My husband just returned from visiting our new MO home, which has been vacant for close to two months, and he found 10-12 dead brown recluse spiders in the sinks. During his two-day stay, he also saw 3 live spiders in the sinks.

QUESTION: Do the spiders come up through the drain, or do they simply crawl into the sinks and get caught there? Or both?

I'm thinking that if they climb up the drain we could just put stoppers in the sinks while we're away to reduce the population....

Thanks for your input!

Hello Pam,

Brown Recluse spider legs are not sticky, but have little pinchers on the end of each leg to grab hold of surfaces. The pinchers cannot grab anything on a smooth surface such as a sink, a bathtub or smooth tubing like what's inside a pipe. Therefore, the spiders are simply happening upon the sink area and have no way of escaping.

The house probably has a significant infestation of Brown Recluse spiders. Setting out traps as soon as possible would be ideal because the spiders have free roam of the house without human interference. Many bites occur when a person moves into a home that has been vacant for awhile because the spiders are agitated by the human intrusion and they don't know where it's safe to hide without coming in contact with a human. Thus, they hide in areas like inside boxes, dresser drawers, clothes piles, and anywhere that seems dark and safe.

Tom
Brown-Recluse.com

Thanks, Tom. I think you've said on the site that pesticides are *not* a good idea, but how about the strong pesticides an exterminator would use? Is it worth it for us to hire an exterminator, or should we just set out the traps?

Would *you* be comfortable sleeping in a house w/ an infestation such as ours? We're a little freaked, but maybe we wouldn't be if we were more experienced with these things.... We have a toddler, so we're especially concerned.

How long do you think it would take to get rid of them (as much as is possible) with the traps?

Hello Pam,

If you hired an exterminator, they would tell you that they cannot guarantee eradication of Brown Recluses. They would spray, but to help eradicate the spiders they would set out traps. You can save a bundle by setting out traps yourself. With our traps we include an information sheet of the best places to put them.

A significant decrease in population is possible with traps but complete eradication can take a year or more. This is because the females tend to live inside walls and don't move around much. The more traps a person sets though, the quicker their population will decrease. It's simple mathematics that the more traps a person sets, the more opportunities there are for a roaming spider to get caught.

*I* personally wouldn't have a problem sleeping in a Brown Recluse infested home because if I do get bitten I know personally how well the Brown Recluse First Aid Kit works. I'm sure that I could be accused of bias or trying to sell something but I really am that confident in our product. We actually don't even try to rid our home of the spiders because we like to capture and study them. My teenage son was bitten a couple years ago several times on his thigh when he was putting pants on, but we used the kit and everything was fine...no pain, no necrosis, nothing.

Overall, my advice would be to set out a lot of traps before you move in the home, and for the toddler it would be a good idea to make sure his bed isn't against any walls and that the only access a spider would have to his bed is the four bed posts touching the floor. They might not be able to crawl up smooth textured bed posts, but either way putting a trap near each bed post would be a good idea. You can also follow the prevention steps at http://www.brown-recluse.com/prevention.html

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Thanks,

Tom
Brown-Recluse.com