Think you don’t have brown recluses in your Kansas home? Think again, expert says
Brown recluses are small spiders known for venom that can cause swelling, blistering and a fever in humans.
If you’re unsure if you have any in your Kansas home, Kansas State University entomology professor Jeff Whitworth says you most likely do.
“I think the brown recluse spider is the most common spider in dwellings or buildings in Kansas, at least in the eastern two-thirds part of the state,” he said. “Even talking about brown recluse spiders or somebody brings it up, they go, ‘Oh God, I’m glad we don’t have them.’ And now I say, ‘I bet you 100 bucks I can go to your house and find cast skin under someplace.’”
In fact, Whitworth said that from about mid-May to mid-June, he gets the most calls from people noticing brown recluses, usually because they’ve disturbed the spider’s hiding spot.
“They’re out in their old out building stuff, getting the combine out, getting the seeders out ... [and there are] a lot of recluse,” Whitworth said.
Brown recluses are native to Kansas and are most identifiable by their light brown color with a dark fiddle- or violin-shaped pattern on their back.
Their name suits them well, Whitworth said. The spider species is known to be reclusive, only coming out at night and hiding in places like boxes, shoes or spots out of eyesight.
“They get out and they crawl around at night looking for food or their prey,” Whitworth said of their habits.
Despite their reclusive nature, they will leave behind evidence of their presence in your home.
“You might see the cast skin, because as they grow, they have to molt,” Whitworth said. “They have to shed their skin in order to go to the next stage.”
So, how can you keep them out of your home? What should you do if you get bitten? Here’s a quick guide to the species in Kansas.
How do you identify a brown recluse spider?
Let’s say you’ve seen spiders in your home, but haven’t gotten a close up look to see if they’re brown recluses or not. Are there any other spiders that can be mistaken for them?
Another brown species of spider is the wolf spider, which is also common in the state. While to most people “spiders are spiders,” Whitworth said, it’s not hard to tell the difference between the brown recluse and wolf.
“Where you find the wolf spiders can be outside, and the brown recluse can be inside,” Whitworth said.
That doesn’t mean that you won’t see wolf spiders inside, but they will generally be trying to find a way out, while brown recluses will purposefully stay inside.
Wolf spiders also have more hair than the brown recluse, don’t have the fiddle-shaped mark on their backs and are known for their unique eye arrangement. The wold spider has four small eyes sitting lowest, followed by two large eyes in the middle and two medium eyes at the top, according to Brittanica.
How to identify a brown recluse spider bite
The main thing to know about spiders is they’re all venomous, Whitworth said. The difference between a brown recluse and a spider like the wolf spider is the recluse’s venom is dangerous to humans.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, brown recluse bites can cause:
- Aching at the bite sight
- Pain surrounding the bite
- Pain in the abdomen, chest, legs and back
- Blister
- Swelling
- Bruising
- Rash
- Fever
- Vomiting
- Chills
If you know you’ve been bitten, Cleveland Clinic says to clean the site with soap and water and ice the area to reduce possible swelling. If you begin to experience severe symptoms, seek medical care, a doctor can prescribe antibiotics to prevent infection.
Despite brown recluses finding spots to hide in your home, Whitworth says humans and the spiders can generally coexist.
“The way you get bitten, generally, is you put on a shoe or a shirt or something that happens to have a brown recluse in it, and you squish that in ... and it will bite. That’s the reaction,” Whitworth said.
To avoid that, Whitworth recommends to shake out clothes and shoes that were on the ground before donning them to make sure no brown recluses are hiding in them.
Whitworth also says to not slap a brown recluse spider if it lands on you, as it could inject the venom into your skin.
How to keep brown recluses out of your home
The best way to keep spiders out is to reduce clutter, as that’s where they’re most likely to make a home — especially boxes.
“When you buy a bunch of furniture, or you get a bunch of stuff in boxes and they deliver them to your house, make sure you go through them pretty closely, because oftentimes there can be a recluse, egg case or a brown recluse, you know, hanging out in those boxes. They really like boxes,” Whitworth said.
“Get rid of the clutter. That’s the best way to reduce the brown recluse population.”
If you know you already have spiders in the home, Whitworth recommends a mixture of both deterrent spray on the outside and inside of your home, as well as traps.
“Crack and crevice spray won’t kill them … but it will kill your crickets or their other food sources,” Whitworth said. “So over time, that will get rid of [the brown recluses.]”
Brown recluses are inactive in Kansas October through March.
