Brown Recluse Spiders
I sometimes get asked how dangerous brown recluse spider bites are. The truth is that most bites from brown recluse spiders do not cause harm – approximately 90%. Deaths do occur, but not very often. Maybe 1 every five or ten years. The risk is highest for older people and small children. Especially children with kidney risk or damage. The main symptom to watch out for is dark brown urine. Otherwise, for most people, they can get a cortisone shot and hope for a fast healing.
How do we treat for brown recluse spiders? It is a total structure treatment. We start in the attic and usually try to apply dust. We also apply a residual spray throughout the structure. We also take off the outer electrical wall outlet covers and treat inside the walls. Sometimes we fog with a pyrethrin product to give a quick kill. It is also important to place lots of insect monitors (sticky traps) throughout the structure, not only to reduce the populations, but to give an ongoing diagnosis of the population levels.
May 13th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Where do Brown Recluse spiders like to hide?
May 13th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Thanks for the comment, Christine. I see them a lot in basements and attics. Since they are “reclusive”, they live in areas where the people don’t hang out too often. We see them in closets that are packed with clothes and storage and in basements where there is a lot of clutter and storage. They come out mostly at night, so you are more likely to see them in the early morning and late in the evening. They live in the walls too. When we treat, we remove (or have them removed) the electrical wall outlet covers on the outer walls and treat inside the walls. We also set out a lot of sticky traps for two reasons: mostly, they service as a barometer as to whether our treatment (s) are working (a reduction in the number of spiders on the glueboards) and 2) they help to reduce the populations as a secondary control.