Spider Season

[KCRIVERRAT]

Your neighbor had a big-assed calf Wayne.

I get the wolf spiders too but the recluse have been more prevasive the last few years.

ID is easy if you know what the heck kinda spider it is. (I know you do Wayne).

A recluse is small-bodied with long legs. Usually the body is tannish, sometimes a tad darker. There's a distinct backwards violin mark from front to back. I'm not a bug dude (entomolgist... I think) but I know what a recluse looks like. And I'll kill every one I see.

By the way, they don't spin the kind of webs outside that catch mosquitos. Orbital type spiders do that. A recluse is a sloppy web builder.

Google it for a pic.

[Stoneroller]

http://www.google.com/search?q=brown+recluse+bite&hl=en&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4GGHP_enUS442US443&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=7CZ-T67bAsni2QWQtfzxDQ&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CBQQ_AUoAQ&biw=1424&bih=697

I didn't want to post the pictures here, but take a look if you want. Don't screw around with a recluse bite. It can appear to heal and then weeks/months/even years later can reoccur in some people. Some have more extreme reactions to the toxin than others, but it's not something I'd roll dice on.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Dude - I just got sick looking at those pictures.

Put some laundry away a minute ago and there was one sitting right on one of my t-shirts.

[Al Agnew]

I wish they were as uncommon around here as black widows. I encounter a black widow occasionally, but always outside in a dark place, never in the house.

The big wolf spiders are creepy, but I like them. They eat a lot of bugs and they are usually pretty well-behaved. My wife and I used to live in an old remodeled farm house. It had a small living room, and one night we were sitting watching TV when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a huge wolf spider crawling across the floor. The thing was at least 3 inches across the leg span, with a body well over an inch long. Mary saw it, and although she isn't much afraid of spiders, she shouted for me to do something about it. The spider was crawling rather rapidly toward the door, and I said, "Well, I think she wants out." I went over and opened the door, and the spider crawled right out into the night.

I've never been bitten by a poisonous spider, but I've been stung by a Missouri scorpion, and it was about five times more painful than a wasp or bumblebee sting. The thing stung me right on the bottom of my bare foot, and it felt like a red hot needle shooting up my leg to my knee. The pain didn't last long and there wasn't any lasting damage, but wow, it hurt!

[Mitch f]

Got stung by a little yellow scorpion in Oklahoma when I was sixteen. It felt like someone was holding a match against my leg.

[Jack Jones]

We get a lot of good size brown spiders in the grass and near the base of the house. Once in a while they come in, but more likely in the autumn. Can't say that they are anything other than common garden spiders. Still, I don't like them. I keep my distance from them and they keep their distance from me.

Ever since I had one of those fuzzy wolf spiders fall on me at my Grandmother's boat house when I was a kid, anytime I see a spider I just assume that (1) it wants to bite me, (2) it will bite me and (3) I will die a painful death from the bite. Keeping that as my mindset has served me well for years.

When at the pumpkin patch we go to in Marshfield last year I saw a yellow and black garden spider. Biggest darn spider I ever saw. Emailed a photo to my sister back in the Northeast and she just chalked it up to another reason to avoid Missouri. Have to see if I can find the photo and I'll post it.

[Stoneroller]

that's a black and yellow orb weaver jack. also known as a garden spider look like this:

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_and_yellow_argiope.htm

[KCRIVERRAT]

Thanks for the pics Stoneroller. After seeing the range of the recluse, I've began searching for a home in Washington state!

[Quillback]

Thanks for the pics Stoneroller. After seeing the range of the recluse, I've began searching for a home in Washington state!

I have lived in Washington state, they have the recluse up there also. Lots of them ...

[Quillback]

Sorry, my mistake, actually they are Hobo spiders they have in WA state, very similar bite characteristices.

http://hobospider.com/info/index.html