I'm with the 'more than four dies' crowd. We have tons of wolf spiders in the basement and elsewhere. They are black, not brown, and grow considerably larger than the recluse. The recluse is easily recognizable by a 'fiddle' on it's back. They say it looks like a fiddle/violin and I suppose it does a little. Another way to recognize a brown recluse is by it's bite. If the area bitten starts to disintegrate and expand to the size of a softball then there is your recluse. I'm sure there is variance as to an individual's reactions to the recluse's bite, but all the folks I know who have been bitten knew it and have the scars to show for it. One girl I met at a club was bitten on the face. She went through several surguries to get things close to right again. I think my soon-to-be ex-wife Chrissy was bitten once a few years ago. The breakers in the building blew so I did the stealth monster deal and crawled through a window in the basement to reset the breakers. She was very greatful and when I returned through her arms around me, gave me a kiss and screamed. We very quickly discovered a little hole of a spider bite. Over the days and weeks it collapsed and dissolved, expanding from a prick to the size of a silver dollar coin. It eventually healed but you can still see the marks years later. This bite was on her right shoulder-blade. In <7A9BACCEF0171D4FB77019F5104CDD37225B37(a)jeffserver.tegjeff.com>om>, on 12/13/01 at 04:14 PM, Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman(a)theestopinalgroup.com> said: -- ----------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey S. Worley Asheville, NC USA 828-6984887 UberTechnoid(a)Home.com -----------------------------------------------------------