Overrun with brown recluse

I will second the use of chemicals! When we bought this house we had brown recluses here. Didn't know it though. Our bedroom had been added on and the back of our closet was actually the old hardboard siding of the house. Not thinking anything about spiders I put our clean sheets in the top of the closet. Changed the sheets one day...got in bed that night and woke up the next morning with bites. Had several on my ankle and dh had two or three on his leg. I went to the doctor not that it did any good. I can't take several antibiotics and all the ones he wanted to give me make me really sick. My ankle swelled up terrible. It was black and had big old pussy holes where the bites were. It hurt to move much less walk. Dh had the same thing on his leg. We cleaned them several times a day with tea tree oil and I would pack the holes with goldenseal....they were big enough to easily pack it in. We did find a dead brown recluse in the sheets that morning. So every few years now or whenever I notice an increase of ANY spiders I bomb the house. I will not take a chance on my kids getting bitten like dh and I were. It was so painful and took months to heal. We've been in this house 9 years and it happened the summer we moved in....I still have a few faint marks on my ankle where the bites were.

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Ginnie..
http://ginniequilts.blogspot.com/
You can say what you want about the South,
But you never hear of anyone retiring and moving North.

When we had a cat in the house we never saw spiders or bugs. Now that kitty is gone they are coming back.
Spray, vacuum, cat.

My house is overrun with spiders. I just killed a brown recluse in my kitchen as my small Pomeranian dog was sniffing it with nose just about touching it. Barefoot and did not hesitate to stomp on it, guts squirted everywhere. It's leg span was larger than a quarter and prominent fangs. I have been bit 3 times by brown recluse and got very sick each time. Last summer on a camping trip got bit by a wolf spider in 4 places. We have a saying in this house that a spider will come from 10 miles out just to bite me. Unknown to us we transported a nest of Black Widow spiders underneath a deck we moved to this house. They have been very prolific and we have a large invasion every fall. My best defanse has always been chlorine bleach in the scrub water. Not just a tad, really soak those floors and shove it into the cracks on the edges. Not all sprays have a chemical in them to kill spiders so one has to look on the can for the ingredient that is lethal to spiders. Spraying an unbroken line will greatly reduce the population as they have to crawl across it to move into the house, through a door or window. I put my mask on and start spraying around a room, the door frame, window frames, and don't forget the pipes whereever they go through a wall is an open invitation. Pouring around the outside of the foundaiton of the house gets better saturation. We have also used the insecticide that can be applied to the outside of the house with a garden hose. All of these things help but it is a never ending battle. Fall is always the worst around here as they are looking for a nice warm place to winter. good luck. Foxy

thought i would add my experience here with 20 mule team borax washing powders found in the laundry section at most stores...
i sprinkle the powders in the basement on the outer walls and in the garage on the outer walls and been doing this for 3 years now in the fall of the year...and find all kinds of dead bugs i did not know i had including spiders and crickets...first fall found a dead spider the size of my hand,don't know where he was hiding at but found him dead and do not know what kind he was but he was dead!!
i have inside/outside cats and a dog and never has bothered the animals and heard it was safe to use around animals....
might try this method as it has worked for me and safe to...

Yes they are very dangerous, nothing to mess with. My best friends husband got bit and all his organs shut down, He died.

I think I would be turning chameleons (anoles) loose in the house. They'll eat all the bugs and I'd rather sweep up their little dry droppings than risk getting bit. Just set a shallow bowl of water on the floor to provide water and let them hunt for their food.

I read about a CA woman that got bit and woke up from a coma to find she lost both feet and both hands. Nothing to take lightly.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

I had the same problem. I tried a pro exterminator with no luck. Finally after being bit I got angry and bought a few boxes of foggers at Dollar General. I put two in every room and even threw five under the house like grenades.

I have not seen one in months LOL Of course I had to leave all day and then come back and air out the house.

Make sure to trip your breakers and extinguish all open flames

Wow! Thanks for all the info & tips. I have 5 cats. Once in a while I see a cat going after a spider, but it's rarely a recluse. Usually a wolf or a grass spider. Almost any spider can bite you and cause an infection, wolf spiders are generally thought of as harmless, when we find them in the house we catch them and turn them loose outside. I have no fear of spiders, but an incredible dislike for these recluse. Turning chameleons loose in the house isn't really an option, with 5 cats. Our house is on a slab, has no crawl space. Does have an attic though. I am not opposed to pesticides in this case. My 79 year old mother lives with me & if anyone gets bit, it would probably be her. She has an amazing amount of clutter in her room. Dang it!

Those of you that used chemicals, exactly which ones were they? I don't want to spray something that doesn't really work. You can't always trust labels.

How did this turn out?

I think the poisons are a bad idea. Especially the foggers and bombs cuz th poison gets into everything.

I was once bitten by a brown recluse and the solution I ended up with (which has worked): don't smash the other spiders. Smash only brown recluse spiders.

With an army of daddy longlegs spiders hard at work, there is no food left for the brown recluse spiders. If you kill all of the spiders, then you leave lots of spider food for any ole spider to come along.

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[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

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I'm woundering too. When I got bit, before I even saw the bite, it started affecting my Kidneys.

My mom lives with me, she's 87, and she attracts any bug that bites! After seeing some of the biggest Hobo spiders ever, inside the house and in the shop, we moved the chicks and orchids out of the house and bombed with bugbombs that specified "spiders." Well, it made them ill, anyway. The spiders were slow and groggy and seemed to come out into the open, so we went around and swatted everything we could find.
I'd still use the bombs, since it's so dangerous for my Mom to get bitten, but I don't think they're completely effective.
Kit
Oregon

Ok, so I am a "professional" entomologist (imagine that), but not a professional exterminator. I've got a buddy who makes his living dealing with brown recluses and knows a heckuvalot more about them than I do, but you'll have to pay him for his opinion. Mine comes free- value it as you please.

That said, I do have a few comments to make...

First, forget hedge apples, chickens or cats. These critters are called brown RECLUSE spiders because they spend a lot of their time HIDING. Even general "bugbombs" or foggers only go so far because these critters are not usually found wandering around out in the open on your countertops and whatnot. That's not to say you won't find them out and about (or in your tub)- I have often seen them walking around on the walls in my house in Kansas, but it's usually at night during their active foraging period. Typically they are out of sight, out of mind.

They like clutter to hide behind and under- clean up as much junk laying around the house and garage as you can and keep stuff off the floor. Then, to cut down their numbers (eradicating them completely is unrealistic in most cases) 1. spray a quick spritz of fast-acting insecticides (like RAID) behind bookshelves, underneath cabinets, into airducts, etc. and 2. place sticky traps in every corner of every room in the house. Although you won't kill every single spider, it is fairly easy to knock back the population to a manageable level. Re-do the spraying and replace the sticky traps after six months- you should see a dramatic drop-off in the capture rate. By the way, how long their legs are has nothing to do with how susceptible they are to insecticides- it has more to do with the permeability of their exoskeleton.

The spiders will likely continue to have breeding populations in your attic, crawlspaces, airducts, etc., no matter how much work you put into your living spaces. Don't believe anyone who says they can completely rid your house of them- they can't. In many parts of the country it's merely a matter of keeping them under control.

Lastly, diatomaceous earth is good for some critters, but it makes a mess and I really don't see it helping much with brown recluses. It is true, however, that they are susceptible to other arthropod predators, so don't squish other large predatory spiders or centipedes- they'll do you favors.

And, as I've learned from traveling in the tropics, always shake out your boots before putting them on in the morning...

cheers,
thebugguy