There are approximately 35,000 species of spiders worldwide and about 3,000 of them reside in the United States.
Spiders are predators.
They paralyze or kill their prey.
Most spiders are active at night and will run away when disturbed.
They like to hide in cracks, crevices, webs, etc.
Spiders normally will not attack unless provoked or they are guarding an egg sac or babies.
The males are usually smaller than the females and the females normally do not eat the male after sex.
Most spiders are beneficial to our environment since they prey on other insects.
Some names of recluse spiders have been given are Desert and Texas Recluse, Arizona and Tuscan Recluse, Apache and Big Ben Recluse, Russell and Baja Recluse, Martha and Grand Canyon Recluse, and Mediterranean Recluse.
The most common names for Recluse spiders are Brown, Violin, and Fiddle back recluse spider.
They are not an aggressive type of spider.
So far about 13 species of recluses have been found in the U.
S.
Almost half of them have been identified as causing moderate to severe medical issues.
There have been reports almost everywhere in the U.
S.
but are most common in the south-central and mid-western states.
They range in colors from light brown to almost black with a violin shaped marking on top (back) of the head with the base of the violin pointing towards the eyes.
Average size is 1/4"-3/4" body length.
Sometimes you might need a magnifying glass to see the distinct marking.
They also have six eyes as opposed to most spider that have eight eyes.
It is an indoor and outdoor spider.
They eat a number of nuisance insects like crickets, flies, live or dead, and it has been said that silverfish are a preferred food source.
The average life span for both sexes is usually between 2-3 years with reports as high as five years.
Both sexes can construct small greyish-white irregular shaped webs.
The females are usually passive unless guarding eggs or babies and catch their prey in the web.
Males will leave the web and hunt for their prey.
During the day they are harder to find since they like to retreat into cracks and crevices.
The females generally do not travel far from the web as opposed to the males.
INSPECTION: You should look for webbings, egg sacs, cast skins (shed their skin), and the actual spider.
Look in undisturbed and protected habitats.
They can also be transported inside boxes and furniture.
INDOORS: They have been found in shoes, clothing, bedding, cracks, crevices, edges of carpets, under toilet seats, furniture, appliances, boxes, corners of closets, sometimes under insulation, and basically any undisturbed areas.
OUTDOORS: They do not like setting up in live vegetation.
They will usually be found under stones, in tree holes, under loose tree bark, logs, firewood, over hanging ledges, any sheltered areas.
Recluse spiders use a necrotic poison (kills tissue) on their prey and no antitoxin is available.
In most cases you will not feel the bite.
It is common to be infested with recluse spiders and never be bitten since you practically have to sit on them to get them to bite you.
Biting you is their defense mechanism.
After being bitten the area of the bite will become red, swollen, and tender usually within 8 hours.
Most recluse bites heal within 3 weeks after being bitten and leave a scar.
The poison causes sloughing of the tissue.
In more severe cases the tissue may begin to turn purple with blisters appearing around the bite the next day.
Then in the next week the skin cells start to turn black as they die resembling staph infection.
A few more weeks later the dead skin will fall away leaving a hole in your skin.
If you start to see an ulcer or boil please consult a doctor.
In a few cases reports have been made that the venom causes the death of red blood cells causing serious complications causing discoloration of urine from bloody to dark in color.
Few fatalities have been reported.