Interesting Facts About Brown Recluse Spiders In Great Falls, VA
..Some of the common spiders you can find in Virginia include Black Widow, Cellar Spider, Trapdoor Spider, and the Brown Recluse. Others are the Giant Lichen OrbWeaver Spider, Wolf spider, European Garden Spider, and the Running Crab Spider. From these lists, the most dangerous are the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse spiders.
The wolf spider also stands out as one of the largest spiders in Great Falls, VA. In recent times getting rid of spiders has become easier with the development of environment-friendly spider control methods. In this article you will learn more about Brown Recluse Spider in Virginia and these tips should help make your spider control work easier.
What is the brown recluse spider?
The recluse is what you would call the introvert in the spider family. They are shy and timid and they prefer being in the background. They like hiding in dark places and you will most likely find them behind a rock during the day as they glory in their privacy. From the name, they are brown in color, something that even helps them further in their quest to hide.
Native to the central and eastern part of the United States, the brown recluse spider is perhaps the deadliest species in all of North America. It can be identified by the brown or gray body, the violin-shaped markings, the long legs, and the three pairs of eyes (compared to most spiders with four pairs). One of the most interesting facts is that the brown recluse spider can self-amputate a limb to flee from a predator or prevent the venom from spreading to the rest of the body. It doesn’t regrow the limb, however, and simply compensates for the loss with an uneven gait.
While they’re not very aggressive, and most bites don’t cause major symptoms, the venom can lead to serious complications in a minority of cases, including the possibility of skin necrosis, nausea, vomiting, fever, rashes, and muscle and joint pain. Read more from AZ Animals…
What are some unique behaviors of the Recluse Spider?
The way this shy creature does its mating is something straight from the movies. This is how it goes: the male spider starts off with a little dance to woo the female into getting into a family-making dance. For most spiders, that should work. However, if it doesn’t, the male gets to redeem itself. How? By offering food to the female spiders and that begins their family. Funny, right? Here’s more about their behavior:
The brown recluse gets its name from its color and its “shy nature,” Bills said. “Most spiders go out of their way to avoid humans, which makes sense, considering we are thousands of times larger than they are and don’t have a great record of behaving politely toward them.”
These primarily nocturnal spiders build webs that serve as shelters as well as trigger systems, alerting them when prey is passing nearby so they can actively hunt it down, according to the Integrated Pest Management Program. They typically eat insects, such as silverfish and crickets, according to Oklahoma State University. As dawn nears, brown recluses find dark, sheltered hiding places; in nature, they may find refuge in rock cracks and crevices, but if they’re near humans, these spiders may camp out in places such as shoes or around human-altered environments, including trash cans, rubber tires or tarps, a quirk that can put them in close contact with people. Read more from Live Science…
How dangerous is the Brown Recluse?
Like most creatures, especially spiders, the Brown Recluse only attacks when there is a threat against it. Its main method of attack is by biting its enemy and inserting poison into its body. The brown recluse is not as dangerous as the black widow spider. But be sure if they bite you, you will feel the sting.
The only other spider in North America that poses a medical danger to humans is the brown recluse. If you live in the American Midwest, chances are you live side-by-side with many of these tiny spiders. Even so, your chances of being bitten are slim. That’s because they rarely bite humans.
“I’ve had 100 recluse spiders running up my arm, and I’ve never been bitten by one,” recluse expert Rick Vetter said in one interview. He spent 20 years studying this spider, and says fears of brown recluse spiders are overblown.
Although the risk of being bitten is low, these are potentially dangerous spiders. However, no deaths have been reported in the United States. Even if you aren’t killed by the spider, their bites can be extremely painful and scarring. Read more from OnHealth…