I'm with the 'more than four dies' crowd.
We have tons of wolf spiders in the basement and elsewhere. They are
black, not brown, and grow considerably larger than the recluse.
The recluse is easily recognizable by a 'fiddle' on it's back. They say
it looks like a fiddle/violin and I suppose it does a little.
Another way to recognize a brown recluse is by it's bite. If the area
bitten starts to disintegrate and expand to the size of a softball then
there is your recluse.
I'm sure there is variance as to an individual's reactions to the
recluse's bite, but all the folks I know who have been bitten knew it and
have the scars to show for it. One girl I met at a club was bitten on the
face. She went through several surguries to get things close to right
again.
I think my soon-to-be ex-wife Chrissy was bitten once a few years ago.
The breakers in the building blew so I did the stealth monster deal and
crawled through a window in the basement to reset the breakers. She was
very greatful and when I returned through her arms around me, gave me a
kiss and screamed. We very quickly discovered a little hole of a spider
bite. Over the days and weeks it collapsed and dissolved, expanding from
a prick to the size of a silver dollar coin. It eventually healed but you
can still see the marks years later. This bite was on her right
shoulder-blade.
In <7A9BACCEF0171D4FB77019F5104CDD37225B37_at_jeffserver.tegjeff.com>, on
12/13/01
at 04:14 PM, Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
said:
>> > I'll bet you're presbyotic (far-sighted)
>>
>> Nit pick time. I think you mean presbyopic. presbyotic would be
>> someone who can only hear things far away.
>I had not a *clue* how to spell it... how funny that the
>mispelling turned out to be something!
>> > Plus, isn't the fiddle on their stomach? Should I ask the spider
>> > to "present, front and center" so i can check?
>>
>> Definitely on the back, hence the common name fiddleback spider.
>hadn't heard that name might explain why I was able to see
>them when I was younger tho... but I saw all kinds of things in those
>"paisley days"....
--
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Jeffrey S. Worley
Asheville, NC USA
828-6984887
UberTechnoid_at_Home.com
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Received on Thu Dec 13 2001 - 15:46:32 GMT