
Myth of the Brown Recluse - josephpmay
http://spiders.ucr.edu/myth.html
======
nimbius
Working in a midwest auto repair shop, we get our share of spiders and such.
Brown recluse spiders are just that, reclusive. Ive seen them take up
residence in old tire piles mostly. Ive rarely seen a recluse, but our shop
bathroom has a small window where a particularly large hobo spider has set up
shop. We named him Biggie because, well, its a huge spider that just sits on a
web all day munching bugs and judging your poor dietary standard. We used to
assign cancelled tickets to biggie. at some point, biggie had a small
workstation and even an entry in our timekeeping software (for testing.)

So at some point he was just gone. We assumed he moved onto some nicer shop
with tastier bugs, but as it turns out, biggie met his demise at the hands of
our new tenant Goober, a chubby possum who made it through the window on a
cold night and managed to scare the piss out of one of our front office sales
folk.

This was completely unacceptable, shouting at a colleague at work is
tantamount to casual harassment. So, we did what any coworkers did. We took
Goober out to eat by luring him back outside with grapes and raisins. After he
was out for the day, we built him a little workstation, fashioned some
personal protection equipment, and even made goobers toolbox. It holds all our
weird porsche/BMW bolts and nuts that, as far as we can tell, are in hard
enough spots on the vehicles that only a German possum could install.

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
This made my morning. Thank you.

~~~
kinleyd
Mine too. Thank you.

------
cantankerous
I've lived in Portland OR, Mid MO, and the Kansas City area. In mid-Missouri,
the brown recluse is the standard house spider. Pretty much every spider in my
house there was a brown recluse. I had a weird bruise-y/necrotic bite on my
hip that I assumed came from one that got in bed with me. It healed up fine
without any medical intervention even though it lingered for awhile. I suspect
a lot of people get bitten over the span of their lives but the bites aren't
really noticeable. Spiders get in your bed or get into your clothes sometimes.
It takes a bit of work/luck to get a recluse bite. They're not aggressive and
they're not looking for trouble.

The West Coast, in my experience, has very little on the Midwest when it comes
to spiders and bugs. In Oregon I was blown away by the lack of bugs. I could
leave my doors and windows open at night and nothing seemed to come in.
Unreal! The only major thing Portland seemed to have on the middle states is
slugs. Waking up in the morning to find slug trails in my kitchen and in the
dog bowl was a weird experience. Live and learn!

~~~
aidenn0
I live in the Santa Barbara area, and bugs are way less, probably because of
how dry it is compared to the midwest. In mid MO I've seen ticks large enough
to keep as pets!

However, we do have a lot of black widows. They aren't super aggressive
towards humans, but they tend to go in places that you only sometimes visit
(the back of that one drawer in your toolchest you don't use very often,
woodpiles, Christmas decorations in attic or garage, etc.) I put on gloves
before going to any of those locations because I'm told even though it's non-
fatal to healthy adults, it's supposed to be excruciatingly painful.

~~~
lifeformed
Don't forget to check if they're in your gloves too!

~~~
macintux
Yep, I put my hand into a glove once only to find a spider there. Despite my
general affection for spiders, that was not a happy moment.

------
Pxtl
What happens is occasionally you get news about some poor soul with multiple
amputations because of necrotic tissue, and people assume "must've been a
brown recluse" because it's a suitable scapegoat.

And of course, the fear of the brown recluse is that they don't really look
like anything. We all think we can recognize a black widow, but a brown
recluse just looks like a typical house spider.

That said, I'm suspicious a bit about comments how spiders never bite you.
Last year suddenly the yellow sac spiders in the neighborhood got aggressive -
I have no idea why, they're normally harmless house spiders all over my area,
but I and a friend of mine both got bit by them completely out of the blue
without warning. Spider just walked on and chomped. He told me he'd heard from
others similar stories recently... I assumed it was some kind of distemper
infection or something seasonal since normally they're harmless.

It stung like hell and left my arm sore for a week.

------
justjash
Yep, tons of spider in Missouri... I used to be somewhat freaked out about
brown recluse spiders as a child but now as an adult I could care less. There
is one with a web setup in my basement that I walk by every day, I just let it
be since there is a pile of dead bugs under the web.

I remember one kid in high school got bit and had a nasty necrotized spot on
his ankle, other than that I have only heard of a few people who have been
bit.

