Brown Recluse Spider Species on the Rise in WI

[AJE]

Basic Info of the Spider
The name "Brown Recluse" is the color and the habits of this increasingly infamous notorious spider. The scientific names of Loxosceles reclusa are one of the few spiders in the United States that are known to be very harmful or venomous to humans. It is regarded by some as more dangerous than even the Black Widow spider because it is considered a house spider and isn't easy to identify.




Appearance and Identification
Adult Brown Recluse spiders are yellowish-tan to dark brown. They have long, thin gray to dark brown legs covered with very short, dark hairs. Both male and female spiders are similar in appearance and are equally venomous. Young Brown Recluse spiders are smaller and somewhat lighter in color. The most distinguishing mark on a brown recluse spider is the presence of a dark brown or black violin or fiddle on its back with the violin's "neck" pointing toward the rear of its body. For this reason, they are sometimes called "violin spiders" or "fiddleback spiders".



Diet and Feeding Habit
Brown Recluse spiders feed on cockroaches and other insects. They do not spin webs to catch prey but instead hunt for their prey or wait until an insect comes in close proximity to them. The spider then moves in to feed. The same venom that acts to liquefy an insect's innards for consumption also causes the "flesh rotting" appearances to us humans.

During the day, Brown Recluse spiders spend their time in quiet, undisturbed places. If they are seen roaming during the day, pesticide applications, hunger, overcrowding or a desire to find a mate has probably brought them out. Sometimes they will be discovered trapped within a smooth surface such as a bathtub or sink. But because they are primarily nocturnal, they will typically begin to stray from their hiding place about an hour or two after dark. This is when they spend their time hunting for food. This explains why many bites occur while victims are sleeping. While they are hunting for food, they may crawl up onto a bed and bite when the victim inadvertently rolls onto the spider during normal sleep movements.

Brown Recluse spiders are remarkably resilient and can survive 6 to 12 months with no food or water and have an average life span of 2 to 4 years.



The present known range of the brown recluse extends from Wisconsin to Texas, and from the Carolinas to Colorado. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...840986,00.html

Location
The spiders prefer warm, dry locations. The following are some places where they are typically found indoors:

:arrow: Inside shoes
:arrow: Inside dressers
:arrow: In showers and bathtubs (slippery surface traps the spider)
:arrow: Underneath couches, tables and chairs
:arrow: In bed sheets of infrequently used beds
:arrow: In stacks of clothes
:arrow: Behind baseboards.
:arrow: In boxes
:arrow: Behind pictures
:arrow: In closets
:arrow: Behind furniture
:arrow: Garages
:arrow: Storage sheds
:arrow: Cellars
:arrow: Firewood
:arrow: Near furnaces and water heaters

Added Warning: Because of shipping, cars, planes and trains, the Brown Recluse spider can be found most anywhere in the United States.



Spider Bite
WARNING THE FOLLOWING LINK TO THIS WEBSITE ARE VERY GRAPHIC, BUT NECESSARY FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE EFFECTS OF THIS SPIDER BITE. TAKEN FROM VARIOUS OF MEDICAL RESOURCES, USE YOUR DISCRESSION PLEASE AGAIN PHOTOS MAY BE DISTURBING.

:arrow:
http://www.brown-recluse.com/bitephotos.html

[AJE]

From: christopher streng
Tuesday, June 05, 2007 Brown Recluse in Wisconsin....

I'm feeling better every day....What a painful experience....just wanted
to make everyone aware of the possibility of bites....if an of you get a
irritating bite, it's best just to have a doc put you on antibiotics...
made the mistake of waiting a couple days...

I'm feeling much better today....toxicology reports came in this
morning... confirming the bite was from a brown recluse spider.
I was warned that if I experience any bites in the future, to have a
check up immediately....I could have sustained permanents tissue and
nerve damage from the bite. I was also warned today that the brown recluse population in Wisconsin and Minnesota has risen over 9 fold the past 18 months due to climate change, and that the Center for Disease control is investigating the issue.

:arrow: for those of you who are not aware,... I rafted a section of the upper Wolf river below the post lake dam on Sunday May 20th, and received 4 confirmed bites from a Brown Recluse spider while on the trip.... Thought I'd killed it after it climbed up my shirt sleeve...Be cautious, the neurotoxin is a doosy!!! Fever and severe body pain and
muscular cramping are symptoms.... And as in my case, a spinal tap is
sometimes required to determine a diagnosis.)

Have a good summer, but be safe out there...

Christopher Streng
319 n. Albany ave.
Chicago, IL. 60612

[pk]

Thanks for posting the warnings on Brown Recluse spiders. We are always on the look out for any spiders when working in the yard or anything that has been put away for awhile expecially in the basement.

I just warned my kids again today to always check shoes before they put them on since you never know what could crawl into them when they are sitting around. Especially ones they haven't used for quite awhile.

