Taking the bite out of spider myths

Rod Crawford has a saying:

“Everything that ‘everybody knows’ about spiders is wrong.”

The curator of arachnids at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum has a Web site dedicated to debunking myths about spiders.

It’s a long list. But the thing that really gets under his skin is the idea that these creatures should be feared.

“Spider danger is so close to zero that it is foolish to worry about it,” he said.

If you want to fret about something real, worry about drunk driving, he advises.

Not all experts will go quite that far. But they say there’s no need for us to behave like a bunch of Little Miss Muffets.

“Spider fear is very much overblown,” said Art Antonelli, a Washington State University entomologist.

He said few people actually get bitten and that an even smaller number experience alarming symptoms.

So how come seemingly everyone around here knows someone who has had a nasty reaction to getting munched by an itsy bitsy brute?

The answer is quite simple, according to Crawford — most people, including a fair number of doctors, don’t know what they’re talking about.

If you did not actually see the spider bite you, how do you know you have fingered the right suspect?

“Spiders have no reason to bite humans,” he said. “They are not bloodsuckers, and are not aware of our existence in any case.”

Chances are, in at least some instances, it was an insect that nipped or stung those folks. (For those keeping score at home, spiders are not insects.)

But let’s say a spider did, in fact, do the deed. Is that dangerous?

Here’s where things get as murky as a big basement lit by a single 40-watt bulb.

There are hundreds of different kinds of arachnids in the Inland Northwest. They can be difficult to tell apart. And according to specialists, maybe two or three kinds have the potential to ruin your day.

Maybe you’ve heard of the brown recluse spider. Well, unless one just skittered out of a moving van toting a tiny suitcase, there’s little chance you’ll encounter this species. They don’t live here, scientists say.

Black widows, however, are home on our range. But these nonaggressive web dwellers usually want nothing to do with us. Bites are said to be rare, and not necessarily something to worry about.

Now let’s talk about the star of the show, the hobo spider.

Though they move around a lot, they won’t stalk you, experts say. And they probably won’t sneak up and target a tender spot of exposed flesh. (Picture the scene in “Spider-man” where the mutant spider chomps down on Peter Parker.)

“But they will defend themselves, there’s no question about it,” said WSU’s Antonelli.

So if you reach to pick up some firewood and disturb one or set a box down practically on top of one, you might get nailed.

Hobo venom can cause localized inflammation, said Dr. Bill Robertson, medical director of the Washington Poison Center in Seattle.

“Very few people get sick,” he said. “If it’s just a red spot, I’d twiddle my thumbs and see what happens by the next day.”

It’s probably possible to find medical professionals more prone to alarm than that.

But Rick Vetter, who has studied the hobo at the University of California-Riverside, isn’t convinced that the case against it has been made.

“Hobo spiders may be dangerous but the definitive proof has not yet been published,” he said. “The basis for this opinion in the medical community is inferential and may be completely wrong.”

Ongoing research could clear this up.

Both nationally and locally, spider-bite statistics tend to be sketchy at best.

Jim Porter, manager of the Regional Wound Care/Hyperbaric Center at Deaconess Medical Center, said it’s not unusual to have patients come in complaining of spider bites. Some exhibit noteworthy symptoms. It’s something they take seriously.

“But in many cases, it’s impossible to know with certainty that it was a spider,” said Porter, a registered nurse.

In any case, few would disagree that the fear factor associated with spiders transcends the real risk they pose.

Why do they scare so many of us?

“I think it’s probably the surprise of encountering something that our brain recognizes as very alien and in some form and circumstance, potentially dangerous,” said Paul Domitor, a clinical psychologist in Spokane.

This can be especially true when we see them in the basement or bathroom. You know, on our turf.

“We view the indoor spider as an aberration even if many of us have them in our homes,” he said. “But the spider in the garden is not an aberration, so we’re more willing to share our space there.”

