“For how prevalent they are, we don’t really see many bites from them, either,” Holstege says. There are significant differences in size between them. But some wolf spiders can look a bit similar to brown recluses. The Poison Center does treat bites from the black widow, which is the only venomous spider established in Virginia. Wolf spiders do not look like brown recluse spiders. As Holstege points out, “Spiders help control the tick population.” So if he sees a spider in his house? “My kids capture it and put it outside.” What About Black Widows? However, most sightings were false identifications of other brown spiders. Very few sightings of cargo spiders have been documented in Minnesota. Virginia had 925 confirmed cases of Lyme disease in 2013. Brown recluses prefer warm weather and their natural range only reaches up to Southern Iowa. Some people suspect a bite when they develop lesions, Holstege says, but the true cause is always something else. A large chunk of the Poison Center’s calls are medication mistakes and exposure to household toxins their doctors have never seen a brown recluse bite. However, Holstege is the co-medical director of UVA’s Blue Ridge Poison Center, which serves a large portion of Virginia, including the southwest tip along the Tennessee border. That doesn’t mean they’re not here: They’re established in neighboring Tennessee, and they can end up in moving boxes and suitcases. Penn State College of Agriculture says the recluse is established in 15 states Virginia isn’t one of them. They’re “more common in the popular press than in real life,” the Virginia Tech Department of Entomology notes. Brown Recluses in VirginiaĪ lot of people claim they’ve seen brown recluses in Virginia, although the spiders aren’t common here. Those bites cause a lot of pain, but they won’t lead to serious problems. He suspects some rumored brown recluse bites actually came from the wolf spider. “They certainly hurt,” says toxicologist Christopher Holstege, MD. It turns out I was lucky I hadn’t been bitten. When I tried to identify the small brown spider I saw the other day, a Google Image search revealed that it was, most likely, a wolf spider. I’m not immune to the hype: I scrutinize the small spiders that come into my house every fall with the same fervor as someone hoping to prove the existence of Bigfoot.īut they never appear venomous. Mention them to a group, and chances are someone will claim to know someone who’s been bitten, maybe lost a hand or maybe even died. well known venomous spider that occasionally bites people, the brown recluse. The brown recluse (bottom) isn’t established in Virginia but is often confused with the wolf spider (top).īrown recluses have long been a source of terror and urban legend. The black widow and the hobo spider are of interest in Oregon because they. More than one of my friends said they’d just burn that house down if it was theirs. The story flooded my Facebook feed: A house in Missouri was infested with 5,000 brown recluse spiders.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |