Brown Recluse Spiders Infestation

If Brown Recluse Spiders Show Up in Your Home

Recluses are hard to spot because they come out at night and stay away from people. If you have caught one, confirmed what it is, and keep finding more, assume others are living in the house and take steps. Indoors, check dark, undisturbed places: clothes and shoes that are rarely worn, the back of closets, inside dressers and couches, and cracks along walls. Outside, they hide in woodpiles, under stones and boards, and in debris against the house. Wear gloves and long sleeves when moving firewood, clearing yard clutter or working in garden beds, since those are the places where people most often disturb one.

How to Tell What Is Actually Living in Your Home

Because the brown recluse is not established in Florida, a true infestation here is unusual. The most realistic way one could start is with furniture, boxes or stored goods moved from the south-central states where the spider is common. Pay attention to items from a move that have sat unopened in a garage, closet or attic.

Signs that point to a real recluse problem:

• The same kind of brown spider caught again and again on sticky traps along walls, behind furniture and in closets.
• Shed skins, pale and papery but still holding the spider’s leg shape, in boxes and storage areas.
• Small, loose, irregular webs in undisturbed corners rather than neat wheel-shaped webs.
• Spiders stuck in sinks or bathtubs, which they can’t climb out of.

The common Florida look-alike, the southern house spider, leaves different evidence. Look for flat, tangled webs that radiate out from a crack around window frames, eaves, shutters and outdoor light fixtures, with a dark, velvety female hiding in the gap. The long-legged brown males are the ones seen crossing floors.

Spiders of any kind follow their food. Porch lights that pull in insects, clutter in garages and storage rooms, and stacked cardboard give them places to hunt and hide. To settle the question, put a captured spider in a sealed jar and have it identified, for example by your county extension office, before deciding on treatment. More on the look-alikes is on the brown recluse spider page.