I used to live with these and hobo spiders, also to be feared. Thankfully never got bit by either however we later found a recluse nest inside our couch, my mother was bitten 2x on her legs. NASTY BITES. I don’t wish that on my worst enemy.
I can confirm they are. We used to catch them and make them battle each other. Their aggression is high but their fighting skills vs other spiders are not the best. Wolf spider>black widow> recluse>hobo.
Yeah we sure did. It was an epic couple of summers living on the edge of a national forest. If the experiment was ran 20x again, I’d assume the same results.
They are to be respected, but I don't think fear is the proper response to these cousins of ours - I live in a very spidery house at the moment -the other night I caught and released three recluses, a hobo, and and e. articus.
At the height of it recently I found 11 different spiders all over the house one witching hour.
All the brown recluses are fast and kind of nerve-wracking to lose track of - as long as I'm diligent about making sure I don't invade their space, lay down on one - or forget to check my shoes, I'm pretty confident we can avoid infringing on each other's space - I actually came home to like a bajillion baby spiders all over my kitchen attempting to hide in the corners of the ceiling and in my cupboards -once I found the mother and identified it as a fiddleback, I sighed and spent an hour carefully collecting them all and releasing them outside.
Recently I fell in love with a hobo spider that decided to camp out above a window sill of mine - I was astounded with how cute it was, doing its little patrols in its tiny little territory. I actually couldn't identify it at first - decided to leave it in its area because of how adorable it was and how polite it was being sharing space with me - I'll admit I may have gone too far teasing it with my finger, just to see it square up and act all cute - I realized it was irresponsible to leave a spider without identifying it as benign, so I researched some photographs of hobos and fiddlebacks and immediately identified the small cranky critter as a hobo - I got it in a jar and planned on keeping it for a day to try to observe it hunting behavior - but unlike the giant house spiders I've kept for short periods of time, elbows and fiddle backs can climb up glass and are fast - so I released it.
I recently taped the edges of my window screens and have seen a lot less Intruders - but even though I get a strong arachnid response when I'm going piss at night and I see something dart across the ceiling -I'm happy to report that not one has died in it's relocation!
Yeah they really only bite people if they are being actively squished, like being rolled on in bed. Black widdows are similarly reluctant to bite. Venom is an expensive resource for them.
One thing to keep in mind for black windows is their silk is stronger than most spiders because their venom can kill larger prey. If you put your hand in a very strong web i would yank it back and check for any new pets on your hand.
If it makes you feel better i heard a story about a guy getting bit by a black widow on his foot while fishing. He kept his water shoes on his porch and didnt realized a widow had nested in the toe area. The black widow shared the shoe with him all the way to his fishing spot and didnt bite him until he shifted his weight in the boat and was crushing the spider. They really dont want to bite you.
They are quarter-sized, like to hide, and feared by many: brown recluse spiders. Also known as "fiddleback," owing to a distinct violin-shaped marking on their backs, these tan, spindly spiders are notorious for causing bites that often go unnoticed but can result in extensive tissue damage. A research study led by University of Arizona researchers sheds new light on how recluse venom affects living tissue.
Kinda wild that they really don’t know much about how their venom works and how a scorpion in the Middle East is one of the only other creatures that utilizes the same venom.
I did not know that their bites can sometimes present as mrsa sans pus
Got a lot of these in my house unfortunately. I don’t mess with them if they stay in their little hidey corners but ever since I had one drop out of my towel when I was about to dry off, I eliminate them if I see them roaming.
Been bit once in 3 years, it hurt as much as advertised. Golf ball sized reddish purple bruise near my armpit. Didn’t deteriorate skin further but was insanely sensitive for 2 weeks or so.
I used a glue trap for a mouse and did wind up seeing handfuls of them on there. I might place them again. I really just need to fumigate the whole house but it’s old and creaky with countless ways for them to access I’m sure. Probably just need to move lol.
My husband had a brown recluse bite on his arm like 10 yrs ago. We are in Canada so they aren’t really found here, but at the time he was working with stone for countertops and we think it would have been in a shipping container he was in earlier.
I’m an rn and it was the wildest wound I’ve ever seen. It would not heal for months and was necrotic and so crazy. So lucky it was localized to an area on his forearm about the size of a toonie. Even the scar tissue in the area is bizarre.
