Articles
Narrower than the guides and published as they are written. The guides are the evergreen reference; this is where the more specific questions go.
Getting a Spider Out of the House Without Killing It
The glass-and-card method, what to use for a large one, and why putting a house spider outside in October is worse for it than the garage.
4 min read
The Joro Spider: Large, Yellow, and Not a Threat
An introduced orb weaver spreading through the southeast. Big and conspicuous, harmless, and covered far out of proportion to what it does.
3 min read
The Hobo Spider Was Never Dangerous
For two decades the hobo spider was listed as medically significant on the strength of one contested study. The CDC removed it, and the original work has not replicated.
3 min read
The Big Spider in the Bath: What It Is and How It Got There
It did not come up the plughole — the water in the trap makes that impossible. It fell in overnight and cannot climb the glaze.
3 min read
Why There Are Suddenly Spiders Everywhere in Autumn
They are not coming in from the cold. The spiders in your house in September have been there all year, and they are moving because they are looking for mates.
3 min read
How Long Do Brown Recluse Bite Symptoms Take?
Most bites cause a red mark and nothing more. The minority that develop a lesion follow a recognisable timeline, and the first few hours look unremarkable.
3 min read
Spider Bite or Skin Infection? How Doctors Actually Tell
Most wounds presented as spider bites are not spider bites. What separates the two, why the distinction matters urgently, and the questions a clinician will ask.
3 min read
A Black Widow Bit Me. What Actually Happens Next?
The realistic timeline, why the pain is muscular rather than local, when antivenom is actually used, and how rare a fatal outcome really is in the United States.
3 min read
Do Brown Recluses Live Where You Do? Probably Not
Brown recluses live in a small part of the United States, and are absent from California, Florida, the Pacific Northwest and the northeast — despite constant reports.
3 min read
The Daddy Long-Legs Myth, and the Three Animals It Refers To
The claim that daddy long-legs have the world's most powerful venom but fangs too short to bite is wrong twice over — and it is applied to three completely different animals.
3 min read