Giant Garage Spider!

[AllieBaba]

Experts are wrong all the time.

 

[geauxtohell]

Experts are wrong all the time.

It would stand to reason that if you've seen hundreds of recluses in your lifetime, that an expert from the University of Oregon or Oregon State could also find a hundred of them and establish that they were endemic to Oregon.

The brown recluse spider, Loxosceles reclusa, is often implicated as a cause of necrotic skin lesions.[1-3] Diagnoses are most commonly made by clinical appearance and infrequently is a spider seen, captured or identified at the time of the bite.[1, 2, 4-6] The brown recluse lives in a circumscribed area of the U.S. (the south central Midwest) with a few less common recluse species living in the more sparsely-populated southwest U.S.[7] In these areas, where spider populations may be dense, recluse spiders may be a cause of significant morbidity. However, outside the natural range of these recluse species, the conviction that they are the etiological agents behind necrotic lesions of unknown origin is widespread, and most often erroneous. In some states such as California, unsubstantiated reports concerning recluse spider bites have taken on the status of "urban legend" leading to overdiagnosis and, therefore, inappropriate treatment.

Identifying and Misidentifying the Brown Recluse Spider

WikiAnswers - Is the brown recluse spider found in Oregon

Like I said, I am not doubting the occasional brown recluse traveler in containers, etc, but they are not native to Oregon.

 

[AllieBaba]

"A few years ago it was common belief that there were no brown recluse spider populations in neither California or Florida. Unfortunately this is changing.

There's a lot of discussion going on about the distribution of the spider. Some will say that it's confined to a few states in the southern parts of the midwest while other says it can be found in all the following states: Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Missisippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Arkansas, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois and West Virginia. When I write this some might say that it is probably not true and the specimens found in places like Ohio and West Virginia are not endemic to these areas, not a part of a thriving population - and must have been transported there somehow."

In other words, they don't know where they might find them next.

"Recent evidence suggest that the brown recluse spider is expanding across the US "
Brown Recluse Spider - bites, pictures, videos, venom and treatment

And regarding my find of hundreds of them in the barn:

"In nature they are found under rocks and in crevices and are considered "synanthropic" meaning their populations benefit when associated with humans. When a habitat is conducive to recluses, dense populations are found. Part of the reason is that recluses are highly tolerant of conspecifics; they are one of the few spiders that can be reared communally in a jar, given that there is sufficient prey availability."
Identifying and Misidentifying the Brown Recluse Spider

They don't look like any other spider, btw.

 

[AllieBaba]

I really doubt if a U of O twit has been in some of the places I've been. I've never seen one digging around the foundations of barns, for example.

A brown recluse was positively identified in Central Point in 2000, but I can't get to the article, I keep losing my internet.

 

[geauxtohell]

"A few years ago it was common belief that there were no brown recluse spider populations in neither California or Florida. Unfortunately this is changing.

There's a lot of discussion going on about the distribution of the spider. Some will say that it's confined to a few states in the southern parts of the midwest while other says it can be found in all the following states: Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Missisippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Arkansas, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois and West Virginia. When I write this some might say that it is probably not true and the specimens found in places like Ohio and West Virginia are not endemic to these areas, not a part of a thriving population - and must have been transported there somehow."

In other words, they don't know where they might find them next.

"Recent evidence suggest that the brown recluse spider is expanding across the US "
Brown Recluse Spider - bites, pictures, videos, venom and treatment

And regarding my find of hundreds of them in the barn:

"In nature they are found under rocks and in crevices and are considered "synanthropic" meaning their populations benefit when associated with humans. When a habitat is conducive to recluses, dense populations are found. Part of the reason is that recluses are highly tolerant of conspecifics; they are one of the few spiders that can be reared communally in a jar, given that there is sufficient prey availability."
Identifying and Misidentifying the Brown Recluse Spider

They don't look like any other spider, btw.

They look a lot like hobo spiders or any other bland brownish spiders. Like I said, I lived in a house that was infested. Not surprising, we did something stupid and live in the midwest. The spiders I saw were easily ID'd by the fiddle and unique eye pattern, which is a positive I.D.

I am not debating that the spider is expanding into Florida. However, if that is true, it definitely conflicts with your account that they have been in Oregon for at least 75 years. The article you linked, at best, says the matter is up for debate and certainly doesn't suggest they have made it as far as Oregon.

 

[geauxtohell]

I really doubt if a U of O twit has been in some of the places I've been. I've never seen one digging around the foundations of barns, for example.

