Items left lying undisturbed on the floor, such as supplies, toys, or clothing, are perfect daytime refuges for these spiders. Contact with humans usually occurs because they have taken temporary refuge in clothing or bedding. The nocturnal brown recluse spiders hunt for insects some distance from their webs. They are scavengers, preferring dead prey to live.

Usually where one is found, there will be more. Brown recluse spiders usually live in dense clusters. In fact, the typical web seen in visible areas such as a wall or eave is most likely not due to a brown recluse, but to other types of spiders that may even pursue the brown recluse as prey. They retreat when possible, and prefer dark, undisturbed places near or on the ground for their webs, which are used for nesting, not for trapping prey. How do you keep brown recluse spiders out of your home and yard?Īs the name 'recluse' suggests, these spiders are shy.What are the symptoms of a brown recluse spider bite?.Recluse spiders have also been reported in areas outside this range, sometimes hitchhiking in luggage or inadvertently sent in packaging. The violin-like markings on the desert species are less obvious, but the bite, though not usually life-threatening, should be considered dangerous and can lead to severe tissue damage. There are twelve or thirteen recluse spider species in the United States including the infamous Loxosceles reclusa, the brown recluse, which is most common in the midwestern and south-central states, and the Arizona brown spider, or the desert recluse, which is found in the southwestern desert states. How do you keep brown recluse spiders out of your home and yard? Where Are Brown Recluse Spiders Found?īrown recluse spiders are found outside in firewood piles, leaves, or piles of rocks, or indoors in dark closets, shoes, cluttered basements or attics. Brown recluse males are slightly smaller than females. Their overall size is 3/8 inch to 1/2 inches long. A brown spider with markings on the tail end is probably not a brown recluse. The tail-end segment of the spider has no markings. The brown recluse's six eyes are arranged in pairs in a semi-circular pattern that creates the anterior part of the violin shape, though you would need a good magnifying lens to distinguish them. Distinct violin-shaped mark on on the back points to the posterior of the spider.Uniformly colored abdoment with fine hairs.Identification of the Brown Recluse Spider

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