Brown Recluse Spider: Range Could Expand in N. America With Changing Climate

Science Daily.com ^ | Apr. 23, 2011 | ScienceDaily staff

[Daffynition]

ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2011) — One of the most feared spiders in North America is the subject a new study that aims to predict its distribution and how that distribution may be affected by climate changes.

When provoked, the spider, commonly known as the brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa), injects powerful venom that can kill the tissues at the site of the bite. This can lead to a painful deep sore and occasional scarring.

[driftdiver]

“So I rescue them and put them on the floor to go catch the other bugs that escaped the cold too.”

I scream like a little girl and drop a book on em.

The worst times are when you kill the big one and a hundred baby ones go running.

[thackney]

spider trap ping

[AlexW]

“And its scarey looking and poisonous.”

It is not really scarey looking. That is the problem.
They look quite simple, but they live in old shoes, piles of old rags, papers and boxes, and in dark areas such as cabinets.
A previous girlfriend received a bite while cleaning out under her kitchen sink.

The bite is not so serious if the victim treated with massive doses of cortisone on early onset.
The symptom is a small boil like blister which will then cave in to look like a volcano. Unlike a black widow bite, there is no pain.
That is the key identifier of a recluse bite.
If untreated, the skin around the blister will start to rot
and the bite area will grow quite large.
Advanced and untreated bites would likely require plastic surgery.

[mike-zed]

The ability of the global warming apparatchiks to still continually churn out these alarminst rantings in the face of reality is rather impressive at some sad level.

[flintsilver7]

Spiderlings generally don’t last long on their own, especially inside. Once you know where their webs are, you can just pick out the egg sacs and put them outside. I usually put them in some mulch or under some leaves. I have never had a problem with them inside - in fact, when I don’t see the egg sacs and they do hatch, they are rarely if ever seen again.

[battousai]

That designer had to be pulling a joke on her. In fact I think a lot of her outfits have been practical jokes and she’s just too ignorant to know it.

A case of the 'wookie has no clothes' :)

[rlmorel]

I’ve got better. I try not to kill them outright, as long as they stay in the garage or outside. When they crawl on me in the house, I can’t counteance that.

I know they are beneficial, but if they crawl on me, it makes me react rather than think.

[Sax]

The worst times are when you kill the big one and a hundred baby ones go running.

Been there and done that. Stepped on a spider and *bang* - hundreds take off like a land rush in all directions. Got down on my hands and knees and it was like a speed round of whack-a-mole.

[Texas Eagle]

Doesn't sound very reclusive to me.

But I ain't worried. Africanized Killer Bees will do us all in before the Brown Recluse can harm us.

Errrrrr....are we still worried about Africanized Killer Bees taking over the planet? I've lost track.

[battousai]

Reading your story alone gives me the shivers, I don’t mind spiders as long as I have a way out and I can just observe them, but getting trapped with one like you did (well you didn’t know it was dead at the time) is my nightmare.

[domeika]

If the warming is so bad where are the stories about invasive coconut palms? Oh, that's right, people love palm trees so that won't work. Gotta use something creepy and scary. And while we're on the subject of impending doom....I'm in PA and was promised killer bees years ago. Where are they? And the ocean too....didn't Ted Danson say 20 years ago that it would be devoid of life in 10 years?

However....Ask that same crowd if there is an economic collapse looming on the horizon and they'll try to marginalize you as nuts or a racist for not believing in the messionic abilities of their dear leader.

[driftdiver]

Thats because there are no economic problems until they are personally affected. Its much the same for many people on FR. There is no problem with the economy or jobs because they are doing fine.

[simplesimon]

I hear ya on the Missouri and those nasty spiders..... I travelled to MO several times for dog shows. In Oct of 06, when my son was 4 months old, a couple of friends and I were at a hotel. The two ladies < both live in MO > went across the street to get us some food. While they were gone, I had gotten in my son's diaper bag to get him out a bottle to fill up. And I'll be darned if there wasnt a spider in the bottom of his bag. So I set the bag outside the hotel's door , in the hall way when the ladies were coming back with the food. One asked WTH are you doing ? to which I replied that there was a spider in the diaper bag. She laughed because she knows how I detest spiders of any kind, color,size and shape. But she saw it and said " oh that's a badboy"... it was a Brown recluse. So she grabbed a huge wad of paper towels and squished it for me. She said she's used to killing them. Good Gawd, I'm still shuddering. EWWW

[rlmorel]

Here we are, going on 45 years later, and my brother still laughs about my “dance” as he calls it!

Ever read “1984”? The part where he has his face put into a cage with hungry rats in it?

I guess if I am ever in that situation, I know what will be waiting for me in Room 101.

[TigersEye]

LOL That’s horrible. Around my NM cabin there were some huge spiders that created big webs that stretched several feet with silk that was darn near as strong as 6 lb monofilament.

[TigersEye]

LOL I feel for ya. We are one in arachnophobia. When I was a kid Daddy Long Legs didn’t bother me at all. They didn’t trigger anything. Now they’re just like any spider. If they appear unexpectedly, particularly if they are on me, the same zing of adrenalin is shot through my system. I have learned not to react to it though. Most of the time.

[rlmorel]

Heh, I believe the key phrase is “most of the time”...;)

[TigersEye]

That is an interesting treatment. Did that take care of it? I have seen pics of the huge holes left after doctors excise large chunks of flesh trying stop the spread of it.

[TigersEye]

True! lol I really don’t have much of a problem now. I keep some small cans with plastic lids around to catch them and I am very adept at that. I snag about 99% of them on the first try and rarely do them any injury. They then get tossed outside.

[Styria]

I’m saying that when people show up in the doctor’s office or ER with a necrotic skin lesion, 90% of the time it’s not from a spider, even though they often think it is. ‘Must have bitten me in my sleep.’