Posted: 5/27/2006 8:10:51 PM EDT
 Found by my cat in the toe-kick of my husband's sink in the master bathroom. Good kitty. She has this to say to spiders: 
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Oh yes. We have them all over the house. See here and here and here and here and here and here. There are more which I don't have on the gallery. Edit: More here (that one was swimming in the bathtub with my kids) and here and here. I think that's all of them I have pics of, and it's not counting the 5 hatchlings we found in the bathroom last year or the one Gloftoe found in his kit in '03. |
You need an exterminator pronto. Have you SEEN the scars from a bite? Your kids won't like that. Matt |
We have an exterminator, but apparently there's not much you can do for the spiders other than fog and/or sticky traps, and either way has to have direct contact with the spider. |
Nobody's ever been bit. Of course we haven't tried to pet them or anything. Generally they run away when you get near them. I had one about an inch from my bare toes and it booked it away from me as fast as possible. I don't think many people are lucky enough to have an in-home infestation. 
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The one on the bottom looks alot like a Mau |
Um, . . . nah, too easy.  That cat is scary looking. Is it just a bad angle for the pic--or is it some kind of freak cat?? 
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Looks like it is part chupacabra. 
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We have a BluePoint. She's 18. Has gotten pretty worthless the last couple of years. 
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Things may have changed since I was with Terminex, but first the brown recluse can be dangerous, nocturnal comes out at night, often will be in your bedding, the bite symptoms depends on the amount of venom injected, can cause necrosis, death of tissue, intense pain and shock, especially in children. It is true in many cases the bite just disappears, but don't kid yourself these little bastards can be bad news. When I was in the business, we baseboard sprayed every room in the house, the spray stayed effective up to a month, if the spider crossed the sprayed area, dead in an hour or less. The canned spray at the store last less than 24 hours. I got out of the business because each year they took away more and more effective agents, hope they still have something to help you. |
(Queen) Another one bites the dust(/Queen) |
Sounds like part of the problem. |
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You need a new exterminator. Better yet, do it yourself. Make sure that you go to a true chemical supply place, rather than Home Depot to get your poisons. We have a place here in Houston called "Solutions" that I would highly recommend if you live here. Purchase a $20 pump sprayer, a one time purchase, and save yourself tons of money in future exterminating bills. Spray all baseboards, windowsills, the outside circumferance of your house (1 foot up the exterior, and 1 foot out into the yard/bedding). Spray in the attic if possible. You will get rid of these spiders with the right chemicals. Regular store bought bug killers and foggers work poorly. There's no way I'd not take further action, especially with the kids. Good luck, M.L. |
+1 I recently had a bite that the doctor said was likely a brown recluse bite. It didn't go so far as to turn into one of those huge open sores, but it was pretty ugly nonetheless, and I was running a fever and it itched like a mother******. No thanks. |
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We did have the exterminator come spray day before yesterday, and then we fumigated yesterday. Hopefully that did quite a few of them in. I take a slight amount of consolation in the fact that although my she-tigress had the (large mature) spider pinned to the floor and was pulling its legs off, she didn't get stung. |
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MrsGloftoe, Sounds like it's time to invest in a few geckos! I've heard from a few people that have used geckos to successfully control spider problems. They hardly ever would see the geckos. The geckos got water they needed from residual in the sinks and condensation on pipes. Release a few inside the house and if you have a crawl space in there too. |
Do recluse bites have any effect on cats? |
I have geckos all over my house. Best pest control there is. My GF made me catch all of them and let them outside when we forst moved in. Daddy long legs were everywhere a month later. She finally decided the gecos can stay. |
Yes, they can cause ugly wounds in cats and dogs, too. They're pretty reluctant to bite at all. I read one story where a teacher checked on some schoolchildren collecting something by a flagpole - apparently they had picked up and handled 60+ brown recluses in 5 minutes and nobody was bitten. We actually have quite a few salamanders in the attic and crawlspace, although chances are that the fumigation killed them, too. 
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I have a pesticide license I use for the city I work for. I have to spray for spiders and have found a product that does work and has a decent residual period. It is not regulated by the State of Texas so you can buy it yourself. It is slightly hazardous so I will not post details here. Email me if you are interested. I will give a link to the product, and the details of the safety precautions you will need to take. It's not real dangerous, but a long sleeve shirt, goggles, gloves, and a few other precautions are necessary. It kills spiders, ants, and every other insect I treat for. Where in Texas are you? Jim |
There are two common poisonous spiders, widows and recluses, aren't you lucky. Please be careful, these spiders are extremely reluctant to bite, but it can and does happen. Just a note on the fumigation, if you are using foggers, I'm sure you know they can be dangerous if too many are set off at once, a fire could result. Curious to know what the exterminator you hired told you, recluses can be hard to get rid of, one treatment usually will not do it. If you go with the do it yourself: Chemical must have good residual, works long after applied. If possible use wetable powder, works best with spiders on wood, brick, concrete, building exteriors. All base boards, doors, windows-top bottom and sides, inside and out. basements and closets, and especially plumbing in kitchen and bathrooms, spiders need water. If your exterminator isn't already doing something like this, ask him why. No spider problem is impossible, I've seen houses so bad, I could not believe the people slept in the house at night. It is containable, but you must be thorough. Again good luck. Thank God we do not have them here, at least, last I heard not documented. |
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seriously, that scares the shit out of me that you live in my state and have spider problems this bad. I have lived in texas my entire life and i think that i have only seen a brown recluse twice and a black widow once. I would suggest that you envest every spare dime into an exterminator before one of those little terrorists gets lucky and bites your cat in the face and you have to put her down. Or worse, your husband finds one of them in the CROTCH of his pants. Can you imagine what kind of damage these things can do if they bite a loved one in a sensitive area? I know that you might be playing the "im not scared" game, but there is a serious danger present in your home if you are seeing these deadly spiders all the time. |