As far as black widows go, I have only seen/caught a couple of them and never
heard of anyone being bit by one.

~~~
jermaustin1
I've had 2 bites from the brown recluses.

The first was on my upper lip, sent me to the hospital, before the necrosis it
swelled up closing off my mouth and nose so I couldn't breath. The "core" was
extracted and I was left with minimal scarring, but I keep a mustache to cover
it.

The second bite was on my big toe. Woke up one morning with my toe swollen to
the size of a small orange. When I went to the hospital for that one, some
rotting had already started. My 350 pound father and two nurses held my leg
down as the doctor cut into it. They were no match, I knocked them all to the
ground when I felt the blade. I now have a dime-sized spot on my big toe.

I still don't fear them, and recognize the good they do. I try to avoid
spiders now though ;).

~~~
okreallywtf
How do you know that it was a brown recluse? I'm not disputing, I'm just
wondering if it was assumed based on the injury or if you were able to find
the actual spider.

~~~
jermaustin1
Just going off what the doctors told me.

A friend later told me that MRSA sometimes mimics the same symptoms, but both
occurred during summer, and not around other kids or in a hospital setting.

~~~
gmiller123456
Unfortunately doctors tend to over diagnose a lot of things as brown recluse
bites[1]. So, unless he specifically tested for it, there's a really good
chance it wasn't a brown recluse bite.

[1][http://spiders.ucr.edu/necrotic.html](http://spiders.ucr.edu/necrotic.html)

------
S_A_P
I live in Texas. There are brown recluse here. I don't really fear a spider
since it doesn't seem like they are all that aggressive to people. The worst
part of spiders to me are when I walk through a web. Ive had a bad spider bite
that caused great swelling and some necrosis, but I don't know it was a brown
recluse. I personally have a nasty fear of wasps, which I cannot rationally
explain other than I think they look mean and evil and can fly at you. Here in
Houston, we have 2 types that are especially aggressive. The worst is the
yellow jacket, since they are great at building a hive in the ground and their
small size means you don't see them until its too late in many cases. The
other is the Mahogany/Red paper wasp. These guys are usually ok most of the
year, but as summer turns to fall, they get a bit aggressive and start wanting
your food. They are also relatively large and make pretty big nests.

Even through they are great mosquito killers, I won't let a nest live near a
place I frequent. We also have cicada killer wasps, which are very large and
very inquisitive. That combination usually has me spazing out at least once a
year as they dive bomb me...

~~~
bradknowles
IMO, you haven't lived in Texas until you have gone into your office (or other
room in your house) and found a large black tarantula in the corner of the
window. Try sucking that up into even a powerful brand-new Dyson vacuum
cleaner and watch the legs move around like crazy because all you did was piss
it off.

But frankly, the scorpions bother me a lot more. Especially when they like to
hide in your laundry, and drop down onto the floor at night from your attic.
You can hear them when they hit the floor.

These days, I sit back one row from a guy we call "Spider Man", because his
screen saver is nothing but giant pictures of spiders, 24x7. That will give
you arachnophobia faster than anything I know of.

Growing up in Oklahoma, I met plenty of Black Widow and Brown Recluse spiders.
My biology teacher collected them. He was extremely annoyed with me one day
when I was cleaning some stuff up in the back of the room and the biggest
brown recluse I've ever seen decided to take a quick trip up my arm. I managed
to catch the thing and put it in a glass container filled with a clear liquid,
and he looked at me like I was an idiot and told me "You know that water won't
kill those things, right?" To which I replied "Yes, that's why the container
is filled with alcohol." He really wanted that thing for his collection, and
was quite miffed that I had actually managed to kill the sucker, before he
could get his hands on it.

The bite from a brown recluse or a black widow may be worse than a black
tarantula that is bigger than your hand, but in my experience, the effect on
your bowels is much larger with the tarantula.

~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
As a Texan as well, I've been lucky to have never have been bitten by a
tarantula. I've never heard what you are saying about bowels before regarding
being bitten. What I have heard is that the bite itself hurts a lot more vs a
black widow or brown recluse but the venom is pretty weak comparatively.

~~~
bradknowles
In this case, bowel evacuation has less to do with being bitten by a tarantula
and much more to do with literally having the shit scared out of you on seeing
this thing inside your house.

Yup, it's a real thing.

------
Mtinie
As a native-born Californian, I’m glad to hear it.

As a long-term, transplanted resident of Virginia, however, I’m keenly aware
of the statistically small, but non-zero chance of running afoul with a
(suspected) brown recluse. In 2014 I spent six days in the hospital after
being being bitten on the ankle.

Extensive courses of I.V. antibiotics were used to combat the necrotizing
aspects of the venom. Along with a number of different topical anti-bactrials.

Unfortunately, because I did not capture the spider which bit me, it was
impossible to definitively point to Loxosceles as the culprit, thus
complicating treatment.

Recluse spider bites can be (relatively) painless, initially, and it could
have happened while I was out hiking in the woods and stopped for a rest, or
earlier, while at my home.

~~~
mabbo
Not that I don't believe you (the word 'necrotizing' sends shivers up my
spine) but since you didn't catch the spider itself, are there any other
species of spider that may have been the biter?

~~~
cgriswald
I live in the Bay Area in a warmer microclimate. We've got widows, sizable orb
weavers, and supposedly tarantulas (although I've never seen one and have my
doubts). I've twice been bitten by _something_ while either under my house or
in my basically wild yard and gotten nasty infection. One bite was on my elbow
and become necrotic. It was treated only with antibiotics. It now looks like I
took a bullet. The other was on my neck and required surgery. Although I had
some mild symptoms suggestiong a black widow bite, they were also symptoms of
infection, so the doctor concluded it was not a widow that bit me. Anything
that can pierce the skin can give you a nasty infection.

~~~
mikeyouse
> Although I have my doubts

I take it your never been to Mt Diablo during mating season then? The place is
filthy with tarantulas. Just a random YouTube but at certain times of the
year, the road is covered in them:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g4w5UbvaYy0](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g4w5UbvaYy0)

~~~
cgriswald
Cool vid. Nope, never been there, but I want to go now. I'm in the hills of
the peninsula. I've done a ton of hiking near my house but I've never found
one.

~~~
mikeyouse
Yeah, as far as I've found they stay in the East Bay. I've seen one in the
Oakland Hills, but my friends that are big bikers have relayed disgusting (to
me) stories about all of the tarantulas they encounter near Mt. Diablo and out
that way.

------
whiddershins
There’s this concept that any time you see a new story where the topic is your
area of expertise, it’s baffling how completely inaccurate the story is.

And then we all keep reading stories about areas in which we aren’t experts,
and it doesn’t occur to us that are likely equally misleading.

Because if we all factored that in, we wouldn’t believe any news.

And I guess we feel better thinking we know what’s going on, rather than
acknowledging we are in the dark.

~~~
VikingCoder
I really wish I could tell some system who I designate as authorities for
given subjects.

And then I could see the news annotated by the authorities I chose. Or by the
people they acknowledge have authority over those subjects.

Linus Torvalds is an expert on Linux.

John Carmack is an expert on computer graphics.

Tiger Woods is an expert on Golf.

Al Gore is an expert on Climate Change.

I don't care what Tiger Woods thinks about computer graphics. I don't care
what Linus Torvalds thinks about Golf. I don't care what John Carmack thinks
about Climate Change.

But if those people that I've identified acknowledge that other people or
groups get it "mostly right," and those people have annotated some news
article, I desperately want to see their commentary!

And I'd also be curious to learn who I think anti-experts are. When the people
I think are authorities endorse an article on that subject, I want to see who
condemns that article. And I want to read their commentary for myself. If I
think they're loopy, I can flag them as anti-authorities.

And yes, when there's dispute among the people I consider authorities on a
given topic, I'll be especially interested to read the debate.

I want to say that I probably trust people who work at the Washington Post to
cover world news. I probably trust people at MIT, Cornell, Stanford to cover
science. Eventually I'll discover which economic school most agrees with my
take.

Yes, this may re-enforce the bubble that I'm in. But like I said, I really do
want to read the BEST arguments from people who disagree with my school of
experts, too. Flame wars are a giant waste of time. I want to flag a comment,
"I disagree, but this is the most persuasive point someone has made."
Highlight THOSE comments. Even better are the comments where I can say, "You
really turned me around on this one."

I want to flag a comment from either side as, "Hey, can people from both sides
please comment on this? This seems like it's interesting."

I want to have Line Item Veto. To comment on specific parts of an article,
highlighting them, to say they are for sure true, or they're for sure false,
etc.

Let the media have the chance to revise and correct their article. Hell, even
fixing spelling and grammar mistakes is valuable.

Note that I desperately want this same kind of annotation for research papers
on arXiv, etc.

I think I'd want it to work something like Google SideWiki, or maybe Disqus?

Won't someone please implement this?

The democracy of upvotes and downvotes on Reddit and Hacker News is a signal,
but it can be gamed by bots, and NOT ALL OPINIONS ARE EQUAL.

