THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702070266
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: COASTAL JOURNAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: 92 lines
The first brown recluse spider ever recorded in the Hampton Roads area turned up in the big spider roundup that followed a story in The Beacon in December on the search for the poisonous arachnid.
It was identified by entomologist Peter Schultz, director of the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Shultz, who has been at the center for 25 years and has never seen a brown recluse in the area, has frozen the specimen and is keeping it on hand.
In the story, Shultz and other insect experts said the brown recluse spider lived farther south and in the Midwest and that Virginia was not in its range. The scientists are at odds with local residents who had been suffering from festering wounds that were diagnosed by doctors as brown recluse spider bites. But, the scientists contend, doctors made the diagnosis on the basis of the symptoms, not by seeing the spider itself.
The lone brown recluse was found in a Virginia Beach house by an exterminator, but the homeowner wasn't interested in talking about it, Schultz said. So we don't know exactly where it was found or the circumstances.
Even so, said Schultz, the discovery of one spider is not necessarily an indication that the brown recluse has taken up residence in Virginia. Brown recluses could arrive here in any number of artificial ways, he said, such as hitchhiking into town via a packing box in a moving van or a box of fruit in a produce truck, and still not be full-fledged residents.
``They don't exist here naturally but they could exist in someone's home,'' he added, ``just like an orange tree, an orchid or tropical fish can live inside.''
Out of about 75 spiders that were brought into Shultz for identification, the freezer specimen was the only one that turned out to be a brown recluse. The small brown spider has long legs and a characteristic violin-shaped pattern on its back.
After seeing it, I would have a hard time mistaking another spider for a brown recluse. Of all the little brown spiders around, and there are lots, it would be hard to find one as distinctive looking as this critter.
Most of the spiders turned in by local residents were what Schultz called typical little brown spiders that are found in the home, perhaps in a ceiling corner or behind a piece of furniture. A lot of innocent house spiders met their demise in the search for brown recluses that followed the article.
``I haven't seen such alarm since the fallout shelter days,'' Schultz said, ``when the Russians were coming.''
Though a lot of people took their spiders directly to Shultz for identification, they should take them to Extension Agent Randy Jackson in the Agriculture Department at the Municipal Center. If he is unsure of the ID, he will pass it on to Schultz, Jackson said.
Thus far Jackson has received 25 or more spiders to identify, one as late as last week. None were brown recluses. Most were what Jackson called house spiders. They came from as far away as Smithfield, he noted.
``Some people sent spiders in the mail!'' Jackson said, incredulously.
Jackson is all too familiar with the controversy because he was bitten on a finger twice several years ago by a black widow spider that was lurking in his garden glove. When he went to the doctor, the doctor told him he had been bitten by a brown recluse.
``I said, `No, it was a black widow.' I know because I crushed it,'' Jackson related.
The black widow and the brown recluse are the only two spiders in the United States that are poisonous to humans. Unlike the brown recluse, the black widow is widespread in Virginia.
After so many spiders died in the brown recluse blitz, Shultz wanted to stress that most spiders are very beneficial to have around because they feast on insects.
``What nature-loving child hasn't watched an insect fly into a spider's web and then watched the spider wrap up its prey?'' Shultz asked. ``Something with such a small brain as that has such an intricate way of feeding.''
So go easy on the innocent ones.
P.S. Larry Pederson called to say that one of the ospreys that nests on the platform on the Chesapeake Bay just east of the Lesner Bridge is really an early bird this year, arriving Feb. 1. Ospreys usually return to the area around the first of March.
FUNGUS GNATS are infesting my house plants, as I reported last week, and I want you to know about another remedy I am trying: old-fashioned, sticky, yellow fly paper. And it's catching gnats, although it will be a month of Sundays before they are all gone. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know
about local lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555, category 2290. Or send
a computer message to my Internet address: mbarrow(AT)infi.net. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
This brown recluse spider was found in a Virginia Beach house by an
exterminator. Peter Schultz, entomologist, says that this one
specimen doesn't mean the spider has moved into Virginia. It could
have hitchhiked on a moving van or produce truck.