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Identifying Brown Recluse Infestations & What To Do If You Find One

Are you wondering whether you have brown recluse spiders lurking in your Arizona home? Brown recluse spiders live throughout the southwest and are known invasive pests in the Phoenix area. Once a brown recluse spider gets into a home or office, they can live comfortably and will grow their population into the thousands.
Not only does this give most people the creepy-crawlies, but brown recluse spiders have developed a reputation for their toxic venom, which can cause necrosis and other serious medical conditions. Although brown recluse spiders prefer to hide from people and getting bitten is rare, the consequences of a bite can be disastrous, especially for small children, pets, the elderly, and immunocompromised people. Don’t wait to get bitten to find out if there are brown recluse spiders in your house – get help from Ahwatukee pest control right away!

Identifying a Brown Recluse Spider

There are some similar-looking spiders that are commonly mistaken for brown recluse spiders. Not all small, brown spiders are brown recluse, so it’s important to be able to identify who might be invading your home. If you’re unsure, Apache Junction pest services has the expertise to identify whether you are dealing with brown recluse or another type of spider.
Brown recluse spiders are:

Not hairy – if the spider in your home has visible hairs, it isn’t a brown recluse.

Relatively uniform in color – If you find a spider with a variety of brown shades or a patterned body, it’s a different type of spider. Brown recluses are consistently brown in color other than an occasional mark on the back. Sometimes the abdomen is darker in color than the rest of its body.

Small – Brown recluse are about the size of a quarter, although younger spiders will be smaller while they are growing to maturity.

Carry violin markings – Brown recluse spiders often have a dark brown violin shaped mark on their backs, just below the head.

However, since it’s hard to get a good look at a living brown recluse, it can be difficult to make out the exact shape and location.

What If I Don’t See Any Spiders?

You can still have a brown recluse infestation in your home even if you don’t see any spiders. The most common way to discover a brown recluse infestation is by finding their distinctive webs, which are tangled and made of a dusty white thread, around your home. If you touch the threads, you’ll notice they feel weak because they are not used to capturing prey, the way other spiders use their webs. Instead, the web is used to protect the spider when it retreats away from potential harm. The web doesn’t need to be strong because it’s for camouflage. However, Gilbert pest control technicians advise against touching brown recluse webs because of the risk that a spider is hiding inside. If disturbed, a brown recluse spider may bite, spreading its poisonous venom.

Because brown recluse avoid humans and are known for being very reclusive, you’re most likely to find their webs in storage sheds, corners in the garage, and untouched areas of your home such as underneath furniture, in storage rooms and basements, in the attic, and in corners of closets you don’t use very often. You’ll probably find the webs close to the floor and in between boxes.

Checking For Brown Recluse Spiders

The easiest way to check for brown recluse is to contact a Florence pest control company to investigate for you. However, if you’d prefer to check yourself, you can find products at home improvement stores that utilize sticky traps to help catch a spider so you can examine them for yourself. Proceed with caution because spiders caught in glue traps can still be alive and may bite.

You can also check your yard for signs of brown recluse infestations. Examine places such as holes in the ground, wood piles, dry brush, and other organic debris that may be around your home. You may also find these spiders behind loose tree bark and inside logs or stumps. Check for both live spiders and webs. Again, utilize caution to avoid being bitten.

What To Do If You Find Brown Recluse Spiders

It’s unusual for brown recluse spiders to bite people because they typically avoid any kind of activity and stick to undisturbed places in your home and yard. Even if you have many brown recluse spiders in your home, you may not get bitten. However, it only takes one time to accidentally stumble across a web and get bitten in a sensitive area.

Working with El Mirage pest control is the most effective way to find and eradicate a brown recluse infestation before they multiply and take over your home. Find an experienced team who uses field-tested methods, systematic treatment, and monitoring to make sure they have successfully eradicated the spiders.

Schedule an Inspection With an Experienced Pest Control Company In Phoenix

As a top rated pest control company serving Phoenix and the surrounding areas, Varsity Termite and Pest Control has the experience and tools you need to effectively eliminate brown recluse spiders from your Arizona home. We utilize safe and comprehensive methods so you can sleep well at night knowing your home is free from unwanted spider invaders! Schedule your consultation today!