I just have a huge fear of spiders. Any spiders. Tiny ones, large ones...hairy ones, red, black, brown, stripes!! lol They are ALL nasty to me!

I could look at the pictures of the bite marks in the article you posted easier than a mere quck glance at the spider pictures!

Anyways, again, thanks for posting this article and remember there are also other spiders out there that can cause problems also. :cry:

pk

[AJE]

Originally Posted by pk

Thanks for posting the warnings on Brown Recluse spiders. We are always on the look out for any spiders when working in the yard or anything that has been put away for awhile expecially in the basement.

I know we already have the Black Widow population in WI, seen one on a grass reed at Marible County Park in Manitowoc County. All you have to do is mind your business and move on they'll (Blk Widow) leave you alone. I'm really nervous though about the invasion of this Recluse, it'll be just as bad as snakebite in perspective. With the change of the climate it’s not a big surprise that these foreign bodies are encroaching on Wisconsin.

Originally Posted by pk

I just have a huge fear of spiders. Any spiders. Tiny ones, large ones...hairy ones, red, black, brown, stripes!! lol They are ALL nasty to me!

Most people are aware that spiders are beneficial because they eat insects, still there is much confusion and unwarranted fear of the potential harm spiders might do to people. Spiders rank just behind bees and wasps as the most feared arthropod. Just remember where would this ecosystem we live in be without spiders, :arrow: heck my sister and I have been dealing with an infestation of food pests (bugs) for months. Actually I think what helped us out a great deal was the aid of spiders eating our invaders. I don't flip out seeing spiders in my home especially in the cold months when they'll eat all the parasites of bugs brought in through over wintering of plants. So as much as I still get uneasy around spiders and sometimes wake up to a bite during the night, I have a great deal of respect for the little buggers because without them we would have to deal with more notorious insects.

[pk]

I have a great deal of respect for the little buggers because without them we would have to deal with more notorious insects.

Well you made a great case for the 'need' of spiders on our earth, and it almost makes me think how I should not fear them when I run across one...but....then I look at the nasty pictures from the brown recluse and it's back to...eck again! lol

I know that is not fair to all the harmless ones but tell that to my brain when one jumps down in my face from this long strand of web, or falls on my arm when I'm walking, or runs out from somewhere when I move a plant, or....hahahaha let's face it, I'm a lost cause here.

[AJE]

ok Pk is asking for some spider humor: :wink:

eck whoola jisk ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :arrow: :arrow: :arrow: :arrow: :arrow: :arrow: :arrow: :arrow: :arrow:

Ohh yeh this is off the subject of the brown recluse but its still an arachnid.

Every year my family vacations somewhere outside of Wisconsin. Well this particular 9th grade year we did the southwest. Here is one unforgetable moment from that trip.

We had spent the night at the campground for Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. Well we don't own a RV or even a pop up camper what we do have is our large family tent. To haul all the necessities of camping, cooking and of course rockhounding we have a 4x6 wooden trailer, which has screwed on top.

Well it’s about mid morning and our family has just finished the packing of the trunk and trailer. My brother went to return our ticket to the host, while Misty and I were doing the morning dishes at the picnic table on site. Mom and dad were in the process of lifting up the cover for the trailer when my father says:” Lauri put your end down slowly,” he got a strange look in return with “Why?” Dad batted his eyes toward the top of the cover…All of a sudden the whole campground heard my mothers wrenching scream.

Heading straight for her only a foot away was a large tarantula spider. Little should I say mom of course dropped the wooden lid to the ground throwing off the spider, which then quickly headed into the brush for cover. Took mom a few minutes to recover her near heart attack. I can just imagine if my father hadn’t seen the tarantula and it would have crawled right up my mom!

Ok you can laugh now!

[AJE]

Brown Recluse Spider Project, Monmouth College, IL

Dr. Ken Cramer at Monmouth College is continuing a long-term project to determine the distribution of the brown recluse spider in northern Illinois and southern Iowa. Because of the medical importance of the spider, we hope a more precise understanding of their distribution will help professionals and the public avoid misdiagnoses and misidentifications. A second goal of the project is to provide accurate, up-to-date scientifically verified information on the brown recluse spider. The navigation bar at left offers general information on brown recluses that may be of interest to the general public. Dr. Cramer is an arachnologist (a scientist who studies spiders), not a physician and he does not offer diagnoses of skin lesions or other medical conditions (see "Bite Diagnoses").

Background
The natural northern distribution limit of brown recluses occurs in central or northern Illinois and southern or central Iowa. A few isolated brown recluse specimens have been recorded from the greater Chicago metropolitan area and southern Wisconsin. Only two localities in Chicago (single buildings) have been confirmed in the past 5 years. To more precisely document where the brown recluse lives in northern Illinois, Wisconsin, and southern Iowa, we are requesting the participation of as many interested parties as possible to send us spiders for identification.

