Brown recluse spiders seem so plentiful these days that you see them building webs all over your house, and most people have no idea the spider they’re looking at is a recluse.

Spiders are spiders, right?

When I started working as a pest control technician, I had no idea what a brown recluse looked like. Oh, I knew they have a violin-shaped mark on their back, but you have to get very close to the spider before you can recognize that mark.

If you get that close, you’re much closer than safety requires.

My first month as a technician, I worked with another technician as an apprentice, visited various customers, and learned how to inspect and treat pests. My instructor and the pest control company’s resident entomologist told me that brown recluse spiders weren’t a threat here in Indiana.

The truth soon proved otherwise, and luck was with me when I learned that truth.

During my training period, I studied local pests and their habits, and a book I read had pictures of brown recluses. I gave them nothing but glances, but those short glances anchored a blurry image in my mind that set off an alarm the first time I saw an inmate in one of my client’s buildings.

It was in the basement of a major hospital that I made my first sighting of inmates. As I watched the spider move around its web, something about the legs looked familiar. To me, the legs of a brown recluse are distinctive; they are very long and thin. I remember thinking at the time, “That looks like those pictures I saw of brown recluse spiders.”

I caught that spider on a glue board, took it back to the company with me, and looked at it through a microscope that night. Sure enough, a violin shape was on that spider’s back.

From that moment on I had a definite and permanent image of the brown recluse’s legs in my head. That is an image that never faded, I see it as clear today as I did that day, almost 10 years ago.

That photo saved me from several bites over the years.

One time I opened a small box, looked inside, and saw what I thought was a pair of those legs running for cover. I dropped the box, put a glue plate on it, and used a long tool to move the items inside. A few moments later, I had two brown recluse spiders stuck on that glue board. A few meters further along the wall, I opened another box to see another inmate in the residence. I also have that one on a sticky plate.

If you see cobwebs around your house, be careful when approaching them. Brown recluse spiders are everywhere these days. I have found them in my bathtub and often in my storage barn.

Find some photos of these spiders; familiarize yourself with the appearance of your legs. Get an image of those legs fixed in your mind well enough that you’ll at least recognize a potential brown recluse if you see one.

Don’t risk getting too close to these spiders. Their venomous bites leave you with some nasty wounds that won’t heal anytime soon, and sometimes spread all over your body.

When you think you see one you understand that it probably has a family. You will probably need to treat your entire home to minimize the infestation.