# Brown recluce's



## blkcloud (May 25, 2005)

Not sure if this is the right section but....I just bought about 20 supers and a few deeps that are completely in brown recluse spiders I know one that I took apart had over 10 in it...is there anything other than a match that i can do to get rid of them? thanks!


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

Propane torch would be quicker. Not sure if moth balls would make them leave, but you could always try it if you don't wish to kill them.


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## Apuuli (May 17, 2006)

You might try just exposing the interior of the boxes to the sunlight for a couple of days. Brown recluses like dark protected areas so they might just leave of their own volition. You might not want to do this anywhere near your house though...


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## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

Submerge in a tank of water.


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## Bubba (Mar 17, 2006)

*kill em all!*

I got bit by one last summer while cleaning out my storm pit. A week later I had a quarter size hole on my coller bone. That was no fun at all just waiting and hoping that it dident get any worse. Be careful around thoes spiders.


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## Walliebee (Nov 17, 2006)

I use a propane weed tourch on equipment to clean it up after it has been stored, bought from another beek, or used for several years. It's a fast, cheap, and easy way to melt away old wax and propolis. It also burns off any dust, pests, and possibly disease. Just use a bit of restraint to avoid having a bonfire!


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## Swobee (May 18, 2007)

Without chemicals, I agree the torch will make quick work of those things. Be careful, wear gloves and look inside any boxes first before poking aroung in them. They are a tough predator to eliminate, but easy to kill one on one.


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## Kieck (Dec 2, 2005)

Are you sure they're brown recluses? Brown recluses are very, very rarely seen outside of houses and buildings.

If they are, take the equipment apart and let it sit outside for a day or two.

If you're concerned about bites, wear leather gloves. Like most spiders, brown recluses are not overly defensive, and they cannot bite through leather gloves.

From my understanding and experience, brown recluse bites are no worse than most other spider bites. The problem usually is a secondary bacterial infection in the bite, rather than the venom itself.


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## Swobee (May 18, 2007)

http://images.google.com/images?sou...259US260&q=photos+of+brown+recluse+bites&um=1

Recluse bites cause skin & tissue ulceration in varying degrees depending on the person's sensitivity and how much venom was released. I've never been bitten by one, but have a friends who was. He was lucky- the scarred area is fairly small, maybe the size of a quarter. That's one animal that I kill everyone of I see, no exceptions.


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## Kieck (Dec 2, 2005)

> Recluse bites cause skin & tissue ulceration in varying degrees depending on the person's sensitivity and how much venom was released. -Swobee


The ulceration can be caused by bacterial infection, too. I've heard varying reports of just how serious the actual bites of brown recluses are. When I lived in Kansas, I was bitten several times by brown recluses. I never had a problem, and have no lasting effects from any spider bite. In my experience, crab spider bites are far more painful than recluse bites. Black widow bites (I've been bitten once) are still more painful.

But I see some similarity in the "myths" of recluse bites and widow bites. Black widows are frequently labeled "deadly," yet no healthy adult has been documented as dying from the bite of a black widow. That's not to say that it couldn't happen -- allergic reactions could certainly come into play, too -- but it's rare, so widows don't really deserve the "deadly" label.

And more than 1,000 cases of "brown recluse" bites come from medical reports in California each year, yet brown recluses do not occur in California. I believe the hype surrounding brown recluses is far greater than any real danger.


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## Gene Weitzel (Dec 6, 2005)

Kieck said:


> The ulceration can be caused by bacterial infection, too. I've heard varying reports of just how serious the actual bites of brown recluses are. When I lived in Kansas, I was bitten several times by brown recluses. I never had a problem, and have no lasting effects from any spider bite. In my experience, crab spider bites are far more painful than recluse bites. Black widow bites (I've been bitten once) are still more painful.
> 
> But I see some similarity in the "myths" of recluse bites and widow bites. Black widows are frequently labeled "deadly," yet no healthy adult has been documented as dying from the bite of a black widow. That's not to say that it couldn't happen -- allergic reactions could certainly come into play, too -- but it's rare, so widows don't really deserve the "deadly" label.
> 
> And more than 1,000 cases of "brown recluse" bites come from medical reports in California each year, yet brown recluses do not occur in California. I believe the hype surrounding brown recluses is far greater than any real danger.


I tend to agree with your logic. Most the folks I have known who have had the really bad reaction have had a somewhat compromised immune system, like diabetics. A diabetic friend of mine lost part of his leg after taking a BR bite. I was recently bitten on the abdomen by a rather large brown recluse that somehow ended up in my bed. It woke me up and when I got out of bed and turned on the light, there it was just sitting on my pillow like it owned the place. I grabbed a cup and scooped it up and flushed it. The bite made a very shallow lesion about the size of a nickel that healed up in about 3 days.


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## mike haney (Feb 9, 2007)

*bite*

"The bite made a very shallow lesion about the size of a nickel that healed up in about 3 days." my understanding is that spiders are like snakes in that the size of the subject has little to do with the severity of the bite, it's more related to how long scince they expelled venom and the level of thier reserves and how good of a mechanical injection they achieve due to angle,you jumped at the right time,etc.


