Preventing Brown Recluse bites at night
Brown Recluse spiders are non-aggressive and prefer to hide and run rather than attack humans. Most bites occur accidentally when rolling over in bed, gathering wood, putting on clothing or shoes, emptying out boxes, cleaning out closets and other undisturbed areas and when taking a bath or shower.
Brown Recluses cannot negotiate the smooth surfaces of sinks, bathtubs and shower surfaces. This is because have pinchers at the end of their feet to grab things as they walk. If there is nothing to grab onto, they have no way to move.
This is helpful knowledge in preventing Brown Recluse bites. They cannot climb up the smooth surface of the feet of most bed framing. However, if you have ruffles on your bed or if the bedding material is in any way touching the floor during the day or at night, they can easily climb up and you are more likely to suffer a bite when rolling over at night.
It is also very important that you keep the bed away from the wall. They can climb some walls if there is a rough enough surface area to them. Then they could get on your bed via the wall and crawl into your bedcovers. Bites occur when people move around in their bed at night and accidentally crush the spider.
Another consideration is that Brown Recluses tend to like certain kinds of ceiling light fixtures. They can crawl inside the fixture through the attic/ceiling, escape the fixture and then drop down below.
If your light fixture is directly above your bed, this is another possible way they could enter your bedding area. You can check your light fixture to see if any Brown Recluse spiders may have gotten caught inside the bulb cover. If so, that's a sure sign that they are entering in this way. You can also try to seal the area around the light fixture if possible.
Thomas J. Martincic
Brown Recluse Response Team
www.Brown-Recluse.com
Progeny
22/07/2008, 10:05
My two sons, ages six and three, just came to me about 10 minutes ago with a spider in a little plastic box saying "Mom look we have a pet spider". They were so excited. I told them to let me see what kind of spider it was first, and what do you know it was a Brown Recluse. Of all of the pets. Needless to say i took it and killed it. I thought about letting it outside, but common sense intervened. They said they didn't touch it, but to be safe I came to this site to see what more I could learn about treatment and what to look for in case one of the kids had been bitten. Thank you. You were very helpful.
05/08/2008, 23:26
We just moved into a house in western tennessee then we find out it is infested with brown recluse spider's. We called terminix to have the house treated, they placed glue traps in a few areas, and within 3 days all were overflowing with spiders, The tech said he just completed a training class on the brown recluse and he recomended putting vaseline on the bottom of the bed post's
18/08/2008, 23:13
I was bitten by the spider while checking my AC unit located in the attic. At first thought I scraped my knee on some fiber glass but then heard a short criket sound and then saw the spider crawling away. Days later I found myself at the doctors office with a hole in my knew. I was very lucky I got exellent treatment from my doctor. Anyways, while having a barbecue outside my home I saw another Brown Recluse on my back patio. As I walked over to kill it a wild duck beat me to it and ate it. Since then I have been feeding birds and ducks outside my home. I do live near water front property called resacas in Brownsville, Texas. Hopefully, the birds can rid these spiders.
20/08/2008, 10:02
i was biteing by a spider by the same spider and i was in the hospital for days and it turn into mesra infections.