My wife and I both woke up on a Monday morning with little insect bites( which turned out to be brown recluse bites, found 5 of them in the house after a storm).
My wife just developed a light rash, that cleared up the next day. However, I had an allergic reaction that turned into vasculitis. Thought I was going to lose both legs below the knee and both arms at the elbow. It took a full year before the vasculitis wounds even started to heal. I lost probably about 20% of my muscle mass in my feet. I have almost no muscle tissue on the tops of my feet. Makes them turn colors in the shower . It was a very terrifying year.
A toonie is a Canadian two dollar coin. Slightly larger than the loonie, which is the Canadian one dollar coin. Soo in not Canadian like maybe the size diameter of a ping pong ball?
Brown recluses are very common, ~~living on every continent except Antarctica,~~* but they are less agressive than commonly believed and, like their namesake, prefer to hide in dark, covered spaces.
Bites are rare and most have little to no noticeable effect, with possibly 80-90% of bites having mild irritation or not even being noticed by the person bit.
Recluse venom contains a lipase that destroys the lipid membranes of cells, with each molecule of lipase binding to and going on to destroy many, many lipid cells, possibly contributing to recluse vemom's extensive damage.
The characteristic violin shape on their back isn't unique, can change with age and sex, and needs to be paired with 3 pairs of eyes (as opposed to the normal 8 eyes of other arachnids) to be confirmed as a recluse.
Most bites attributed to brown recluses are something else, often being confused with MRSA, which typically oozes pus, as opposed to recluse bites, which do not.
*Edit: article is mixing the wider genus of Recluse spiders, which are present on every continent, with brown recluse spiders specifically, which are limited to the southern region of the United States.
No idea what this comment is. Brown recluses are not native to Europe. There is a different recluse in southern Europe but it’s not the same, and none in the UK, though we do have false widows.
It's incorrect. Loxosceles, the genus of the recluse spiders, has at least once species on every continent, but "Brown Recluse" refers to Loxosceles reclusa, which is only present in parts of the US.
Thank you for this. I was about to reply that this is the worst listicle ever, because the list isn't explicit! Hey editor at news.arizona.edu, if you're not going to have a list in your listicle, don't make the headline read like there's gonna be a list.
I had a dream about a zero-g bed not long ago. This needs to be reality. I do live in the range of the recluse. I did have one crawl on me in bed one night. Freak out time happened.
I was bitten by one as a kid. Left a dime sized hole in my leg. Doctors had to give me a whole array of injections and then dig out necrotic tissue. I moved away from Florida.
I was stung by one in TN while clearing property. Two days after clearing, I developed a big bump with a little red blister in the middle, on my forearm. Went to work Monday and a coworker told me what it was. By then the blister had turned into an oozing hole I had put a bandage on.
Went to the walk-in clinic and they put me on antibiotics.
I woke up to an achy hand and a dead recluse on my pillow. It had emptied its entire sack into me . The pain was worse than any insect bite I’ve had , lasted ages , went septic and has left permanent effects. Ouch!
Been bit twice and got the crater scars to show for it. Second one felt like I was gonna die and the ER said sorry, not much they can do but prescribe antibiotics.
Years ago, a coworker got bit in the chest with one of those and he developed all kinds of health problems. The bite started off tiny but necrosis made a deep, nastywound and he got really sic. It took him months of antibiotics to recover. Oddly, years later in another part of the country, another coworker got bit in the face while sleeping by a Hobo spider and he dealt with a nasty wound on his face with a bunch of other health problems.
I grew up in a house in a wooded suburb and we had these everywhere. Learned early on to be wary of them - and almost lost a cat who got bit at the base of the tail and had to spend 2 weeks in vet hospital. These fuckers are no joke.
I learned about how potent the brown recluses bite is sitting in an emergency room after getting bit by a black widow. I went to the ER more because of I was scared and didn't know how my body was going to react. I was only partially envenomated, so my symptoms were very minor but as he was treating me, he shared what nasty things a brown recluse can do to the human body.
Waterworld1880 | 19 days ago
Used to live with these, twice. They’re fucking horrifying to find and IMO they were vveerrryyyy often bigger than quarters when it comes to leg span.
