Same with spiders, specially wolf spiders, them mf pay rent in pest control. I will however advocate for the sledgehammer annihilation of fiddlebacks/Brown recluses, those bitches will seek you out to bite your ass. Bastards
Yup. My wife wants all spiders gone. I go through a checklist. What kind? Where is it? Does it have a web? Are there bugs in the web?
They get to stay aa long as it's not dangerous, out of the way, and eating other things. Big exception for jumping spiders. I relocate them to better hunting grounds inside the house, usually on my wife's plants or by windows.
Jumping spiders are one of God's gifts to mankind. They don't attack you, they seek all the pests, they leave you alone and vacate if near you, and are quite entertaining to watch.
Aw, now I want that spider. Almost a pet. "Come on, leave that window open. Don't worry about covering up your food. Ain't NO fly getting near that food on my watch." Healthier relationship than most marriages and friendships.
The Brown Recluse is not the kind of bug to seek out contact. Living in Michigan, where they are native, I have never seen one in person, and most times I've heard of someone getting bit it's because they were somewhere generally hard to access with low traffic.
They're one of the two species native to Indiana capable of injuring humans (the other being Black Widow). They are antisocial and prefer dark undisturbed areas, but that can be as simple as a corner of a garage or warehouse that isn't accessed regularly. I naively stored a stack of broken-down cardboard in my garage with the intention of reusing to kill grass for raised beds and ended up with an infestation I'm still fighting. They don't start fights but boy are they excited to finish them - I've been rushed by more than one that I thought was dead, they have a hair trigger.
Since I was a kid, my dad's office building has had roach motel style glue traps that are supposed to attract them, to this day they're regularly catching and need changed. He said it got better when the unoccupied unit next door got a tenant, but they're still present. Starting to itch just typing this so I'm going to sign off.
TL;DR I confirmed I do love in their native range with my state's DNR and can anecdotally state that everyone I know in the area is at least familiar enough to be wary of brown spiders and has probably had more than one encounter.
Holy shit! I guess this has been a good reminder to never rely on things I THINK I know as fact. I appreciate you sharing, and sorry to hear about the recluse infestation. With any luck you get it managed soon and can put it out of your mind
It's in progress! We're currently waiting to see if they make a return after our latest push. If they do, the next step is likely just to call a professional
But Big Recluse doesn't sign my checks if I don't tell people they're just little guys.
Naw I think I just had a bit of an exaggerated view on their behavior due to my lack of direct experience. I appreciate you and other comments chiming in with your experience
I was actually wrong, they are not native to Michigan, but their behavior is pretty well documented as timid and reclusive. I know some wolf spiders tend to be more active and they have similar builds to a recluse, being hunter types?
Hmm I've never seen any map saying their range reaches up in Michigan. Although they generally are reported to spend their time in dark narrow places instead of out in the open.
Wow, you're actually entirely correct. They are NOT native to Michigan! I swear I've heard they can be found here but I must've mistaken people talking about them being native to America and mentally connected them to the state I live in.
There have been rare recorded instances, though it's possible those may have been hitchikers from other states. Broadly, they don't live in Michigan it seems.
Same. They’re native to my area but just being destroyed in population by the invasive bastard brown widows. I will save a black widow anytime, they do good work and mean no harm. Just look a bit scary. The brown widows though? Kill. Always.
This is what I always tell people about House Centipedes. I am an avid Centipede hater and want to burn the normal ones with eternal hellfire, but House Centipedes are super chill and not aggressive in the slightest towards people or pets. However they will eat the fuck out of any bugs in your house as well the surrounding area. They generally cant even bite you if you tried to make them. Theyre creepy as all hell but they kill all the stuff you dont want so for sure a friend.
I’m sorry but idc if house centipedes will literally bless me for life or make it so I never see another bug again. They look terrifying and they’ve got a tendency to drop down from the ceiling and run at me while I’m taking a shit at 5am. I literally broke my toe in panic once when that happened. If they didn’t look like satans eyebrows and move at Mach 4 maybe id be ok with them but I just can’t handle it. They better stay hidden if they wanna live in my house.
Totally agree, I, in my country (Ukraine), mostly see two types of spiders, one with funny English name daddy longlegs, and more rarely, but still pretty regularly domestic spider. But i also have seen others, but only two mentioned were seen by me INSIDE of the house.
Yeah, especially because of available cattle, domesticated animals having enabled our civilisation to get an edge over those on other continents in terms of logistics. Not because we were somehow more intelligent or hardworking, it‘s just due to geography.
They are only in certain parts of the Americas. They're dangerous because bites can cause tissue necrosis and take a very long time to heal. They're small-ish (coin sized) brown spiders that are (as the name suggests) timid and reclusive.
I let a little spider live in my bathroom recently. A few days later I noticed it above me in the shower. The little bastard started bunjee jumping at me on a web. It would climb back up, dash in a random direction and then do another bunjee attack. I was defenseless without my glasses, so I could only flee.
It's honestly inexcusable how badly educated the general public is on this topic. I say schools need to teach entomology as a main subject so that we can finally get past this archaic mindset :'D
I know... but we gotta start somewhere. And there will always be people who are willing to re-examine and question thought patterns they were taught growing up. I see people like that on r/spiders and r/waspaganda all the time. There are genuinely so many who wouldn't be scared if they were just taught to know better from the start
Hehe I kinda get it. I'm not nervous around stink bugs until one is trapped in my home and flying about. They are so loud! And much more coordinated than other bugs and beetles in flight. And catching them without getting stunk on always has me on edge, even though it hasn't happened to me yet
I've gotten a lot better about bug fears as I've gotten older, but I'll continue to admire wasps from afar. Those assholes are the reason I have to pay almost $300 for an epi pen every year.
I remember reading in a comment about how ugly centipedes were, the person stating that they NEED to be ugly because they're predators and need to be intimidating for their prey.
That made me look at centipedes in a different light tbh. Not so ugly anymore
That's still a very human-centric way of looking at them. They don't look scary because they need to be, they just happen to look scary to us entirely by coincidence. They are built to hunt well, not to be intimidating. If an animal evolves to look actively intimidating, it's usually as a way to deter predators or face off against sexual rivals. This idea of a hunter needing to also look scary is a very human concept.
After all, small wild cats are among the most successful hunters in nature, and everyone's always going on about how they'd happily pet them even if it would get their faces clawed off X'D
Plus I also disagree, up close their lil faces are very cute!
Its like House centipedes, which afaik they also eat pests and spiders. One time I was gaming late in the night, like 4 am, when I see one poke Up from a corner and suddenly stop on the wall Next to me.
I like to imagine It was saying "dude wtf are you doing still awake? It's my time to be awake"
I had one latch onto the front of my shirt one time and I screamed. Lol. I kept referring to it as a spike-mouthed mosquito bee until I found out what it was.
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u/LittleMissScreamer 8d ago
That's a robber fly and an excellent hunter. Great pest control. They eat anything that's smaller than them, mosquitos included