WICHITA FALLS MAN
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A Story About Brown Recluse Spiders in Wichita Falls
When we first moved into our present home in 1989, I saw my first Brown Recluse spider. At least it was the first time I identified a spider as a Brown Recluse. Thinking back, I had seen plenty of Brown Recluse skeletons in the past, but I didn’t know what they were. The real spiders started showing up regularly. One would show up on a wall. Sometimes, you might see one walking across the carpet. I positively identified them as Brown Recluses: the telltale “violin” on the back. The small body. The skinny legs.
My research back then revealed that they like to live in attics near heating/AC ducts. Ducts like the one directly over our bed. Speaking of the bed, I had three of those critters in bed with me over the years. One was crawling on my arm, but I managed to brush him off to the floor. One was walking towards me on top of the covers. I sent him into another dimension. One time I threw back the covers to reach for a book and found one tumbling around right next to me, wondering who disturbed his resting place. Dispatched to Hell.
We sprayed here and there, inside and outside, over the years. We used glue traps near baseboards. Finally, the spiders ran out of replacement spiders. I haven’t seen one in a decade or more. I was lucky. I know two people who have been bitten by Brown Recluses and had a bad reaction.