Hobo spider ‘season’ approaching

Coeur d’Alene exterminator Jim LaPlant has been getting a few more calls each week about hobo spiders. People think they are spotting the creepy, crawly creatures associated with nasty bites inside homes lately. But they might be over-anticipating the spider surge, he said.

“It’s early,” said LaPlant, the owner and sole pest control specialist at Action Pest Control. “But almost every house gets some (spiders) if they don’t practice some kind of control.”

University of Idaho entomologist Ed Bechinski also believes it’s premature for people to worry about infestations, but it never hurts to take measures to prevent them, he said.

It is a good time to prepare a dwelling against the outside invaders, Bechinski said. It’s about a month before male hobo spiders start their mate search, which could draw them indoors. People should also remember the spiders are not looking to hurt anyone, he added.

“Take a deep breath and know that the spiders don’t want to be in your house,” Bechinski said. “If you’re seeing them now, it’s a good month early. It may not be the hobo spider at all.”

Bechinski said people should take time to inspect cracks and openings around windows and doors, perhaps caulking them for a strong seal. If a homeowner sees just a few spiders, an effective solution is a sticky trap with attractant, found at most hardware stores, he said.

Hobo spiders gained a reputation as an aggressive house spider because of myths that they attacked people.

They were inadvertently brought to Seattle from Europe, according to research by Darwin Vest, a Southern Idaho researcher who discovered and dubbed them the hobo.

By the late ‘60s, the species was spotted as far east as Spokane and Moscow. Today, the spiders are found as far south as Utah and as far east as central Montana.

The problem with the “aggressive” moniker, Bechinski said, is that the spiders are no more bold than other spiders. Bites generally occur at night when one accidentally ends up in someone’s bed and is in danger of being squished.

“They’re not really aggressive,” Bechinski said. “That name was initially used to stir up potential research funding on this creature.”

People believed hobo spiders were aggressive because of their tendency to run toward someone when cornered.

Bechinski said that’s because they’re nearly blind.

Hobos rely on funnel webs to trip up prey, so they don’t have to see far to hunt, he said. “It doesn’t need its eyeballs.”

The hobo spider’s bite also earned it the reputation for being aggressive. It was some years before the ulcerating lesions that come with some bites were attributed to the hobo.

The brown recluse spider, found in the South but almost never in the Northwest, had been wrongly blamed for the wounds.

Vest discerned the difference between the two spiders in the 1980s and published findings showing the hobo as the true culprit in the Northwest.

But Bechinski said people here might not see them at all. Instead, residents may see similar-looking species, such as the wolf spider and giant house spider. The only way to tell, he said, is to take a spider to an entomologist.

“I’m a little suspicious of anyone not an entomologist who thinks they’re seeing hobo spiders,” Bechinski said, “because it actually takes the examination of the male’s sex organs to identify them.”