[Ingwaz]

There is a large brown recluse spider in our kitchen of our small apartment....we have two cats and Litara is in a wheelchair...so we need to be extra careful, as recluse are known to attack/stalk for no reason.

Does anyone know a safe and effective way to get rid of them? It is about 4 cm in length and a beautiful maroonish brown/shiny color, with small sacks on its leg joints, which I believe are a poison sack. I am positive this is a male brown recluse spider. I would love any feedback--asap!

He is right now, behind the oven. We put a bottle near his last resting place, hoping he will go in and we could throw him out!!! Ideas, please?

[Kitt]

Get rid of him one way or the other. They are nothing to fool with as you probably know

[Kitty]

Can you or someone spray some pesticide or bug spray behind the stove? Be careful, though, since you have cats....you don't want to make them sick. But, you don't want them to get bitten, either! Is there someone who can move the stove and kill the spider? Maybe the apartment management could find someone who'd do it for you?

[mrsD]

Brown recluse has a characteristic shape on the back of his body....and typically is not large. Most people never see this spider, when they get bitten!

Yours might be a wolf spider.

http://www.brownreclusespider.org/

http://www.brownreclusespider.org/br...tification.htm

This is the wolf spider...and they can get really BIG:

http://www.brownreclusespider.org/ga...olf-spider.htm

I had one jump out at me once from between two rocks in the garden. I almost fainted away!

I had a horrible spider bite on my ankle, on vacation one year. It bit me while was sitting on the dock watching shooting stars. It was painful and nasty and took 3 months and 3 drugs to heal up. I never saw it or felt it... til the next day.

I don't think most sprays work on spiders.

[braingonebad]

I hate that site, Mrs D! Yikes, creepy spiders crawling around. Gives me the willies.



Okay, see if you can tell me what this one is. I took this pic in Florida. It had a leg span, as it sits here, about 3 inches across.

Note the yellow web.

[braingonebad]

And that guy was nothing, after seeing the fishing spiders along the coast. I was too scared to get the camera. There must have been thousands of them that day, all along the tops of the trees. Big as my hand, at least. You could see their silhouettes, driving by in the car. Big, and thick. Meaty.

I was like *Roll the windows up!!! Do NOT stop this truck!!!*

[mrsD]

There are some nasty ones in Florida. I sat in a plane next to a gal and her hubby from Ohio....he was bitten in a hotel bed.

He was sooooo sick. They cut their vacation short so he could come home. (after 3 days in the hospital there!)

Then there was a guy I had as a customer, who was bitten on the arm in his RV in Florida. Nasty nasty. I listened to his story for a long time! He was getting irrigating solution and antibiotics from me.

I really don't know what is in Florida. Maybe someone can help us out there?

[Kitt]

Here you go.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in017

YUK

[mrsD]

I am surprised I haven't had a nightmare yet!

I did have one nasty one a month ago about spiders... cringe!

Not my favorite beasties.

It took me YEARS to get used to them on vacation. I'll tell you there is a spider for every rock up there. They like to hide in the bed too.

Still I can cohabit with them now, but I don't like them any more than before!

I recall when my son was about 8 yrs old and he found a huge toad.
We put the toad in our 5 gal aquarium I keep up there, to watch beasties.
Hubby decided to feed the toad, and he caught a big orb weaver under the eave using a broom. We fed that to the toad, and it was one gross moment, cherished by my son.... but not cherished by ME!

We had 2 praying mantis's in that aquarium once, a male and female.
Watching them eat the flies we caught for them was tame compared to the toad eating the huge spider! LOL (we let the mantis's go eventually and watched them run up the trees to the top!)

[hollym]

I am now scratching Florida off of the list of possible vacation destinations....