People who leave their shoes on the porch to air out would do well to shake and inspect them before putting them back on, especially if left out overnight. According to naturalists Rudy Mancke and Chick Gaddy, black widow spiders love to shelter there. And even in the driest closets, attics or basements, brown recluses may lurk. These are potentially deadly spiders that have rightly earned fearsome reputations.
The brown recluse’s bite causes necrosis, which is literally rotting a hole in the victim, and its bite isn’t easy to fell, says Mancke. The black widow is perhaps deadlier, because it can cause brain problems and even death if the bite is severe enough, according to Gaddy.
But before you have nightmares, remember that only about six people die from spider bites in the United States each year, so your odds of being bitten and dying aren’t good at all, he adds. Also, both these creatures tend to stay in their webs, so they won’t come hunting for you. If you keep houses, sheds and other outbuildings swept free of webs, you’ll probably never even see one of these creatures, say the naturalists.
