Good luck

[Lake Junkie]

Originally Posted by mamagator54

Brown Recluse!
Yes they are here, but then they are almost everywhere. Before my husband and I moved to the Ozarks, we did extensive research on the flora and fauna of the area.
I was more worried about the copperheads then the spiders... but I have always been a snake-o-phobic
We found a Brown Recluse First Aid Kit online and ordered 3 of them. One for the truck, one for the camper and one for the cabin. Luckily we have not had to use it.
Brown Recluse First Aid Kit - Spider Information is a good site dealing with the Brown Recluse.
The First Aid Kit we ordered came out of Ava, MO. Which is where we moved too.

Good Luck.

Good link...thanks mamagator! It surely helps to be able to identify them. The bottom part of that article also talks about the other poisonous spiders that are throughout the rest of the country. Good info.

[dnw]

I've been biten once by a brown recluse in my sleep. I know there used to be a lot of tarantulas near were I used to live near willard, mo, I hated seeing them since they were huge.

[veteransoilscientist]

Originally Posted by summer63

We are planning on relocating to the Springfield area this next spring. We have found some nice places in Ozark, Mo. I have heard that there are brown recluse spiders in Missouri and I have been reading up on them and now I am scared to move there!! Has anyone ever seen one or worse yet been bitten by one and if so please tell me about your experience.

They are a fact of life. Keeping a clean house is my main way to reduce the risk of encountering them. Cleaning under beds, in ceiling corners, etc., and wiping them out wherever you find their webs, or any webs. In my house, a good spider is a dead spider, they are all killed on sight, bugs, too. No identification necessary.

They are in a lot of states, too, not just Missouri. Bites affects people differently, too. Some more than others.

I found on the Internet sites which talk about using electricity to curdle the toxin in bites and render it ineffective. The poison in the venom is a protein molecule. The structure of the molecule has everything to do with how it works. Protein structures can be altered by heat, caustic chemicals, electricity, and other things; for instance, frying an egg changes the protein structure and it goes from fluid to solid.

In the case of spider or snake bites, it is claimed on Internet sites that you can use a specially modified stun gun to treat bites using electricity. Moderately high voltage and nearly no current, with a pulse that should/will not interfere with heartbeat, is what one site claimed. I purchased one of the devices, and treated an apparent bite I had. The electric shock curdles and changes the shape of the poison molecules in the venom, and renders the poison null.

My right shin and calf were swollen, had a slight greyish color with multicolor mottling, and had a sore spot in the middle with a pimple in the middle of it. It turned out not to be a bruise and wouldn't go away. So, I ordered one of these devices, and when it arrived I shocked myself with the device according to instructions. It was nearly impossible to hold it down .75 seconds per shock like it said, but I did the best I could in the recommended spoke pattern around the center of the bite. Then I waited, and kind of forgot about it. Days later I remembered and looked and the swelling and discoloration were gone. I have used 9 volt batteries, along with some spit for better electrical contact, to similarly treat wasp and bee stings, with decent enough affect to believe it helped, shortening the period of pain. When I work out west where there might be rattlesnakes, I keep the modified stun gun in the vehicle or backpack.

I had a friend at church who had been bitten on his left inside shin/calf. He got butchered by a doctor, who did surgery to remove necrosed tissue, and left a nerve cut and exposed under the skin. This caused him an elbow-jarring like pain everytime anything brushed it. That keyed me into there has to be a better way, and I heard about this electric method in a creation science videotape, where mention was made of missionaries observing native peoples in South America using small engine leads to treat poisonous snake bites. Now, beware if using the electric method, to do all your homework and follow all instructions of any device you purchase. Electricity can kill you. Even mild shocks hitting the heart, if of the right, I suppose, frequency, could be fatal.

Brown recluses, unless you are just super susceptible to them, just take some development of good housecleaning and other habits, to deal with. Like, don't put your boots on without shaking them out. Don't pick up a shirt that's been laying on the floor, and put it on without looking. Don't sleep in a bed that has been undisturbed for a long time without inspecting it. And so on. Clean out the dust bunnies from under your bed and in the corners, and ceilings, and cupboards, etc. I would not let spiders keep me out of Ozark. A newer house would be better than an old one. Old houses often have had electrical and plumbing systems put in after the house was built, resulting in more holes, nooks, crannies, cavities that provide access to wall spaces, attics, and crawlspaces, which are spider habitats.

Regarding spiders, osage orange fruit, i.e. hedgeapples, are reported to be quite effective insecticides and bug and spider repellants. I don't know what having them around the house might do to a person, though.

Now, the kind of spiders that sound scary to me are the ones in Australia, the bites of which can kill a person in minutes. Those are some serious spiders. They probably have ways of dealing with living around the potential for them, probably some really serious habits. Those are the kind I would worry about.

[Dutch62]

While it's true the bite is bad, it is usually other spiders that bite but the brown recluse gets blamed. Also there are a few spiders with similar markings but it's the eyes that give them away. They only have 6 rather than 8. Personally, I don't relish the thought of getting that close. Get a good service BEFORE you move in and stay vigilant. And whatever you do don't watch this video, the info is good but it is a bit graphic. The Brown Recluse bite; watch if you dare | Pest Cemetery