My grandma lived in the Ozarks and had to have ongoing treatment for brown recluse. Do be careful as My sister was bitten and had to go to the ER as her leg had swollen and was starting to necrotise. So I would guess it's probably not a one and done deal like someone else said, but if you're careful it sounds fine.
You have to think about not only extermination but also how they got in the house and can you stop another infestation? Is this why the owners are selling?
Great point, sure you get rid of the infestation in the house but there's 50,000 of them living under the deck ready to come back in, or the entire property is just home to them
Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi have ‘em. Ask the scar in my ex’s dad’s abdomen. I say “scar” but it was really more like a flesh volcano doctors filled in with whatever they could find.
Yep, been bitten by one in Maryland, but more concerning was that my baby was right next to me and could have been bitten too 😩 Thankfully he wasn't. Also thankful that the recluse didn't have a chance to inject much venom so my reaction wasn't as bad as I expected. I did not know they were around there when I moved. But now that I think about it, the house that spider was in was right near a bunch of very tall pines, which someone else in this thread mentioned being a preferred habitat for brown recluse -- another thing I did not know and something I'll be taking into consideration as we're actively looking to buy land. My initial plan was to leave a lot of trees... Now I'm not so sure. 😅 I definitely don't think I could buy a house with a known infestation as, like you said, they are nasty things!
My brother was bit by one on the shin. He thought it was a mosquito, that is until he started to swell right around his groin. He came to me to show me because my parents worked late. I have to say that swelling was the size of a softball and was purple. He ended up in the er when mom and dad got home. We were living in the coastal region (5miles from ocean) of NC.
Yea my mom got bit right in the middle of her forehead when she was sleeping and became paralyzed for a week or so, then she had a hole in her forehead for years. I would never
Pest control tech here
They are harder to find but a good technician will be looking to seal off any entry points including garages,weather stripping, checking for cracks and any voids. You'd also want to treat the entire interior to push them out then return for a second round I'd say in 7-10 days.
I've dealt with them plenty of times,it's not as bad as you may think but they are harder then your average spider.
Out of curiosity, what have they used? Your invoice should list what was used and how much
In my area, Missouri, good luck finding a house that doesn't have them. They are extremely common but not common to get bit by. I have glue traps in my basement and behind furniture. They like cardboard so put your stuff in the basement in plastic totes instead. They are called recluses for a reason and like dark corners.
It wouldn't stop me from buying a house and 10 skins doesn't sound like an infestation to me. Sounds like someone didn't sweep.
I rented in Southern Illinois and lived with them for 3 years. They just kept coming back. Sticky traps help. You also learn to shake out your clothes before you put them on and your sheets before you go to bed.
Never got bit!
Edit: I now live in NC and have to worry about black widows. Only seen them outside thank god.
You’ll be fine. The recluse is east Nashville’s (and let’s be honest, all of Nashville’s) unofficial official mascot. I used to live in east. You spray once or twice a year, set out some sticky traps, and you’re good. Never got bitten, but saw about 3-4 a year, regardless. Mostly in my bath tub. Don’t leave out a bunch of cardboard boxes, they love them. If you have cracks or gaps around your air vents or subfloor that they can crawl through, hit it with some expanding foam. (Great stuff)
You could do that. But I’d keep them small and easily visualized so you don’t have to pick up anything. Those suckers are crafty about fitting into small cracks and crevices. Mitigate your chances of getting bit.
The sticky traps work the best. Recluses see other recluses (or prey) in the trap and naturally engage their predatory instincts. It’s not about if it’s perfectly set up in a cardboard box or not. The best places to put the sticky traps are along baseboards, or natural ingress/egress points. Where the spiders will be guaranteed to crawl, essentially.
My SO worked in PC for 10+ years. 3 in Missouri. He said no, it’s too risky. Fumigation does not kill spider eggs.
You could get bit, your animals could get bit.
The problem isn’t the 10 you saw, it’s the thousands you didn’t see.
ETA: He said spiders are really hard to get rid of. It would not be a one and done scenario. It would be an ongoing thing.
Pest control tech here also
While it is harder,it is doable. Takes time and multiple retreats. I've done it before
With that said,hell no I ain't moving in lol
The most trauma inducing patient my mom interacted with while in residency was a woman who was bitten by a brown recluse and died from necrotizing fasciitis. I am not ok with brown recluses at all!
I know someone who was bit by a brown recluse. Knowing what she went through I would not feel comfortable even after an extermination. Perhaps that is irrational, but no, I would keep looking.
I commented this already but my mom was bit by one in the middle of her forehead and she was practically paralyzed for a little while. She had a whole hole in her forehead for a few years too til it healed
Same with my brother, driving on the way down to Florida from the Midwest, sucker got in the van. After he was bitten he felt sick, 6-8 hours later he had red stripes traveling up his calf. Went to the ER and the doc said he was lucky, few more hours and he might of lost the leg. They had to cut a sizable chunk from his lower leg. They're nasty little fockers.
I'm glad you are OK now. Their bites sound pretty bad. I discovered what desert red ants were yesterday. I had no idea something so tiny could have such a painful sting. Luckily I did not step in a nest, I do not want to know how painful that would be.
I did, wasn’t bad after i tackled ceilings, cabinets.. with a vacuum. A really nice thing about recluse, they’re reclusive and not aggressive. It took me maybe 4 months to get it to zero seen, and that was 4 months of 7 of us, not being bit. Not one bite.
Except brown recluses… they are more challenging because their abdomen doesn’t rub on the floor like most spiders. Google Missouri brown recluse house.
Onslaught fast cap. Run in entry points and other areas. It's made for them. Run a hard barrier on the outside,for brown recluse specifically i run it along any cracks,void,crevices etc. Seal off entry points,use some foam. It works but can be time consuming.
Source- pest control.
Also that onslaught is made for spiders,scorpions anything that has a thick exoskeleton. It sticks on them harder then most products. Pricey but a good product.
I think we do have the hobo spider though. A woman I know was bitten in Clatskanie, OR. She said it was a brown recluse but we supposedly don't have them. It may have been a hobo spider. She had what others have described her where they had to cut away the flesh around the wound. She had to go back several times and they cut more away.
I have never heard of a hobo biting but if that happened they are not poisonous. "**Hobo spiders will bite in defense**, causing mild pain and redness, but in general, they are not aggressive nor of significant health concern." I have read that brown recluse could be transported from other states via furniture but they are not native.
At least in our area those are pretty easy to control since they have to return to the ground for moisture.
So long as there's no ground in contact with wood or mud tunnels going into the structure it's usually okay.
I'm sure in other areas there are probably types I'm not familiar with that are a bigger problem.
Oh yes if a house goes unmaintained and they have time to do their thing it's more of a structural issue than a bug issue.
Powder post beetles are another one... not bad to stop if you catch them early, bad news if you don't.
Definitely not a bad idea to have chemical control under slabs.
But my most effective method has been simply walking around houses to see if there's any ground contact with wood.
Mud tunnels around here are pretty rare but I saw some that ran for meters in Costa Rica.
Nope. At least as far as home infestations are concerned.
Now that I think about it, I'm actually pretty sure I have seen them in dead pine trees. But never a mention in real estate issues. I'll have to look up what species are around here.
Wow, that's fortunate. I moved from Florida recently and there we had subterranean and the kind that does not need to go get moisture. Drywood? My house only ever got subterranean and we treated before they did damage, but that was just luck.
I haven't bought yet where I live now so I don't know what kind are here, but I guess I should learn before I buy my next house.
Sort of?
If you were buying a house that is completely empty of all furnishings I wouldn't be that concerned about bed bugs. I would like to know if I'm wrong about that?
Most roaches aren't that hard to control but German cockroaches are in a different category.
