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 beautiful garden is a work of heart" -- Royal Oak, MI - Zone 5

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 ;)

We’re not supposed to have the Brown Recluse in my neck of the woods. But all you have to do is ask any ER doctor in the state and they will say different. We’ve had to deal with two different bites. My wife’s was much worse than mine. We’re not positive, but blame the Brown Recluse for the bites. I’ll try to post the photos.
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 53 year old "juniorjock". Square Foot Gardening

Those are some nasty looking bites!!!! Can I say again … I HATE SPIDERS!!!!

-- "A beautiful garden is a work of heart" -- Royal Oak, MI - Zone 5

There’s a reason they’re called a recluse

-- GardenMentor, Seattle, WA, www.gardenmentors.com & www.gardenhelp.org

Those bites could have been caused by the hobo spider, which is a relative of the brown.

Since I have no idea of your area, can’t say. There’s many things that can cause necrotic reactions however. Sadly the brown is always the first to blame, even if it’s not a spider bite.

Heck, bacteria can rot your flesh away. There’s also the yellow sac spider which can cause smaller wounds like that. It all depends on what’s around you.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

I’ve got a ton of spiders in the basement… well, webs. It would seem that there is a veritable feast of insects for them to dine on, but everytime I sweep out the webs, they’ll reappear in less than a week, but I never see them active. In out old apt, I’d never seen so many different species in one place. I don’t like em, but I know they’re doing me a favor eating all the other little beasties… so if they don’t bug me, I don’t bug them. (and by bug me, I mean show themselves.)

-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.

The posted photos show nothing of the actual damage the brown recluse can do. Go to brown recluse.com.

bbqKing.

-- As always, bbqKing. Lawrenceville, Ga.

The key word is can do… Only 5% of cases can get as bad as some pictures show.

I was bit on the leg by a brown and the worst I had was an annoying 1/4” hole that refused to heal over for a month and when it did, the skin in the area is hard now due to scaring.

Much of what is said, such as from sites who say “We can help!” are all scare tactics to get people to buy into expensive pest treatments to deal with them and feed into the fear of the dreaded flesh eating monster.

I have no issues with them and am not going to any extremes to keep their population in check. By far the BEST method of killing them off are well placed glue traps that hug the walls. This is because most chemicals do not affect them for one, and delivery is more difficult with browns because they are high walkers and do not drag their abdomen on the ground (which is where they breathe) so they are much less likely to pick up poisons.

I’d highly recommend checking out legit faq sites if you’re interested in learning more.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2061.html
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/spiders/brownspider/brownspider.htm
http://spiders.ucr.edu/

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

bbqking,
I have no idea what kind of spider bites are shown in the photo. I think if we’d seen the damn spider (or whatever the hell it was), we wouldn’t have gotten bit.
-JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 53 year old "juniorjock". Square Foot Gardening

Oh My goodness
Bit by a spider,?? hmmm

I really don’t like anything that crawls but I do leave spiders alone. I know they are good to kill off bad bugs

I don’t like them inside the house tho YIKES!!!

One time laying in bed watching tv, my eye caught something moving

Mr Spider was coming down his web from the ceiling about a foot from my face.

I was shot from a cannon and out of bed. Crabbed the broom. He quietly left, lol,lol

It was , I call, Mr Dandy long legs.

he found his way back a few days later.

I found other usess for a broom others that for sweeping floors.

-- 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’m with you Bunting. There’s a time and place for a spider, and anywhere near me is not the place to be, anytime.
-JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 53 year old "juniorjock". Square Foot Gardening

My SIL is terrified of them, small or big

-- 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.

If I were to choose between spiders and ticks.. Spiders would win hands down.. They don’t actively seek me out to FEED on me.

Dag blasted dog tick latched onto me in between my big tow (right at the middle) and it STILL itches… Been MONTHS. (Some time this summer)..

Fleas and ticks are on my “pure evil” list.. I find no redeeming quality or use to them what so ever.

Wolf spiders are fun.. I pick those up from time to time.. I think they’re cute.. Jumpy though.

-- Planting Daylilies in Kentucky, zone 6b

This whole thread gives me the heeby jeebys

As I am eating my burrito I find myself checking each bite

I used to work in a pipe fabrication shop and we would get crates of metal fittings from china, korea, thailand, all sorts of weird and wonderful places.

Every now and then one of the crates would be infested with these huge cockroach looking things, with 6 or 8 giant hairy legs. I mean these things were the size of a tennis ball. They also fly towards you and land on you, and apparently if they bite you in the hand your whole arm goes numb for a bit.

Ever since I saw my first one, I would always wear a pair of thick welders gloves before reaching into one of those crates….

-- Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.. shine on you crazy diamond

flying at you .. oh yah – that’s nice argh.. shivering

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

Reminds me of the Internet Hoax Blush spider Arachnius gluteus.
The Spider under the Toilet Seat Hoax
Sharad

-- Bagwan-- “If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in their life, then it means they have never tried a new thing in their life”.-Albert Einstein

No one wants to be bitten by a brown recluse, a black widow or one of the really poisonous spiders found elsewhere in the world. As a gardener and an appreciator of all nature has to offer; however, I give you something in the spiders’ defense:

Spiders are beneficial arachnids to have in our gardens. They are generalist hunters, meaning they eat what they can catch. They tend to eat what is most available, helping to prevent pest population explosions. They will eat flying and crawling insects, insect eggs and very small animals. They can be web builders, running foragers (like Scott’s favorite the wolf spider) and ambushers on the ground. They can be found in all levels of vegetation layers, so the more levels you have in your garden (tree canopy, shrubs, herbs and flowers), the more species you will attract. Different species live in different habitats. If you want to stop your dependence on pesticides and have a successful garden, welcome spiders into your yards and gardens. Some spiders live more than one year. To keep spiders in your garden, give them rich, friable soil, mulch, crevices and undisturbed dead plants to hide under during the winter.

-- Robin, Massachusetts - "Live simply so others can simply live." M. Gandhi

Ticks, you are right My son has been quite ill with Lyme desease.. from a damn tick

-- 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 don’t mind spiders as long as they are in the garden

But I seem to have a lot of them, even hanging from the eves of the house, webs everywhere I need to knock down. This is in summer of course

-- 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.