Hobo Spiders

(9/11/98)

Utah State University says beware of hobos, who may enter your house over the next two months.

Science Specialist Ed Yeates says these particular hobos don't walk on two legs. They scurry around, on a lot of them.

Darren and Natalie have sticky traps on the floor of their apartment to catch spiders.

But there's one in particular they've seen a lot of over the past month - one they thought they left behind when they moved to Ogden.

"We had heard that they were not this far south and so, yeah, we thought there might be a good chance we have seen our last hobo up in Idaho."

But U.S.U.'s Dr. Jay Karren says the Hobo spider has moved in and is now native to Northern Utah. This year, the numbers are up substantially, and the males and females seek each other out in August and September.

Darren and Natalie have a very clean and well kept apartment. But for the hobo spider, that really doesn't matter. It feels equally comfortable whether the place is clean or dirty.

Unlike the black widow's venom which affects the nervous system, the hobo's poison causes skin to rot away from lack of oxygen.

Natalie says her father still bears the mark. "Actually their venom destroys tissue, so his leg turned black and he still has quite a nice mark from the hobo to this day," she says.

The Kennedys in Salt Lake know that trademark all too well. "I'm going to have to have a lot of intensive therapy on my finger or I won't be able to bend it or use it anymore," says Mrs. Kennedy. Doctors say she was bitten on the finger two weeks ago. She explains, "He opened my finger up and fileted my finger and left it open for four days."

Like it's cousin, the harmless domestic house spider, the Hobo too builds a funnel web. But the hobo is bigger and has a subtle chevron marking on its back.

It can't crawl up walls like the house spider, but prefers to stay on the floor. And it runs very fast.

Darren and Natalie prefer to simply search out the webs and vacuum up the spiders.

U.S.U. advises: