The spiders in my home are obviously well-read and crafty. While moving a bookshelf a couple of weeks ago, I found a brown recluse spider (venomous) crawling out from the book pile I had placed on the floor.
I was sure it had come from the floorboards since they tend to hide and are very shy. Luckily, I caught it before it crawled under my comfy armchair and took up dangerous residence there. But now, I'm thinking it was actually hanging out on the shelf.
Today I found another one, this time hiding in a stack of vintage linens on the top shelf of the small bookshelf in my sewing room.
I can't blame them. Who wouldn't want to hang out with books and fabrics for a lifetime of joy?
Brown recluse spiders are rather specific to the US south and lower midwest. They don't get bigger than a 25 cent coin and have this upside down violin marking on their backs. It's rather difficult at times to get close enough to see the violin clearly. If you have spiders and suspect it's a brown recluse, one of the best ways to tell immediately is that you won't find it in a typical ceiling corner web and its legs are all the same length so it's stance is rather round compared to the hobo spider, wolf spider, or pirate spider which are often mistaken for the brown recluse but have longer and shorter legs.
My favorite identifying advice is that they have 6 eyes, not 8. Seriously? I'm not looking it in the eye(s).
And with that, let's just say - creepy lesson over. You have my permission to reach for a sedative now.
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