All of that said, they never bit me once even though I’d catch probably 2 big ones/a small one every few days nor my dog
Apprehensive-Slip473 | 19 days ago
I used to live with these and hobo spiders, also to be feared. Thankfully never got bit by either however we later found a recluse nest inside our couch, my mother was bitten 2x on her legs. NASTY BITES. I don’t wish that on my worst enemy.
No-Kangaroo-9272 | 19 days ago
Hobo spiders have a bad reputation of being aggressive, but there's really no proof that they are.
Spamacus66 | 19 days ago
As long as you stay out of their train cars they're usually not a problem.
notmyaccountsigh | 18 days ago
a nice diddy on the mouth harp will help calm them, too
Apprehensive-Slip473 | 19 days ago
I can confirm they are. We used to catch them and make them battle each other. Their aggression is high but their fighting skills vs other spiders are not the best. Wolf spider>black widow> recluse>hobo.
No-Kangaroo-9272 | 19 days ago
You made them fight. Of course they're going to be hostile in that situation.
Also - I don't believe you. Everyone clapped.
Apprehensive-Slip473 | 19 days ago
Yeah we sure did. It was an epic couple of summers living on the edge of a national forest. If the experiment was ran 20x again, I’d assume the same results.
Eternal-Blazing-Sun | 19 days ago
They are to be respected, but I don't think fear is the proper response to these cousins of ours - I live in a very spidery house at the moment -the other night I caught and released three recluses, a hobo, and and e. articus.
At the height of it recently I found 11 different spiders all over the house one witching hour.
All the brown recluses are fast and kind of nerve-wracking to lose track of - as long as I'm diligent about making sure I don't invade their space, lay down on one - or forget to check my shoes, I'm pretty confident we can avoid infringing on each other's space - I actually came home to like a bajillion baby spiders all over my kitchen attempting to hide in the corners of the ceiling and in my cupboards -once I found the mother and identified it as a fiddleback, I sighed and spent an hour carefully collecting them all and releasing them outside.
Recently I fell in love with a hobo spider that decided to camp out above a window sill of mine - I was astounded with how cute it was, doing its little patrols in its tiny little territory. I actually couldn't identify it at first - decided to leave it in its area because of how adorable it was and how polite it was being sharing space with me - I'll admit I may have gone too far teasing it with my finger, just to see it square up and act all cute - I realized it was irresponsible to leave a spider without identifying it as benign, so I researched some photographs of hobos and fiddlebacks and immediately identified the small cranky critter as a hobo - I got it in a jar and planned on keeping it for a day to try to observe it hunting behavior - but unlike the giant house spiders I've kept for short periods of time, elbows and fiddle backs can climb up glass and are fast - so I released it.
I recently taped the edges of my window screens and have seen a lot less Intruders - but even though I get a strong arachnid response when I'm going piss at night and I see something dart across the ceiling -I'm happy to report that not one has died in it's relocation!
Hobos are the cutest damn spiders
Brusex | 18 days ago
Did a spider type this
Brownschuh | 18 days ago
🤣 was a fun read regardless
Better_March5308 | 18 days ago
So glad I don't live in Texas or Australia.
DaleTheHuman | 19 days ago
Yeah they really only bite people if they are being actively squished, like being rolled on in bed. Black widdows are similarly reluctant to bite. Venom is an expensive resource for them.
No-Kangaroo-9272 | 19 days ago
I'm currently cleaning out my basement. I'm trying to be very mindful of putting my fingers in places I can't see for this very reason.
DaleTheHuman | 18 days ago
One thing to keep in mind for black windows is their silk is stronger than most spiders because their venom can kill larger prey. If you put your hand in a very strong web i would yank it back and check for any new pets on your hand.
If it makes you feel better i heard a story about a guy getting bit by a black widow on his foot while fishing. He kept his water shoes on his porch and didnt realized a widow had nested in the toe area. The black widow shared the shoe with him all the way to his fishing spot and didnt bite him until he shifted his weight in the boat and was crushing the spider. They really dont want to bite you.
unknownpoltroon | 18 days ago
I had one living in my shower for months before I looked up exactly what kind of spider he wsa.
