So I just recently moved into a ground floor apartment in north raleigh, and ever since then I see 4-5 spiders inside my bedroom daily. They arent the biggest spiders but some of them have been about 1/2-3/4". They are brown, dont have a large sac of any type as far as I can tell, and move AMAZINGLY fast. I know this is kinda vague, but any idea what type of spider this could be? Also, they appear to be strictly ground based as I have not seen any of them on walls yet. They also seem to prefer walking along the edge of my floor/wall. any ideas?

7/11/2006 2:44:32 AM

jumping spider or wolf spider maybe

7/11/2006 3:35:31 AM

i'd say wolf spider, or

i recently came across a spider that looks nearly i dentical to the brown recluse. it's called the southern house spider, and is so similar to the brown recluse that i killed many of them before i realised they were harmless and i pick them up and throw them out.

look out for these, but a big wolf spider is your best bet. they won't hurt you. throw them outside, don't kill them. they kill nasty things like mosquitoes and fly larvea...

7/11/2006 3:49:20 AM

consult your lease agreement. I am fairly certain landlord/property management is responsible for spraying for bugs. Do it now while you have just "recently moved" so they dont think it was you being messy that let them in

7/11/2006 3:50:38 AM

black widows are pretty much the ONLY dangerous spiders around. don't look at spiders as a pest. they are the pest control. if spiders freak you out, catch them, or get someone to, and throw them outside.

7/11/2006 4:00:07 AM

yeah i let the tiny ones in my room live, they keep other wee beasties out

7/11/2006 4:28:00 AM

prudent choice.

here's to spiders.

7/11/2006 4:42:34 AM

^^^Brown recluse bites are way nastier. And they do live in NC.

7/11/2006 7:17:19 AM

I agree that it's probably a wolf spider or a common house spider. Brown recluse spiders are usually pretty tiny, and they hide in dark places like inside of shoes. I wouldn't expect to see one crawling around your room. I'm pretty sure that you don't have anything to worry about, but I would get your landlord to spray or something, just because you don't want a lot of bugs in your apartment!

7/11/2006 7:30:02 AM

I would move out immediately.

but that's just me.

7/11/2006 8:48:49 AM

Quote :

"^^^Brown recluse bites are way nastier. And they do live in NC."

7/11/2006 8:52:32 AM

found a brown recluse in my room in my new place the first night i stayed here. the scary part is it was hiding under my pants on the floor that could have sucked a lot...

7/11/2006 9:08:26 AM

Quote :

"black widows are pretty much the ONLY dangerous spiders around"

ALL OVER THE PLACE IN NC
moms had to get surgery when she got bit by one

7/11/2006 9:11:31 AM

my roommate was bit by brown recluse spiders 5 times while we were renting a house.
they scavenge at night for mites and small bugs and she was bit by rolling over on them while they were scavenging on her bed. she (and her sister) were also bit when they put on shirts that had a brown recluse residing inside of it.
those are the 2 most common ways you're bit by them.
they are nocturnal. like to hide in dark undisturbed areas (in boxes, shoes, hanging clothes in closets, in crevices in walls and floors, attics, etc...

do some research. they have characteristic markings.


btw you dont happen to live near Cameron Village do you?

7/11/2006 11:17:55 AM

probably common house spider...when we first moved into the place we live now, no one had lived here for a while and at night you'd see at least 10 spiders move around on the floor...really fast. I was worried I was going to come across some sort of huge nest of spiders sometime...I didn't though...after a couple of weeks, our cats had caught the spiders we hadn't squashed and I haven't seen any in a while.

7/11/2006 10:53:05 PM

The Brown Recluse is extremely rare in this State. This is a map of the accepted active territory for them:


Here is an even more generous map but even it shows virtually no spread into NC.



Yes, there are times they get moved into other states but isolated populations like this are quite rare.

