Post office which had spider infestation to open on Monday

LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- They are not just disgusting -- they are downright dangerous.

The Fairdale Post Office, which has been closed since April 19th because of an infestation of brown recluse spiders, is set to open again on Monday.

A spider infestation shut down the local post office for months, even though it was only supposed to be closed for a few weeks.

There have not been any customers in the Fairdale Post office in months, but it will be back open Monday, spider-free.

The brown recluse spider's venomous bite is so powerful it destroys tissue, leaving a lesion behind. It is the spider that infested the Fairdale Post Office in late April.

According to a professor of entomology at the University of Kentucky, brown recluse spiders aren't aggressive, but can bite when bothered.

"Rather than risk the safety of customers or our employees, we just decided to close the office temporarily," said David Walton, spokesman for the United States Postal Service in Louisville.

It was only supposed to take a few weeks. But the extermination has lasted over three months.

"We thought it was just a minor problem but as we got into treatments more and more spiders were popping up." The spiders just wouldn't go away.

"We were told that fogging was the wrong way to go about it, that fogging causes the spiders to just go back into hiding," Walton explained.

A new tactic -- spraying, and sealing up holes and cracks. But even sealing holes was tricky. "We would treat the holes and seal them up with concrete, and spiders would pop up as they were sealing things up. "Yeah, a little freakish," aid Walton.

You may see some sticky traps at the Fairdale Post Office but you will not find any brown recluse spiders in them. That is because the problem has been taken care of.

"We did a complete check of the building, we didn't find any dead spiders, so we've been given the OK to move back in."

The Post Office will be back open Monday morning without any brown recluse spiders creeping around.

The Fairdale Post office will also be doing preventative treatments to make sure the spiders do not come back.

Post office box customers had been picking up their mail at the Hillview Post Office on Tanyard Springs Boulevard.