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Travis McGowin 0:00
Hello and welcome to another edition of the pesky pest control podcast right here in Montgomery, Alabama with your host, Travis and Michael. We do this podcast as a community service for the River region. This includes Montgomery, Prattville, Millbrook, we Tonka pike road, and any other surrounding areas for people just like you.
Michael Wienecke 0:18
Hey, so today I want to talk about the wolf spider otherwise known as fake brown recluse spider.
Travis McGowin 0:26
No, definitely. It’s one of the most, I would say, falsely identified spiders, you know, here in our area, I mean, they’re everywhere. For starters, I know outdoors around my own personal house, there seems to be a very large population of them. And they’re often very, very well miss identified as being a brown recluse when really they’re just playing a wolf spider.
Michael Wienecke 0:53
Yeah, and, you know, just on looks alone, I mean, the wolf spider is a pretty creepy looking spider, you know, it varies. It can be kind of blackish dark brown tan, has, you know, that that coloration on it. And that’s why and Harry and Harry and sometimes carrying its babies on its back, which is just kind of a a freaky looking looking site. So and
Travis McGowin 1:16
I think that that’s one of the facts that most people don’t appreciate at all, is when they do go to squish one. And then, you know, looks like the ground around, it starts moving because there’s always babies going everywhere. And it does it freaks people out for sure.
Michael Wienecke 1:30
Oh, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Well, let’s talk about like, where this spider, you know, kind of calls home. You know, I know, we see a lot of them around Birmingham. Just you know, woodpiles piled up rocks, play houses, cinnamon sandboxes, you know, where the water meter is, you know, sometimes we’ll check there and treat that area as well. So, on the outside, that’s, that’s where we see a lot of Wolf Spiders,
Travis McGowin 2:00
you know, another another place that’s often neglected that you see them, I have actually had several customers who had brand new pine straw put into landscaping around the outside of their home. And when I tell you that I went to do the, you know, the service for those customers, and the amount of Wolf Spiders of different, you know, life stages and sizes that came out of that pine straw during the treatment was just impressive. And you know, the customer had already told me that they were having an issue with the wolf spiders, and it was almost like, whereas I doubt that the pond straw itself was brought in with Wolf Spiders, that apparently was an attractive location for them to be in the customer’s yard. So that’s one thing to consider when you’re doing your landscaping around your house.
Michael Wienecke 2:46
Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. And just, you know, biggest thing is, as far as preventing Wolf Spiders from being around your house, another thing we didn’t talk about is, you know, where they live in your house. Very similar to the brown recluse spider, you know, they cracks, crevices, crawlspace attics, you know, around windows kind of anywhere that there’s gonna be a good food source for them to hunt at nighttime when they come out of those cracks and crevices. So yeah,
Travis McGowin 3:12
I’m, you know, I’m glad you mentioned nighttime, another little kind of cool fact about them as if you walk outside at night in the dark. And you take a flashlight or something like that, and you shine it down towards the ground in an area where there’s Wolf Spiders, they have iridescence to their eyes, you know, they’ve got really good night vision. They they’re primarily nighttime hunters. And if you look close enough, there’ll be two, you know, a couple little teeny tiny eyes with an iridescence to them on the ground. And those are Wolf Spiders.
Michael Wienecke 3:42
Yeah, yeah, it is. That’s a freaky sight, but a cool one at the same time. So yeah, so
Travis McGowin 3:48
yeah, I mean, if you’re, if you’re freaked out by spiders, probably not the best part. But let me ask you, Michael. So if, if by chance, you were to come into contact with a wolf spider and it was to bite you, what could somebody expect? Yeah, so
Michael Wienecke 4:03
Well, spider wolf spider bite is really harmless. You know, the, they’re not poisonous to us. One of the only concerns is, you know it, it obviously is going to break the skin. So if you don’t keep it clean, you can’t get an infection from that or you know, have to have to see a doctor that way. But as far as poisonous or you know, kind of like the brown recluse it’s not going to, you know, rot your your flesh or anything like that.
Travis McGowin 4:29
Well, definitely an unsightly spider. People don’t like seeing them but relatively harmless. That’s right. Hey, and thanks for listening to the pesky us pest control podcast here in Montgomery, Alabama, with your host, Travis and, Michael. If you have any questions in reference to what we discussed today, please give us a call at 334-595-9055 and you can ask for me, Travis McGowan. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you. And don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends and family. And subscribe to us on Apple. Amazon Go Google and Spotify thanks for listening and we’ll see you next time
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
