It’s Not As Bad As All That



It’s Not As Bad As All That

Spiders! Creepy, long-and-hairy-legged stuff of nightmares - with their beady pairs of eyes glittering and their venomous little fangs just oozing to take a chunk out of your tender flesh.

Outside of a horror movie, that simply isn’t true. Spiders, like sharks, have gotten a bad reputation from some very creative Hollywood films. Spiders derive very little sustenance from human beings and are almost always squashed for their trouble. Not very good for species propagation. Spiders would rather gather up some succulent little aphids, or tasty lovebugs, or even juicy houseflies in their webs. And, let’s face it, insects out number us by 16 million to 1. (Yep, that’s right – there’s 16 million bugs for every person. Let’s hope they don’t ever band together or we’ve had it.) We need all the allies we can get to help reduce the insect population, and spiders do a great job of gobbling them up so we don’t get over run.

The spider with the worst reputation has got to be The Brown Recluse Spider. The name refers to only ONE kind of recluse or fiddle back spider, Loxosceles reclusa. The fiddle shaped marking is not the best method to identify the true brown recluse. There are look-alike spiders which are not recluses, and there are recluses where the violin marking is invisible! A better method for identification is to look at the placement and number of eyes on the spider. The brown recluse has 6 eyes arranged in a semi-circle. Virtually every spider that is tan or brown has been turned in as a potential brown recluse. We have sac spiders, wolf spiders, and orb weavers. All of these brown spiders have eight eyes and can quickly be eliminated from consideration.

If we were to consult a map of the US, the brown recluse is mostly located in the mid-western US, Arkansas, Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, etc. We are located at the extreme southeastern part of the recluses know range, but most brown recluse incidents in our area are due to introduction, meaning someone brought the spider with them for a visit. When a brown recluse is found in the world, it’s not just one that will be found, but many!

So bearing in mind that brown recluse spiders are rare in the extreme down here, where could they be found otherwise? North Alabama Residents beware – your climate is a lot more to their liking than LA! The recluse like warm, dry places under and around boxes, furniture, folded bedding or other areas of store quiet clutter. They can live without food and water for long periods. The female recluse will actually guard her eggs until the spiderlings hatch. It can take 10-12 months to develop into an adult spider.

The brown recluse spider is NOT aggressive. Children have been known to pick them up without incident. Brown recluse spiders only bite when they feel threatened, most frequently it happens that someone rolled onto one while sleeping. A majority of “spider bites” are misdiagnosed and actually stem from other causes. For example, group A. Streptococcus infections, has a fatality rate that can vary from 20 to 80% depending on how quickly it is correctly diagnosed. Another medical condition frequently misdiagnosed as a spider bite is Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacterial infection, which can be cleaned up with some soap and water. About 10% of brown recluse bites cause moderate or greater tissue damage and scarring, but the vast majority heal very nicely without medicine. There is still not one proven death from brown recluse bite (a person was bitten by a spider caught in the act and properly identified).

No matter what films, and over-zealous TV reporters, tell us – It Ain’t as Bad as All That. New momma’s don’t need to call 911 when a brown spider appears. Gardners need not use more than reasonable caution (reasonable caution these days is more for the prevention of the West Nile virus than spiders). Spiders can be our friends. With the odds set at 16 million to 1, we need all the help we can get.

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