2012年7月22日 星期日

Where Did All These Brown Recluse Spiders Come From?


Recluse: "shut off or apart from the world; living in seclusion."

That's what my dictionary says. I just checked.

So the brown recluse spider lives hidden away from everybody? I mean that word "recluse" is right there in the spider's name. I take that to mean it's a shy insect.

But you sure can't tell that based on my recent clean up activities.

Over the years I stacked stuff into my barn, and it just kept piling up in there, so I decided recently to launch a "cleanup and organize" effort. It's so bad that I discarded some of the stuff before I could even get into the door.

Ever done anything like that and got a big surprise (or scare) you weren't ready for?

I had a set of chrome wheels, two with old tires on them, stored out there for a number of years. Since they'd sat there so long I figured I'd never use them, and decided the time had come for them to go.

As I started taking the tire off one of them a whole herd of brown recluse spiders went scrambling, and sent me jumping backward away from that wheel.

My time as a pest control technician familiarized me so well with the way these pests look that I recognize them quickly.

Most people look at them and just see spiders. Brown recluse have distinctively long legs that I came to associate with the species, but I took a while of studying these spiders before I learned to identify them without looking for the fiddle outline on their backs.

Anyway, as I watched that wheel I saw a number of adult recluse spiders, and a whole swarm of babies, go scurrying.

I don't think I ever saw that many brown recluse spiders in one place before.

The first recluse spiders I saw as a newbie pest control technician were rather reclusive. That was over 10-years ago. As I walked up to the spot where they built their webs I'd catch a motion, and only get a quick glance at the spider.

Most every time the spider headed for cover as soon as it spotted me walking toward its home.

Back then, in my early days of pest control, I only suspected I'd found a recluse. Only further inspection verified the insect as a recluse spider, and often that closer inspection means you're too close if you're untrained and inexperienced in pest control techniques.

These days those spiders don't dart for hiding spots so fast anymore. Seems to me they get bolder all the time.

Maybe it's because there are so many of them around. In my early pest control days the company entomologist told me that people rarely seen brown recluse spiders in the Midwest. He said they didn't live here in very large numbers.

I found that claim was just not true. Once I learned to recognize the recluse I started seeing them too often for comfort, and now I see them every time I go into my barn. I've even found them in my house.

Probably the only reason I see so many is my trained ability to recognize them, and if I'd never worked as a pest control technician I wouldn't know that I have brown recluse. Might be I'd never have a problem with them, but sometimes I get awful close to these insects, and if I didn't know what they are I'd get even close enough to get bit.

That's a scary thought.

I suggest if you're planning a cleaning job of your own in an area that sat cluttered for a year or more you take some special precautions.

Study some pictures of brown recluse spiders to get used to what they look like, and make sure you wear gloves when you perform your cleaning task. They can't bite through a good thick glove.

Be careful of brown recluse spiders when you're cleaning items from collected piles. They have a real nasty bite.




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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