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## Gene Weitzel (Dec 6, 2005)

mike haney said:


> "The bite made a very shallow lesion about the size of a nickel that healed up in about 3 days." my understanding is that spiders are like snakes in that the size of the subject has little to do with the severity of the bite, it's more related to how long scince they expelled venom and the level of thier reserves and how good of a mechanical injection they achieve due to angle,you jumped at the right time,etc.


You may be right about that, I have not really researched them much. This much I can tell you, it burned like fire and got my attention instantly even though I was sound asleep. I'm guessing the spider fell or jumped off of me back into the bed when I jumped out of bed. It probably crawled up on my pillow in the time it took me to get to the light switch. It was a pretty big one, but not the biggest I have come across. The lesion showed up the next morning, only about 6hrs post bite.


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## summer1052 (Oct 21, 2007)

Well . . .

If it were ME, I'd torch those suckers. Or dunk them in water. If you just set them outside, all they do is go make nests around your property.

DH was bitten several years ago and had problems. He's NOT allergic to them; it seems that whatever they were snacking on before they bit him, was what caused the infection.

DH grew up here in So. Texas and had seen lots of critters. If he says he'd rather be snake bit than Brown Recluse bit, I take that seriously. But that's me. I'm married to him so there's some loyalty involved there. 

Personally, I think ALL spiders are agents from Heall, so you know where I stand. If a political candidate promised to eradicate spiders, I'd prolly vote for him, no matter what other craziness he espoused. 

Summer


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## Kieck (Dec 2, 2005)

> If you just set them outside, all they do is go make nests around your property. -summer1052


I have a friend who works on research involving brown recluse spiders. At one point, I told him that I had some living under a garbage can outside (this was in Kansas; brown recluse do not occur in South Dakota). He hustled over to get a look at them, take some photos, and collect a number of specimens, simply because even this "domesticated" situation outdoors was highly unusual for brown recluse. He mentioned then that brown recluse are not found outside, and speculated that the "natural habitat" is/was likely caves, but they are unlikely to be found outside.

So, if you have actual "nests" of brown recluse outside, I can try to put you in touch with this friend of mine. I'm confident he would make the trip to Texas to see brown recluse living openly outside.

Also somewhat unusual, brown recluse seem to feed as scavengers on already-dead insects, rather than building webs and killing insects directly. Their venom lacks the quick knock-down effect of some other spiders, such as crab spiders and jumping spiders, that have to kill their victims quickly to avoid being injured or even killed by struggling insects. The enzymes of brown recluses do wonders digesting dead, dried carcasses of insects, though.


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## summer1052 (Oct 21, 2007)

For clarification, I'll add that he was living in Denver, and was outside in the grass enjoying a soft summer evening when he made the acquaintance of the BR.

But having grown up in So. TX and had close encounters and near misses with scorpions, tarantulas, rattlers, coral snakes, copperheads, water mocs, and cotton mouths, if he says the BR was beechy enough to hold her own, I believe him.

The thought of letting a known poisonous pest go forth to propigate is not one I entertain lightly, but then, I have children. Those Mom Instincts are pretty persuasive. 

And, yes, those digestive enzymes are quite effective. Left a nice hole the size of a pencil eraser while digesting DH. You'd think they'd find a way to use something like that for landfills, or something, huh?

Summer


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## Kieck (Dec 2, 2005)

> in Denver, and was outside in the grass enjoying a soft summer evening when he made the acquaintance of the BR. -summer1052


Almost certainly not a brown recluse. I would wager dollars to donuts that the spider that bit him was actually a "grass spider" or a "funnel-web spider" (not to be confused with Sydney funnel web spiders, which are a completely different sort of spider). These spiders are in the family Aegelinidae, build funnel-shaped webs, and can bite painfully. The so-called "hobo spider" is in this family.

This is what I was getting at in my comments about the reputation of brown recluses. Any painful, ulcerative (spiders inject digestive enzymes with the venom to actually begin liquifying their prey before ingesting) spider bite gets blamed on brown recluses, when any number of species can inflict painful bites.



> The thought of letting a known poisonous pest go forth to propigate is not one I entertain lightly, but then, I have children. -summer1052


Realize, first, that biologists classify "poisonous" and "venomous" differently, and spiders are actually "venomous," not "poisonous." Some species of toads are poisonous. Rattlesnakes are venous.

A couple other examples: 

Monarch butterflies are poisonous. That is, they sequester toxins from the plants they eat as caterpillars, and rely on the toxicity of those chemicals to impart some protection even to the adults.

Honey bees are venomous. They inject venom with their stings as a form of defense.


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## summer1052 (Oct 21, 2007)

DH actually *saw* the spider. It was a BR. 

I heard once that "daddy-long-legs" are prolly the most poisonous spider on earth, but have no way to bite. Seems unfair. 

Wishing now for some sort of genetic engineering that would make 'ladybugs' prey on SHB. Or make a nasty scent to chase them off, or some such.


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