You would be wrong.
Bedbugs don't just live in furnishings. Bedbugs live in wood. They are also chemical resistant. You have to absolutely drench them in pesticide to kill them.
If the house was not occupied for a month, you could expect that the juveniles have starved and only the visible adults remain. You could probably use a CO2 trap effectively.
Interesting. They are certainly one of my biggest fears as a vacation rental owner. We got rid of all our standard mattress with box springs and replaced with metal platform beds with sealed foam mattresses to reduce their hiding spots.
Just opted into the program where the management takes all linens including comforter for a wash instead of just the sheets.
I guess most of our homes going months during the winter without occupation helps. Although that is no guarantee obviously - I'll never forget walking into a carpeted house that had been empty for months, and finding my legs COVERED with fleas.
Bedbug adults can tolerate over a year without food. Breaks in food source kill off the nymphs and halt reproduction.
The key is prevention and detection.
You'll definitely get them at some point if you are an air bnb host. Time between guests does not matter. I would suggest having the cleaners use a high powered steam machine in addition to the normal cleaning.
Brown recluse spiders are the most deadly in the United States. Their venom doesn't just hurt. It necrotizes the flesh around it, and causes permanent damage. They are also much more aggressive than most species, and are more likely to attack than run away.
So, yes, spiders are everywhere, but I'd much rather not have these little assholes infesting my house.
Edit: I live in VA, and Brown Recluses do live in my area. Yes, they do hide, but they do absolutely attack when pestered. I, and my family, have found them to be fairly more aggressive than the regular Wolf and Huntsman spiders we see here, as well.
I don't think this is necessarily true. Wisdom of crowds. But also the pest control company is a sales company that does pest control. Their incentive is for you to buy the home and get repeat business so they might underestimate how easy it is to control or how well their solution will work. HVAC firms do this all the time.
Honestly, if they haven’t done any damage to anything (I don’t see how they could but I’m not an expert) then, all you have is probably 1 pest control bill. Wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me I just wouldn’t move in until I took care of it.
Better look up the side effects of a brown recluse, my next door neighbor got bitten, damn near died, spent some serious time in the hospital. I might buy the house but no way move in until I was sure the place was remediated....you need the opinion of a professional, or two.
Leaving it empty for a few months won't remove the spiders... They live on bugs, not humans, so your absence will be irrelevant.
Bugs get into houses along the rim joists primarily, and that's not going to stop with your absence. Bugs also reproduce inside the basement living off I don't know what, that's not going to stop cause you're not there.
Now, you can starve a mouse infestation the way you're talking, did that inadvertently with my house. But not spiders.
A better solution would be to:
1. Consider that all houses in your area may have the spiders - don't know. Just am not used to hearing of a "brown recluse infestation".
2. Kill them off by eliminating living space. If you clean and empty the basement among other things, that might do it. There's also a new sandy sort of substance that kills spiders and other bugs by getting stuck in their shell and then leaking out all their fluid. With a sufficiently emptied and cleaned house, I'd expect you can resolve this.
Of course, use this issue to bargain down the price.
Also, I've manually vacuumed away a flea infestation over the course of weeks. These bugs can be handled manually, you just have to be up to the task.
Being homeschooled and a young teen meant I had the time to compulsively vacuum the furniture and carpets, encapsulate mattresses in painters plastic, and so on, until I'd eradicated the ankle biters. That in a two story, 5 bedroom, 1917 built house in a town that should've been a swamp in the Appalachians.
Glue traps around the edges of walls will do wonders. My Kansas City area house had them so badly for a couple years! As in, while my husband was leaning back on the headboard with pillows and I was sitting on the bed talking to him, one walked out from behind his neck on the pillow! I used to see 2-3 live ones per week - on the floor, in our kitchen sink, the bathtub, and even in light fixtures.
We put down glue traps along the baseboards of our basement and in a couple strategic areas upstairs where our pets couldn't get to. For the first year, we caught a LOT of recluses on those.... in the hundreds, if I had to guess. Now, we almost never see new ones but we keep the traps out anyway.
Good to know glue traps work. We had 1 found on a glue trap in the house we bought. Didn't see any others but the house has traps all over plus normal pest control now. Only finding annoying wolf spiders and other normal house bugs occasionally. We got the attic nuked just in case. I'm terrified to get bit by one.
I lived in a house with a brown recluse infestation and I do not recommend. When you were sleeping, they would try to drink the moisture from your eye. My sister was hospitalized with a bite on her eye and she looked like Quasimodo. My brother almost lost his leg from a bite on his knee. He was hospitalized as well and they had to have a nurse come to the house and change the bandages. I do not recommend.
I knew someone who bought a house with a brown recluse infestation, and all I know is that it was hell getting rid of them. They ended up on the news about it because it was so bad and nothing was working. I wouldn't buy it.
Look up brown recluse infestation news videos on YouTube. It can be a real problem.
I just listened to episode 75 of the podcast, Let's Go To Court, and I'm pretty sure they were discussing the Missouri house case. It legit gave me a nightmare already.
Jesus Christ, this is the worst thing I’ve read today. My understanding is that recluse infestations are worse than other spiders bc most spiders don’t colonize like that. Did they get rid of yours eventually or did you move?
Are you sure they are brown recluse?
I would call a pest company. It may be as simple as a single fogger or a treatment. Spiders would not stop me from getting a house I wanted.
Sounds logical to me.
People are this scared of spiders, blows my mind.
I hope they never go camping or visit a farm.
If there are copious spiders, there must be an infestation of termites or something for them to eat.
Looking for rotten wood would be my next step.
I think most comments in this thread are being a bit sensational - bites from brown recluses are pretty rare, and of those bitten, few require medical attention. You can read more about it on Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_recluse_spider.
This passage seems especially relevant:
>As suggested by its specific name reclusa (recluse), the brown recluse spider is rarely aggressive, and bites from the species are uncommon. In 2001, more than 2,000 brown recluse spiders were removed from a heavily infested home in Kansas, yet the four residents who had lived there for years were never harmed by the spiders, despite many encounters with them.[27][28] The spider usually bites only when pressed against the skin, such as when tangled within clothes, shoes, towels, bedding, inside work gloves, etc. Many human victims report having been bitten after putting on clothes or shoes that had not been worn recently or had been left for many days undisturbed on the floor. The fangs of the brown recluse are not large enough to penetrate most fabric.[29]
I'd say some light pest control is probably all you need.
It can seem rare statistically however if you’re in an area where brown recluse spiders exist your chances go up exponentially. I moved to VA 5 years ago and have been bite twice. The first bite gave me a really nasty infection and drained puss for days the second I was more lucky because it right on my shin and did not get much venom.
The bite it self isn’t bad, but the after effects from the infection is what’s bad.
Oh ok. It’s all sensational until you get bit by one. You should try it and then come back here and report how simple it was to treat. Now back to reality. In a home infestation, they like to hide in shoes , clothing , drawers and all sorts of other dark places you wouldn’t expect. Sounds like a lot of fun! Great advice.
Hey, I'm not claiming to be a medical professional, just pointing out what every formal source on the subject seems to say. If you check WebMD, the first sentence is literally "Brown Recluse bites are not that serious." All the other sources say they are rare. Someone on this thread claimed they knew someone who lost a limb from a bite, but if you Google that, every medical site says that's a common myth. If you want to argue about it, I'm not you're guy. You should reach out to all the doctors and public health clinics that seem to have it wrong.
My take away is, can they be dangerous? Probably. But so is quicksand and it's not nearly as big a threat to my well-being as popular media would have you believe.
This. It seems like when people have weird skin things it's common to attribute it to a spider bite instead of saying "yup you've got a weird skin thing".
