Poison!

Flower

Arachnoknight
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Feb 1, 2009
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Okay, so there was a brown recluse in my house. I am trying to make a long story short here, so I am leaving out details. I was trying to catch it, which was very hard (it was completely still the whole time, it was only hard because I am fearful of them and was being a total chicken) and my mom got a can of Raid and sprayed at it. She didn't hit it, she hit ME. I ended up catching it and am gonna go let it go after work -- AWAY FROM MY HOUSE.

The can is the physical embodiment of my worst nightmare. "Kills spiders fast -- also kills scorpions! Lasts up to 12 weeks!".

I stripped and isolated that pair of clothes, and I took a bath and scrubbed my skin and washed my hair. I still find myself afraid to even be in the same room with my T's. I am so afraid I am covered with poison. How can I be sure I am safe to be near my T's again?

EDIT: Just to clarify two things. I know being scared of a Brown Recluse is stupid, there really is no other North American spider that really does, it's a fear from my childhood because someone I knew had a really severe bite from one and it's something I struggle not to be afraid of. There was a time in my life when I would have killed it, so I'm getting better at least with that particular fear.

ALSO, and far more importantly, I wasn't hit with a blast of Raid, I was hit with a light mist of it. It wasn't a lot. I don't smell like it or anything, if that makes a difference. She thought it was one of those cans that shoots a strait blast of the stuff -- like the stuff used to kill wasps mid-air. But it was just a mist and some floated over onto me because she was right next to me when she sprayed at it. I am only saying because I don't know if that makes a big difference or not.
 
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bamato

Arachnodemon
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Aug 25, 2008
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If you wash you and your clothes, I don't see the problem with that IMHO. However, I'd be concerned about your T's and the proximity to the spray site.
 

Neophyte

Arachnobaron
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Yeah that stuff lasts if it's not scrubbed off. Just scrub as much as you can!
 

Flower

Arachnoknight
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If you wash you and your clothes, I don't see the problem with that IMHO. However, I'd be concerned about your T's and the proximity to the spray site.
Not even on the same floor, so I think that should be okay. If it were near them, I would be moving them to another floor.
 

gvfarns

Arachnoprince
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I would prolly try and deactivate the poisons with like peroxide on my hands before handling them. What I'd actually do is get my hands wet with vinegar, then rinse with peroxide and let it dry in the air (no wiping allowed). The mixture of those two forms peroxyacaetic acid that will kill lots of poisons. Then you let it air dry, which concentrates the oxidizer. That's just me, though.

Or just wait a week or so.

I wouldn't worry about being in the same room, though. It's not airborn after it dries out on you.
 

Hamburglar

Arachnobaron
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Sad thing is that there are probably several more recluses around your house. I find several every year in my house. I usually see them late at night crawling across the floor so you might check. I don't see them climb that much though. I'm not trying to scare you, just think you should watch out for them.

As far as the spray goes, if you follow the steps given you should be golden. I am a bit skeptical that the mist will be concentrated enough to harm anything afterwards. I have, unfortunately, had a couple encounters of misdirected spray and haven't lost one yet.
 

Bill S

Arachnoprince
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I'd be far more concerned with being poisoned by the Raid than being bitten by the spider. If you wash yourself well a few times before being around your tarantulas they should be safe - but washing the surface of your skin won't remove any of the poison you've absorbed. Realistically - you probably won't have any bad reactions to it. But that would affect me about the same way the recluse affects you.

As for having recluse spiders in the house - that doesn't bother me. We find them periodically, and if they're somewhere that might create problems, we remove them. But I know there's one just behind the bookcase in the living room that's been there for some time - as long as he/she keeps out of the way, I'm not going to worry about it. But if someone brought a can of insecticide into the house - they'd be booted out before they knew what hit them.
 

Flower

Arachnoknight
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I'd be far more concerned with being poisoned by the Raid than being bitten by the spider. If you wash yourself well a few times before being around your tarantulas they should be safe - but washing the surface of your skin won't remove any of the poison you've absorbed. Realistically - you probably won't have any bad reactions to it. But that would affect me about the same way the recluse affects you.

As for having recluse spiders in the house - that doesn't bother me. We find them periodically, and if they're somewhere that might create problems, we remove them. But I know there's one just behind the bookcase in the living room that's been there for some time - as long as he/she keeps out of the way, I'm not going to worry about it. But if someone brought a can of insecticide into the house - they'd be booted out before they knew what hit them.
I didn't even know we had the stupid Raid. I can't believe she sprayed it. >_< I am not worried about ME having problems, I just don't want my T's to be hurt by any poison on or around me.

I read that recluses often live in clusters, I'm sure there are more. :( I try to remove them and not kill them at this point -- having T's made me respect spiders more as a whole.
 

gambite

Arachnoprince
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I think being 'fearfully respectful' and cautious with Brown Recluses is completely justified. You might be walking around bare-foot in your basement one night and accidentally step on one, or reach into an old dark box and hit one. I worried more about them than Widow spiders, or any other venomous invert that I know lives nearby, because the Brown Recluse is the only one I know of that has a necrotoxin. Being in severe pain only lasts a few days/weeks, but losing a chunk of your foot lasts the rest of your life. The idea of my skin rotting and falling off is completely disgusting. Yeah, they dont go around biting, and they have to be really provoked to do so, but accidents happen and the results of one involving a Brown Recluse would be particularly nasty.
 

Flower

Arachnoknight
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I think being 'fearfully respectful' and cautious with Brown Recluses is completely justified. You might be walking around bare-foot in your basement one night and accidentally step on one, or reach into an old dark box and hit one. I worried more about them than Widow spiders, or any other venomous invert that I know lives nearby, because the Brown Recluse is the only one I know of that has a necrotoxin. Being in severe pain only lasts a few days/weeks, but losing a chunk of your foot lasts the rest of your life. The idea of my skin rotting and falling off is completely disgusting. Yeah, they dont go around biting, and they have to be really provoked to do so, but accidents happen and the results of one involving a Brown Recluse would be particularly nasty.
They're very shy, so I've been told. But this was in my bedroom, and a know a lot of spider bites in general happen because the spider jumps into bed with you and you move and scare it in your sleep. I don't want to be afraid to reach into something and be bitten.

However, my room is messy, and it's my fault they are there, I don't want poisons being sprayed in a home with pet arachnids (though they were on a different floor), or in the same room with my ferrets and rats. If there are more, and I'm sure there are, if I clean up some junk and make my room less desirable to them, I'm sure they'll leave.

The necrotoxin terrifies me. I don't want to be bitten by something like that. Black widows are no problem, but recluses bother me a lot.
 
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