I don't want the system to TELL me who experts are. Maybe it can suggest
experts. But it should damn well include Alex Jones (even though I detest
him), and Fox News (even though I think they're the most incorrect major news
source).

If Jon Stewart or Dan Rather have something to say about an article?! You can
bet your ass I want to read it!

Hell, even linking me to a video of when Stephen Colbert talked about this
topic last night adds some value.

I read a blog post from a pediatrician once that I thought was excellent. He
lamented roughly, "If you don't trust me to be an authority on vaccines for
your child, then I don't know what kind of relationship you think we have." I
agree with that. It's not that I think my pediatrician is RIGHT. It's that I
grant that they have more authority on the subject than I do, and my world
view is to trust scientific authority / consensus. Even though that's
ABSOLUTELY NO GUARANTEE OF CORRECTNESS. I get that. But of the ways to try to
understand the world, I prefer to view the world through the lens of
scientists. And since we have divisions of labor, and I do not have enough
time to become an expert myself, I want help in understanding how the experts
I place trust in, how they view the world, and news, etc.

~~~
jngreenlee
Sorry couldn't help but LOL and sorry for getting off-topic.

>Al Gore is an expert on Climate Change.

Might need to rethink that. He's a fundraiser and tv personality. Think
'evangelist'. It's not evident that he understands complex systems or
probabilities better than say, Taleb. AFAIK, so far all his historic
projections have been incorrect. This is the danger of 'celebrity'. Similar
with Neil DeGasse.

That said, I do think it's interesting, what Taleb said about "you should go
to a surgeon that doesn't look like a surgeon"...if one can be successful in a
field without succumbing to stereotype-aligned but inconsequential norms, they
might just know what they are saying, other wise, they'd be the first ones
thrown out of the boat by colleagues.

Do be careful about reinforcing your own bubble. Much of what you said would
have you doing that, vis-a-vie media-based indication of what is 'an expert'.

~~~
lisper
> It's not evident that he understands complex systems

It's not evident that he understand evangelizing either.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Al Gore. The world wold be a much better
place if he had won the 2000 election. But the one image that sticks with me
is the scene in "An Inconvenient Truth" where Al is being driven around in the
back seat of a plush town car. A more tone-deaf image in that context is hard
to imagine.

~~~
wmeredith
I also found that humorous/obnoxious. He is _literally_ a limousine liberal.
(I say this as someone with a liberal streak myself.)

~~~
VikingCoder
Russell Brand, of all people, caught my attention one time. He said when he
criticized the flaws of capitalism when he was poor, people called him
jealous. When he criticized the flaws of capitalism when he was wealthy,
people called him a hypocrite.

They're all ad hominem attacks. But when he's criticized for being both too
poor, and for being too rich, and his message didn't change, it's particularly
obvious that people just don't want to hear his position, and will do anything
to discredit him.

~~~
skygazer
I agree with your sentiment and like your example, but in fairness to "the
people" criticizing him, it's probably different people in each instance of
criticism. We personify groups of people, and then treat them as fungible
units of a universal (if hypocritical) collective. Individuals will criticize
everything, if given enough time and resources.

------
rv-de
> How hard is that Arkansas guy laughing who was sleeping on top of 6 brown
> recluses?

I get the point and I second the sentiment and intent of the article. But then
again that Arkansas guy must be very brave nonetheless when he isn't worried
about six brown recluses living next to him while sleeping - considering that
the spider definitely is venomous and a bite can trigger necrosis.

~~~
nfritsche
We don't laugh that hard, I have been bit twice, and both left sizable scars.
Although, if you know you have been bit and get treatment within in a day or
two it shouldn't be that bad. --Arkansan

~~~
jessaustin
It is better now that we have running water and don't have to use the
outhouse. That was a bad scene for brown recluse bites, in particular with
respect to the typical bite location.

~~~
cgriswald
As a kid, we once visited a cabin and my mom sat down on the toilet and was
surprised by a spider. Ever since then, I always check for spiders under the
seat before I'll sit. If I had had to use an outhouse, I probably would have
squated over the seat like they squat in some countries...