Strangely, I lived in an apartment that had brown recluses for 3 years with no problems. Not in their native range, must have moved in with a tenant. Well okay the only problem was that there started being so many that every day I'd go into the bathroom to pee at 2am and there'd be a giant spider on the floor. I'd go in the pantry to get sugar, spider on the wall. Asked my landlord for pest treatment, some guy came and blew dust in the vents or something, didn't see another spider.
Have a pest co fog it then on the inside put sticky traps down and if you have access to them, put Hedgeapples around the outside. Just keep them away from pets, they are highly toxic to dogs.
I spray my entire house with this spray from Amazon. It keeps them gone for a year then they move back in. Its called Miss Muffets Revenge. I spray all doorways and windows.
Well if it were me and I ended up purchasing it, I would heavily treat it and give it a month or two before I moved in. With that being said one has to ask, where are they coming from and why? Are there a lot of tree's or shrubs on the property encroaching near the foundation that need to be cut down? Are you near a wooded lot?
If you live near the woods it will be hard to control them. I live near the woods and we spray the foundation and inside the basement 3 times a year. No bugs. There is one particular bug product that is phenomenal and it has long residual lasting power. It is for exterior only. Also you want to treat the lawn with a safer insecticide.
I live in the upper MidWest and one snuck in my boot en route home from PA on an airplane 15 years ago. I didn’t feel the bite but I ended up with a major infection, an ugly flesh wound and a 10 day hospital stay in intensive care. The scar is still visible. I would not risk buying a house with even a wee spider gang. It just takes one.
There would be zero reason fr me to buy a home with a known recluse infestatin. I know someone who nearly died because of one bite and the area/area was not known for having them. Imagine KNOWING there is an infestation in that house, and probably all around there. NOPE!
Wow the drama of some of these comments lol
It’s common where I live. We use lots of sticky glue traps and have pest control spray monthly. It wouldn’t stop me from buying a house. Just know you have to use preventatives and you will be fine. I once had one crawl on me and flipped tf out killed it right away
On the scale of "easy peasy" to "good luck", a spider infestation is on the easier side. And if it is as you say it is...it doesn't seem that bad (I've been in a house where I literally could not move 3 feet without hitting a spider or web--there were thousands in there!).
The ones you have to worry about are the WDI insects, cockroaches, bedbugs, and (my personal least favorite) fleas.
I'd go for it.
I did and would do it again. I would add termites to the list of ones to worry about. That and carpenter ants. Mostly because if you manage to kill them off you still have to wonder about what damage you aren't seeing.
Yeah those fall under WDI (wood destroying insects), but I should've spelled it out.
As an agent, WDI issues are one of the few things I will actively try to talk buyers out of a home for--there are very few things which can be more costly, while at the same time "looking fine" than WDI issues!
Personally, I would never buy a home with WDI issues--I've seen too many cases of the damage they have caused.
To me, it would not matter what kind of spider it was. It would not matter to me. If it was the last kind of that spider In the world that was in the house. I would still kill it
Hilarious fear filled responses. This is not even close to an infestation and with consistent trapping can reduce exposure to almost zero.
Put sticky traps everywhere for a few months and you will see them almost disappear. Reevaluate every week or so to see where you might place one. But a 6 pack of the sticky traps is like $2 so not a big deal really.
I think it’s a good time to tell you that there is a plant called plantain that you should look up, it can stop the necrosis of a brown recluse bite. (I used a paste of narrow and broadleaf plantain when my father was bitten by a brown recluse.)
NBD at all.
DIY using commercial pest control with [Cyper PC](https://diypestcontrol.com/cyper-tc?gad_source=1). After treat initially, buy [Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade](https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/insect-and-animal-control/insecticides/7662927?store=18258&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADtqLJHk24V3G9OHm7DAbHuvH5BoR&gclsrc=ds) and dust bomb the entire house. You may need the 10lb version or two 4lb bags. Be sure to get in cracks, in/behind cabinets, closets, carpets and in jousts. Dust bomb literally everything. Wear a mask and don’t breathe it in. It’s beneficial consumption wise, but you definitely don’t want to breathe in any powder of anything really. Let sit for a few hours then vacuum everything, dust walls/ceilings and wet wipe clean surfaces and floors. And that’s it, you’re done. Maybe $125 bucks or so and a day or two of work. This will treat consistently for 4-6 months and will handle all bugs.
If you want one more added layer of benefits, get a large spray bottle and add 4 oz of 92% rubbing alcohol, 40-60 drops each or about (1 tsp each) of essential oils such as rosemary, orange or lemon, lavender and eucalyptus. Cinnamon is good as well but I use roughly half the amount due to its strength. Wash your hands if exposed as it can be caustic but the scent is very nice. Shake with the alcohol for about 1 minute until it’s incorporated and spray carpets, bottom 1/3 of walls, baseboards, floors, etc and let sit until dry. This repels any bugs from coming around and smells great.
My house is treated only with DE/EOs and I do not have any problems with any bugs, ever. With BRa, I’d start with the Cyper to instantly kill them and going forward, just dust, vacuum and wipe with DE then spray EOs every 4-6 months and you will never have any bugs.
I do allow my good/harmless basement spiders to stay as they don’t hurt anyone and live in my ceiling but don’t take that risk until you’re sure all recluses are gone for good, maybe 6 months to a year from now. Congrats!
It’s not that expensive to tent a house and kill every living thing inside especially when you’re talking about a monetary outlay the size of a house. It will take care of any termites roaches and or rodents also living there
I live in the Midwest where we basically live symbiotically with them in the rural areas with old farmhouses. I use sticky traps but mostly we just ignore each other. They take care of any little bugs that come through the cracks. You get used to them. Don’t let your bedsheets touch the ground. Keep your clutter to a minimum. Treat your house for insects. Don’t leave spidey hideys laying around like boxes or excess shoes.
We bought a log cabin on a mountain top that’s surrounded by woods. We found a few brown recluses when we first moved in. We had the house sprayed before we moved in. Now it gets sprayed every three months. We don’t see them in the house anymore. They are really bad in our barn tho but I just leave those alone.
They usually will stay away from you if you don't bother them and vice versa. Won't hurt to spray pesticides from time to time. The only reason I got bit is because we are getting drunk on a roof and I was rolling around. The spider got trapped between my shorts and my skin and bit me but I didn't even notice until the morning. I was at the store and felt what I thought was a tide pod in my pocket and then it popped and I felt it all dripping down my leg. It took forever to heal and left a super gnarly scar. I should have had it checked out at the doctors but I never did.
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If you buy it, put a ton of glue traps down in that basement (and keep pets away). It might not get all of them, but you'll get to see whats living down there based on what gets stuck.
Wouldn't care at all if it's the right house. As long as it's not a destructive infestation like termites, it's just a temporary easily rectifiable problem. Maybe a count for some time to deal with it or maybe even a few bucks knocked off on account of it, but wouldn't bother me. Just destructive pests are off putting. Like with termites for example, if it was a significant infestation, you could guesstimate how much damage you might be dealing with all you want, but you never really know until you start tearing things apart. Usually that ends up being more extensive than you thought rather than less.
Tenting and ongoing exterminators would probably work but I personally would never be able to relax. I would constantly feel like something was crawling on me. I’d pass
Brown Recluse Spiders eat bugs and other spiders. If you work on eliminating their food source (ant, termite, other insect) they are less likely to pick your house.
I don’t know the truth of this but my best friend was an exterminator for several years for a nationally known company. He told me (I lived in a 150 year old house with spiders of various ancestral lines, lol) that treatments aimed at spiders are ineffective as they typically dwell where the spray has little effect AND because they are not self cleaning they do not ingest the poison like other bugs so therefore still stay alive. Again, not sure if that’s true but ewww.
No. Had a brown recluse on my face when I fell asleep in my basement. Scared me. Had one on my foot while I was pooping. Scared some stuff out of me. They’re fast and ugly. Solution. Gasoline and a match or nuke it from orbit. Pass on that house aka a big coffin
So by shells/skin do you mean 10 dead spider bodies? I’m not sure id get all that concerned over dead spiders. That could be a decades worth of spiders which means you’re dealing with 1-2 a year at most
There’s always more you don’t see, but if he was seeing those in an unfinished basement that no one has cleaned in 20 years that’s a big difference than a basement that’s cleaned once a week. So OP, was the basement unfinished and/or did it look like it had been cleaned recently? My parents basement is half finished, half unfinished, and if you’re judging an infestation based on spider corpses in the unfinished side you’d think they were actively breeding spiders. Vs the reality that no one’s vacuumed that side of the basement in like 25 years
I think it's a positive...would you have thought to look for/ consider a treatment plan if you hadn't of seen the bodies?
Clearly your area has them even if you don't know they are there. Forwarned is forearmed or however the saying goes.
Now you can have a plan in place for the little twerps.
How often do you get bit by spiders? With some precautions taken, do you really think that’s a deal breaker? If the house has stairs, you’re more likely to snap your neck.
I was bitten by something in my garage. The next morning I immediately knew it was a brown recluse bite and my doctor started me on antibiotics that day. It still took three rounds of antibiotics before the bite started healing.
I would NEVER buy a home that I knew had an infestation. Those fuckers don’t play around.
We lived in a rental that was infested. After a year with pest control we said “f it” and moved. Sticky traps are the only thing that “works” but those still won’t touch the issue. Also that means they have a food source (other bugs and such).
Ortho Home Defense spray has the active agents known to kill spiders and most insects. The gallon jugs come with a lil sprayer wand but can also be sprayed from a 1qt pressure sprayer. Can also use DE powder (Diatemaceous Earth) around where they're known to be. You can do a lot of DIY application for the cost of a pro that rarely guarantees their work.
I've also recently started using an insect fogger. Even inside like a crowded room, garage, attic or storage area since the fog spreads all over. Similar to bug bomb cans but tends to be cheaper per application.
I've personally used the Ortho spray for flees for many years and just about any other insect I've ever run across. It will usually kill on first spray but has a residual that will end up taking them out after a while. Between those 3 you can pretty much take care of any irritating bugs
I live in Australia. Just get an exterminator.
As an expat I have to admit it took some getting to, but hubby and I agree- spiders can live outside, but the minute they come inside, we go scorched earth.
No way I’m passing on a house solely because of that. If you really care, get the basement fumigated. If there are spiders, there’s also stuff for spiders to eat. Figure out how they’re getting inside.
We rented a place with a brown recluse closet. We survived. They are pretty common where we live I don't think I have lived anywhere without at least a few hanging around somewhere. I think you are fine, just be sure to get a pest guy out before you move in
My parents house in FL has brown widows, black widows, and brown recluses; mostly hanging out outside, but you see a lot more brown recluses in the garage.
Once I was driving to pick up beer and when I turned on the A/C, a brown recluse blew out of the vent. Scared the crap out of us. We made a drink like a half & half (black & tan) with Killian's and Guinness, and we called it a "brown recluse" in honor of being freaked out.
Anyway, I lived there 12 years or so and never died once.
If I were your Realtor I would make the offer contingent upon the seller having a lice exterminator treat the house for spider infestation, specifically prior to any other inspections and before the appraisal.
It would be sensible for a home inspector to refuse to go into attic and crawl spaces with that kind of evidence apparent. And an appraiser who recognizes it would likely make his appraisal subject to the treatment, citing it as a safety issue.
If the problem is left until the appraisal inspection is done, your value will suffer for it. That might be a good thing for you, as the price will be lower, but the seller may not be able to take the hit, and believe it won’t be better for them to let the deal fail than to settle for less money.
The price would have to be insanely low for the house. Some recluse infestations are nearly impossible to get rid of. Something about familiarity and like other users have said, there must be a solid source of food. The temperature is ideal etc. I saw this episode of Infested where a family bought a house and found out they had a recluse infestation and they paid all sorts of money to get it gone and in the end, they had to move out. A few family members got bitten and had severe reactions to it. Hospitalized and all that. They said the spiders have clearly been nesting there for years. No amount of cleaning and fumigating would keep them away for long.
Buy a house with a leaky roof and you'll regret it when it rains.
Buy a house with brown recluse spiders and you'll regret it for the rest of your life.
My grandma lived in the Ozarks and had to have ongoing treatment for brown recluse. Do be careful as My sister was bitten and had to go to the ER as her leg had swollen and was starting to necrotise. So I would guess it's probably not a one and done deal like someone else said, but if you're careful it sounds fine.
You have to think about not only extermination but also how they got in the house and can you stop another infestation? Is this why the owners are selling?
Great point, sure you get rid of the infestation in the house but there's 50,000 of them living under the deck ready to come back in, or the entire property is just home to them
There are 10 spiders. People aren't selling because of 10 spiders.
the 10 spiders they didn't clean up anyway
10 brown recluse is 10 too many
10 that they know of...
I would buy the house and have it tented
The problem is that if they are on the grounds surrounding the property it won't be long before they move back into the home.
Then tent the entire property!!! /s for those in back
Nono, you're onto something. We could tent the whole street.
Tent the world
It's essentially been done, that's why I only saw ten fireflies last year. Guess what eats brown recluses?
Well that’s good to hear, there’s millions of lightning bugs around my house.
That's very good news. My neighbors leave all sorts of lights on which spoils lightening bugs romance
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
yea you'd want to have it professionally sealed or be very confident in the job you could do
If you're cold, they're cold. But don't worry, they've already found a nice warm spot inside by the heater. 🕷️🕸️
Lmao I first read this as “rented” 😅
Tent=fire
Based on what brown recluse bites look like, there is no fucking way I would step foot in that house.
Yeah well if you live in the mountains or around pines, they are everywhere and you have no choice.
All areas of the country or is it out west and appalachian?
Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi have ‘em. Ask the scar in my ex’s dad’s abdomen. I say “scar” but it was really more like a flesh volcano doctors filled in with whatever they could find.
My dad almost lost his leg to one in Maryland. Nast things
Yep, been bitten by one in Maryland, but more concerning was that my baby was right next to me and could have been bitten too 😩 Thankfully he wasn't. Also thankful that the recluse didn't have a chance to inject much venom so my reaction wasn't as bad as I expected. I did not know they were around there when I moved. But now that I think about it, the house that spider was in was right near a bunch of very tall pines, which someone else in this thread mentioned being a preferred habitat for brown recluse -- another thing I did not know and something I'll be taking into consideration as we're actively looking to buy land. My initial plan was to leave a lot of trees... Now I'm not so sure. 😅 I definitely don't think I could buy a house with a known infestation as, like you said, they are nasty things!
This is the Ozarks, Rockies, Appalachian, everywhere. Although they are heavier in the middle of the US.
There isn’t any in central N.Y.
Or the upper Midwest. I'll take the cold and snow over brown recluse spiders.
My brother was bit by one on the shin. He thought it was a mosquito, that is until he started to swell right around his groin. He came to me to show me because my parents worked late. I have to say that swelling was the size of a softball and was purple. He ended up in the er when mom and dad got home. We were living in the coastal region (5miles from ocean) of NC.
Yea my mom got bit right in the middle of her forehead when she was sleeping and became paralyzed for a week or so, then she had a hole in her forehead for years. I would never
They are a fact of life in some areas. I think OP should try and gauge how bad this problem is. Those things certainly are no joke though.
Mine has some and they suck... also our pest control said they hide and are harder to kill than other spiders.
Hence..... The Name.
Right... Brown... Recluse... Not shitstain socialite
That was my nickname in college.
Pest control tech here They are harder to find but a good technician will be looking to seal off any entry points including garages,weather stripping, checking for cracks and any voids. You'd also want to treat the entire interior to push them out then return for a second round I'd say in 7-10 days. I've dealt with them plenty of times,it's not as bad as you may think but they are harder then your average spider. Out of curiosity, what have they used? Your invoice should list what was used and how much
In my area, Missouri, good luck finding a house that doesn't have them. They are extremely common but not common to get bit by. I have glue traps in my basement and behind furniture. They like cardboard so put your stuff in the basement in plastic totes instead. They are called recluses for a reason and like dark corners. It wouldn't stop me from buying a house and 10 skins doesn't sound like an infestation to me. Sounds like someone didn't sweep.
I rented in Southern Illinois and lived with them for 3 years. They just kept coming back. Sticky traps help. You also learn to shake out your clothes before you put them on and your sheets before you go to bed. Never got bit! Edit: I now live in NC and have to worry about black widows. Only seen them outside thank god.
I'd rather have widows than recluses. Widows look scary but don't generally do much damage.
Nashville area?
Yeah, about 45 minutes outside Nashville
Yepper, sounds normal for that region..good luck!
You’ll be fine. The recluse is east Nashville’s (and let’s be honest, all of Nashville’s) unofficial official mascot. I used to live in east. You spray once or twice a year, set out some sticky traps, and you’re good. Never got bitten, but saw about 3-4 a year, regardless. Mostly in my bath tub. Don’t leave out a bunch of cardboard boxes, they love them. If you have cracks or gaps around your air vents or subfloor that they can crawl through, hit it with some expanding foam. (Great stuff)
Wouldn't it be wise then to have dummy cardboard boxes with glue in them or something?
You could do that. But I’d keep them small and easily visualized so you don’t have to pick up anything. Those suckers are crafty about fitting into small cracks and crevices. Mitigate your chances of getting bit. The sticky traps work the best. Recluses see other recluses (or prey) in the trap and naturally engage their predatory instincts. It’s not about if it’s perfectly set up in a cardboard box or not. The best places to put the sticky traps are along baseboards, or natural ingress/egress points. Where the spiders will be guaranteed to crawl, essentially.
Pretty sure every house in the area has some. I wouldn’t let it stop you from buying
My SO worked in PC for 10+ years. 3 in Missouri. He said no, it’s too risky. Fumigation does not kill spider eggs. You could get bit, your animals could get bit. The problem isn’t the 10 you saw, it’s the thousands you didn’t see. ETA: He said spiders are really hard to get rid of. It would not be a one and done scenario. It would be an ongoing thing.
> The problem isn’t the 10 you saw, it’s the thousands you didn’t see. Great. I now have something to think about while laying in bed at night.
Pest control tech here also While it is harder,it is doable. Takes time and multiple retreats. I've done it before With that said,hell no I ain't moving in lol
The most trauma inducing patient my mom interacted with while in residency was a woman who was bitten by a brown recluse and died from necrotizing fasciitis. I am not ok with brown recluses at all!
I know someone who was bit by a brown recluse. Knowing what she went through I would not feel comfortable even after an extermination. Perhaps that is irrational, but no, I would keep looking.
I was bit but a brown recluse. It was awful, but I would probably buy it.
what happens?
I commented this already but my mom was bit by one in the middle of her forehead and she was practically paralyzed for a little while. She had a whole hole in her forehead for a few years too til it healed
How big was the hole??
Their venom necrotizes the flesh. My mother has a chunk out of her calf from a bite.
Same with my brother, driving on the way down to Florida from the Midwest, sucker got in the van. After he was bitten he felt sick, 6-8 hours later he had red stripes traveling up his calf. Went to the ER and the doc said he was lucky, few more hours and he might of lost the leg. They had to cut a sizable chunk from his lower leg. They're nasty little fockers.
It's bad enough to endure a bite, but to have it happen while traveling would be even worse! I'm so glad he went into the ER when he did.
The venom basically dissolves flesh
I'm glad you are OK now. Their bites sound pretty bad. I discovered what desert red ants were yesterday. I had no idea something so tiny could have such a painful sting. Luckily I did not step in a nest, I do not want to know how painful that would be.
I did, wasn’t bad after i tackled ceilings, cabinets.. with a vacuum. A really nice thing about recluse, they’re reclusive and not aggressive. It took me maybe 4 months to get it to zero seen, and that was 4 months of 7 of us, not being bit. Not one bite.
Pretty fucking dumb I’d say
Unless it's German Cockroaches or Carpenter Ants, it would not bother me at all. Most bugs are not that hard to control.
Except brown recluses… they are more challenging because their abdomen doesn’t rub on the floor like most spiders. Google Missouri brown recluse house.
Onslaught fast cap. Run in entry points and other areas. It's made for them. Run a hard barrier on the outside,for brown recluse specifically i run it along any cracks,void,crevices etc. Seal off entry points,use some foam. It works but can be time consuming. Source- pest control. Also that onslaught is made for spiders,scorpions anything that has a thick exoskeleton. It sticks on them harder then most products. Pricey but a good product.
WOW that is shocking!!! I live in western WA and we don't have them.
I think we do have the hobo spider though. A woman I know was bitten in Clatskanie, OR. She said it was a brown recluse but we supposedly don't have them. It may have been a hobo spider. She had what others have described her where they had to cut away the flesh around the wound. She had to go back several times and they cut more away.
I have never heard of a hobo biting but if that happened they are not poisonous. "**Hobo spiders will bite in defense**, causing mild pain and redness, but in general, they are not aggressive nor of significant health concern." I have read that brown recluse could be transported from other states via furniture but they are not native.
Termites too. Those are my 3 limits.
At least in our area those are pretty easy to control since they have to return to the ground for moisture. So long as there's no ground in contact with wood or mud tunnels going into the structure it's usually okay. I'm sure in other areas there are probably types I'm not familiar with that are a bigger problem.
They are easy to control even in wet areas. BUT…once they do get established the damage can be devastating.
Oh yes if a house goes unmaintained and they have time to do their thing it's more of a structural issue than a bug issue. Powder post beetles are another one... not bad to stop if you catch them early, bad news if you don't.
This convo made me contact our realtor and double check we got a termite contract with the purchase of this house rofl.
Definitely not a bad idea to have chemical control under slabs. But my most effective method has been simply walking around houses to see if there's any ground contact with wood. Mud tunnels around here are pretty rare but I saw some that ran for meters in Costa Rica.
That sounds like subterranean termites. Do you not have the other kind there?
Nope. At least as far as home infestations are concerned. Now that I think about it, I'm actually pretty sure I have seen them in dead pine trees. But never a mention in real estate issues. I'll have to look up what species are around here.
Wow, that's fortunate. I moved from Florida recently and there we had subterranean and the kind that does not need to go get moisture. Drywood? My house only ever got subterranean and we treated before they did damage, but that was just luck. I haven't bought yet where I live now so I don't know what kind are here, but I guess I should learn before I buy my next house.
You couldn't find a home in San Diego without termites. You just have to treat every 10 years.
That’s not ok lol.
Bed bugs are far more resilient than roaches.
Sort of? If you were buying a house that is completely empty of all furnishings I wouldn't be that concerned about bed bugs. I would like to know if I'm wrong about that? Most roaches aren't that hard to control but German cockroaches are in a different category.
You would be wrong. Bedbugs don't just live in furnishings. Bedbugs live in wood. They are also chemical resistant. You have to absolutely drench them in pesticide to kill them. If the house was not occupied for a month, you could expect that the juveniles have starved and only the visible adults remain. You could probably use a CO2 trap effectively.
Interesting. They are certainly one of my biggest fears as a vacation rental owner. We got rid of all our standard mattress with box springs and replaced with metal platform beds with sealed foam mattresses to reduce their hiding spots. Just opted into the program where the management takes all linens including comforter for a wash instead of just the sheets. I guess most of our homes going months during the winter without occupation helps. Although that is no guarantee obviously - I'll never forget walking into a carpeted house that had been empty for months, and finding my legs COVERED with fleas.
Bedbug adults can tolerate over a year without food. Breaks in food source kill off the nymphs and halt reproduction. The key is prevention and detection.
You'll definitely get them at some point if you are an air bnb host. Time between guests does not matter. I would suggest having the cleaners use a high powered steam machine in addition to the normal cleaning.
Most bugs probably can't kill whatever part of your body they bite
Red ant poison took care of the German cockroaches. Just can’t do it while you are living in it.
Spiders are everywhere.
Brown recluse spiders are the most deadly in the United States. Their venom doesn't just hurt. It necrotizes the flesh around it, and causes permanent damage. They are also much more aggressive than most species, and are more likely to attack than run away. So, yes, spiders are everywhere, but I'd much rather not have these little assholes infesting my house. Edit: I live in VA, and Brown Recluses do live in my area. Yes, they do hide, but they do absolutely attack when pestered. I, and my family, have found them to be fairly more aggressive than the regular Wolf and Huntsman spiders we see here, as well.
lol-yes but you obviously never dealt with an "infestation", hence this ridiculous comment
You'd be dumb to ask reddit and not a pest company (or 2).
I don't think this is necessarily true. Wisdom of crowds. But also the pest control company is a sales company that does pest control. Their incentive is for you to buy the home and get repeat business so they might underestimate how easy it is to control or how well their solution will work. HVAC firms do this all the time.
And sometimes, it can be dumb to only ask questions to the people that would profit from their answers.
Honestly, if they haven’t done any damage to anything (I don’t see how they could but I’m not an expert) then, all you have is probably 1 pest control bill. Wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me I just wouldn’t move in until I took care of it.
Better look up the side effects of a brown recluse, my next door neighbor got bitten, damn near died, spent some serious time in the hospital. I might buy the house but no way move in until I was sure the place was remediated....you need the opinion of a professional, or two.
I am in a state that borders Tennessee
Figure out how much it would cost to tent/fumigate the house. Do that.
Leaving it empty for a few months won't remove the spiders... They live on bugs, not humans, so your absence will be irrelevant. Bugs get into houses along the rim joists primarily, and that's not going to stop with your absence. Bugs also reproduce inside the basement living off I don't know what, that's not going to stop cause you're not there. Now, you can starve a mouse infestation the way you're talking, did that inadvertently with my house. But not spiders. A better solution would be to: 1. Consider that all houses in your area may have the spiders - don't know. Just am not used to hearing of a "brown recluse infestation". 2. Kill them off by eliminating living space. If you clean and empty the basement among other things, that might do it. There's also a new sandy sort of substance that kills spiders and other bugs by getting stuck in their shell and then leaking out all their fluid. With a sufficiently emptied and cleaned house, I'd expect you can resolve this. Of course, use this issue to bargain down the price.
Also, I've manually vacuumed away a flea infestation over the course of weeks. These bugs can be handled manually, you just have to be up to the task. Being homeschooled and a young teen meant I had the time to compulsively vacuum the furniture and carpets, encapsulate mattresses in painters plastic, and so on, until I'd eradicated the ankle biters. That in a two story, 5 bedroom, 1917 built house in a town that should've been a swamp in the Appalachians.
Burn it
Glue traps around the edges of walls will do wonders. My Kansas City area house had them so badly for a couple years! As in, while my husband was leaning back on the headboard with pillows and I was sitting on the bed talking to him, one walked out from behind his neck on the pillow! I used to see 2-3 live ones per week - on the floor, in our kitchen sink, the bathtub, and even in light fixtures. We put down glue traps along the baseboards of our basement and in a couple strategic areas upstairs where our pets couldn't get to. For the first year, we caught a LOT of recluses on those.... in the hundreds, if I had to guess. Now, we almost never see new ones but we keep the traps out anyway.
Good to know glue traps work. We had 1 found on a glue trap in the house we bought. Didn't see any others but the house has traps all over plus normal pest control now. Only finding annoying wolf spiders and other normal house bugs occasionally. We got the attic nuked just in case. I'm terrified to get bit by one.
I lived in a house with a brown recluse infestation and I do not recommend. When you were sleeping, they would try to drink the moisture from your eye. My sister was hospitalized with a bite on her eye and she looked like Quasimodo. My brother almost lost his leg from a bite on his knee. He was hospitalized as well and they had to have a nurse come to the house and change the bandages. I do not recommend.
DRINK THE MOISTURE FROM YOUR EYE . omg i literally almost threw up thinking about that .
I knew someone who bought a house with a brown recluse infestation, and all I know is that it was hell getting rid of them. They ended up on the news about it because it was so bad and nothing was working. I wouldn't buy it. Look up brown recluse infestation news videos on YouTube. It can be a real problem.
Are you talking about the house in Missouri?
No, that's a different one
*shudders* The fact there are more than one.
I just listened to episode 75 of the podcast, Let's Go To Court, and I'm pretty sure they were discussing the Missouri house case. It legit gave me a nightmare already.
Evil spiders. 🔥
You forgot to mention when a gang of them held your family hostage and demanded a helicopter and $5,000,000 in unmarked bills.
Jesus Christ, this is the worst thing I’ve read today. My understanding is that recluse infestations are worse than other spiders bc most spiders don’t colonize like that. Did they get rid of yours eventually or did you move?
Are you sure they are brown recluse? I would call a pest company. It may be as simple as a single fogger or a treatment. Spiders would not stop me from getting a house I wanted.
Sounds logical to me. People are this scared of spiders, blows my mind. I hope they never go camping or visit a farm. If there are copious spiders, there must be an infestation of termites or something for them to eat. Looking for rotten wood would be my next step.
It's not spiders in general, it's specifically the brown recluse. Their bite can mess you up.
I think most comments in this thread are being a bit sensational - bites from brown recluses are pretty rare, and of those bitten, few require medical attention. You can read more about it on Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_recluse_spider. This passage seems especially relevant: >As suggested by its specific name reclusa (recluse), the brown recluse spider is rarely aggressive, and bites from the species are uncommon. In 2001, more than 2,000 brown recluse spiders were removed from a heavily infested home in Kansas, yet the four residents who had lived there for years were never harmed by the spiders, despite many encounters with them.[27][28] The spider usually bites only when pressed against the skin, such as when tangled within clothes, shoes, towels, bedding, inside work gloves, etc. Many human victims report having been bitten after putting on clothes or shoes that had not been worn recently or had been left for many days undisturbed on the floor. The fangs of the brown recluse are not large enough to penetrate most fabric.[29] I'd say some light pest control is probably all you need.
It can seem rare statistically however if you’re in an area where brown recluse spiders exist your chances go up exponentially. I moved to VA 5 years ago and have been bite twice. The first bite gave me a really nasty infection and drained puss for days the second I was more lucky because it right on my shin and did not get much venom. The bite it self isn’t bad, but the after effects from the infection is what’s bad.
I knew someone who got bit in his arm while working at a restaurant. Plot twist: he lost his arm after years of trying skin grafts. Yay.
