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I live in Kansas (Pottawatomie County), and I found a spider crawling on a wall inside my bedroom:

enter image description here

I'm inclined to keep the spider in my house, but I just want to double check to see if it is venomous or dangerous.

The spider is approximately 3~4 cm long in size, and seemed to be in dark (possibly brownish) color. I saw it crawling on the walls once in the afternoon. And this time I saw it crawling at 10pm.

It doesn't appear to be a widow spider so I was a bit relieved. But could you please tell me what is the name of this spider species? And would it be dangerous to keep this creature in my house?

Thank you very much for your help!

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That...looks like a brown recluse spider. The picture is a bit dark so I'm not 100% sure, but they can be identified by a violin-shaped marking on their back. Apparently they are very common in homes Kansas.

brown recluse spider

Illinois Department of Public Health

They are nocturnal:

Brown recluse spiders are mostly nocturnal, coming out at night to hunt for their insect prey. - TAMU

Assuming my ID is correct, they are venomous. Here are links to three government agency or university pages (hopefully reliable sources) on brown recluse spider control:

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you so much for your help! $\endgroup$
    – Greenhill
    Jul 26, 2021 at 16:13
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I agree with Luigi - that is a Brown Recluse Spider (if you lighten the image, you can clearly see the diagnostic violin marking; that, plus the Recluse shape, size, legs and habits make me certain that this is what you have, even without seeing the eyes clearly). By the way, this is an adult male, which is why you noticed it - right now, these guys are wandering around looking for love instead of hiding in some quiet, undisturbed area snacking on cockroaches and other delicious insects. While these spiders are generally inoffensive, the venom is unpleasant in effect, and may rarely cause significant health effects. In this case, I would consider calling in a pest control service, although you're in an area where Recluses are pretty common. You might also want to get used to taking some precautions like shaking out your shoes in the morning, laying down sticky traps around the bedroom walls and under the bed frame legs, etc. I know that many people live their lives in close proximity to Recluses without problems, but once in a while unfortunate things can happen. enter image description here

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