Here is a snippet from a site for the Western NC Nature Center:

Quote :

"Several other species of Loxosceles, all of which look much like L. recluse, are found in North America, and all of these have venoms which may be toxic to humans. Most of these are found in the southwestern U. S. and Mexico, but one (L. rufescens) has been found in Raleigh, NC. So far (1994), no Loxosceles species (including -L. reclusa) have been found in western North Carolina"

http://wildwnc.org/af/brownreclusespider.html


As for identifying one, here is a group of commonly mistaken spiders and a pic of one actual recluse:
http://department.monm.edu/biology/recluse-project/photo-gallery.htm

What you described sounds an awful lot like a Wolf Spider. Definitely do not kill it, they work wonders against real pests.

XCchik, odds are those weren't brown recluse spiders. Even in a state like California where they have verified populations of the spider experts on the recluse say that almost all of the reported cases at hospitals are not recluse bites but simply other insect bites that became necrotic from secondary bacterial infection.

Here is another great site from an Entomologist with a focus on the recluse:
http://spiders.ucr.edu/index.html

7/11/2006 11:37:21 PM

this thread is worthless without pics.

carolina wolf spider


brown recluse a.k.a. fiddleback spider


southern house spider (male)


common house spider

7/11/2006 11:50:16 PM

^ Good call on the southern house spider, its probably responsible for 99% of claimed recluse sightings in NC.

7/11/2006 11:57:14 PM

man do i hate spiders, they put chills on my spine..i am terrified of them

7/12/2006 9:05:13 AM

I agree. People who say "spiders are harmless" just don't get it. To me, there is nothing scarier in the whole world than a spider. I don't care if they kill bugs, are more afraid of me than I am of them, or are completely harmless (three of the most common "save the spider" quotes I hear.) The feeling I get when I see one is unnatural and unhealthy, one of absolute fear and terror. I don't want to let them live or shuffle them outside, I want them away from me and I want them dead, it's that simple.

7/12/2006 9:23:19 AM

Suck it up Jim.

7/12/2006 9:24:13 AM

^^Preach it. If I see a large spider moving really fast across my floor; if I don't kill it I won't be sleeping soundly that night.

7/12/2006 9:32:22 AM

Fuck a bunch of spiders

7/12/2006 10:39:51 AM

Quote :

"I agree. People who say "spiders are harmless" just don't get it. To me, there is nothing scarier in the whole world than a spider. I don't care if they kill bugs, are more afraid of me than I am of them, or are completely harmless (three of the most common "save the spider" quotes I hear.) The feeling I get when I see one is unnatural and unhealthy, one of absolute fear and terror. I don't want to let them live or shuffle them outside, I want them away from me and I want them dead, it's that simple. "

I concur.

7/12/2006 10:53:56 AM

[Edited on July 12, 2006 at 12:28 PM. Reason : Everyone]

7/12/2006 12:27:44 PM

You're all being vaginas no spider will kill someone with a bit of common sense.

"HEY, THAT LOOKS LIKE A BROWN RECLUSE LETS PICK IT UP AND SEE, HURRRRRR"

7/12/2006 12:55:18 PM

Then why do people still get bit by them? Obviously those that get bit *probably* didn't fuck with them before hand.

7/12/2006 1:05:21 PM

Quote :

"Then why do people still get bit by them? Obviously those that get bit *probably* didn't fuck with them before hand."

People really don't get bit by them as much as is reported. They are like the arachnid "El Nino"... always getting blamed. Brown Recluse are extremely passive and rarely bite. They say you pretty much have to nearly squash one to make it bite. Here is a little bit talking about just how reserved they are, even when large populations are interactive with humans:

Quote :

