Are you finding wolf spiders in your home? What to do and how to stay safe in Illinois

As the weather heats up in the summertime, wolf spiders hunting for their prey might be making a space in your home.

Encountering one of these spiders, which can range in size from a half inch to two inches, can be startling. However, the speedy species won’t pounce on you like a cricket. They’ll keep their distance.

“We would be in deep trouble without spiders, because they do keep insect populations in check,” Petra Sierwald, Arachnida and Myriapoda associate curator at the Field Museum in Chicago, told McClatchy News.

Just like the vast majority of the approximately 50,000 spider species in the world, wolf spiders aren’t a threat to humans, even though many people are afraid of them. Much less than 1%, or about 25 species, can harm humans, according to the Forest Preserve District of Will County.

In Illinois, the beady-eyed hunters make their debut in the spring as temperatures start to rise and hide again in the fall, according to the Illinois Department of Natural resources.

Are wolf spiders common in Illinois?

Illinois is home to at least 47 of the approximately 2,300 wolf spider species around the world, according to the Forest Preserve of DuPage County.

They’re common across the entire state, according to Sierwald.

These eight-legged creatures in Illinois won’t spin a traditional web, but they could create burrows in the soil or settle into a crevice of a rock or tree, Sierwald said.

You might encounter one in your yard, garage, shed, basement, or even around the windows and doors in your home, according to the DuPage County forest preserve. However, Sierwald said these creatures live in “almost every habitat,” including meadows or grasslands.

In the winter, your home, especially the basement, may also be a warm place for these spiders to hibernate, according to the forest preserve.

What do wolf spiders look like?

Wolf spiders can be identified by their dark mottled colors and eight dark eyes, according to National Geographic.

Since they hunt on the ground, they have “thick but strong, stout legs,” Sierwald said.

“If you have seen a wolf spider walking or running once, you always recognize a wolf spider,” according to Sierwald.

How do they catch their meals? Speed.

Most of these hairy spiders don’t spin webs. Instead, Jeff Lyons, sales and retention representative with Pro Active Pest Control in Northern California and Arizona, said they hunt their prey and pounce on them like wolves at the last second.

The spiders then mash their prey into balls or inject it with venom.

This step liquefies the bug’s internal organs into a “wolf spider smoothie,” National Geographic said.

The arachnids eat everything from crickets and ants to grasshoppers and other spiders.

How can I keep spiders outside of my home?

Here’s some ways to keep wolf spiders out of your home , courtesy of Big Blue Bug Solutions:

• Regularly clean low-traffic areas such as basements, attics and closets

• Seal cracks

• Trim vegetation around your home

• Place sticky traps along the baseboards

What’s the difference between wolf spiders and brown recluse spiders?

Wolf spiders and brown recluse spiders are often confused for one another because of the arachnids’ timid nature and motley combinations of browns, blacks and grays, according to Kapture Pest Control.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, brown recluse spiders are typically found in the Midwest and South regions of the United States.

There “are really no dangerous spiders in Illinois of any kind,” Sierwald said. Brown recluse spiders are not common in Illinois, she added.

If you’re bitten by one, she said, your best course of action is a trip to the hospital.

Are wolf spiders dangerous to humans? Pets?

Sierwald said wolf spiders aren’t aggressive and only bite humans and pets in self-defense.

“Most of them really cannot get through our skin, so that’s really a problem, and they will only bite in uttermost despair and fear for their lives,” Sierwald said.

Their bites don’t pose a significant health risk. Though most wolf spider species have poisonous glands in their fangs, the poison is not dangerous to humans, according to Sierwald.

What should I do if I’m bitten by a spider?

Humans bitten by wolf spiders can experience symptoms such as pain and swelling that should subside with time, the Cleveland Clinic wrote on its site.

The clinic added that medical attention isn’t typically required for wolf spider bites unless there’s an allergic reaction, but that’s rare.