Spiders: Is Brown Recluse in DR?

Sharlene

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Mar 4, 2006
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I live in La Mulatta I in Sosua and we've been getting a lot of large spiders entering the house recently. Think it might be due to them cutting down all the vegetation at the side of the road down to widen it.

I've bagged a few of these critters (extremely difficult coz they run like f***!) and looked on the internet and they definitely look like the brown recluse spider. This is what my partner has been saying from the beginning but I wasn't overly worried until I saw some of the huge festering ulcers needing skin grafts on some of the web sites re: brown recluse bites.

Can anyone confirm that this might be the case?
 

Rocky

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Apr 4, 2002
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I live in La Mulatta I in Sosua and we've been getting a lot of large spiders entering the house recently. Think it might be due to them cutting down all the vegetation at the side of the road down to widen it.

I've bagged a few of these critters (extremely difficult coz they run like f***!) and looked on the internet and they definitely look like the brown recluse spider. This is what my partner has been saying from the beginning but I wasn't overly worried until I saw some of the huge festering ulcers needing skin grafts on some of the web sites re: brown recluse bites.

Can anyone confirm that this might be the case?
I'm no spider expert, but the Brown Recluse is to be found in Haiti, so it stands to reason, they would be in the DR, as well.
It's not that long a walk across the border.
 

MommC

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Mar 2, 2002
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Yes they are here....at least in Guayacanes! I've seen a few and give them wide berth if they're not within the 'killing' range!!
 
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Chip00

Guest
I live in La Mulatta I in Sosua and we've been getting a lot of large spiders entering the house recently. Think it might be due to them cutting down all the vegetation at the side of the road down to widen it.

I've bagged a few of these critters (extremely difficult coz they run like f***!) and looked on the internet and they definitely look like the brown recluse spider. This is what my partner has been saying from the beginning but I wasn't overly worried until I saw some of the huge festering ulcers needing skin grafts on some of the web sites re: brown recluse bites.

Can anyone confirm that this might be the case?

There are mainly two types of large spiders that I have run across while living here: one is the tarantula which is usually the largest with thick hairy legs and another can be large as well but has somewhat thin spindly legs with fine hair and is usually dark brown to black.

These latter spiders are to be found in just about any and every building here in the DR - there are abundundant. The female can be seen at times carrying a white sac below it's abdomen up to the size of a silver dollar. Based on my research it appears that the latter isn't a brown recluse.

I have also found and killed two "brown widow" spiders at my home here.

Could you possibly take a picture of one of these spiders next to a peso or US quarter and post it? That might be very helpful.
 

djlawlaw

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Jul 6, 2006
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If I come across one of these, besides a good whack to the head, what can be used to fumigate them from your house?
 
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Chip00

Guest
If I come across one of these, besides a good whack to the head, what can be used to fumigate them from your house?

I know there are companies that do fumigation here - believe it or not ask at your local veterinary office - they will know.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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spiders are good, they eat other nasty buggers like mosquitos and cucaracha, can't you just sort of push them away or sth? no need to kill'em!
 

D & D

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Jul 17, 2003
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One of the big brown jobs (not a tarantula) ran across the floor one night and Danny smacked it with a shoe and I started spraying with Raid. The white sack on it's belly was about the size of a dime and a zillion little tiny babies came pouring out. He ran for the clorox and I kept spraying. Grossed me out. We have seen them before (and since) thankfully, not that often, but never with the egg sack. Are these "killer spiders"? Don't do spiders....no, no, no!!!

About 35 years ago I was bitten by a black widow several hours before taking a plane back to Florida from Atlanta...of course, I didn't realize that's what got me until later. Anyway, I swelled up, couldn't breathe and then went into shock. They had to land the plane and I woke up in the hospital hooked up to all kinds of gadgets. Luckily, there was a doctor on board or I would have been dead.

So, to my way of thinking, there are no good live spiders, only good dead ones! Kill 'em all. We've got spays for the rest of the bugs. We buy a lot!

Dianne
 

marliejaneca

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Oct 7, 2003
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Here is a an article on the brown Recluse spider done by a NC University professor. It provides an list of characteristics and pictures. It states that although the main characteristic of a brown recluse is the violin shape, that can be attrributed to many other types of spiders as well. He mentions that it is the eyes that are the main identifier - 6 instead of the common 8 and in a different pattern.

