Eeeek Factor

Jaye Orr isn’t afraid of spiders.

A nurse with the Kid Wise program at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, she fields hundreds of calls every day from worried parents needing advice about their children’s bumps and bruises.

Orr knows that dangerous spider bites are rare, and that spiders don’t bite unless they’re provoked. She knows most bites can easily be treated at home with soap and water and a cool, dry compress.

“But my daughter is horribly afraid of them,” Orr said. “If she goes to bed and looks up and sees one, she just freaks out. She’s never been hurt or even been bitten by one. I guess we never should have let her see that movie ‘Arachnophobia.’ ”

Indeed. And just as many adults also fear the tiny, fragile creatures--especially in springtime, when housecleaning and gardening chores lead to many spider sightings.

“Spiders in general are beneficial, as they feed on other insects,” said Minoo Madon, with the L.A. County Vector Control District, an expert in the habits of the most common spiders in Southern California.

“The only time the spider becomes a problem is when you accidentally come across the spider and sit or touch or put any slight pressure on it. It will, in turn, bite in self-defense.”

“But spiders will not see a human being and run off to bite them,” he says. “If you leave them alone, the chance of them biting will be nil.”

Still, there are billions of spiders in Southern California, and the average person cannot tell one spider from the next . . . with the possible exception of the black widow.

One of the most common spiders in Southern California, black widows are easy to spot, with their shiny black bodies and red hourglass mark on their belly.

And it’s fairly easy to tell if you’ve been bitten by one. Within one to two hours a victim will notice intense pain, two small, red puncture wounds, localized muscle and stomach cramps and sometimes sweating near the wound.

The first thing to do if you suspect you’ve been bitten by a spider is to remain calm, even if you think it was a black widow. No one in the United States has died from a black widow bite in more than 10 years.

“I can’t tell you how many people will try to squeeze the poison out or get it out with a needle or suck the venom out,” said Sandy Bartell, a certified specialist in poison information.

Bartell works for the California Poison Control System, a free service available 24 hours a day that answers questions about potential bites. She says the best course of action with any bite is to wash the wound with soap and water, and apply a cool, dry compress.

However, the fear of spiders far outweighs the danger they pose to people, said spider expert Rick Vetter, a research associate with UC Riverside’s entomology department.

It’s unfair to blame every itchy red bump on a spider bite, he insists.

“They’re the scapegoats for a lot of wounds they’re not causing. There’s a prejudice against them,” Vetter said.

“It’s just one of those things, because there’s a lot of myth and nonsense associated with spiders,” he said.

Vetter suggests that the best way to avoid spiders is to keep your home clean. Black widows are shy and like to hide in undisturbed areas. They’re most often found in garages, basements and attics.

If gloves, boots or gardening shirts are left outside, seal them up in Ziploc bags. He suggests you do the same for baseball gloves, roller skates or anything left idle for long periods of time.

“The black widow is the only thing you really have to worry about,” Vetter says. “And doctors have antivenin. In 20 minutes you can be okey-dokey, no problem.”

One of the most feared spiders--the one blamed for countless bites--doesn’t even live here, Vetter said. He is working on a paper he plans to distribute to local medical journals to help erase the myth of the existence of brown recluse spiders in Southern California.

The brown recluse, also called a fiddle-back spider, is known for its potentially fatal red bull’s-eye bite mark.

“In California, only four verified specimens of brown recluse spider have ever been discovered in the entire state,” Vetter said. “Yet every year I am regaled by dozens of stories by local people who swear they or an acquaintance have been hospitalized, lost body parts or have died from bites from the brown recluse.”

Even nurses, such as Orr, said she and fellow medical personnel are on the lookout for brown recluse bites. “It’s something they teach you in school,” she said.

At the L.A. County Vector Control District, Madon investigated more than 600 doctor-diagnosed, spider bites after a South American cousin to the brown recluse was discovered in 1969 in the Pasadena area.

The violin-shaped spider was responsible for the bite in only three cases in California. Madon says that a more likely cause of the bull’s-eye mark are fleas, ticks, mites, bedbugs or even Lyme disease.

More information:

* The California Poison Control System: (800) 876-4766.

* The Children’s Hospital of Orange County’s Kid Wise program: (714) 633-2098.

* The Orange County Vector Control District: (714) 971-2421.

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Spider Season

Sure, they’re creepy and they’re crawly--but for the most part, spider fright is a lot worse than spider bites, experts say. Here are a few of the usual suspects that might pop up now that spring cleaning and gardening is in full swing in Orange County. Most are harmless. Only the black widow poses a significant threat, experts say.

Black Widows: (Latrodectus hesperus)

No one in the U.S. has died from a black widow bite in over 10 years. Symptoms of their bite appear within 2 hours: 2 red puncture marks, intense pain, and localized muscle and stomach cramps. Clean with soap and water, apply a cool, dry compress and see a doctor immediately.

Sac Spiders: (Cheiracanthium)

The common house spider, often colored yellow or tan. Like most spiders, they will not bite unless provoked. Their bites will leave a small sore which is slow to heal.

Wolf Spiders: (Arctosa littoralis)

These outdoor spiders have a reflective layer in their eyes that is visible at night as a sparkling point of blue-green light. They are usually found near streams.

Jumping Spiders: (Phidippus johnsoni) This very common outdoor spider is usually found in fields and other natural areas. They are relatively large, about 3/4 inch, and move about in a series of short jumps. These fuzzy black spiders are identifiable by a red mark on the back of their abdomens and are aggressive bitters if provoked.

Orb Weavers: (Neoscona crucifera) These spiders with long spindly legs are usually found outdoors in gardens. They rarely bite even when provoked.

South American Violin Spider: (Loxosceles latea) Cousin to the virtually nonexistent brown recluse spider, these spiders were discovered in the Pasadena-Sierra Madre area in 1969. Of 600 investigated cases of suspected violin spider bites, only 3 have been verified.

Source: Minoo Madon, Scientific-Technical Services Director

Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District, Santa Fe Springs office.