So How Worried About Recluses Should I Be? (apartments, appliances)

[ellyr]

Hello fellow Missourians -

First of all, I am not native to this area. I'm from Wisconsin, and later moved to DC, which are both areas that are blessedly free of the brown recluse. I am severely arachnophobic, but I wasn't about to let that get in the way of a new job, so down I came to this land.

Today while cleaning my apartment, I lifted up a rug to vacuum. I had the dubious joy of discovering the corpse of a brown recluse. Because the bastard was dead, I was able to take my sweet time in making sure that's what it was, and yeah - there's no question about it. Brown recluse.

So now, of course, I am freaking out. So far this is the only recluse I've seen here - I saw one other spider last week, but it got away before I could kill and find out what it was. I've never come across anything when I reach into out of the way places, have never had one in my shoe (I do shake them out). But I've heard that if you have one recluse, you've got more. I'm mostly worried about my cats, who, as cats are wont to do, love going after bugs. I'm terrified one of them will get bitten and die.

My apartment is in an old, 1920s building, and hasn't had any extensive renovation work done - sure, the appliances are new, but there are some truly epic cracks in the floorboards. I suspect the spiders are hanging out in the walls or something. How should I proceed? I picked up some glue traps so I can at least monitor the problem and see how extensive this is. I don't want to panic unnecessarily, although my instincts are telling me to MOVE MOVE MOVE.

Any words of wisdom?

[zach_33]

No worries, or at least very little worries - they avoid people at all costs. I would exercise some caution when pulling on old gloves or shoes that have been in dark, unperturbed space for a long period of time. But even if you are bitten, chances are it will not kill you or even cause the dreaded "volcano" lesions - that stuff usually only happens to the extremely young, old, or people with compromised immune systems (as I understand it). I've lived here 10 years and never even met anyone who ever said anything about being bitten by a brown recluse. If you see many of them, I would bring in an exterminator because they can infest a space, but I think that would be pretty obvious.

[lifelongMOgal]

OP, you state this is an apartment. Have you contacted your landlord? That would be first on my list Monday.

Glue traps are a good start. You'll want to shake out your clothes, keep your shoes up off the floor and shake them out before putting them on. Keep bed lines/drapes from touching the floor and the bed from touching the wall. These are all ways to stop the spider's easy access to you while you are sleeping. Mainly, keep vacuuming and they'll likely take up residence in a neighbor's apt. .

http://peppysdevelopments.wordpress....ecluse-spider/

[Chadro77]

Originally Posted by zach_33

No worries, or at least very little worries - they avoid people at all costs. I would exercise some caution when pulling on old gloves or shoes that have been in dark, unperturbed space for a long period of time. But even if you are bitten, chances are it will not kill you or even cause the dreaded "volcano" lesions - that stuff usually only happens to the extremely young, old, or people with compromised immune systems (as I understand it). I've lived here 10 years and never even met anyone who ever said anything about being bitten by a brown recluse. If you see many of them, I would bring in an exterminator because they can infest a space, but I think that would be pretty obvious.

^^^This.

I know we have a fair amount of them in the house because I put out glue traps along the wall but I've only seen one actually alive. They are tough to get rid of but are very shy and not at all aggressive, I actually think most people get bit when they are sleeping (rolling over on them and such).

Just call an exterminator.

[ellyr]

Originally Posted by Chadro77

^^^This.

I know we have a fair amount of them in the house because I put out glue traps along the wall but I've only seen one actually alive. They are tough to get rid of but are very shy and not at all aggressive, I actually think most people get bit when they are sleeping (rolling over on them and such).

Just call an exterminator.

SO I probably don't need to flip out and frantically move apartments within the next week, or quit my job and high tail it out of this state?

[1greatcity]

You're going to laugh at me. When I first read the title of this thread, I hoonestly thought it was about people who never leave their homes. And I thought, why would anyone need to worry about home-bodies...how much trouble can they be?

[ellyr]

Originally Posted by 1greatcity

You're going to laugh at me. When I first read the title of this thread, I hoonestly thought it was about people who never leave their homes. And I thought, why would anyone need to worry about home-bodies...how much trouble can they be?

Oh man, I needed to read this. Watch out, everyone! The Midwest is full of people who never leave their homes and will inflict you with necrosis if you dare disturb them!!!!!

[Sundaydrive00]

Originally Posted by 1greatcity

You're going to laugh at me. When I first read the title of this thread, I hoonestly thought it was about people who never leave their homes. And I thought, why would anyone need to worry about home-bodies...how much trouble can they be?

Glad I'm not the only one who thought that.

[BioMechanical]

We've got a basement full of spiders. Never really paid much attention to species. I'm still alive!

[flynavyj]

Had numerous spiders in the basement this year, started freaking out cause I saw the "violin" type of pattern...but upon better investigation it appears mine were just some other form of spider, and not recluse at all. I killed all the ones I saw, now I haven't seen any for a while. I'm still wanting to set off a couple of bug bombs before the summers over, so that'll likely happen. I really do dislike eight legged bugs.