spiders...blech

[chelle]

I got a couple spider bites (well what I think are spider bites) a few days ago. They're healing and haven't caused any major annoyances, but now I am paying good attention to any of these 8-legged creatures around my house. I usually don't kill them unless they keep making their way back into my studio.

 

So, today I see a spider hanging out on the window screen (between the screen and the window) and decide to take a closer look. And, by gosh it looks like a brown recluse from all the pics and info I can find on the Internet. But the web also says they don't live up here in WA.

 

Strange 'cause one of my old roomate's friends was supposedly bitten by a brown recluse last summer and had to undergo some nasty stuff. So do any of you know if the dreaded brown recluse has made its way up to the PNW, given the warmer temps and all?

 

I think I'm going to kill this one just in case. But I am tempted to capture it and take it somewhere for someone to identify. Anyone know who in Seattle might do that sort of thing?

[Winter]

 

[iain]

you might want to try:

 

http://www.hobospider.org/

 

and take a look at the contact under the link "physicians and health care professionals". there is someone at UofW who identifies hobo spiders. He might help you.

 

-Iain

[chelle]

Thanks, Iain. It could have been one of those. I tried to catch it, but the damn thing was too fast and kept crawling to the corner of the window where I couldn't get it. So, I flushed it out to the middle of the screen by spraying some tinactin on it and then went outside and killed it when it started to run again. Yeah, I know it wouldn't kill it but it was the only thing I had to spray on it. And that stuff is cold so I thought I could maybe slow it down a bit.

 

Let his squished body on my window pane be a warning to all hobo or brown recluse spiders. They are not welcome here!

 

Enough procrastination via spider patrol..I've got homework to do.

Edited April 10, 2004 by ehmmic

[iain]

nice. Well it almost certainly isn't a brown recluse, but odds are much better it's a hobo spider. They're common in houses and can give a very nasty bite. That website is a good one to read up on them. They are very fast.

[chelle]

I emailed the guy at UW to see if he is interested in seeing the remains.

[Dru]

[PONCHO&LEFTY]

So do any of you know if the dreaded brown recluse has made its way up to the PNW, given the warmer temps and all?

Yeah and there is flocks of tropical parrots in my yard squacking all night, worse than crows. I may have also seen an elephant in the cascades once, it could have been a deer but they all moved to what used to be the arctic.

[Double_E]

i live in a basement apartment which i share with about 100 spiders. little buggers are just starting to come out of th' woodwork from their winter naps.

i dunno i've always liked spiders n' left em along cuz of how many other pests they kill, but it's still kind of annoying. sometimes i'll cup em & take em outside, sometimes i just ignore em.

only time i kill them is when i find em in my bed... that's the only place that is OFF LIMITS to the bastards. after i find one there (doesn't seem to happen much) and kill it then i hang him/her with a thin fishing line from one of the doorjambs, as an example to the others. seems to be working.......

[thelawgoddess]

you might also try putting one of their heads on a toothpick.