------
chasd00
Growing up in TX my sisters and I were sufficiently scared to death of
"fiddlebacks". I've never known anyone to be bitten but my wife got a nasty
bite from something about a week ago. Big red swollen spot on her ankle and it
immediately made me think of the Brown Recluse bite stories i was told as a
kid. I asked my wife to keep an eye on it and if it looked any worse in 24
hours we're going to the doc. Fortunately, the swelling went down and things
turned out fine.

~~~
kurthr
I was likely bitten on the ankle by one when I was 12 after walking around in
ivy. It's hard to tell exactly what it was, but it swelled up like half a
baseball, the doctor removed a chunk of skin/flesh an inch across (it mostly
fell off) and I couldn't walk for a couple of weeks.

I hated spiders for years after that... they don't bug me much now, but
windows and recluses will spread (if fed) and can be dangeous. It's best to
keep them out of your house and garage area. Seen lots of widows, but never a
recluse in California.

------
Multicomp
In GA, I am wary for the black widow and the brown recluse, the former when
indoors and the latter outdoors. I've not spotted either in months honestly,
but I never stop being wary.

As far as CA natives being super freaked out about it...meh? I don't blame
you. Fiddler spiders are scary looking and after seeing some of the wounds
online, it's quite the eye opener.

I have never personally met someone in either GA or AR that had been bitten by
either of these spiders, so if you lean towards the uncharitable side of
things, I have a somewhat irrational fear caused by reading things in HTML
docs downloaded from a remote server in cyberspace.

Edit: grammar

~~~
ppseafield
Both the widow and the recluse are quite timid. Widow bites are generally not
dangerous unless you're elderly, very young, or immunocompromised. They'll
swell and be red for a while, but it's not life-threatening. Get near a widow,
poke it, and it cowers in fear.

The recluse's bite isn't itself dangerous - it's the necrotic bacteria that
they carry that can get into your bite, which IIRC happens in about 20-25% of
bites. If they bite at all - they're more likely to run away terrified than
bite, but it's definitely something to be worried about.

However, if you find them, do not kill them because they are cannibals. If
other recluses smell a dead one, they'll come to eat it. A recluse infestation
is a very difficult job for exterminators for this reason.

I was more worried about the (biting!) gnats in GA. And the snakes. And the
mosquitoes.

~~~
kryogen1c
How interesting! Ive known several people with brown recluse bites and I
always assumed the (rather unpalatable) necrosis was from the venom, not some
cofactor like bacteria.

Upon reflection, it makes total sense. The presentations they had would be
identical to serious infection, ie visible red marks on the skin tracing blood
vessels and following the blood flow.

~~~
rplst8
Yeah it does...
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loxoscelism](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loxoscelism)

Sphingomyelinase D

------
Chazprime
On the flip side, increased awareness of the little buggers is probably better
for bite victims.

The mother of one of my childhood friends in chilly New Hampshire went to the
hospital with a rash a few years back and several visits emerged missing a
chunk of her back about the size of a tennis ball. Having never seen one, the
doctors never even considered she might have a dangerous spider bite.

~~~
relaytheurgency
My father in law developed a nasty necrotic wound that everyone assumed was a
brown recluse bite. But it kept getting worse and worse no matter what
treatment options they tried. Turned out he had leishmaniasis. Of course no
one considered that because they were blinded by the common explanation.

Now, you could argue that maybe had the doctors known more about leishmaniasis
he would have received a diagnosis faster. However, I imagine the situation
played out about as well as one should hope. Certainly in Bolivia (where he
picked up the disease) they should be more aware of the common causes of
things than the uncommon. They should not be inspecting for brown recluse
bites when there are rarely any just as we should not look at every
necrotizing wound and investigate it as an uncommon case of leishmaniasis.

------
rrggrr
Relevant link: [https://abc7chicago.com/man-uses-blowtorch-to-kill-
spiders-s...](https://abc7chicago.com/man-uses-blowtorch-to-kill-spiders-sets-
parents-home-on-fire/4546565/)

The Fresno Fire Department said a man who was house-sitting for his parents
set the home on fire after he used a blowtorch to kill black widows...

~~~
stickfigure
"Mission accomplished"

------
pvaldes
> wood louse spiders (Dysdera crocota)

Small typo. Is Dysdera crocata, not crocota. I used to play with those things
annoying it with a little stick in a mix of fear and admiration. Children love
predators so It was like finding a lion under a rock. A terrific brick-red and
cream animal with impressive extra big fangs. Very "pokemonesque".

------
tw1010
I like how aggressive the tone of this was "Although people are _free to
disagree_ , this opinion has come about after more than two decades of
_constant research_ ".

