[October Quick Hits] Brown Recluse Spiders — August

Bob Brasher, Brasher’s Pest Control, Parsons, Tenn.

I need to get better at treating for brown recluse spiders. Have never dusted and wondering if this is the way to go. I would like to communicate with those who are having success against the brown recluse spider.

Daniel Bunting Sr., Paradise Pest Control, Cape Coral, Fla.

I spray directly on the spiders and nests with Phantom and have great results. It doesn’t leave any stains and is 99 percent odorless. You can also use Demon WP, but it does leave a slight white dust behind. If they are in the attic I can’t help you. I don’t go in attics. But using a power duster with PVC extension should do the trick.

Paul Westby, Brown Exterminating Company, Lakeland, Tenn.

Dusting is the only way to go. See the link for a tutorial:
http://www.brownexterminatingmemphis.com/page4.html

Kerry Jones, United Termite and Pest Control, Caruthersville, Mo.

Adult BR walk on the tips of their legs, while juvenile BR will drag their abdomen. This is one way BR come in contact with a insecticidal dust. Dusting attics during this time of year is (good for) control in my opinion, especially if the weather is dry and water sources are being depleted, causing BR to move about more than usual.

DeltaDust has shown more control than any product we have used in the past, and believe me, we’ve tried them all. One more thing: monitor, monitor and monitor every room, anywhere you can hide or place one. We like the Catchmaster 72TCs, folded.

Also Cy-Kick CS has shown a good performance this year on BR control when doing regular maintenance services.
If memory serves me correct, as the crow flies, we’re not that far from your location.

Ed Van Istendal, Tomlinson Bomberger Pest Control, Lancaster, Pa.

If you use a power duster with any kind of plastic or metal extension, do not hold the extension when applying. Wear latex gloves, and try to hold by the hose only — the dust particles will then pick up a static charge on the way out the extension, and will cling better to surfaces and critters.

Kerry Jones

BR bites are so misidentified by physicians, it’s pitiful. Once a physician swore to a patient that the lesions on his arms were that of BR bites.

Come to find out the patient was an inmate at our county jail and was caught on camera taking a paper clip and making homemade tattoos that turned into a staph infection.

Doctors, lawyers and contractors know everything, yet we PCOs are still looked at like we don’t.

Phil Oliver, University of Maryland, Laurel, Md.

Yeah, my customers have at times insisted they have seen brown recluse spiders. Another big thing here is they swear they have seen a copperhead snake. (It actually is always a juvenile rat snake.) Once some (worker) at the Pentagon insisted he had mosquitoes, even after I proved they were midges.

Claudine Plasman, Hawaii Fumigation and Pest Control, Kealakekua, Hawaii

Kerry, since we’re on the subject of BR, I still have that specimen you sent me, although he is deteriorating very quickly in the liquid. I was wondering if you could get me another one, but suspend him in acrylic (I can tell you how to do that) so that I can visually preserve it.

I just had a client tell me that she was bit by a brown recluse. I explained that we don’t have them here but she was adamant because a physician friend of hers was visiting and identified the bite as BR. When we contacted the University of Hawaii Cooperative Extension and the entomologists at our Dept. of Ag, both indicated that we do not have BR here. Of course, this client insisted that we should not rely on the info we got because it was a conspiracy. LOL

We’ve got the brown widow here and the brown violin spider. Bites are similar to BR and the spiders look similar to an extent. Still, they are not BR. Hard to convince people otherwise once they get it stuck in their head that they saw a BR. Doesn’t help when physicians think they can definitely identify a spider based on bite alone, without actually seeing the spider.

Kenneth Perry, Paratex Pied Piper Pest, Anchorage, Alaska

My favorite page on the Web regarding BR bites is http://spiders.ucr.edu/necrotic.html.

We get any number of reports, often by uninformed doctors, that someone here in Alaska has been bitten by a BR — yet there has never been one found. Again, nothing is impossible, but it is likely that many, many reports of bites are in error.

Jeff Leonard, Nuvisions Pest Management, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

There is a type of flesh-eating bacteria that is commonly mistaken for BR here.