“Its range is poorly known”
And its scarey looking and poisonous.
And they are making predictions on its range due to that scarey global warming.
This is a perfect recipe for making nebulous claims that sound good and scarey to the average person. “Stop doing bad things that warm the globe or this spider is going to get you!!!!”, LOL.
I’m on the edge of the spider’s range and already this spring the neighbor’s dog got bit by something that necrotized the sking causing a wound 4 inches x 1 inch. It looks nasty but is now healing. Our guess is that a spider did it, too early for copperheads.
Every fall just like clockwork the first coldsnap will result in a tub full of wolf spiders. Well not full, but always 2 or 3 huge hairy spiders that can’t climb back out of the tub. They get in the sink too. They come in from the cold and get caught in the porcelin trap. So I rescue them and put them on the floor to go catch the other bugs that escaped the cold too.
“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.