A question about spiders

Bunting, it’s very unusual to find a Brown Recluse as far north as Ontario, they are a warmer-climate beastie.Probably brought in by some d@%n fool who wanted an “exotic” pet.

-- the day you quit learning is the day you quit living.

thanks

well I guess we all know how some people send things that aren’t so

I didn’t think so Dini

-- NS Zone 5B 200 KM East of Halifax cheers Bunting------Having a place to go – is a home. Having someone to love – is a family.

I’ve got them through the house, yeah… It was worse when we first moved in..

So long as you leave them alone, they won’t bother you..

We’ve also got Black Widows here.. Not a big issue either as they mostly stay in the rocks and outside of peoples normal range of activity.

The venom of the Brown itself is what ate the skin away, not an infection.. In fact, the wounds won’t readily get infected.. Most times the treatment is steroids and they leave the wound open to breath.

I don’t think that bites always case such a harsh reaction. I think I got tagged on the side of the leg by once recently, had a hard bump that turned red and got a bloody center, but it healed up in a few days. Was about the size of a lady bug.

Think it depends on the person who is bit as to the reaction, but several factors come into play with any bite.. Age of the spider, how well it tagged you, how well your immune system is.. etc..

At any rate, like dini said, they ain’t that far north, at all. We never had them while I was living in PA… All I had up there were rattle snakes..

Fun facts… Most pesticides will not kill a brown.. They can go up to 6 months without eating.. Their natural predator around here are Wolf spiders.. Which, I love those..

http://www.thebigzoo.com/Animals/Brown_Recluse_Spider.asp

Here’s a wolf spider.. Never seen one that large personally.

Here’s a brown.. Note the fiddle down the back.. They range in color from light tan to darker.

Oh, and to set your mind at ease, here’s the range of the recluse family.

However, if they work in any shipping environment, it’s easily possible that it was a stow away.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

Can I just say that … I HATE SPIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- "A perfect garden is just a garden to be in-perfection. Mornings to work on it and evenings to pause and look at it." Southeast Michigan, Zone 5a/5b

Gad Scott

How can you live with them in your house. WE have spiders too but none harmful that I know of or hope not

Of course as a gardener you know how good they are for the garden killing of bad bugs

But I don’t like spiders tho. You should see my SIL, he creeps right out,scared to death of them no mater how tiny

Yes when I looked at the pictures sent to me it was the bite that destroyed the flesh Ate the whole top of the hand from thumb up and the messages with the pic said Ont

I guess I am further away again by a couple thousand miles so I am safe, I hope!!

Yes Grandma T you can say loud and clear you don’t like spiders and I will join you. lol,lol

-- NS Zone 5B 200 KM East of Halifax cheers Bunting------Having a place to go – is a home. Having someone to love – is a family.

I never said I like nor want them in my house.. They’re just getting under control since we moved in.. We’ve got a contract with a pest control co. which comes out once a quarter and sprays the house inside and out.

:p

Know, there’s still things up there which can kill you, like snakes… Wouldn’t say you’re that safe.. ;)

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

Scott

No poison snakes in Nova Scotia. WE jut have garter snakes. Little green ones and big brown ones. Ugh!! But harmless

But if I see one in the garden, I welcome him as long as he doesn’t surprise me and scare the wits out of me. lol,lol

But I have seen bears one time in my garden. A pair . They scared me more than anything. They wanted the raspberries and blackberries. There was a fence between me and them tho, .. enough

They stink a lot so that smell alerted me they were there before I saw them

-- NS Zone 5B 200 KM East of Halifax cheers Bunting------Having a place to go – is a home. Having someone to love – is a family.

Awww.. I LOVE garter snakes… So cute! Fun to play with.. :)

Ok… Well… Bears can kill you… So… Think I’d rather deal with bears than spiders though?

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

Me too Scott

Bears are common here for rural folks although that was the only time, I encountered them

Its on the news quite often they need to call a ranger in to take care of them and in my community but by the time I hear about it, they are long gone

I have more deer and raccoons that anything. The coons drive me nuts. They distroy so much and so brave.

I have 2-4 that come up on my deck every nite to steal from the feeders if I forget to bring them inside.

They had their kittens now so in a month I’ll have a few more

This time last year, I live trapped 12 and took them away. Drove with them in cages in the trunk and dropped them off 20-25 kms away

Darn things

-- NS Zone 5B 200 KM East of Halifax cheers Bunting------Having a place to go – is a home. Having someone to love – is a family.

Thanks for the info on the spiders Scott.I too received the email about the brown recluse and was wondering about it.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Brown Recluse, also known as the Fiddleback is in Ontario. My mother was bit by one on Manitouland Island.

They are here, in further south in Central Ontario. Small pea sized with what looks like the outline of a fiddle on their thorax. Like some one said they are not aggresive but when cornered will bite. They rpefer damp dark places like outhouses, wood piles etc.

Beware….........they give a nasty bite.

-- Central northish Ontario

I’m still not sure about that… source?

I’m more apt to believe that it’s a hobo spider, which is often confused with a brown and causes the same type of wound which erupts into a lesion killing off the surrounding skin.

From what I know, they just don’t get that far north and are a southern only spider.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_recluse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_spider

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

The only venamous snake in Ontario would by the Massassauga Rattler. I saw one up on the shores of Georgian Bay sunning itself on a cottage porch. I don’t care for spiders or snakes particularly.

-- blooz 5b - You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt. ~author unkown

Once in a very long time we will get a black widow spider but these come in with the bananas from the tropics ….

-- blooz 5b - You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt. ~author unkown

Scott

they are like smog…...........just about everywhere

the climate has changed, and still changing

soon enough I will have orange trees

-- Central northish Ontario

i’ve seen the mississauga rattlers round here also. CFIA and USDA cannot check stuff as well as they would like, quite frankly, it’s not plausable. apparently in the fall we regularlly get geckos on the plants we get shipped in. now if there are geckos you know thats not the only thing that hitches. they have been in the local news. so they are arround, just not as common. As for the wolf spiders, we grow em big out here. when you see them pushing the grass out of their way under the weight of em, you know its too big!
Sib ;)