Identifying dangerous spiders

Listen to this radio show (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Dr. Linda Rayor, entomologist, Cornell University

We have huge wolf spiders in our basement laundry room. They give me the heebie-jeebies! But, at least they're not poisonous.

However, there are a couple of venomous ones that you don't want to cross paths with. Cornell University Entomologist Linda Rayor says one is the brown recluse, which lives in the Midwest and along the Gulf Coast. As its name implies, it's rather shy and likes to cuddle up undisturbed in closets, in your shoes, and in clothes lying on the floor. Rayor says they're pretty tiny.

"Even with legs spread out, they're something less than the size of a quarter," Rayor says. "It's tan-colored and relatively translucent. But on the first body part that has the head and the thorax, it's got what looks like an upside-down fiddle. This is why they're sometimes called 'fiddle' or 'violin spiders'."