[OP] UniversityofArizona | 19 days ago
They are quarter-sized, like to hide, and feared by many: brown recluse spiders. Also known as "fiddleback," owing to a distinct violin-shaped marking on their backs, these tan, spindly spiders are notorious for causing bites that often go unnoticed but can result in extensive tissue damage. A research study led by University of Arizona researchers sheds new light on how recluse venom affects living tissue.
HappyFamMan | 18 days ago
Got bitten in November. Made a hole in my leg! They are no joke!
WallProfessional3914 | 19 days ago
Kinda wild that they really don’t know much about how their venom works and how a scorpion in the Middle East is one of the only other creatures that utilizes the same venom.
I did not know that their bites can sometimes present as mrsa sans pus
oroborus68 | 19 days ago
Mrsa is a bacterial infection. It can happen to any wound,but doesn't, usually.
CenobiteCurious | 19 days ago
Got a lot of these in my house unfortunately. I don’t mess with them if they stay in their little hidey corners but ever since I had one drop out of my towel when I was about to dry off, I eliminate them if I see them roaming.
Been bit once in 3 years, it hurt as much as advertised. Golf ball sized reddish purple bruise near my armpit. Didn’t deteriorate skin further but was insanely sensitive for 2 weeks or so.
santasbong | 19 days ago
I laid down some glue traps and went out for the weekend.
Came back and there were 12 dead brown recluses between them.
Have you tried those cheap little glue traps? You may have similar luck as me.
CenobiteCurious | 19 days ago
I used a glue trap for a mouse and did wind up seeing handfuls of them on there. I might place them again. I really just need to fumigate the whole house but it’s old and creaky with countless ways for them to access I’m sure. Probably just need to move lol.
-UnicornFart | 19 days ago
My husband had a brown recluse bite on his arm like 10 yrs ago. We are in Canada so they aren’t really found here, but at the time he was working with stone for countertops and we think it would have been in a shipping container he was in earlier.
I’m an rn and it was the wildest wound I’ve ever seen. It would not heal for months and was necrotic and so crazy. So lucky it was localized to an area on his forearm about the size of a toonie. Even the scar tissue in the area is bizarre.
goobermatic | 19 days ago
My wife and I both woke up on a Monday morning with little insect bites( which turned out to be brown recluse bites, found 5 of them in the house after a storm). My wife just developed a light rash, that cleared up the next day. However, I had an allergic reaction that turned into vasculitis. Thought I was going to lose both legs below the knee and both arms at the elbow. It took a full year before the vasculitis wounds even started to heal. I lost probably about 20% of my muscle mass in my feet. I have almost no muscle tissue on the tops of my feet. Makes them turn colors in the shower . It was a very terrifying year.
zuraken | 19 days ago
what's a toonie?
-UnicornFart | 19 days ago
Ahh right!
A toonie is a Canadian two dollar coin. Slightly larger than the loonie, which is the Canadian one dollar coin. Soo in not Canadian like maybe the size diameter of a ping pong ball?
johnnieswalker | 19 days ago
I was going to ask the same thing.
Oskarikali | 19 days ago
2 dollar coin in Canada.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toonie
spish | 19 days ago
Canadian $2 coin. 28mm in diameter. Don’t ask what a millimetre is.
ScurvyTurtle | 19 days ago
Brown recluses are very common, ~~living on every continent except Antarctica,~~* but they are less agressive than commonly believed and, like their namesake, prefer to hide in dark, covered spaces.
Bites are rare and most have little to no noticeable effect, with possibly 80-90% of bites having mild irritation or not even being noticed by the person bit.
Recluse venom contains a lipase that destroys the lipid membranes of cells, with each molecule of lipase binding to and going on to destroy many, many lipid cells, possibly contributing to recluse vemom's extensive damage.
The characteristic violin shape on their back isn't unique, can change with age and sex, and needs to be paired with 3 pairs of eyes (as opposed to the normal 8 eyes of other arachnids) to be confirmed as a recluse.
Most bites attributed to brown recluses are something else, often being confused with MRSA, which typically oozes pus, as opposed to recluse bites, which do not.
*Edit: article is mixing the wider genus of Recluse spiders, which are present on every continent, with brown recluse spiders specifically, which are limited to the southern region of the United States.