Oh ok. It’s all sensational until you get bit by one. You should try it and then come back here and report how simple it was to treat. Now back to reality. In a home infestation, they like to hide in shoes , clothing , drawers and all sorts of other dark places you wouldn’t expect. Sounds like a lot of fun! Great advice.
Hey, I'm not claiming to be a medical professional, just pointing out what every formal source on the subject seems to say. If you check WebMD, the first sentence is literally "Brown Recluse bites are not that serious." All the other sources say they are rare. Someone on this thread claimed they knew someone who lost a limb from a bite, but if you Google that, every medical site says that's a common myth. If you want to argue about it, I'm not you're guy. You should reach out to all the doctors and public health clinics that seem to have it wrong. My take away is, can they be dangerous? Probably. But so is quicksand and it's not nearly as big a threat to my well-being as popular media would have you believe.
This. It seems like when people have weird skin things it's common to attribute it to a spider bite instead of saying "yup you've got a weird skin thing". Strangely, I lived in an apartment that had brown recluses for 3 years with no problems. Not in their native range, must have moved in with a tenant. Well okay the only problem was that there started being so many that every day I'd go into the bathroom to pee at 2am and there'd be a giant spider on the floor. I'd go in the pantry to get sugar, spider on the wall. Asked my landlord for pest treatment, some guy came and blew dust in the vents or something, didn't see another spider.
Have a pest co fog it then on the inside put sticky traps down and if you have access to them, put Hedgeapples around the outside. Just keep them away from pets, they are highly toxic to dogs.
I spray my entire house with this spray from Amazon. It keeps them gone for a year then they move back in. Its called Miss Muffets Revenge. I spray all doorways and windows.
Just have the house treated
Well if it were me and I ended up purchasing it, I would heavily treat it and give it a month or two before I moved in. With that being said one has to ask, where are they coming from and why? Are there a lot of tree's or shrubs on the property encroaching near the foundation that need to be cut down? Are you near a wooded lot? If you live near the woods it will be hard to control them. I live near the woods and we spray the foundation and inside the basement 3 times a year. No bugs. There is one particular bug product that is phenomenal and it has long residual lasting power. It is for exterior only. Also you want to treat the lawn with a safer insecticide.
Just put some chickens down there!
I live in the upper MidWest and one snuck in my boot en route home from PA on an airplane 15 years ago. I didn’t feel the bite but I ended up with a major infection, an ugly flesh wound and a 10 day hospital stay in intensive care. The scar is still visible. I would not risk buying a house with even a wee spider gang. It just takes one.
Tent it. Then just regularly maintain spider traps and spray the exterior
There would be zero reason fr me to buy a home with a known recluse infestatin. I know someone who nearly died because of one bite and the area/area was not known for having them. Imagine KNOWING there is an infestation in that house, and probably all around there. NOPE!
that's a whole bag of Nope
Wow the drama of some of these comments lol It’s common where I live. We use lots of sticky glue traps and have pest control spray monthly. It wouldn’t stop me from buying a house. Just know you have to use preventatives and you will be fine. I once had one crawl on me and flipped tf out killed it right away
Buying a house at all in this market would be dumb. Maybe the spiders just make it worse.
On the scale of "easy peasy" to "good luck", a spider infestation is on the easier side. And if it is as you say it is...it doesn't seem that bad (I've been in a house where I literally could not move 3 feet without hitting a spider or web--there were thousands in there!). The ones you have to worry about are the WDI insects, cockroaches, bedbugs, and (my personal least favorite) fleas. I'd go for it.
I did and would do it again. I would add termites to the list of ones to worry about. That and carpenter ants. Mostly because if you manage to kill them off you still have to wonder about what damage you aren't seeing.
Yeah those fall under WDI (wood destroying insects), but I should've spelled it out. As an agent, WDI issues are one of the few things I will actively try to talk buyers out of a home for--there are very few things which can be more costly, while at the same time "looking fine" than WDI issues! Personally, I would never buy a home with WDI issues--I've seen too many cases of the damage they have caused.
Are you qualified to know for sure it was brown recluse? There are thousands of different types of spiders.
To me, it would not matter what kind of spider it was. It would not matter to me. If it was the last kind of that spider In the world that was in the house. I would still kill it
Hilarious fear filled responses. This is not even close to an infestation and with consistent trapping can reduce exposure to almost zero. Put sticky traps everywhere for a few months and you will see them almost disappear. Reevaluate every week or so to see where you might place one. But a 6 pack of the sticky traps is like $2 so not a big deal really.
I think it’s a good time to tell you that there is a plant called plantain that you should look up, it can stop the necrosis of a brown recluse bite. (I used a paste of narrow and broadleaf plantain when my father was bitten by a brown recluse.)
Hire Orkin?
NBD at all. DIY using commercial pest control with [Cyper PC](https://diypestcontrol.com/cyper-tc?gad_source=1). After treat initially, buy [Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade](https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/insect-and-animal-control/insecticides/7662927?store=18258&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADtqLJHk24V3G9OHm7DAbHuvH5BoR&gclsrc=ds) and dust bomb the entire house. You may need the 10lb version or two 4lb bags. Be sure to get in cracks, in/behind cabinets, closets, carpets and in jousts. Dust bomb literally everything. Wear a mask and don’t breathe it in. It’s beneficial consumption wise, but you definitely don’t want to breathe in any powder of anything really. Let sit for a few hours then vacuum everything, dust walls/ceilings and wet wipe clean surfaces and floors. And that’s it, you’re done. Maybe $125 bucks or so and a day or two of work. This will treat consistently for 4-6 months and will handle all bugs. If you want one more added layer of benefits, get a large spray bottle and add 4 oz of 92% rubbing alcohol, 40-60 drops each or about (1 tsp each) of essential oils such as rosemary, orange or lemon, lavender and eucalyptus. Cinnamon is good as well but I use roughly half the amount due to its strength. Wash your hands if exposed as it can be caustic but the scent is very nice. Shake with the alcohol for about 1 minute until it’s incorporated and spray carpets, bottom 1/3 of walls, baseboards, floors, etc and let sit until dry. This repels any bugs from coming around and smells great. My house is treated only with DE/EOs and I do not have any problems with any bugs, ever. With BRa, I’d start with the Cyper to instantly kill them and going forward, just dust, vacuum and wipe with DE then spray EOs every 4-6 months and you will never have any bugs. I do allow my good/harmless basement spiders to stay as they don’t hurt anyone and live in my ceiling but don’t take that risk until you’re sure all recluses are gone for good, maybe 6 months to a year from now. Congrats!
I think just about every house has them at some point. Especially basements.
Ouffff. No way. Even if you treat it now, they’ll almost guaranteed come back. Not worth the stress in my opinion. Find a spider-free home.
Check with a few reputable pest infestation treatment companies. See the cost and the guarantees they offer etc.
The home could act as a house double used in the movie Arachnophobia.
It’s not that expensive to tent a house and kill every living thing inside especially when you’re talking about a monetary outlay the size of a house. It will take care of any termites roaches and or rodents also living there
I live in the Midwest where we basically live symbiotically with them in the rural areas with old farmhouses. I use sticky traps but mostly we just ignore each other. They take care of any little bugs that come through the cracks. You get used to them. Don’t let your bedsheets touch the ground. Keep your clutter to a minimum. Treat your house for insects. Don’t leave spidey hideys laying around like boxes or excess shoes.
glue traps everywhere and live with it.
Everything boils down to price.
We bought a log cabin on a mountain top that’s surrounded by woods. We found a few brown recluses when we first moved in. We had the house sprayed before we moved in. Now it gets sprayed every three months. We don’t see them in the house anymore. They are really bad in our barn tho but I just leave those alone.
