Spray Conquers Museum Spiders

Loxosceles laeta, a poisonous arachnid native to South America, may have left its home in Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, but then again, it may not.

The museum basement, where the spiders were discovered living behind and under cabinets, has been sprayed once with lindane, an insecticide which maintains potency for about 15 days.

There is no doubt that the spider population has been decreased tremendously by spraying," stated Herbert W. Levi, Associate Curator of Arachnology, but it will take about a year before we know whether they have been completed exterminated."

Spiders are resistant to insecticides because they are not insects, he pointed out.

The bite of Loxosceles laeta (laeta, by the way, is Latin for happy, joyous, or pleasant) causes a local ulcer and deterioration of blood and muscle tissue. The condition may spread through the body. Laeta bites are not usually fatal, Levi said.

Although the spiders had been discovered much earlier in the year, the museum did not begin extermination procedures immediately because it wished to examine the circumstances which had enabled the spiders to dwell in this climate.

Since the spiders were discovered in December, Levi has been receiving requests for specimens from museums and arasitologists from places as far away as Australia.