# Should I kill the spiders in my apartment? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-kill-the-spiders-in-my-apartment/318029 "2005-08-21T22:49:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-kill-the-spiders-in-my-apartment/318029/21 "2005-08-23T14:15:07Z")
Do black widows like to hide in shoes? If so, then I’m going to be really worried… and, are there brown recluses in the Sonora desert (Arizona area, or just south of there)? If so, do _they_ like to hide in shoes, too? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-kill-the-spiders-in-my-apartment/318029/22 "2005-08-23T15:13:06Z")
Widows & recluses are just about everywhere. As far as widows go they wouldn’t be interested in your shoes unless you left them outside up next to the house for a long time. they tend not to roam once they get their webs in order. Recluses? I don’t know. I’d think your biggest concern would be scorpions. They loves themselfs some shoes to nap in. ---
**Author:** ![woodstock989](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f05b48/32.png) [@woodstock989](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstock989)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-kill-the-spiders-in-my-apartment/318029/23 "2005-08-23T15:27:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Inigo Montoya: > ALL spiders will attempt to bite you in your sleep. If you sleep with your eyes part way open, they will seek out your eyeballs , ears and genitalia, in that order, and deliver their supremely debilitating bite. People who deny this have already fallen prey to the mind-control venom recently evolved by the common house spider :eek: You. Bastard. There goes any hope of sleep for the next month or two. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-kill-the-spiders-in-my-apartment/318029/24 "2005-08-23T16:46:53Z")
Having been bitten by recluses at least twice, one of the bites becoming life-threatening at the time due to a secondary infection - and seeing as my mother just got bitten two times in one night by a recluse and already has serious necrosis, I’d say kill them, kill them all. Glue traps, spider foggers, and cats - the only three ways guaranteed to kill lots of spiders. Just make sure that the cats don’t get in the glue traps… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-kill-the-spiders-in-my-apartment/318029/25 "2005-08-23T20:09:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Wolf spiders don’t spin a web and love to eat cock roaches! You and I must be using the term to refer to a different beastie. The critters I’ve always known as wolf spiders (largish brown mottled house-spiders, with thick legs) do live on webs, so unless they’re subcontracting the webs from other spiders, I presume they spin them as well. Is the terminology regional, perhaps? I hail from northern Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-kill-the-spiders-in-my-apartment/318029/26 "2005-08-23T20:38:34Z")
[Wolf Spider.](http://www.ento.okstate.edu/ddd/insects/wolfspider.htm) Nasty, icky fecking polylegged filth. Bleah. Spideys. Bleah!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-kill-the-spiders-in-my-apartment/318029.md?page=1)