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Pest Control

2010-10-01 09:57:00

Spiders – part one

Question: I’m seeing spiders everywhere around my home. Should I be worried about them?

Answer: As the lyrics of the old childhood song went, “Inside, outside, all around the house…” it seems that spiders are appearing everywhere. Some of the spiders you see should cause you concern because they can deliver a poisonous bite. Spiders seldom bite humans, although all of us know someone who has been bitten by a brown recluse. Spiders bite because they become trapped next to the skin. A brown recluse fang is 1/100 the size of a bee stinger and cannot penetrate most fabrics. Usually we roll over on them while resting or put on a piece of clothing or shoes and they become trapped next to our skin. Most common spiders are harmless to humans and pets. The two poisonous spiders in Kansas are the brown recluse and the black widow. Black widows tend to stay outside and are usually visible, while brown recluses like to move inside our homes and structures and live in the our storage, walls, attics, basements. They show up about everywhere inside homes and can be found in great numbers in garages, sheds and out-buildings. Spiders are such prolific breeders that some experts estimate an acre of land can support several million spiders. From late summer through early fall, spider populations build up like a crescendo in a piece of music, spilling over into all areas of structures. Home owners get the garden variety spiders hanging around the outside of their homes. They are most noticeable on decks and porches where they make large, symmetrical webs across structural elements like posts and rails. The common brown garden spiders build webs every night in hopes of catching flying insects. During the day they abandon the webs and hide behind gutters or in corners spending the day in their hideout. These arachnids are harmless to humans, but they often cause a fright when you walk into a web and get a face full of sticky strands and wonder where the spider went. These kinds of events can send chills running up your spine as you search your body frantically looking for the source of tangly web. Occasionally black widow spiders web around the outside of homes, usually in protected areas. They generally remain in their webs day and night. Black widows have a slick black exterior, with a bulbous body and long thin legs. They have the easily identifiable orange/red hourglass mark on the underside of their abdomen. These spiders can deliver a serious, poisonous bite. They posses a neurotoxin that travels up the nervous system causing symptoms far from the site of the bite, often, a dull, numbing pain and cramps in one or several large muscle masses. In severe cases, the poison may cause breathing difficulties, heart irregularities and possible death. Thirty years ago, black widows were rarely seen in Wichita. If found, they were usually located south of MacArthur Street. Recently, these spiders are more prevalent often found in wood piles, around doors and windows, in garages and around electrical boxes. People should take a look in outdoor structures before entering or placing their hands in openings such as cinder blocks and hutches and abandoned dog houses. Spiders living inside a home are seldom a good thing. In my experience inspecting homes for spiders, I have found brown recluses to be the most common spider infesting homes. These “fiddle back” spiders can bite unsuspecting victims with a cytotoxin which kills flesh. This kind of tissue death is called necrosis. The poison‘s effect is to cause a localized sore at the site of the bite where the skin dies and the underlying flesh dies. Some people can react systemically to the bite. Small children and the elderly are at the highest risk of having anaphylactic shock. Brown recluse spiders are often found running the floors, climbing walls or running around in the bottoms of bathtubs, sinks or showers. They have a brown coloration that can run from a light tan to a charcoal grey. The most distinguishable characteristic is the lack of noticeable hair and their long, thin legs. They are not the kind of spider that makes a web and waits for prey to get caught. Rather, they are hunter, predators that come out after dark and roam the floors and walls looking for prey. If you examine one closely, they have a dark brown violin marking on the front side of the cephalothorax (head and thorax). As the name brown recluse would imply, these spiders are generally found secluded spaces such as garages, utility rooms, basements and attics. They have a mysterious quality as they seem to appear out of nowhere, creeping around baseboards, darting under furniture and disappearing as quietly as they appeared. Few creatures in nature create as much fear and fascination as spiders. Humans only dislike snakes more. As summer fades into fall, spider populations will increase and sightings will be more numerous as they appear inside, outside, all around the house. Just be on the alert for the poisonous ones. If you find you have poisonous spiders, I recommend you seek professional help. Ridding homes of spiders is a process, not an event, and most people don’t have the knowledge and discipline to manage the problem. Managing spider infestations require special knowledge and expertise that most homeowners do not possess.