How Can You Know If That's A Brown Recluse In The Corner Of Your Ceiling?

The first time I correctly recognized a Brown Recluse Spider surprised me. I had no idea I really knew what the recluse looked like.

The company entomologist joined me on an inspection of one of my hospital buildings. As I shined my flashlight into a cabinet area I spotted movement. Looking closer I noticed a spider that moved away from the light's beam every time I pointed the light in its direction.

The legs set off a mental alarm. I called the entomologist over and asked if the spider was a brown recluse. He verified that it was.

That's the first recluse I ever seen alive.

I'd spent some time looking at pictures, and studying dead spiders through the microscope back at the pest control office. Evidently those efforts burned the brown recluse image into my brain so I could recognize one without getting too close.

I remember thinking that the spider's legs are unique, and that memory is what triggered the suspicion that the spider in that hospital building was a recluse.

This insect has very long legs. They angle upward from the body, and make a knee-like bend back toward the ground.

The recluse's body is long, and narrow. Its color is, as the name suggests, brown. On it's back is the shape of a violin (or fiddle). That shape is the reason you sometimes hear people call this the Fiddler Spider.

Most spiders I had experience with before my pest control days have short, fat bodies.

I still run across information that claims brown recluse spiders live in the southwestern United States. When I started working for the pest control company the entomologist told me that brown recluse only appeared in places where few people ever ventured.

Didn't take me long to understand that wasn't true. I found brown recluse right out in the open in the hospital buildings I inspected. On one visit to a warehouse where the hospital stores patient records I seen five of the pests.

Brown recluse are everywhere.

I even find them in my house when I get lax on pest control treatments. Not long ago I stood in my entryway, looked down, and spotted a recluse at the baseboard. That rascal had a web woven right there pretty as you please.

It's always those legs that alert me that I'm looking at this highly venomous bug.

If you wait to see that violin shape you're way too close to the brown recluse. They have a nasty bite. Starts out as a little red spot, but there's a lot of poison in that spot. Before long that poison starts spreading outward, eating your muscles and skin as it goes.

If you see a spider with real long legs don't take any chances.

Call your local pest control company.

Or save yourself those pest control company fees. Learn how to identify, and properly treat for, the brown recluse spider yourself.

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.

Find other pest control ebooks by Joe at http://www.bugsmiceratsnomore.com

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