Help with our study
We want your spiders! We are especially interested in spiders collected in the Illinois/Iowa area. If you live in Illinois, we are soliciting spiders collected in northern Illinois, particularly north of highway I-70, or north of a line running East-West through East St. Louis. If you live anywhere in Iowa, we want your house spiders. This study is ongoing -- if you encounter this web site, we still want your spiders. This web site will be deleted when the study is terminated. If you live outside of Illinois or Iowa and think you might have a brown recluse, feel free to send me your spider and I will identify it for you. Please send any spiders (more on mailing spiders) for this study to Dr Cramer at the address below:

Dr. Ken Cramer
Brown Recluse ID Project
Dept. of Biology
Monmouth College
Monmouth, IL 61462

You may also contact Dr. Cramer at kenc@monm.edu

Further on WEBSITE-->
http://department.monm.edu/biology/r...ject/index.htm

[AJE]

How to Identify and Misidentify a Brown Recluse Spider
Modified from Rick Vetter Entomology
:arrow: http://spiders.ucr.edu/recluseid.html

Because of media hyperbole and anxiety-filled stories by the general public extolling the horrors associated with brown recluse spiders, people are very interested in knowing if the spiders they find are brown recluses. Although it is true that a brown recluse has a violin pattern, many non-arachnologists creatively misinterpret many markings on spiders as “violins” and feel that they have found recluse spiders. Therefore, if you can learn to identify your spider as NOT a recluse, you can relieve your worries.

Brown Recluse Eyes
1. People can mistaken the markings on a spider as violins, this is NOT a reliable characteristic for a non-arachnologist. You need to look at the eye pattern. Most spiders have pairs of 8, the Brown Recluse has 6 eyes.

2. This is a breather: recluse bites from them are extremely rare, despite the stories. Many of the really graphic nasty wounds you see on the internet as recluse bites can also be other conditions like necrotizing bacteria and pyoderma gangrenosum. Ninety percent of brown recluse bites are not medically significant, heal very nicely often without medical. intervention and treatment for most brown recluse bites is simple first aid (RICE therapy – Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). Many conditions are misdiagnosed as recluse bites when their cause is something else like infection, bad reaction to medication, diabetic ulcers, Lyme disease, or other underlying medical conditions.

CHARACTERISTICS:
1. Six eyes arranged in pairs, with one pair in front and a pair on either side.
2. A dark violin shape on the cephalothorax.
3. Uniformly light-colored legs – no stripes, no bands
4. Uniformly colored abdomen which can vary from cream to dark brown depending on what it has eaten, however, it will never have two colors of pigment at the same time.
5. No spines on the legs, only fine hairs
6. Recluses make small retreat webs behind objects, never out in the open.
7. It is about 3/8 of an inch in body length.


Six eyes, not eight
:arrow: You may not always be able to count the eyes and some eye pairs are so close together that you might not be able to see both of them, however, the 6 eye pattern of the brown recluse is easy to see with minor magnification. Most spiders can be eliminated as NOT brown recluses simply from this aspect. Be aware that there are spitting spiders (genus Scytodes) (above) which have a similar eye pattern but they do NOT have a violin.

Dark violin pattern
:arrow: Violins on the top and bottom of the abdomen, and the underside of the cephalothorax. In the photo, the two light spiders look like they have violins but they also have 8 eyes and more than one pigment on the abdomen so they are not recluses (they are cellar spiders, genus Psilochorus and/or Physocyclus). The other spider in the picture has a very faint dark line pattern which people assume is a violin. It also has 8 eyes and massive spines on its legs, so it is not a recluse. The spider has a slight darkening near its eyes so people mistake this for a recluse violin. This spider has 8 eyes clumped together and black spines on its legs although you may not be able to see the spines in this image (genus Kukulcania).






Uniformly colored legs and uniformly colored abdomen
If there is more than one color on the legs, or if the legs are brown or darker, it is NOT a recluse. If the spider has more than one pigment on the abdomen, it is NOT a recluse. These two spiders are funnel weavers (family Agelenidae),



the bottom pics is an orbweaver (family Araneidae), and a male huntsman spider (Heteropoda venatoria) found most often in along the gulf coast states. They are NOT recluses by more than one color on their legs or abdomens.


Orb Weaver


Huntsman Spider

Fine hairs only, no spines
If the spider has conspicuous thick spines on the legs, it is NOT a recluse. This orb weaver below has many spines sticking out perpendicularly from the legs.



Web made out of sight

If the spider has a conspicuous web out where you can see it, or between two trees or in rose bushes, it is NOT a recluse. The “classic” spider webs like that of Charlotte’s web are made by orb weavers.

[CarolsCritterCare]

Amber asked that I share these pics here of my bunny that was bit by a brown recluse spider


Bunny BEFORE the bite


Bunny got Bit






Bunny after all the swelling went away