they dont eat much

Ridefour15 wrote on 08/06/13 at 9:39pm:


Something like this?

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No worries.

Just brush them off.

Honestly one of the reasons I avoid riding early am. Yeah I will brush them off... Then STOMP the crap out of them. They'll still be plenty spiders left for insect control( yes, I know they have a beneficial purpose)

IntheBush wrote on 08/06/13 at 10:23pm:


No, the last one I got a good look at had a lot of little white spots, but a whole lot of them, concentrated on the back. Didn't seem to be any kind of pattern.

These spiders that spin the webs between trees are harmless, though they creep you out. I've gotten hundreds on me over the years (not at one time) and have never had one bite me. Spiders bother me as much as anybody, but that's life in the country. 

And for that matter, so are ticks. Just check yourself when you get home.

Ridefour15 wrote on 08/07/13 at 12:01pm:


A Brown Recluse bite will leave a large hole.  But they stay on level ground, so encountering them on a mountain bike would be rare. 

A co-worker of mine was bit by one in his sit in Kayak.  It left a huge hole in the middle of his shin.

The black and brown widow are spiders you also want to avoid.

The black widow is widely known, but here's a pic of the brown widow. 

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Many people get these confused with the brown recluse. North Carolina is normally considered outside of the range of the brown recluse and many bites blamed on the brown recluse are actually widow bites, wounds of an infectious nature, etc... Many other spiders resemble the brown recluse and brown widow (such as the funnel web, wolf spider, etc..), so when in doubt err on the safe side.

Here's a map of the normal area of the brown recluse;

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There have been confirmed brown recluse sightings in South Carolina (very few), as the site below illustrates, and it's thought their territory may be expanding. So I would say coming across one in NC is not out of the question. Again, better to be safe than sorry. Fortunately, like widow spiders they generally like hidden places near ground level. 

I've often said that the day widow or brown recluse spiders start spinning webs between trees is the day I quit mountain biking and retire to Sun City or something.

Here's a great site listing poisonous spiders/snakes by state and info about each.

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isitwinteryet wrote on 08/07/13 at 4:45pm:


Could be.

But then, the earth used to be flat too.

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