How to live with the Lowcountry's spiders

Brown recluse
Br-recluse-guy
Brown recluse
Brown widow
Wikipedia
Brown widow
Black widow
Flickr user Care SMC
Black widow
Golden silk spider
Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik
Golden silk spider

Flickr user elvissa
Orchard spiderEvery year at this time, the Lowcountry is teaming with spiders. And The Post and Courier tells what to watch for, and maybe what to ignore a bit. And, my favorite, what to do about them.

But in the interest of full disclosure I should note I have streak of arachnophobia.

The Post and Courier kicks off by describing five infamous ones, their webs, their egg sacs, and if you should be worried about them.

The brown recluse (picture one) should certainly be feared for its necrosis effect, but is fairly rare in South Carolina.
Brown and black widows (picture two and three) should be watched for a disposed with if possible (more on that at The Post and Courier's story).
Golden silk spiders, aka banana spiders, (picture four) is pretty harmless to humans.
And, Orchard spiders (last photo) is pretty harmless too.

All that brings the paper to say:

The good news is that only a fraction of our many native spiders are poisonous to humans, and the chances of being bitten are extremely small.

Glad to hear it. Go read more about living with them at The Post and Courier, or get a podcast from MUSC and listen to more information.

Still I fear an infestation like the one up in Summerville.

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