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Spider Question Received From J.R., West Houston, on 11-11-08, pg. 3 J.R. CONTINUES: (4) If they are coming out at night, does that mean they are one species instead of another?? Well, some spiders are nocturnal (nighttime-foragers that hunt in the dark) and others tend to be diurnal (daylight-foragers that confine their foraging to periods and locales with good lighting). The problem with so simple a classification is that parts of most homes are always dark, and artificial lighting provides daylight conditions in other places all night long, so daytime/nightime distinctions can be misleading. Wolf spiders are diurnal, sharp-eyed hunters that rely on good lighting to find prey. If you are finding them at night, they may be attracted to an outside, unfiltered mercury-vapor, incandescent, or fluorescent light, and then come in through a door that is poorly sealed to take advantage of the even-better lighting inside your home. (5) I have young children, are these spiders going to be dangerous to them? The only spiders in Texas definitely known to consistently produce medically significant bites are the brown recluse and black widow, though several others are capable of producing medically significant bites on occasion, and practically all spiders are capable of envenomating man with a toxin that, under the right circumstances, can produce unusual symptoms that warrant a trip to the doctor. If you are sensitive to allergens, the bite of a spider that would not bother most other people may produce troublesome symptoms for you. Black widows usually keep to their webs and don't wander far from them, reducing the chance that they might harm your children, though it is always wise to scour your yard for evidence of black widows during the late spring, summer, and early fall, so that you can deal with them quickly. Your location significantly reduces the likelihood that a brown recluse might lurk in your home, to the point I would not be concerned about that spider if I were you. It will probably give you peace of mind to spider-proof your home, and I devote some material to that process in another article (CLICK ON THE LINK TO SPIDER EXTERMINATION, BELOW). * TERMITE ENCOUNTERS * SNAKE ENCOUNTERS * SNAKE BITE FIRST AID * SNAKE EXCLUSION * SPIDER ENCOUNTERS FOR 2008 * SPIDER ENCOUNTERS FOR 2007 * SPIDER BITE FIRST AID * SPIDER EXTERMINATION * PUSS CATERPILLAR ENCOUNTERS * PUSS CATERPILLAR FIRST AID * PUSS CATERPILLAR EXTERMINATION * Assembled & Edited by Jerry Cates. Questions? Corrections? Comments? BUG ME RIGHT NOW! ---- Ph: 512-331-1111 ---- E-Mail ---- Privacy ----BugsInTheNews * --0a0s-- |