------
njarboe
The Myth of the Myth of the Brown Recluse

I have lived in California for 25 years and have never heard about the Brown
Recluse living here. I guess I don't watch enough local news, but I think that
Rick Vetter, being in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside, is going
to have an extreme over exposure to people who think the Brown Recluse is a
problem. The random people who send him spiders are worried about the Brown
Recluse, but 500 in say 30 years is not very many. If 1 in 500,000 people are
super worried about these spiders in California, then he might interact with
most of them. The essay is of course a bit tongue-in-cheek, but this problem
of the Myth of the Brown Recluse is probably only experience by a small number
of people.

~~~
larkeith
Anecdata: I live in Oregon, and have always been mildly concerned about
visiting California because I thought brown recluses lived there.

I genuinely have no idea where I got the idea.

~~~
lotyrin
Further: I used to live in Oregon and was given the impression that I might
encounter them there (in Oregon).

------
haylcron
Media hysteria is a very real danger to science and logic in general. Their
concern is more about driving traffic to sites or getting viewers to increase
ad revenue, not necessarily telling you the truth if it isn't particularly
sexy. I see parallels with the onslaught against a lot of initiatives in the
crop science sector. Playing to the emotions of people rather than the facts
is a very dangerous spiral for us to fall into.

------
goda90
I briefly lived in Chile, where the Chilean recluse is considerably more
venomous than the brown recluse. I met one man who was bitten by one on a neck
vein. The damage to his heart now requires life long medication. Because of
that, I'm going to continue to be afraid of brown recluses, despite living
several degrees north of their known range in the US.

------
icco
Growing up in California, I was always fearful of black widows. I had no idea
the availability of antivenom was so great.

~~~
codingdave
Black widows are not aggressive. They won't bite you unless you crush them or
threaten their eggs. You can even pick them up and play with them without a
bite. (Not that I would recommend testing their limits).

That being said, I do wear gloves when picking up firewood or moving stuff
around my property, because if I grab one accidentally, that does crush them,
which is exactly when they bite.

~~~
okmokmz
One of my parents friends had two black widows living in this small enclosed
area of their backyard. The wife was a photographer and let them live their so
she could take pictures. You could get within inches of them with a camera or
whatever else, and they wouldn't even move

~~~
PretzelPirate
I have a couple black widows living in my basement. They each chose to live in
a small crevice in a concrete wall. I can go watch them, but if my shadow
accidentally falls on them, they hide as fast as they can.

Some people thinks it’s crazy that I don’t kill them, but they certainly
aren’t trying to hurt me, so I don’t see why I would.

------
alsetmusic
My sis-in-law had a necrotic bite from a brown recluse that nearly required
surgery to stop the decay. This was in the Midwest. One of the happiest points
of moving to CA is not finding them on my pillow. Creepy little creatures. I
haven’t met anyone in 16y of life in CA that has heard of them.

~~~
skummetmaelk
> One of the happiest points of moving to CA is not finding them on my pillow.

Christ this thread is seriously nightmare fuel for someone who grew up in a
country where literally no dangerous wildlife exists. I cannot imagine dealing
with deadly animals on my pillow.

~~~
amdavidson
Where is the place with no dangerous wildlife?

~~~
papyrus23
The UK?

~~~
cgriswald
What about the Hounds of the Baskervilles?

~~~
sandbags
Uncommon although might run into a speckled band here or there.

------
smpetrey
> Only a handful of specimens (less than 10) have ever been collected in
> California and usually there is some connection between the spider and a
> recent move or shipment from the Midwest. There is a great "awareness" of
> brown recluse spiders in California mostly through a misguided media barrage
> which is fed by a fear of the unknown and unfamiliar. I repeatedly have seen
> the media in their "quest to seek out the truth" write completely
> speculative stories about the existence of the brown recluse in California.
> Unfortunately, the truth is not nearly good enough to sell news and
> therefore, a speculative story is fabricated based upon faulty assumptions.

------
howard941
What happens when you mix a brown recluse and a black widow? You get a brown
widow. (Not really).

These
[http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/URBAN/SPIDERS/brown_wido...](http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/URBAN/SPIDERS/brown_widow_spider.htm)
things are all over SW Florida insofar as I can tell from the egg sacs
littering my lanai. There's more to say about them - but not now, I feel bad
about passive/aggressive threadjacking. I'll just leave that link here for my
fellow Floriduhuns.

~~~
mrfusion
You’re seeing those spikey looking egg sacs? I’d address that somehow. That’s
terrifying.

~~~
howard941
Yup. About 3/4" in diameter. They look like friendly little puffballs with
soft spikes.

