Poisonous Nashville Spiders

Just the thought of spiders (poisonous or otherwise) can really make a person nervous. Unfortunately, with the arrival of spring and summer not far off, spiders will start making more frequent appearances. With that in mind, now is the time to find out what spiders are poisonous in our region and what ones are simply annoying. After all you don’t want to stumble upon a spider and not realize how dangerous it might or might not be.

Here in Nashville and Middle Tennessee, there are two types of spiders that are poisonous and they are brown recluse and black widow spiders. To help you identify these arachnids, we’ve included a brief overview of each below.

Brown Recluse Spider: These spiders are a yellowish brown to a red chocolate brown. They are roughly the size of a quarter to half dollar including their leg span. While most types of spiders have eight eyes, brown recluse are unique with only three pairs of eyes. Since you’d probably have to be up close and personal to count their eyes, we encourage you to look for that violin shaped marking on the tops of their bodies instead.

Black Widow Spider: These spiders are a dark glossy black to reddish brown. They are about 1 1/2 inches long. They have eight eyes arranged in two rows of four but the best way to identify these spiders is to look for the distinct red or orange hourglass shape on their abdomens.

So even though both these spiders are poisonous, they aren’t really aggressive. They will bite if attacked or perceive a threat. For instance, black widow spiders are more likely to attack when they are guarding their eggs.

A brown recluse spider bite may cause redness and could possibly blister. Other symptoms that may accompany this bite include restlessness, fever, and difficulty sleeping. Most people do not have extreme reactions to brown recluse. Black widow bites cause extreme tightness in the abdomen and may produce fever, nausea, and increased blood pressure. If bitten by black widow, you should see a doctor immediately. The good news is that both types of spider bites rarely prove fatal.

If you are seeing spiders in and around your house, the best advice is to call a professional. You could be seeing common house spiders and besides being annoying and building ugly webs, there’s no significant threat. But you may be dealing with poisonous spiders and that’s a whole other ball game. Either way you want spiders gone!

Give All-American Pest Control a call today for relief from spider problems in Nashville, Brentwood and Middle TN. Our experienced exterminators have the knowledge and tools to evict unwanted and potentially dangerous pests from your home.