2012年6月4日 星期一

Brown Recluse Spiders Live Openly in Places That Might Surprise You


Our temperatures here in Indiana are running 10-degrees below normal for this time of year. At least that's what the weatherman said on a recent morning forecast.

A couple days ago I went scuba diving. Cold weather diving is normal around here; though when I saw the 34-degree reading that morning before I headed out I admit I hesitated for a moment or two.

At the park where I dove I was cold until I climbed into my wet suit. The air temperature by the time I entered the water was 47-degrees. Lingering at the surface a few minutes I checked the water temperature, and read a pleasing 60-degrees on my thermometer.

This dive was in an old rock quarry in a local park, and I dove to 30-feet during my time in the water. Usually you find a thermo cline around 20-feet or so where the temperature drops about 10-degrees, but that day the water was a warm 60-degrees at all the depths I dropped to.

That was nice because when I came out of the water I started shivering again. I was warmer in the water that day than I was standing in the air, even after I changed into dry clothing.

A particular incident I found interesting during my visit to that park happened when I went into the men's room.

Standing at the urinal I looked down and spotted a couple of spiders right next to me. Looking closer I recognized that they were brown recluse. Turning my gaze to the other side of the urinal alerted me to the presence of another recluse on that side too.

I see this often, so I wasn't surprised to see brown recluse in that environment.

If you attend outings at city, state, national parks, or go camping (this park also had a campground) you know the type of building that housed this men's room. They have electricity for lights, and running water for the sinks, urinals, and toilets, but the builders don't seal them against the weather. They have no heating or cooling equipment.

These facilities are wide open to insects of any kind, and it isn't rare to see spider webs in the corners of the walls. Since these restrooms are in parks, and the atmosphere is one of nature, maintenance people don't perform any kind of pest control. The thought of eliminating the natural inhabitants goes against the theme of the place, don't you think?

Due to the lack of human interference brown recluse spiders don't have any enemies in these buildings, so we see them all the time.

Most people don't recognize them by their long legs, and long, slim bodies, but my pest control experience gave me the ability to identify them quickly from a safe distance. I learned long ago to spot them, and keep a wary eye on their movements.

Brown recluse don't actively attack humans (we're much too big for them to take on), so you won't normally have any trouble when they appear as close to you as they were to me on my scuba outing. Still awareness and watchfulness increases my comfort factor when I run across these poisonous bugs.

If you see a spider with very long legs in proportion to its very slim, and lengthy body, just be alert that you're likely looking at a brown recluse spider.

And keep your eye on it.




Joseph Jackson is an experienced pest control technician and author of SPIDER RIDDANCE a how to guide for performing do-it-yourself pest control for controlling spiders.

Visit BUG RIDDANCE Rats And Mice Too! for how to information on do-it-yourself pest control techniques.





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