Found a Brown Recluse in my house..

[ccp]

Anything i can do?

[SomeIdiot]

I'm not an expert but if I were you I'd call an extermination company or something. Supposedly they're pretty rare and solitary but you want to be safe because they like to hide in clothes. When I was in college I took intro to entomology (which also included a decent bit about arachnids) and we discussed brown recluses. If I remember correctly the things like to hide in old, dry boxes and storage closets with clothes in them. Look around the storage areas in your home to see if you come across any more. But whatever you do don't get bitten by one of those things. In rare situations their bites will cause necrosis and rare or not it isn't something you want to risk. They aren't in themselves aggressive. It's more a risk of someone pulling out an old sweater at Christmas time and one of the things being in there.

[tuffy]

Get a Hopkins student with a sword to kill it?

[ccp]

Originally Posted by SomeIdiot

I'm not an expert but if I were you I'd call an extermination company or something. Supposedly they're pretty rare and solitary but you want to be safe because they like to hide in clothes. When I was in college I took intro to entomology (which also included a decent bit about arachnids) and we discussed brown recluses. If I remember correctly the things like to hide in old, dry boxes and storage closets with clothes in them. Look around the storage areas in your home to see if you come across any more. But whatever you do don't get bitten by one of those things. In rare situations their bites will cause necrosis and rare or not it isn't something you want to risk. They aren't in themselves aggressive. It's more a risk of someone pulling out an old sweater at Christmas time and one of the things being in there.

Yeah i think we are calling an exterminator. I couldn't tell if it was a brown recluse or a garden type. I tried to look for that violin shape on the head. Dark brown head and a light tan torso/back. About an inch or so big.

Thanks.

[ccp]

Pretty sure this is what i saw. This isn't a recluse. This pic closely resembles what i saw. But a darker brown.

http://ps-garden.s3.amazonaws.com/1982.jpg

[Evil Yoda]

Just smash it with a flyswatter. It can't bite you that way. I wouldn't worry if you find *one*. If you find *another* then it's time for the exterminator.

[mythoughts]

Originally Posted by ccp

Anything i can do?

If you have a way to catch it to examine it closer, like a jar, the best way to tell a Recluse is the "eyes". Typically spiders have 8 eyes - but not Brown Recluse, they only have 6. There are several spiders (harmless ones that look like Brown Recluse but none of them have 6 eyes.

A Recluse isn't very dangerous. They also aren't aggressive, hence the name "recluse".

[Wovoka]

When I lived in Texas, we had black widows outside and brown recluses inside. Black widows spin webs and can be avoided. Brown recluses like places like the underwear in your bureau drawer. They made me absolutely paranoid.

[Eastside Terp]

Originally Posted by mythoughts

A Recluse isn't very dangerous.

I don't agree with that......

I wouldn't want to be bit by one .....

brown recluse bite

Most spiders are absolutely harmless to humans. In fact, of the 20,000 different species of spiders that inhabit the Americas, only 60 are capable of biting humans. Within that small group, only four are known to be dangerous to humans: the brown recluse, the black widow, the hobo or aggressive house spider, and the yellow sac spider. Within this select group, only the brown recluse and the black widow spider have ever been associated with significant disease and very rare reports of death.

link

[unclesharkey]

Where do you live? If you live in MD I doubt it is a brown recluse. Here is a link about the spider and their know territory. This is 2001 but should still be accurate.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2061.html

[SomeIdiot]

Originally Posted by unclesharkey

Where do you live? If you live in MD I doubt it is a brown recluse. Here is a link about the spider and their know territory. This is 2001 but should still be accurate.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2061.html

They definitely aren't native to this region. Though I have no link to support this, according to my entomology professor (from a class I took in college) they are known to show up occasionally in Maryland. He claimed this happened due to people moving here from the southwest unaware that the things are stowing away in old boxes of clothes.

[unclesharkey]

Originally Posted by SomeIdiot

They definitely aren't native to this region. Though I have no link to support this, according to my entomology professor (from a class I took in college) they are known to show up occasionally in Maryland. He claimed this happened due to people moving here from the southwest unaware that the things are stowing away in old boxes of clothes.

Good point. I also imagine that there are spiders from the same family that are similar in appearance and potency of bite.....

[Ravenchamp]

just as dangerous as a copper head snake, kill it.