"In its native range, the brown recluse is a very common house spider. A colleague in Missouri found 5 in a child's bedroom one night, a person in Arkansas found 6 living under his box spring in his bedroom, during a cleanup at the Univ. of Arkansas, 52 were found in a science lab that was being used everyday, a colleague found 9 living under one piece of plywood in Oklahoma, a grad student and I collected 40 of them in a Missouri barn in 75 minutes, and would have collected more, but we ran out of vials to house them. One amazing story is an 8th grade teacher in Oklahoma checking up on his students avidly collecting material by some loose bricks around a flagpole on an insect collecting trip. In about 7 minutes, 8 students collected 60 brown recluses, picking them all up with their fingers and not one kid suffered a bite. An even more amazing story is that of a woman in Lenexa, Kansas who collected 2,055 brown recluse spiders in 6 months in 1850s-built home. This family of 4 has been living there 8 years now and still not one evident bite. (see Vetter and Barger 2002, Journal of Medical Entomology 39: 948-951). When you find brown recluses in an adequate environment, you do not find one, you find dozens. And yet, the people who live with these spiders rarely get bitten nor do they run around in constant fear."

Even when they do bite it doesn't mean a necrotic wound is likely, most bites heal just fine with no medical action taken.

7/12/2006 1:29:21 PM

Well shut my mouth wide open.

7/12/2006 1:41:58 PM

I know a few people bitten by a B.Recluse, and all but 1 were asleep in bed. They rolled or turned onto one, thus pissing it off.

7/12/2006 2:23:46 PM

Yeah.. i sorta had a hole rotted in my arm by one..

but i was bit in VA

7/12/2006 2:25:31 PM

Fuck spiders.

That is all.

7/12/2006 2:29:32 PM

we did tons and tons of research, contacting experts and entomologists. had one id'd as a brown recluse by an entomolgist. so yes they do live in NC, though rarely.

there are traps made exclusively for brown recluse spiders (cant remember the name) but thats how we caught some so we could id them.

i dont mind insects at all but after my roommates experience.. not so fond of spiders.
but tarantulas are cool

7/12/2006 2:33:49 PM

yeah... i mean... it didn't hurt at all but seeing a hole rotting in your arm is pretty

7/12/2006 2:36:32 PM

although i cant produce them, i have seen maps of brown recluse territory which extend much further into NC, though they are still rare

7/13/2006 3:21:52 PM

I know 3 people who have been bitten, diagnosed, and treated for Brown Recluse bites in NC in the past year, so I wouldnt exactly say they are "rare". People are moving constantly these days, and chances are, they have probably moved some spiders with them without knowing. When I moved last year, I found spiders hiding in my packed clothes and curtins, so I know that they can be transported from place to place pretty quickly.

7/13/2006 3:40:26 PM

To add some more anecdotal evidence to the stack, I've got a relative who's doctor here in NC and he run's into Recluse bites every so often, they can't be entirely that scarce.

Anyway, I say kill em all if they're inside.

7/13/2006 6:08:20 PM

Quote :

"I know 3 people who have been bitten, diagnosed, and treated for Brown Recluse bites in NC in the past year, so I wouldnt exactly say they are "rare"."

Quote :

"To add some more anecdotal evidence to the stack, I've got a relative who's doctor here in NC and he run's into Recluse bites every so often, they can't be entirely that scarce."

Unless a specimen of the spider can be ID'ed then there really isn't anyway to tell. Heck, even in cases where the spider was captured when it bit doctors have incorrectly identified it as brown recluse (was later corrected by entomologist). Most incorrectly diagnosed bites are "Staphylococcus infection, Streptococcus ("flesh-eating bacteria") infection, Lyme disease, herpes simplex, diabetic ulcer, or bites from bedbugs, mites, ticks, small wasps, biting flies, or other spiders." The vast majority (90%) of brown recluse bites result in very little trauma and heal just fine with no intervention... they look like any other arthropod bite. Doctors are no better at identifying a brown recluse bite than your average person. An example of this is in California where just 15 specimens of brown recluse have ever been found in the last 40 years, yet there are thousands of medically diagnosed brown recluse bites every year. Heck, 60% of all the brown recluse diangoses occured in regions where the brown recluse has never been found to exist... it would be like doctors in NC claiming snake bites here were Western Diamond Back bites.