------
okreallywtf
In a similar vein, supposedly a lot of "spider bites" are not spider bites
(according to source): [https://www.livescience.com/37974-he-surprising-cause-
of-mos...](https://www.livescience.com/37974-he-surprising-cause-of-most-
spider-bites.html)

I've known people to theorize that many small welts are caused by spider bites
even though they didn't see the spider or know when they got bitten.

~~~
dwyerm
If clicking something with a clickbaity name isn't your thing, I can save you
a click. The cause is "more likely to be bites or stings from other arthropods
such as fleas, skin reactions to chemicals or infections."

~~~
bradknowles
Bedbugs?

------
oxymoran
I read a similar article to this a while back about lack of Brown Recluse
populations in Michigan despite a healthy fear and misreporting of sightings.

~~~
pgm8705
As a Michigan resident and someone with severe arachnophobia, I'd like to read
this article.

------
axiomdata316
This is an odd claim. I live in Riverside where this article was written and
found two brown recluse spiders in the last year. One outside by the front
door and the second inside my bedroom. The tell tale identifier is the small
violin shape in its back. They may not be common in California but they're
common in my house in Riverside California just down the road from UCR.

~~~
bradford
You sure it's not one of the other violin species that were discussed in the
article (loxosceles deserta, for example)?

------
jxramos
Quite liked this jab """I repeatedly have seen the media in their "quest to
seek out the truth" write completely speculative stories about the existence
of the brown recluse in California. Unfortunately, the truth is not nearly
good enough to sell news and therefore, a speculative story is fabricated
based upon faulty assumptions."""

------
brockers
There are literally two in my office right now under my bookshelf. If you have
them, you don't find one of these, you find dozens.

------
BenjiWiebe
Yes I'm here in Kansas laughing. I've had a brown recluse walk down my arm out
of my sleeve, and didn't get bit. Just brushed it off and stepped on it. Also
my cousin has had several confirmed brown recluse bites. Yes they were painful
disgusting etc etc, but didn't kill her or cause any life changing damage...

------
iamthepieman
my Uncle got bit by a spider. Don't know if it was a recluse.

He was getting dressed in the morning. Put his work pants on that were draped
over a chair, felt a sting on his thigh and a spider fell on the floor when he
ripped off the pant and shook them out. He had a hands width depression that
was about an inch deep. This was after it was healed and completely scarred
over. I don't know how big it was while healing.

This was in Arkansas though so smack dab in the middle of the territory on
that map[0]

Helping some friends on a farm in West Virginia, their greenhouses would fill
up with black widows in the early spring before they got around to cleaning
them out for the first planting. 1000s of them in each greenhouse. Quickly
learned that they are entirely harmless.

[0][http://spiders.ucr.edu/images/colorloxmap.gif](http://spiders.ucr.edu/images/colorloxmap.gif)

------
joeberon
Just saying that for many people "squish and ask questions later" is unrelated
to how dangerous they are

------
3rdAccount
As someone living right in recluse territory, I'm constantly terrified when
going into a closet to get clothes...etc, even though I see black widows all
the time. Any time you're at the gas pump or in your garage, look around and
you can probably find one.

~~~
fastball
Yeah, I was hoping that this article would talk about how Brown Recluse aren't
actually dangerous (as I live in Texas), but instead it talked about
California, and it appears Brown Recluse are still quite dangerous. I see them
a lot.

Could we change the title to "Myth of the Brown Recluse in California" or
something?

~~~
macintux
> I was hoping that this article would talk about how Brown Recluse aren't
> actually dangerous

It does to some degree, with anecdotes of interactions with no ill effects.

Clearly it can cause severe health issues, but the vast majority if the time
it doesn't.

~~~
saalweachter
It puts it more in the range of plane crashes. They're not _good_ , but they
are _rare_ , even if you're flying on a plane regularly.

And then you have California, which is terrified of plane crashes, either that
they might be in one or that they're in the middle of one right now, even
though they never fly and have no need or intention of ever flying.

------
bougiefever
Did people here read the whole thing? This is some good reading! "The whole
state would be evacuated" if even one live spider, as opposed to an "ex-
spider" were found. That is good stuff! This made my day.

------
notacoward
If people in the midwest are laughing, imagine how Australians feel.

~~~
dwd
Bemused

Redbacks can be fairly common but if you encourage daddy long legs and leave
the house spiders alone you'll rarely find one. House spiders though can make
you quite sick if you get bitten.

Sydney funnel web spiders are dangerous and aggressive - enough said.

White-tailed spiders that also get blamed for necrotic lesions but is likely
bacterial are fast and tend to wander. They'll sidestep a shoe and jump at you
before disappearing. I've spent hours upending a room after losing sight of
one.