If your dread of eight-leggers is so profound that it interferes with your ability to conduct your life, you might suffer from what is known as arachnophobia. That can be treated through therapy, said Domitor.

Kristine Anselmo of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, once kept a spider cornered in her utility room for the better part of an hour — until her husband arrived to take care of it. “I was too frightened to do it myself,” she said.

Most of us aren’t quite that bothered.

“Our basement is full of them,” said Kristi Gorenson, a KREM news reporter/anchor.

She’s not wild about their presence. But she tries not to freak out in front of her 3-year-old daughter. “I want her to form her own feelings about spiders and other creepy-crawlies,” she said.

Steven Thain, a saw operator for a large cabinet-maker, isn’t quite so open-minded. “I hate them,” he said. “They are creepy, ugly and a danger to mankind.”

But Spokane Public Radio’s Janean Jorgensen takes more of a live-and-let-live approach. “I tend not to care about them as long as they’re not crawling on me,” she said.

Spokane epidemiologist Bill Edstrom knows this subject prompts strong feelings. “People are wiggy about spiders,” he said.

But not him. He almost never kills them when he comes across them in his home.

Once, years ago, Coeur d’Alene’s Doris Pannell and her son made it part of their daily routine to watch a large, tan spider build and repair an intricate web outside their picture window. “Interesting entertainment for us,” she said.

Others have no enthusiasm for squashing them because of having read the classic “Charlotte’s Web.”

Of course, even those who can tolerate rubbing elbows with spiders outdoors would prefer that they stay outside.

Making sure your home is well sealed and that all interior nooks and crannies are regularly vacuumed is one way to keep the population of house spiders down. Another oft-repeated piece of advice is to wears gloves and long sleeves when pawing around in dark corners or seldom-visited closets.

And then there is the military option.

Maybe you have seen recent pest-control ads that shout warnings like “Stop Spiders Dead In Their Tracks!” and “Protection For Your Family.”

The theme is usually based on the thought that many outdoor spiders seek to enter buildings as the weather gets cold, something about which experts disagree.

Those in the know also have mixed views about using chemical sprays. For one thing, spiders can keep insect populations in check. And if you kill off many of your spiders, you might wind up with other population problems.

In addition, spiders are sometimes the best defense against other spiders.

But maybe walking through a room and feeling the wispy stroke of a web strand across your face makes you cringe. Or perhaps the words “egg sac” prompt a shiver.

So if you decide that you want to go the pesticide route, how do you choose an exterminator? How do you avoid winding up with a lunatic like the one in TV’s “King of the Hill”?

Terry Whitworth, who operates a pest control service in Western Washington, is a rarity. He’s a bug-killer with a doctorate in entomology.

He recommends going with someone who is a consultant and not just a salesman.

“If you call someplace and mention spiders and they immediately start trying to sell you their program — without asking any questions about your specific situation — that’s not a good sign,” he said.

But the Burke Museum’s Crawford suggests another way to interact with these frequently demonized creatures.

“Wave at them as they go by,” he said.

The way he sees it, spiders aren’t the problem — our attitudes are.

Try thinking of them as diminutive teammates.

Often, said University of Idaho entomologist Joseph McCaffrey, spiders are on the side of farmers and our food supply.

“They’re an important part of the ecosystem,” he said. “They fill many different roles.”

Unfortunately for them, one of those roles is as the star of “Creature From Behind the Washer.”

Mike LaScuola is an environmental health specialist with the Spokane Regional Health District. He’s had many conversations with homeowners agitated about spiders.

No, they don’t chase you, he explains. The reason it seems one was charging you might be that it wanted to get into a dark place and scurried toward your shadow.

Once in a while, he asks if the person has ever studied one up close. “They’re really quite beautiful,” he says.

Naturally, skeptics suspect he’s got cobwebs in his brainpan. But every now and then, he turns someone around about our arachnid urban wildlife.

“It’s like anything else,” said LaScuola. “As soon as people get past their ignorance, they start to lose their bias.”