Although an easy scapegoat because they're so common, indoor spiders rarely bite people, and reactions to presumed spider bites tend to be from a wide array of other causes. In either case, many household spiders have fangs too small to cause much skin damage, even if they were inclined to bite from having been grabbed or pressed. (They don't seek us out to bite otherwise.) Spiders feel our ground vibrations or the air movement when we get close and flee to avoid us if they can.

This spider is hard to identify concretely. Spider families are usually identified (at least in part) by the arrangement of their many eyes, so it's a very fine detail that usually needs magnification and a cooperative, still spider. Body patterns, size, and body shape alone doesn't always point to a single species ID. Its appearance suggests it's an adult male, given its relatively small abdomen and what look like thickened pedipalps. (These are the smaller leg-like appendages in front of its head.) Adult male spiders have little interest in hunting food as they instead focus on wandering around until they find a female of their species. Plus, if this is a wolf spider, that group is named because they don't sit and wait for food in a web but rather wander until they find insects to eat. (They don't hunt in groups like wolves do, though.) It definitely does not look like a brown recluse. Of the larger spiders that accidentally wander indoors, wolf spiders and their look-alike relatives do tend to be the main group, so this is a reasonable guess; there are dozens of species in MD.

In either case, they're getting in through cracks or crevices in the home's exterior. This tends to be door weather-stripping that's worn down, window screens that have tears or gaps (if the windows are ever opened), and gaps around vent covers and other venting that leads to the outside. Checking the integrity of these areas and sealing or repairing what's needed should keep most of the spiders and other insects from getting in in the future.

If you are comfortable catching them in a cup or some other container, just put them outside. Put an open container down over top of them and then slide a piece of stiff paper or cardboard underneath, which will trap them inside while you carry it out. We do not recommend the use of a pesticide, nor should you need an exterminator. If you do hire one, try to find one that offers services to help seal-up entry points, especially if they're hard to reach yourself, since that's the main issue. These spiders are not breeding much inside, if at all, so the only way they keep appearing is by getting in from the outside. An exterminator should not be distributing pesticide for spiders around the home unless they can keep applications contained to cracks and crevices that cannot be sealed, and even then, it's probably overkill and unnecessary pesticide use.

Miri