How to Identify the Brown Recluse – Country Living Tips
How to Identify the Brown Recluse – Country Living Tips
Living in the country, you are virtually guaranteed to come across certain critters from time to time. Black widows, snakes and other potentially dangerous creatures are all around us when we live in the country. One of the more prominent threats we very rarely see is the brown recluse spider. Identifying the brown recluse spider is not all that hard, but you have to know what to look for. Here are some tips to consider for identifying this venomous spider:
Brown recluse spiders vary in color from yellow to a dark brown. The younger the spider, the lighter the coloration as a general rule.
Full grown spiders will be around the size of a quarter including their legs, though the majority of the spiders will be smaller than that.
The body of a brown recluse is notable for having a long oval shaped abdomen that has no stripes, spots or markings.
The cephalothorax, however, carries the most notorious markings to identify a brown recluse. This is the part of the spider that the legs are attached to. On the top portion of the spider, one can see a violin shaped marking that is aiming towards the abdomen. That is, the neck of the violin is facing the abdomen.
The legs of the brown recluse spider are one color only. Any spider you see that has different color patterns will be some other type of harmless spider.
The brown recluse spider stays hidden much of the time, but comes out to hunt for prey during the night hours. Brown recluse spiders do spin an irregular web, but they hunt for prey rather than trap it.
There are more specific ways to identify the brown recluse spider, but they require getting extremely close to the spider. This is not advised for someone that does not know what they are doing.
Although the bite of the brown recluse is dangerous for some, it is actually rather rare. Bites occur when the spider feels threatened. If you are careful, you likely will never have to deal with this sort of problem.
If you’re looking for some more survival tips, check out this ultimate survival guide! Keep yourself save too, and get ready an emergency plan for your family!