Its all hype people... even doctors are susceptible to hype/hysteria trends.

7/13/2006 11:13:32 PM

If anyone should die of spider bite it should be msb2ncsu. Then this thread would be the best ever.

7/14/2006 2:32:29 AM

Quote :

"The vast majority (90%) of brown recluse bites result in very little trauma "

Quote :

"60% of all the brown recluse diangoses occured in regions where the brown recluse has never been found to exist"

94.537% of all statistics on tww are made up

7/14/2006 3:08:40 AM

Quote :

"If anyone should die of spider bite it should be msb2ncsu. Then this thread would be the best ever."

Sorry that I'm always right. It must be difficult for "you people"

Quote :

"Quote : "The vast majority (90%) of brown recluse bites result in very little trauma " Quote : "60% of all the brown recluse diangoses occured in regions where the brown recluse has never been found to exist" 94.537% of all statistics on tww are made up"

http://spiders.ucr.edu/expert.html

Quote :

"In any event, 90% of all brown recluse bites in the Midwest heal without severe problems... No medications are required to treat brown recluse spider bites."

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7468.html

Quote :

"A world-renowned toxicology physician who worked at University of Southern California Medical Center estimates that most spider bites in California referred to him were actually the work of other arthropods and that 60% of "brown recluse spider bite" diagnoses came from areas where no Loxosceles spiders were known to exist."

Thanks for playing, jackass.

[Edited on July 14, 2006 at 9:53 AM. Reason : xoxo]

7/14/2006 9:52:01 AM

"60% of the time, it works everytime"

tell my friend who almost lost a leg due to a recluse bite those stats. I'm sure she would love ot hear that!

7/14/2006 1:05:55 PM

Quote :

"tell my friend who almost lost a leg due to a recluse bite those stats. I'm sure she would love ot hear that!"

Fine, if you want me to rub it in her face that she has exteremly bad luck then fine... some friend you are.

Seriously, did they catch and get the spider ID'ed or was this just another doctor saying "Yea, must have been a brown recluse" because that shit is tired? The majority of people lose appendages from simply bacteria infecting an insect bite and not the venom, just read above.

7/14/2006 3:01:04 PM

How often do people actually get to catch the bug after it bit them? I've always heard the intial bite isn't particularly painful so why would people collect them ? Would the fraction of cases where that was the case be a true representation of the overall statistic? Just thinking, would there be something to differentiate those who collected spiders from those who never knew their alleged attacker? I can't see anything obvious right off hand except perhaps fraud by the academics, but there seems to be not particular motive for that.

Consipiracy theorist in the house? Help me out here.

Personally I'd squish it, then burn it ,then laugh maniacally.

[Edited on July 14, 2006 at 3:25 PM. Reason : duh.]

7/14/2006 3:25:27 PM

Quote :

"How often do people actually get to catch the bug after it bit them? I've always heard the intial bite isn't particularly painful so why would people collect them ? Would the fraction of cases where that was the case be a true representation of the overall statistic? Just thinking, would there be something to differentiate those who collected spiders from those who never knew their alleged attacker? I can't see anything obvious right off hand except perhaps fraud by the academics, but there seems to be not particular motive for that. Consipiracy theorist in the house? Help me out here. Personally I'd squish it, then burn it ,then laugh maniacally."

Its like "you people" haven't read a damn thing on this page or in the links provided.

#1 Brown Recluse spiders RARELY bite. They are extremely reserved and usually ony bite if they are squished. Feel free to look back over the stories of school childeen collecting dozens with their hands and not a single bite. People live in houses infested with hundreds for years and never get bit.

#2 These spiders are not isolated. They exist in virtual colonies. When recluse spiders are present there will be dozens or even hundreds, not one or two. The notion of a person have a spider in their house or apartment but not other specimens present is simply preposterous and if it is in fact a recluse then its not likely native but brought back from traveling elsewhere recently.