Most people though are more scared of huntsman spiders and they can get pretty
big and move fast. There's a certain type that are thicker in body and will
come at you. You think you have it pinned under the broom head and the next
second it's racing up the handle jumping at you.

------
k1ns
I live in Brown Recluse country. For a little over a year, I lived in an
apartment _absolutely infested_ with Brown Recluse spiders. The entire block
of apartments (i.e. units sharing one roof) had the problem. AFAIK, we were
the only block at the complex with the issue. Early on in living there I
captured several of the spiders and had them identified. I was terrified, to
say the least.

When I say infestation, I mean it literally. It was very unusual to make it to
bedtime without killing at least one Brown Recluse. The most we ever killed in
one night was 15. We would wake up all hours of the night, turn on our phone
flashlights, and scan the room for any lurking on the ceiling or walls.
Usually, the midnight scans would bear fruit. To this day I wake up in the
middle of the night and reach for my phone before remembering that I'm no
longer in that situation.

One year and one week after moving into the apartment, I was bitten. One of
the poor creatures found its way under my covers and into my shirt while I was
sleeping. I rolled over on top of it and it bit me. The burn/itching actually
woke me up shortly after and I was able to recover the spider from inside my
shirt. I _absolutely panicked_ , rounded up my entire family to drive me to
the ER at 3 AM (because surely I was going to go into some kind of shock or
other state of impairment) and even called the doctor on the way. Halfway to
the ER, the doctor called back. He told me not to panic, and that there was
actually nothing they could do about it right this minute. He told me to go
home, go to sleep, and watch the bite for any signs of infection/necrosis.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the best advice I've ever heard regarding
Brown Recluses.

All in all, the bite amounted to little more than a massive mosquito bite. My
body did have an allergic reaction (broke out in a rash head to toe) but it
was honestly nothing like the horror stories. We moved two months later, but
I'll never let myself forget the overreaction I presented and how silly it all
was.

I actually started to feel that I was getting to know them. Brown Recluses are
exactly that: reclusive. They want nothing to do with us. They are magnificent
hunters and terrible climbers (this is how they end up in your bed: they
fall). They tend to stick to the edges of the room and are the only spider
I've ever seen with a distinct "stalk" instead of a twitchy walk. They're
honestly beautiful to watch (as I used to often).

If you do have a Brown Recluse problem, don't panic. It took me over a year to
get bitten while living in an actual nest of them and even then it was a freak
accident. Buy yourself some of those rectangular glue traps and place them
along your walls, behind furniture, and in the back of closets. Brown Recluses
can be dangerous to children under the age of 7 and the elderly (which is why
we moved promptly) so don't ignore them entirely. Learn to respect them for
what they are just like anything else.

~~~
enraged_camel
>>One year and one week after moving into the apartment, I was bitten. One of
the poor creatures found its way under my covers and into my shirt while I was
sleeping

OK, I think I'm going to step outside to get some air...

~~~
k1ns
I know it sounds terrible, but it's honestly a rare thing. We never found one
on our bed, ever. The first time I know of one being in our bed was that
night.

I've spoken a lot with the Entomology department at a well-known university to
try and learn as much as possible about these spiders. From what I've learned,
Brown Recluse spiders actually have a hard time biting people (physically and
mentally). They need encouragement - such as a life threatening situation - to
even want to bite us. Even then, I've been told that they have physical
trouble biting us hard enough to break through much skin and need help in that
department as well (i.e. rolling/stepping onto one where the added force
assists them in biting deeper).

The experience cost me about a half-tube of hydrocortisone cream but thats
really it.

------
davidw
Oddly enough, even here in Oregon there's a persistent myth that we have those
things.

------
insickness
TL;DR: There are no populations of brown recluse spiders living in California.

------
okmokmz
I've had people tell me that brown recluse don't live in Washington, and that
it's a similar "myth", but one of my friends got bit by one in high school and
ended up with a hole in his leg the size of a marble

------
jackallis
i love how sassy this articles is -- mostly borne out of anger on how stupid
people are.

------
robotkdick
DRTS; (For those of you who didn't read, because... font too small) - Brown
recluse spiders, in general, don't bite people unless you have less than 20/20
vision. In that case, you should run for the hills, esp. if you don't know how
to zoom in the browser. A+ for content, but accessibility less so.

~~~
mholmes680
I believe it would be FS;DR

But, in case you are serious: CTRL++ to zoom in. CTRL+0 to reset to normal.

~~~
robotkdick
I know how to zoom, but many people don't. I normally wouldn't say anything,
but that font is smaller than a baby recluse

