yuck

[GuchiGuh]

I never said that~

[GuchiGuh]

I think thats indonesia.

[GuchiGuh]

I remove~ sick...
I found a korean BBS some time ago, with very graphic images.

[DukeP]

One more. Groossss...
The chance of getting bitten by anything dangeroues here in EU, is less than 1/10000 of getting killed by a car...

Too little nature, too many cars.

Anyhow: Please continue your endearing story, Lizz
Serious: I would like to hear how Your cooping, etc.
I hope it will (eventually) turn into one of those "Ray of light" stories, complete including prince charming, a castle, and the chance to beat Arnold to the post as govenor.



~~DukeP~~

[Dr Mordrid]

paulcs;

While you quote a lot of articles you ignore a few things;

1. the history of the bite matches the profile of the Brown Recluse (aka: Violin spider because of markings found in most, but not all, varieties) in that their venom is hemolytic; killing the cells around the bite, leaving a gangrenous lesion with eventual exposure of the underlying tissues if treatment is delayed. Their bite would also heal slowly, sometimes taking a year or more, and leave a prominent scar.

Sound familiar Lizzie?

2. the brown recluse range includes Texas. With the heavy traffic from there to California it's not a stretch that a breeding population has hitch-hiked to California. In fact there are four recluse spider species indiginous to California:

L. deserta: the "desert recluse" and most common
L. russelli, L. palma and L. martha: rare

Is it so hard to believe that a few hitched a ride to more populated regions of their home state?

3. that they can migrate inter-state easily is proven since their normal range had previously only extended to southern Illinois and east to the southnern states, but starting in 2000 a breeding population was found in Michigan. Steps were taken to eradicte them, but with the high volume of traffic here from southern states....

4. bites have been reported at points as far north as New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Maryland and Massachusetts with some of them fatal, so the brown recluse traveling out of its normal range and causing trouble isn't exactly unusual.

5. the only limit to their spread is that they can't live in environments below 40F, which is no problem in California. Here in Michigan, where it does get a lot colder than 40F, they've only been found in buildings. This too goes along with their normal behavior since they are known to be synanthropic (often found around humans), and so are considered a house spider.

Goodie

6. identification; if you can see the recluse identification can be attempted by checking their eyes. This because most all other spiders have 8 eyes in two rows of 4 each. Recluses have 6 equal sized eyes arranged in 3 pairs which in turn are arranged in a semi-circle.



This is a more accurate means than using color or the violin marking, which can be imagined in other species, but this still isn't a perfect identifier since a few other spiders also have 6 eyes.

Dr. Mordrid

[Fat Tone]

I could cope reading this thread (and perhaps fortunately didn't see Guchiguh's little lapse) but Doc's photograph has my skin crawling...

[Lizzard[MPE]]

doc- thank you very much for all of your information. that was very interesting in reading. cheers, lizzie

[The PIT]

Well I see you've got to freeze your house for a few hours a day to get rid of the buggers. Nasty little critters aren't they.