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All my spiders seem to be here legally and serve a purpose. They never fail to startle me but I find them fascinating.
The wolf spiders have arrived a bit early. Hope that doesn't mean an early Fall. Those guys are really startle-producing. I read the other day that they can move two feet in a second! One for the back door and one for the front door every year. The back door one hides behind a wall planter and the front door one hides behind the mail box.
One sunny afternoon I was lucky enough to watch an orb spider build a huge, nearly perfect web. A small miracle!
I don’t mind spiders that don’t bite, but black/brown widows and brown recluse spiders really get me worried for my family. I don’t want anyone to get sick from their bite! Is that unreasonable?
Are you seeing widows and brown recluses?
I've never seen a brown/black widow in the house. They prefer dark, secluded places outside like underneath old pots or among old bricks that haven't been moved for a long time. We have had plenty around, with kids & pets in the yard, and no one has ever been bitten. They are not aggressive. Just be careful sticking your hands in cracks and crevices, which I'm sure you are anyway.
The brown recluse doesn't live in my state (California) so I don't know much about them. Don't you also live in CA? And somehow I thought you lived alone; that was just an assumption though.
All my spiders seem to be here legally and serve a purpose. They never fail to startle me but I find them fascinating.
The wolf spiders have arrived a bit early. Hope that doesn't mean an early Fall. Those guys are really startle-producing. I read the other day that they can move two feet in a second! One for the back door and one for the front door every year. The back door one hides behind a wall planter and the front door one hides behind the mail box.
One sunny afternoon I was lucky enough to watch an orb spider build a huge, nearly perfect web. A small miracle!
I've never seen a brown/black widow in the house. They prefer dark, secluded places outside like underneath old pots or among old bricks that haven't been moved for a long time. We have had plenty around, with kids & pets in the yard, and no one has ever been bitten. They are not aggressive. Just be careful sticking your hands in cracks and crevices, which I'm sure you are anyway.
The brown recluse doesn't live in my state (California) so I don't know much about them. Don't you also live in CA? And somehow I thought you lived alone; that was just an assumption though.
Yes, my home is in Monrovia CA, and yes I have family living here, including triplet nephews. I’ve only seen spiders outside or in the garage and storage shed but I don’t want to get bit. Btw, the Desert Recluse Spider apparently does live in Southern California.
We moved into a house north of Medford, Oregon in 1990. Waiting for us on the front porch was a Black Widow. I carefully used the paper/jar trick and relocated it quite a ways from the house. Never had another encounter, but Brown Recluses really freak me out.
A worse problem we have now is sugar ants. They love our kitchen sink area. We have them controlled for now, but, they'll be back!
Yes, my home is in Monrovia CA, and yes I have family living here, including triplet nephews. I’ve only seen spiders outside or in the garage and storage shed but I don’t want to get bit. Btw, the Desert Recluse Spider apparently does live in Southern California.
OK, they are similar, but unless Monrovia suddenly becomes part of the Mojave Desert, you do not need to worry about them; they are nowhere near you.
Edited to add: The best way to keep spiders like black and brown widows away from your house is to reduce their hiding places. Clean up clutter often and don't let things like old pots or lawn furniture sit around untouched for long periods of time. If there's something in the yard or garage that hasn't been touched or moved for a year, that's where you're likely to find them.
Don't forget the funnel web spiders. Very cool web designs.
I have no fear of spiders, though of course I don't want to get one of those big spiders half the size of my hand in my face by accidentally walking through its web. They won't kill you, of course, but they can still pack a wallop.
Where I've ever seen black widows is in pipes left in the machine yard for years on end. At one plant we always made sure to blow out any pipe from the compressor yard, before bringing it into the building. My understanding is that the brown recluse is found in moist areas, so pay attention.
Other than those two, most spiders have enough venom to take out a cricket or grasshopper. If you catch them wrong they could bite you and leave a welt, like a wasp or bee. So don't do that.
I am amused by people who post "I have a spider phobia [or bug phobia]" like it was something uncontrollable as if they were missing a leg or something. Get over the spider/bug/snake/owl/puppy phobias.
I see some. Here and there: house spiders, garden spiders, forest spiders....
Sweet and harmless.
You need to know only about a few. How to avoid them.
SWEET? You sound like one of my daughters. She also thinks lizards are 'cute'.
She took a video of a Daddy Long Leg crawling on her hand earlier tonight with a caption that read 'I made a friend!" And then she insisted on following me around with her phone so that I had to see it! Darn kids ...
FWIW, fears of spiders and snakes are real and may even have a genetic component. Some animals have similar immediate reactions that bypass the logic circuits of the brain. Reducing the phobias can be especially difficult for some people.
(As an example of how deep the snake phobia can be, do a video search for cats scared by cucumbers. The shape is similar enough to a snake to invoke an immediate startle response of "FLEE!!!" in some felines - whether or not they have ever seen a snake in their lives.)
FWIW, fears of spiders and snakes are real and may even have a genetic component. Some animals have similar immediate reactions that bypass the logic circuits of the brain. Reducing the phobias can be especially difficult for some people.
(As an example of how deep the snake phobia can be, do a video search for cats scared by cucumbers. The shape is similar enough to a snake to invoke an immediate startle response of "FLEE!!!" in some felines - whether or not they have ever seen a snake in their lives.)
Well, there's a huge difference between having an initial frisson of "oh!" when suddenly encountering a snake or spider (this is adaptive behavior, as you note above) and people making major life decisions based on whether they think there are a lot of snakes or spiders in an area of the country.
The first is normal, just like most normal people don't feel comfortable walking thirty stories above the ground on an 8" wide I beam; the second is dysfunctional and needs treatment.
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