How do you folks in rural areas deal with spiders?

[hoffdano]

I live in a semi rural area outside Austin. I see all kinds of bugs where we live, but have never seen a brown recluse. The most common dangerous bug for me is scorpions. Then giant centipedes. I occasionally see a black widow. I don't consider tarantulas dangerous.

Info about brown recluse control:

Control of Brown Recluse Spiders | Insects in the City

[debzkidz]

Although I've never lived in a rural area, I lived in Midland for many years where we found lots of spiders. Same here in central OK.
I have a one word answer: chemicals.

[Lee W.]

Nonpoisonous spiders are no big deal. Don't understand the phobia some have with them. I've lived in a rural area since 1989 and haven't had a problem. Now, ticks and mosquitos, have had problems with them!

[KathrynAragon]

I live in a small town in North East Texas, in a pretty rural subdivision.

We have our yard sprayed about once a year. We put Sevin dust around the foundation about once a year as well. We have a home that is well insulated with very tight and secure doors and windows.

We have never seen a brown recluse in our house or on our property. We did find a black widow in our garage once.

Another benefit to the dusting and spraying of the yard - no ticks and no fleas! We really just don't have a bug problem at all with those very simple precautions.

[houstonlol]

if you really want to live like coutnry folk, you'd let them bite you. it makes your immune system stronger, nature's natural vaccination. I let scorpions, bees, wasps, yellowjackets bite me all the time. I'm fine as long as my mommy remembers to change my colostomy in the morning.

[deserthackberry]

I don't know about recluses, but to kill black widows, you need to hunt them at night when they're hanging in their webs and spray them on their undersides, where their respiratory organs are. They also don't seem to like carpet, so laying a runner along the house on the front and back patio/porch seems to help keep them away from entrances. I hate coming home at night and getting their webs in my hair.

On the plus side, spiderwebs often catch scorpions, which are harder to control. I use glue traps for those, and leave most spiders alone, even in the house.

[TexasReb]

I just take out my shotgun and kill all of them with triple-ought buck!

[kenshi]

Brown recluse bites are rare. They like to set up shop in a dark corner somewhere and hardly move around. I doubt most, if any, of the bites you mentioned were actually from brown recluses.

[neddy]

I kill black widows anytime of day by stepping on them..no need to find the underbelly! Don't really want to get that close.

[GayleTX]

We spray inside and out about 6 months out of the year (we live in a rural area near the OK border, NE of Dallas)....trying to keep down both flying and crawling critters (we have lots of trees, shrubs, etc). It hasn't done much to keep the snakes down, though. We left the door open first nice day last Spring....and later found the grandbaby happily playing in the floor with a 6-inch snake. I didn't tell his parents....they probably wouldn't let him ever come back to visit!