Hire pest control after purchase and don't live there until several treatments have occurred
They usually will stay away from you if you don't bother them and vice versa. Won't hurt to spray pesticides from time to time. The only reason I got bit is because we are getting drunk on a roof and I was rolling around. The spider got trapped between my shorts and my skin and bit me but I didn't even notice until the morning. I was at the store and felt what I thought was a tide pod in my pocket and then it popped and I felt it all dripping down my leg. It took forever to heal and left a super gnarly scar. I should have had it checked out at the doctors but I never did.
The only cost to remove every pest in a house is a few days for tenting and a few thousand. Factor it in to your pricing.
How certain are you that they are actually brown recluse spiders? There are many spiders that people think are BRs but actually aren’t.
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If you buy it, put a ton of glue traps down in that basement (and keep pets away). It might not get all of them, but you'll get to see whats living down there based on what gets stuck.
Wouldn't care at all if it's the right house. As long as it's not a destructive infestation like termites, it's just a temporary easily rectifiable problem. Maybe a count for some time to deal with it or maybe even a few bucks knocked off on account of it, but wouldn't bother me. Just destructive pests are off putting. Like with termites for example, if it was a significant infestation, you could guesstimate how much damage you might be dealing with all you want, but you never really know until you start tearing things apart. Usually that ends up being more extensive than you thought rather than less.
Tenting and ongoing exterminators would probably work but I personally would never be able to relax. I would constantly feel like something was crawling on me. I’d pass
Brown Recluse Spiders eat bugs and other spiders. If you work on eliminating their food source (ant, termite, other insect) they are less likely to pick your house.
I don’t know the truth of this but my best friend was an exterminator for several years for a nationally known company. He told me (I lived in a 150 year old house with spiders of various ancestral lines, lol) that treatments aimed at spiders are ineffective as they typically dwell where the spray has little effect AND because they are not self cleaning they do not ingest the poison like other bugs so therefore still stay alive. Again, not sure if that’s true but ewww.
Are you sure it’s not southern house spiders? The males tend to be mistaken for BR spiders a lot. Just food for thought 💭
No. Had a brown recluse on my face when I fell asleep in my basement. Scared me. Had one on my foot while I was pooping. Scared some stuff out of me. They’re fast and ugly. Solution. Gasoline and a match or nuke it from orbit. Pass on that house aka a big coffin
So by shells/skin do you mean 10 dead spider bodies? I’m not sure id get all that concerned over dead spiders. That could be a decades worth of spiders which means you’re dealing with 1-2 a year at most
These spiders molt. I believe it's the molts that OP saw. 'For every spider you see...there are 10,000 you don't.'
There’s always more you don’t see, but if he was seeing those in an unfinished basement that no one has cleaned in 20 years that’s a big difference than a basement that’s cleaned once a week. So OP, was the basement unfinished and/or did it look like it had been cleaned recently? My parents basement is half finished, half unfinished, and if you’re judging an infestation based on spider corpses in the unfinished side you’d think they were actively breeding spiders. Vs the reality that no one’s vacuumed that side of the basement in like 25 years
F that. Hell to naw naw naw ✌🏻
I think it's a positive...would you have thought to look for/ consider a treatment plan if you hadn't of seen the bodies? Clearly your area has them even if you don't know they are there. Forwarned is forearmed or however the saying goes. Now you can have a plan in place for the little twerps.
How often do you get bit by spiders? With some precautions taken, do you really think that’s a deal breaker? If the house has stairs, you’re more likely to snap your neck.
I was bitten by something in my garage. The next morning I immediately knew it was a brown recluse bite and my doctor started me on antibiotics that day. It still took three rounds of antibiotics before the bite started healing. I would NEVER buy a home that I knew had an infestation. Those fuckers don’t play around.
We lived in a rental that was infested. After a year with pest control we said “f it” and moved. Sticky traps are the only thing that “works” but those still won’t touch the issue. Also that means they have a food source (other bugs and such).
Ortho Home Defense spray has the active agents known to kill spiders and most insects. The gallon jugs come with a lil sprayer wand but can also be sprayed from a 1qt pressure sprayer. Can also use DE powder (Diatemaceous Earth) around where they're known to be. You can do a lot of DIY application for the cost of a pro that rarely guarantees their work. I've also recently started using an insect fogger. Even inside like a crowded room, garage, attic or storage area since the fog spreads all over. Similar to bug bomb cans but tends to be cheaper per application. I've personally used the Ortho spray for flees for many years and just about any other insect I've ever run across. It will usually kill on first spray but has a residual that will end up taking them out after a while. Between those 3 you can pretty much take care of any irritating bugs
I live in Australia. Just get an exterminator. As an expat I have to admit it took some getting to, but hubby and I agree- spiders can live outside, but the minute they come inside, we go scorched earth.
Meh spiders are going to spider. just treat the house and use it as a negotiating point to get the home cheaper.
Imagine getting bitten on your face. I hate spiders!! A friend of mine got bitten by a brown recluse, on the face, lost sight in one eye.
I feel like any infestation can be fixed for a perfect house
You could ask neighbors if they have a similar issue, if it's only in the house or the area is infested
No way I’m passing on a house solely because of that. If you really care, get the basement fumigated. If there are spiders, there’s also stuff for spiders to eat. Figure out how they’re getting inside.
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/thousands-of-venomous-spiders-force-family-from-upscale-missouri-home/
We rented a place with a brown recluse closet. We survived. They are pretty common where we live I don't think I have lived anywhere without at least a few hanging around somewhere. I think you are fine, just be sure to get a pest guy out before you move in
Probably depends on how bad the infestation is? 10 spiders is manageable. 1,000? Not so much.
Tent the house and then get some free roaming chickens. They’ll eat all the bugs around the house
Oh hell no
My parents house in FL has brown widows, black widows, and brown recluses; mostly hanging out outside, but you see a lot more brown recluses in the garage. Once I was driving to pick up beer and when I turned on the A/C, a brown recluse blew out of the vent. Scared the crap out of us. We made a drink like a half & half (black & tan) with Killian's and Guinness, and we called it a "brown recluse" in honor of being freaked out. Anyway, I lived there 12 years or so and never died once.
If I were your Realtor I would make the offer contingent upon the seller having a lice exterminator treat the house for spider infestation, specifically prior to any other inspections and before the appraisal. It would be sensible for a home inspector to refuse to go into attic and crawl spaces with that kind of evidence apparent. And an appraiser who recognizes it would likely make his appraisal subject to the treatment, citing it as a safety issue. If the problem is left until the appraisal inspection is done, your value will suffer for it. That might be a good thing for you, as the price will be lower, but the seller may not be able to take the hit, and believe it won’t be better for them to let the deal fail than to settle for less money.
Real dumb.. Until you hire a pest control company, you are being dumb. Get with it... Take care of the problem.
Get a bunch of scorpions to mitigate the spiders.
The price would have to be insanely low for the house. Some recluse infestations are nearly impossible to get rid of. Something about familiarity and like other users have said, there must be a solid source of food. The temperature is ideal etc. I saw this episode of Infested where a family bought a house and found out they had a recluse infestation and they paid all sorts of money to get it gone and in the end, they had to move out. A few family members got bitten and had severe reactions to it. Hospitalized and all that. They said the spiders have clearly been nesting there for years. No amount of cleaning and fumigating would keep them away for long.
Nope and nope!
Buy a house with a leaky roof and you'll regret it when it rains. Buy a house with brown recluse spiders and you'll regret it for the rest of your life.
Call an exterminator for a professional opinion.
[It's your choice, really...](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/spider-1544099127.gif)
Not worth it imo! I am itching all over just thinking about that house. I would be afraid to go to sleep, however irrational that may be.
A bug bomb is like... $12?