Oh come on. If you were an arachnologist in Oregon, and I am sure you have more than a few, and you could prove that one of two poisonous spiders in this country that was thought to not be in your state was heavily established there, you don't think you would be all over it? It seems boring to us, but things like that make careers for those guys. Furthermore, I am fully confident that an arachnologist would know about the habitat of any spider as well as the layman and could positively identify one.

I suspect the "positive identification" step is where the urban legend falls short.

A brown recluse was positively identified in Central Point in 2000, but I can't get to the article, I keep losing my internet.

I saw it too, the link is broken. Like I said, I don't doubt that they can get to Oregon as travelers. I am just stating the fact that they are not endemic to your area.

 

[PixieStix]

All I can say is OMG

Royal Alberta Museum: Collections and Research: Invertebrate Zoology: Research & Projects:

 

[Zoom-boing]

NO MORE SPIDER PICS, OK???

 

[Cold Fusion38]

For cryin out loud, you pussy.

It's a spider. And apart from the mess they make, completely harmless as long as you don't fuck with them.

Leave it alone and it will be more than happy to leave you alone.

That is not nessacerily true. Hobo spiders for example are VERY agressive.

 

[AllieBaba]

I really doubt if a U of O twit has been in some of the places I've been. I've never seen one digging around the foundations of barns, for example.

Oh come on. If you were an arachnologist in Oregon, and I am sure you have more than a few, and you could prove that one of two poisonous spiders in this country that was thought to not be in your state was heavily established there, you don't think you would be all over it? It seems boring to us, but things like that make careers for those guys. Furthermore, I am fully confident that an arachnologist would know about the habitat of any spider as well as the layman and could positively identify one.

I suspect the "positive identification" step is where the urban legend falls short.

A brown recluse was positively identified in Central Point in 2000, but I can't get to the article, I keep losing my internet.

I saw it too, the link is broken. Like I said, I don't doubt that they can get to Oregon as travelers. I am just stating the fact that they are not endemic to your area.

I've seen one colony of them. And the pest control ppl in Portland have a website that IDs them.

I found an article about one being positively identified in Central Point in 2000, but I couldn't get to it on the server I was using earlier. I'll try again.

Like I said, they're easy to ID once you see them. They creeped me out because it was a huge colony of them, and I'd never seen hairless brown spiders before, they were gross.

Hobo spiders are gross, too, but I've seen those, too. They look different.

The fiddleback pattern isn't always there on the recluse....and the ones I found were about 2 feet down, between heavy timber and dried manure.

I also think many of the so-called recluse bites are either hobo spiders and/or infection...but a bite can get secondary infection, particularly if you scratch it. My mom had a bite on her side about 20 years ago that took months to heal...was it a hobo or recluse? Who knows, there's no way to tell.

The science is difficult, and nobody knows for sure what spider populations Oregon has. We have such diverse climate and everyone is so mobile these days, it's ridiculous to say with any certainty that we DON'T have certain spider populations.

 

[Luissa]

"A few years ago it was common belief that there were no brown recluse spider populations in neither California or Florida. Unfortunately this is changing.

There's a lot of discussion going on about the distribution of the spider. Some will say that it's confined to a few states in the southern parts of the midwest while other says it can be found in all the following states: Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Missisippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Arkansas, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois and West Virginia. When I write this some might say that it is probably not true and the specimens found in places like Ohio and West Virginia are not endemic to these areas, not a part of a thriving population - and must have been transported there somehow."

In other words, they don't know where they might find them next.

"Recent evidence suggest that the brown recluse spider is expanding across the US "
Brown Recluse Spider - bites, pictures, videos, venom and treatment

And regarding my find of hundreds of them in the barn:

"In nature they are found under rocks and in crevices and are considered "synanthropic" meaning their populations benefit when associated with humans. When a habitat is conducive to recluses, dense populations are found. Part of the reason is that recluses are highly tolerant of conspecifics; they are one of the few spiders that can be reared communally in a jar, given that there is sufficient prey availability."
Identifying and Misidentifying the Brown Recluse Spider

They don't look like any other spider, btw.

So I plan on never moving to any of those states listed!

 

[Gunny]

YouTube - Giant Mother Garage Spider

Shoot it. A .45 ought to take care of the fucker.

 

[Luissa]

I see now why so many texan's carry a gun. From what I hear they have big spiders.

 

[AllieBaba]

I also see articles which claim the black widow isn't in Oregon. What a crock of shit. My son caught one in his house, he keeps it in a case, it's 2 years old now and it's absolutely a black widow (and a large one at that). Likewise, when I was young and living in Eugene the kids who lived around us had the biggest widow I've ever seen that they had caught.

I know very well with such a mobile society there is no way to definitively say that "spiders live here and not there".