KRQE) – There are well over 100 species of spiders in New Mexico alone, so it’s likely many Americans might not meet the same species twice in their lifetimes. But do any of them pose a threat to you?

Jason Schaller, curator of entomology at the ABQ BioPark in Albuquerque, says it can be difficult to figure out which one’s which.

“The thing is, you have so many small brown species that all look kind of similar but come from a variety of different families and superfamilies and genera,” Shaller says. “There’s a lot of different spiders — that’s kind of the bottom line.”

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One spider that people in Albuquerque see a lot of is the Apache recluse – not the brown recluse, which it’s often mistaken for. “There’s about four out of five recluse spiders in the U.S. The brown recluse is the largest, most venomous – that’s from Texas and the southeast,” says Schaller. “In the southwest, we get the Apache recluse, which is central New Mexico; central and southeastern Arizona and New Mexico.”

Schaller says, like the western black widow, the Apache recluse is medically significant but its bite is extremely rare. “It’s hard to get them to bite; it’s usually accidental. Putting a finger in a crevice where one happens to be hiding, keeping your finger against it so it can actually get its fangs in,” says Schaller.

Speaking of black widows, Schaller says the number of confirmed deaths solely from black widow bites is zero. “… A lot of times, a black widow death is suspected or it correlates with underlying conditions – [being] elderly, heart conditions,” Schaller says. “So, it’s really not a spider you should fear at all.”

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Basically, the likelihood of getting bitten by a black widow is rare and if you do get bit, you won’t need to seek medical attention. Schaller says most black widow bites will cause fever, pain, muscle cramps, and spasms, and most people get sick for about a day. “So it is a nasty bite, but it’s not going to kill you,” he says.

The recluse bite is different from the widow bite in that there are cytotoxins that will not cause pain but there will be an open wound that usually heals in a few weeks. Schaller says there’s only one recorded brown recluse death, and that was of a small child.

Schaller says that while all spiders are venomous, everything outside of the recluse and the black widow is nowhere close to being dangerous to humans. “Any spider you see around you, really can’t hurt you at all,” says Schaller.

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What about the myth that people swallow a certain number of spiders every year in their sleep? Schaller says it’s completely made up.

“You probably eat more spiders than you realize just in your food and stuff because there’s just tiny ones, small species, babies of small species that kind of get everywhere, so you’ve probably eaten one without knowing it,” says Schaller. He equates it to the probability of eating dust or any small bits of material floating around.

So, while they may look creepy or scary when you see one out of the corner of your eye, the spiders in and around your home are just trying to survive. If anything, think of them as a tiny pest control company working around the clock to keep your home insect-free.


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Fuck em. I don’t want them in my house. Mrs. Mike has declared them arachnid non grata. They gotta go.

Bifenthrin/3 mos. = no spiders

Life is good

No need for me to kill them. My cat stalks and eats them.
Good Kitty!

I capture them, take them outside, and release them.

Like the article said: They're just trying to live, too

I’ve always kept a spider-friendly and cricket-friendly house. I hate silverfish, and my spiders and crickets take ‘em out.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...550099005#5550099005

quote:

...a black widow death is suspected or it correlates with underlying conditions – [being] elderly, heart conditions...

quote:

..there’s only one recorded brown recluse death, and that was of a small child.

I guess children, the elderly, and people with heart conditions are expendable to this clown.

For spiders in New Mexico the wind scorpion must be mentioned.

https://www.desertusa.com/insects/solpugids.html

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^^^ Never heard them called that around here. We've always called them camel spiders. Suckers can be pretty aggressive.

Unless the kids are getting all hot and bothered, I typically ignore spiders in the house. They keep the more annoying bugs down.

They keep more annoying bugs away from me.

A pest spray company was going door to door recently and asked if we'd like to kill all those spiders and eliminate those webs on the outside of our house. They seemed deflated when I asked why I would want to stop spiders from catching bugs trying to enter my home.

I live in the woods. They're everywhere. We can decorate for Halloween by not cleaning webs for a week. They shit all over the place. Messy as hell. Same with bats. The perch in the eves and in a spot over the front porch, they shit all over the place.

I get it. They're good because they eat bugs. But if you're gonna eat em and shit them out on my floor, just leave em be.

Just caught and expelled a half dollar sized (leg tip to leg tip, so not that big in the scheme of things) wolf spider last night.

quote:

Originally posted by Greymann:
For spiders in New Mexico the wind scorpion must be mentioned.

https://www.desertusa.com/insects/solpugids.html

.

Thanks for the interesting link in your post. I’d not known of this family of critters.

It's not the spiders I hate, it's their damn webs and I'm always walking into them. I live in the country so spiders are everywhere and people driving by probably think I'm a crazy man walking around waving my arms trying to get the spider web off me.

We called them sun spiders before the more popular name of camel spiders came around. The wolf spiders around here are much bigger than the sun spiders. Seeing a wolf spider with all the babies on her back creeps me out.

I like spiders and watch them when they’re outside. I give them space and try not too disturb them. However, they don’t belong in my house. If they enter, I’ll give a very small effort to get them outside but if it’s inconvenient, they get the burial at sea (toilet).

Yes, what he said. Some of you guys sound nuts. Lol. If I walk through your house and you leave cobwebs up I’m not staying. Which you may prefer. Spiders belong outside.

Honestly down here in Florida we have those small lizards, anoles, everywhere. They eat everything including spiders so it really isn’t an issue here.

A spider or two every now and then isn't a problem. Fact is, you can't have a spider "problem" without first having a spider food problem. Which shouldn't be too tough to reduce.

But that's just not preaching to the "kill it with fire!" crowd, so go ahead and kill all the good guys you want I guess.

Serious question. So if you have one or two spiders in your house you are going to let them build a big cobweb across whatever part of the house they decide to?

Of course not. You have an undisturbed cobweb across your kitchen you need to clean your house. Removing cobwebs and 5he spider associated with said web is a long way from flamethrowers. It’s just part of maintaining a clean house.

Snakes are great for the environment too but not inside the house. Lol

I, as a rule, let SMALL spiders alone. I was once forced by my wife and young daughter to kill an enormous wolf spider, about 2.5" across. I felt bad about it.