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Brown Recluse Spiders in Texas (DFW Area) Report and Photograph Links Courtesy of Mike H., Houston, Texas, 12 June 2007 Additional Notes by Jerry Cates
Mike H. Wrote: Jerry--You state in your material on the southern house spider (Kukulcania hibernalis) that "Some of the best authorities in the field of arachnology claim that the brown recluse is common in Texas, yet while I've collected spider specimens from all over the state, I've never found one. The southern house spider, by comparison, is so abundant that I've collected specimens in Midland, Odessa, Abilene, Brownwood, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Round Rock, Austin, Georgetown, Mount Pleasant, Corpus Christi, and in other locations." Several years ago, I worked in the field of pest control in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Until taking that job, I--like you--had never seen a single brown recluse, despite hearing horror stories about these spiders being “everywhere”. Once I began working in pest control in the DFW area, though, I found that recluse spiders are fairly common in certain locales. Certain areas appear to be more conducive to recluse infestation than others, eg, homes in Farmers Branch and Carrollton are much more likely to yield a specimen than homes in Garland or Mesquite. I never found a recluse spider outdoors, but indoors is a different story – where one is found, many, many others tend to show up as well. I collected well over 100 in a single home in Carrolton in a single week using glue traps, though not a single occupant of that home had either been bitten or had even seen a brown recluse spider. The recluse is an incredibly difficult spider to control because it can survive for ages (literally) without food or water – I personally observed one that survived nearly a year without either. In infested homes, attics and garages tend to feature the highest concentrations of spiders, as well as closets containing water heaters which their prey tend to exploit as entry points into homes. Maybe this will help you in collecting live specimens for observation if you attempt to find L. reclusa in the Dallas area - in nearly every instance, infestations in homes that bordered a wooded, or recently wooded area or field. At this web address are some pictures that I took of recluse spiders that were taken from the heavily infested home in Carrollton: http://violinspider.tripod.com/spiderid/id.html http://violinspider.tripod.com/spidercontrol/controlimages/brownreclusesticky.jpg These photos are provided to show that I know what I’m talking about. Besides Carrolton, I've found brown recluse spiders in homes in the cities of Lucas, Allen, Sachse, Wylie, McKinney, Farmers Branch, Far North Dallas, and Far North Plano I never found such spiders in any of the homes I serviced in Garland, Sunnyvale, Mesquite, Dallas proper, Richardson, Fort Worth or the Mid Cities. My Reply: Mike---Good photos on your links. The arrangement of the eyes, showing three pairs on the cephalothorax, along with the violin marking, confirms the spider was a recluse, in the genus Loxosceles. My pest management work in the DFW area, from 1980 to the present, has focused on nursing homes and hospitals, as opposed to servicing a large number of ordinary residential dwellings there. That may partially explain why I have not found any recluse spiders in those areas. If you have any preserved specimens of the recluse spiders you found that you could share with me, I would be happy to come by and pick them up. Also, if you remember one or more homes that you found an unusual infestation of recluse spiders in, perhaps you could let me know. It is likely those homes still have a few recluse spiders around that I might be able to collect---Jerry Note: for authoritative information on brown recluse spiders and the common misdiagnosis of their bites, click on the links below: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/site/free/hlsa0805.htm http://spiders.ucr.edu/myth.html ---------------------------------------------- Please contact us about your personal experiences, if you have been bitten by a brown recluse, black widow, or any other spider, including jumping spiders and garden spiders (the bites of which typically produce a transitory inflammation, but resolve within a few days without medical attention), whether recently or in the past thirty years, anywhere in the world. For example, the bite of a species of garden spider, the golden orb spider of Australia [Nephila edulis] typically is unremarkable, but on occasion produces medically significant secondary infections; the frequency and nature of bites experienced from that species of spider is also a part of this study. One object of this study is to collect data that might relate to a mysterious series of spider-related infections, involving a special pathogen, that took place in the United States and in Australia between 1977 and 2006. Although only fifteen such infections were reported to medical establishments, seven appear to be associated with spider bites. Some authorities suggest that the number of actual infections of this type that occurred in the U.S. and Australia during the past thirty years is much larger, but that they have been underreported. Underreporting of specific kinds of infections can occur, either because the persons infected chose not to seek medical assistance, or the medical establishments misdiagnosed the infections as being caused by other infectious agents. We are seeking to establish an estimate of the number of human spider bites that occur each year by these and similar spiders, whether the bite resulted in injury to the human or not. Next, we hope to establish the number of instances where the bite (1) became inflamed and/or infected, then resolved without medical intervention, or (2) infected, ulcerated, or led to a generalized sickness, and required medical intervention. ---------------------------------------------- Back to: Texas Spiders Back to: Bugsinthenews |
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