1st, let me introduce 'Mr. Lucky' the family pet. He is a rescue cat that I adopted from Jazzman (who found him on a BUSY interstate median) this spring. Pretty cool and friendly guy, and has a brown eye and a green eye.
Lucky:
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Lucky was making noise in the kitchen tonight as I am surfing Pennocks, and I thought I would bust him on top of the counters... he knows he is not supposed to be up there (but when Jennifer and I leave the house he gets everywhere we try to keep him off/out of...)...
SO, I light him up with the LED flashlight, and no... he is not on the countertop at all... he is playing on the linoleum with a bug. Yeah...! get him Lucky! Get that cricket so I don't have to hear it all night...! (If only Rumor's mantids had fully made it ) Then I notice that it is not a cricket. It is a spider. No big deal. The old farm house we are renting is crawling with things, and I am a big fan of the spider. I generally go out of my way to keep them alive.
So here Lucky has cornered him a brown spider, and is tossing it up in the air, and swatting at it, and just being a cat. Something made me pause... this spider did not look bulky enough to be our common Wolf jumping grass spider that is quite common, and can get pretty big. When the Wolf matures and has grown to full size, it's front two legs turn black, the rest of the legs and body stay brown, and the thing looks tough as nails. Pretty hairy too. Here's our common Texas Wolf Spider. Great jumpers, and very fast:
BUT NOOOOOOoooooo!..... that is NOT what my cat has to find tonght. Instinct told me to get up and check this one out. He has to find this guy:
See the violin on his back? Not good.
From a distance, this Brown Recluse was big enough that I had figured he was not a Brown Recluse at all... but the lack of hair made me investigate. Lucky had broken a couple of his little creepy hairless legs, but he could still scoot, and was not happy at me trying to slip him between some paper and a glass. I sure hope he did not bite Lucky. If he did, I may have a dead kitty soon. BR's have a wicked bite, and even a strong healthy person will soon have a sore that makes leprosy jealous... who knows what it can do to a 12 pound cat.
Again, this is one of the bigger Brown Recluse's I have seen in my years, I took a pic of him hobbling near some men's gloves to give you a perspective. BR's can live for a decade, and like wooded areas that don't get a lot of traffic. Kinda like a forgotten farm house...
I have him under glass now. I need to show Jennifer in case she does not know what one looks like. She's not a fan of the insect kingdom, and was not happy when Rumor's mantid case popped, and I had left one air hole a little too big She will be even less of a fan after she sees this guy.
Lucky is not acting wierd and it has been about an hour... we shall see in the morning. Hopefully his fur, and his paw pads were too much to overcome, even for this monster.
For a link on the Brown Recluse, go here: BE VERY CAREFUL if you try to wrangle one. It is the best spider site I have ever seen...
Originally posted by blakeinspace: Good night, sleep tight, just pray it is only the bedbugs that bite...
Wake up! I wouldn't sleep till I figured out where it's brother(s), sisters, kids, and significant others call home. How many eggs do they lay and how many times of year go they do it. Might want to call Terminex. I hope Lucky earns it's name.
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03:04 AM
Intel Member
Posts: 752 From: Helsingborg, Sweden Registered: May 2002
Heck yeah! Stinky, chomping away at a spider... A big spider would eat a mantis though. It depends on who has the high ground. a cat would SO eat a mantis.
Yeah, but there's safety in numbers so get about 40 Manti and let them clean the house of them nasty bugs. Keep Lucky in another room while they work!
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12:47 AM
sthtxfiero Member
Posts: 212 From: rockport texas Registered: Feb 2004
We are 2 days and Lucky is fine. Lazy as ever, but fine. Thanks for those that expressed concern.
I did some more reading on the Recluse. It lays 2-3 egg sacs between May and September. Each sac has about 50 spiders, and they take 6 months to reach adulthood. I hope I am outta here by Christmas.
A friend suggested bug bombs or an exterminator, but I don't think those solutions would help me if a month from now an egg case pops. Of course it could help stop any adults currently around, but I am more worried about the second generation of BR's.
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12:29 AM
Rainman Member
Posts: 3877 From: Cincinnati, Ohio Registered: Jan 2003
i killed over 10 brown recluse spiders dropping the gas tank on my fiero and 2 in the door seams, killed 2 more in the house and 2 on the front porch, all this was within a month..... i think its time for some bug bombs and moth balls. i havent been bitten yet and hopfully never will, but mom was bitten last year and i thought she was gonna die, she had a hole in her leg a very high fevor and aching all over, there rough. another bad problem we have here is black widdow spiders, for a while they have infested my catalina. they LOVE WHEELS, so look out when your changing a tire thats been sitting for a while, well lata everyone
I myself was awoken the other night by my cats. I heard that familiar "Its Mine" growl. We have Big Fuzzy Wolf Spiders all the time so I figured it was either that or a Lizard. I turn on the like and I freaked cause it was a Brown Recluse too and this sucks was at least 1" long body and legs about 2" long! So grab all the cats, (we have 6) squish the ting and toss in trash. If it were not for this thread I would never known.
------------------ Central Florida Fieros Home of Fantasy of Flight Cruise And Spring Fling Poker Run www.centralfloridafieros.org
That's actually a species of scorpion, and it's only maybe an inch or two long but the camera was set on macro mode and shot probably a inch from the lense. http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/camelspider.asp
Of course, it's always fun to use deception to prey on someone else's irrational fears.
JazzMan
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11:41 PM
May 29th, 2005
ryan.hess Member
Posts: 20784 From: Orlando, FL Registered: Dec 2002
Bah that's not a spider. Quote from a site I found.
It is true that of the 10 most poisonous arachnids on the planet, Australia has 9 of them. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that of the 9 most poisonous arachnids, Australia has all of them.
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05:56 PM
Jun 7th, 2005
blakeinspace Member
Posts: 5923 From: Fort Worth, Texas Registered: Dec 2001
We killed another (smaller) BR in the bathroom the other day, and I have gotten the raid can after about 15 babier so far. I'm beginning to rethink my position on liking spiders!
Supposedly 'Bug Bombs' do not work well on these guys unless they come into direct contact with the poison. It seems they do not absorb poison by surface contact like roaches, fleas, and other things that bombs do kill.
) Then I notice that it is not a cricket. It is a spider. No big deal. The old farm house we are renting is crawling with things, and I am a big fan of the spider. I generally go out of my way to keep them alive.
She will be even less of a fan after she sees this guy.