SecondHandWatch | 19 days ago
Brown recluses do not live outside the central/southern United States.
ScurvyTurtle | 18 days ago
Just summing up what the article says. Because I hate numbered lists where you have to dig for the info.
>Brown recluses are common, but bites are rare
>Despite the fact that brown recluse spiders inhabit every continent except Antarctica, many people have never seen one.
Aluxanatomy | 19 days ago
Uhh what? Is this new information? Range maps always have them in the southern US.
paddleyay | 19 days ago
No idea what this comment is. Brown recluses are not native to Europe. There is a different recluse in southern Europe but it’s not the same, and none in the UK, though we do have false widows.
ScurvyTurtle | 18 days ago
Straight from the article:
>Brown recluses are common, but bites are rare.
>Despite the fact that brown recluse spiders inhabit every continent except Antarctica, many people have never seen one.
Aluxanatomy | 18 days ago
It's incorrect. Loxosceles, the genus of the recluse spiders, has at least once species on every continent, but "Brown Recluse" refers to Loxosceles reclusa, which is only present in parts of the US.
ScurvyTurtle | 18 days ago
Edit added to original comment.
TheManeTrurh | 19 days ago
What do you mean?
badken | 18 days ago
Thank you for this. I was about to reply that this is the worst listicle ever, because the list isn't explicit! Hey editor at news.arizona.edu, if you're not going to have a list in your listicle, don't make the headline read like there's gonna be a list.
ScurvyTurtle | 18 days ago
Also, there's only 4 sections. I took a guess at splitting up the first one as what they were going for.
randomguild | 19 days ago
If you live in their range the most important thing you need to know is make sure you make your bed and the sheets don't touch the floor.
froz3nt | 19 days ago
So a levitating bed? Got it
Neumaschine | 19 days ago
I had a dream about a zero-g bed not long ago. This needs to be reality. I do live in the range of the recluse. I did have one crawl on me in bed one night. Freak out time happened.
Archonrouge | 18 days ago
Unfortunately they can still drop from the ceiling.
AJohnnyTruant | 19 days ago
I was bitten by one as a kid. Left a dime sized hole in my leg. Doctors had to give me a whole array of injections and then dig out necrotic tissue. I moved away from Florida.
murderedbyaname | 19 days ago
I was stung by one in TN while clearing property. Two days after clearing, I developed a big bump with a little red blister in the middle, on my forearm. Went to work Monday and a coworker told me what it was. By then the blister had turned into an oozing hole I had put a bandage on.
Went to the walk-in clinic and they put me on antibiotics.
Toaneknee | 19 days ago
I woke up to an achy hand and a dead recluse on my pillow. It had emptied its entire sack into me . The pain was worse than any insect bite I’ve had , lasted ages , went septic and has left permanent effects. Ouch!
TheMattsterOfSelf | 19 days ago
Been bit twice and got the crater scars to show for it. Second one felt like I was gonna die and the ER said sorry, not much they can do but prescribe antibiotics.
radroamingromanian | 18 days ago
My sister was bitten by one. She took like four months to fully recover
lemonpoundcaker | 18 days ago
One got me on top of my hand, had to get it drained and filled with gauze.
jzoola | 18 days ago
Years ago, a coworker got bit in the chest with one of those and he developed all kinds of health problems. The bite started off tiny but necrosis made a deep, nastywound and he got really sic. It took him months of antibiotics to recover. Oddly, years later in another part of the country, another coworker got bit in the face while sleeping by a Hobo spider and he dealt with a nasty wound on his face with a bunch of other health problems.
costafilh0 | 18 days ago
And intend to continue not knowing.
cherrytarts | 18 days ago
I grew up in a house in a wooded suburb and we had these everywhere. Learned early on to be wary of them - and almost lost a cat who got bit at the base of the tail and had to spend 2 weeks in vet hospital. These fuckers are no joke.
sparkaromatic | 18 days ago
Plot twist, it's not brown.
editorreilly | 18 days ago
I learned about how potent the brown recluses bite is sitting in an emergency room after getting bit by a black widow. I went to the ER more because of I was scared and didn't know how my body was going to react. I was only partially envenomated, so my symptoms were very minor but as he was treating me, he shared what nasty things a brown recluse can do to the human body.