#3 In most cases we are talking about regions where no specimens of the spider have EVER been found. In 4 fucking decades of checking California only 10 recluse specimens have ever been ID'ed (not just from ones that bite, but period) and yet there are thousands of diagnosed recluse bites every year because people don't know what they are talking about. Even during one news story enduced scare the entomologist had a few hundred people bring in what they thought were brown recluses (based on cursory examination) and not one fucking spider was a brown recluse.

#4 People are paranoid over spiders. If one bites you then you are going to be freaking out over if it is poisonous and such so collecting the specimen is actually pretty common. Even a totally squashed spider can be ID'ed. In regions where brown recluses are known to thrive, people who had a necrotic spider bite lesions AND managed to bring in the spider for identification only had a brown recluse 10% of the time. So clearly there is a lot more going on than the brown recluse... this doesn't even account for other cases where it could be something different like bacteria infected cuts, bed bugs, lice, ticks wasps, ulcers, herpes, or hell, even anthrax.

#5 Bacteria induced cellulitis and/or necrotic wounds are common. Heck, there is another active thread about a bee sting that resulted in a bacterial infection and subsequent cellulitis. If not attended to early or properly the wound becomnes necrotic/gangrenous and you get the rotting flesh that people assume is simply a brown recluse bite (since there was an insect bite/sting to begin with). Brown recluse bites actually rarely cause severe damage: "systemic loxoscelism occurs in much less than 1% of cases of focal necrosis of the skin due to loxosotoxin" Read this: http://spiders.ucr.edu/necrotic.html

The Brown Recluse scare is a lot like the shark... everyone is terrified of being eaten by sharks. Last year there were 39 shark attacks of various scale in the US. Just one was fatal. There are millions of people swimming in the ocean throughout the year yet just 1 fatality and a couple dozen bites. People still fall victim to irrational fears and exaggerated stories about them year after year.

7/14/2006 4:34:31 PM

Quote :

"Brown Recluse are extremely passive and rarely bite. They say you pretty much have to nearly squash one to make it bite."

yeah, and I am sure you don't "squash" them if they're hiding in your shoes, or clothes, or crawling around your bed when you're sleeping.

Jesus, you people.

7/14/2006 4:38:16 PM

Quote :

"yeah, and I am sure you don't "squash" them if they're hiding in your shoes, or clothes, or crawling around your bed when you're sleeping. Jesus, you people."

If there was a noticeable population in this state I could see your point but there isn't. Besides people manage to live with hundreds of them and never get bit so the odds of a single recluse hitching its way to your apartment and then you performing the necessary action to induce a bite are pretty rare.

7/14/2006 4:52:55 PM

i was bitten by one years ago working under a house in va, it was indeed identified as a recluse, because there were a shit ton of them under there, and my dad caught one to have it idenfied because he is a wuss, but i never went to the doctor, it was just a small spot, about 1/4" in diameter that didn't want to scab over for a few weeks, and eventually it heals up, not painful at all, just oozed a little for a while, probabbly cause i kept picking at it, and you would be hard pressed to fing the scar now unless i showed you exactly where it is on my leg, so chill the fuck out, its not gonna rot your leg off or something, and for that matter, while i'm ranting black widows arent the fucking death armageddon either, i have accidentally handled and squashed them before and never been bitten, and even if you are bitten, if you show any signs at all, it will be just a slight quesy feeling for a day or two.

ticks and mosquitos are the god damn thing you gotta worry about around here, they can really fuck you up

7/14/2006 5:02:07 PM

^ OMFG, HOW DID YOU NOT LOSE ALL YOUR LIMBS?!?1

Seriously, yeah I was surprised when I learned about black widows too. I believe I read there hasn't been a single death from a black widow since they developed an antivenom and that even before then it was like only 1% were fatal. Another that is blown way out of proportion for sure.

7/14/2006 5:15:37 PM