Entomology - Identification of Brown Recluse Spiders

Yikes, who really wants to get that close! LOL

It is a good read, and you should be able to determine if, in fact, this is a Brown Recluse or not.

Marlie
 

mart1n

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Jul 13, 2006
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The large brown spider that you see is harmless the children in the campo play with them. It is not the brown recluse. There is also many black widows spiders here.
 
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Chip00

Guest
The large brown spider that you see is harmless the children in the campo play with them. It is not the brown recluse. There is also many black widows spiders here.

Yes I agree - FYI there are also Brown Widows as well as I've already killed a couple of them.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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please, someone back me up - DR does not have spiders that can kill you! not even the child or a dog!
as to those big brown spiders, we have them at home, i call them booboo, they are like pets, really... never had any trouble with them.
 
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Chip00

Guest
please, someone back me up - DR does not have spiders that can kill you! not even the child or a dog!
as to those big brown spiders, we have them at home, i call them booboo, they are like pets, really... never had any trouble with them.

I don't know if brown widows will kill you but they can leave a nasty mark. From what I remember they seem to be a bit larger than the BW and have an orange hourglass shape on the underbelly instead of red in addition to being brown of course.
 

D & D

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Jul 17, 2003
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Popels Pocket Spider!

The large brown spider that you see is harmless the children in the campo play with them. It is not the brown recluse. There is also many black widows spiders here.

Yikes......So you're saying that the great big brown, sack toting, evil looking spiders are harmless to humans? What about giving you a coronary when you see one of the things. If one actually got on me, I would definitely drop dead from a heart attack!

As to black widows, or brown widows for that matter, if I see one of those things crawling around guess I'll have to get out an ammo belt and reconfigure it for Raid cans. Just to be on the safe side, we already have them (cans that is) in just about every room. Don't do bugs of any flavor.

Short sad story......Danny was getting into the shower yesterday....didn't have his glasses on. Saw movement....picked up a flip flop and halted said movement. Whoops, just smashed a little baby lizard. :paranoid:

Dianne
 

KeithF

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Jul 9, 2006
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On one of the trips over there last year, to see how far on the apartment was, I brought a sleeping bag, as I had expected the place to be advanced enough that I could stay there, then buy furniture as planned. When I arrived, the place was nowhere near that stage (no power, no water, not secure)... development not as advanced as I'd been led to believe? Who'd have thought it?

So I booked into an apartment and the sleeping bag became redundant.

At least, it became redundant to me! I went to move it one morning, looking for some clean socks and there was the biggest brown spider I've ever seen snuggly sleeping at the end of it. Patio door open, sleeping bag launched out into the garden! My friend who was with me used a broom handle to bash the sleeping bag around a bit to check the spider had gone. Yup, all safe... as he turned around and came back in I saw the spider clinging to the end of the broom! That was duly dispatched into the garden too, I bravely picked the sleeping bag up after kicking it a few times, then brought it in. After a couple of minutes, we retrieved the broom.

Can't help wondering if anyone witnessed the antics of two gringos hurling things out of their patio door before kicking the crap out of a sleeping bag!! :paranoid:
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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ha ha ha ha
you just both made my day!

i am pretty sure there is no animal in DR, save for the man, that can kill. spider bite hurts like hell and gives blisters like from SF movies but thets about it.

since i wear my lenses 24/7 no movement is unidentified, spiders make me shrug my shoulders but cucaracha makes me shriek and run away....
 

Lambada

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Some people here must meet spiders of a different temperament to mine. I have a large one living in the cupboard under the bathroom washbasin right now. I have yet to notice any aggressive behaviour by this spider. Initially it would scurry away from me when I entered the bathroom. Now after a week or so I think it realises that I'm not going to kill it, so it pops out and looks at me when I'm sat on the loo. :) The last few days it is getting positively reckless.........doesn't run away when I move suddenly. But I'm always careful not to put a shadow on it when I lean over to talk to it because this is what appeared to freak it out initially. I don't know if it's getting tamer or not but anything which runs away from me rather than towards me, is not, in my book a threat. So...........live & let live. BTW have only seen 2 tarantulas in over 14 years here.
 

SantiagoDR

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Jan 12, 2006
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Jumping Josephine Batman!

If you run into any of those gigantic black ones and they reel back on their back legs, LOOK OUT! That means they are getting ready to jump at you................