Poisionous spiders in Virginia (McLean, Rocky Mount: coop, crawl space, schools)

[Cdshiflett]

well you go ahead and "agree with the scientists over two vague personal accounts from some random person on the internet." Brown recluses have made their way into the western part of Virginia just as random swarms of killer bees have made their way in. I know what was confrimed by the CDC in Atlanta and my son was bitten by a Brown recluse.

[PaperTrail]

How many years are we allowed to go back for expert testimony on brown recluse spiders?

I work for a news publication, and I searched our archives dating back to 1990. The two of the most relevant examples I found were these:
-- Eric Day, a cooperative extention agent (read: scientific guy) from Virginia Tech, said the spiders are "extremely rare" in Virginia, but have made their way into the western tip of the state. The story from him that I found was from a 2005 Q&A, but his comments on Tech's Web site are from 1996. Yeah, that's a while ago....
-- But there was yet another instance I found, dating even further back, to 1994. A 7-year-old Radford girl was found to have been bitten by a brown recluse. But it was such a rare thing, a spinal tap had to be done on her to determine what the source of her bite was.

It seems brown recluse are in the state, but far far far from being something to fret over. I definitely see black widows on occasion on my property, but I still don't even find them to be a "threat."

[Raja1669]

We have recently found a colony of spiders under our carpet. At first we thought Brown Recluse but after researching we don't know. What kind of spiders in VA come to the top when the heat is turned on and builds nest under carpeting?

[vamtncat]

Brown Recluse ARE in VA. A friend of mine is in the hospital right now with a bite to the top of his hand. They are trying desperately to save his arm. This happened in Wythe County BTW. We also have Black Widows but they don't seem as aggressive as Brown Recluse.

[Cdshiflett]

I wish him well.

[vamtncat]

Just as an update, my friend who recently got bitten by the Brown Recluse is out of the hospital. He was bit on the hand. The poison travelled up his arm and settled either in or near the lymph nodes in his arm. They had to go in and cut out quite alot of this area to keep the poison from spreading.

[bri12]

the spider in my backyard is black and yellow with spots and one stipe has fangs and part of the legs look brown at the begin possibly furry then black and fang-like and a white head reply please ps x-like web looks like this xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[amanda757]

My old boss was bitten by a brown recluse and nearly lost his lower leg, it was so nastey!! ewww His lower calf just looked like those pictures you see online ....gapping hole. AND I LIVE ON THE coast, the eastern shore. I remember it well cause he missed alot of time from work. He let it go a while before ever getting it checked out and got worse and worse. They make those funnel style webs ....

what your seeing is those wolf spiders, love to come in my den and living room at night. I have been bitten a couple times when we first moved into this house. They love hanging out in the garage this time of year. I know cause I did a bunch of research online about them cause I was scared they might of been brown recluse....

shoot the other day I went to do a load of laundry and a darn black widow was just laying right there on the top of the washer!! :P had a guy who sat next to me in science class that got bite by one while he slept, they found it in the bed and docs put it in a jar to preserve it, he was in the hospital and sick for a while.

[amanda757]

Originally Posted by bri12

the spider in my backyard is black and yellow with spots and one stipe has fangs and part of the legs look brown at the begin possibly furry then black and fang-like and a white head reply please ps x-like web looks like this xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Just your typical beautiful but scarey looking garden spider!!! they are scarey but nothing to worry about, never NEVER seen one indoors. I get them around bushes and my garden all the time I dont bother them they dont bother me, they eat lots of bugs I dont like

[j1n]

Originally Posted by Count Arioch the 28th

I find that very hard to believe, considering that they can't survive in Virginia for very long, and the fact that brown recluse bites have an extremely low fatality rate even when untreated. Bees kill a higher percentage of people than brown recluse spiders.

But if you can show me a news story where someone was bitten, the offending spider caught, and the spider was verified by an arachnologist to be a Loxosceles reclusa, then I will believe it. Until then, I'm going to agree with the scientists over two vague personal accounts from some random person on the internet.

Brown Recluse Spider (http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/factsheets/brownrec.html - broken link)
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/uvahealth/adult_nontrauma/spider.cfm (broken link)