Hobos Looking For Nice Place To Stay Aggressive House Spiders Set Up Camp Inside Houses In Preparation For Long, Cold Winter

Bob Healey’s nephew, John, is a big-deal baseball player at a Montana junior college. But when an oversize brown spider raced across the Healey living room the other night, John launched for the couch.

“He would not come down until we killed that spider,” Bob Healey said. “The first night, he had to sleep with the light on. He said he didn’t sleep at all, hardly.”

Arachnophobes are entering a tough time of the year as spiders head inside to escape coming cold weather.

Experts say there’s little to fear from most of the spiders scuttling across shower stalls and speeding across floors throughout North Idaho and Eastern Washington.

But the Inland Northwest does play host to two potentially dangerous spiders: the black widow and the aggressive house spider, also called the hobo spider.

“Certainly, people are finding this hobo or aggressive house spider, but it’s probably not as common as people think,” said Richard Zack, an entomology professor at Washington State University.

Black widows bear a trademark red hourglass on their abdomens.

But hobo spiders are harder to recognize. Often, they strongly resemble harmless wolf spiders. Both are brown and about the size of a quarter. Aggressive house spiders, however, carry a distinctive pattern of chevrons - like a sergeant’s bars - on their abdomens.

Hobo spiders are speedy, zipping across floors. They build webs, funnel-shaped and open at both ends, and lurk in the mouth for prey.

Most often, people get bit by aggressive house spiders while picking up firewood, or putting on clothes with spiders hiding inside.

Hobo spider bites can be dangerous, though they rarely result in death.

Reaction varies from person to person.

A few bite victims get seriously ill.

In 1995, a 10-year-old Portland boy bit on the lower leg had an extreme reaction that included skin necrosis, tremendous swelling and severe headaches, according to an article published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. The boy experienced migraine headaches for four months despite drug treatment.

Other people say they experience few problems from the spider bites.

“I’d rather be bit by an aggressive house spider than a bee,” Coeur d’Alene exterminator Ron Hardin said. “A bee sting is more painful.”

Not all the spiders spotted lately are hobo spiders, experts caution.

Recent cooler nights and dry weather are sending all kinds of eight-legged critters into homes around the region.

Hardin got 20 phone calls from spider-rattled customers on Thursday alone. Numerous arachnid complaints started about 10 days ago, he said.

People can surf the Internet for tips on identifying hobo spiders. To make your home less hobo-friendly, Zack suggests plugging any cracks or unsealed openings to the outside. Mow tall grass next to foundations. Inspect firewood before bringing it inside.

He also recommends making sure the spiders are aggressive house spiders before exterminating them, because other spiders serve beneficial purposes, such as eating bugs that also plague homes.

“There just seems to be this fear of small, unknown creatures,” Zack said. “Why that is, I don’t know.”

Bob Healey found hundreds of spiders when he picked up bags of grass sitting next to his Coeur d’Alene home - directly under the window where his arachnaphobic nephew sleeps.

“We were careful not to tell John,” he said.

This sidebar appeared with the story: SPIDER FACTS European immigrants

The aggressive house spider, or hobo spider, was introduced to the Northwest from Europe in the 1920s and has become common. The spiders may bite when cornered or threatened. They are found year-round in dark, moist areas such as basements, garages and closets. The spider is 1 to 1 inches in diameter, with a chevronshaped mark on its abdomen.

Experts counsel people who may have been bitten by a hobo spider to get medical attention. People don’t always feel the bites, or experience them as a slight pinprick. Generally, a large, red swollen area develops after the bite. Within 36 hours, this may be followed by blistering, nausea, headaches, weakness, impaired vision and temporary memory loss. Healing can take up to six months and can leave a scar the size of a fifty-cent piece.