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Myth of the Brown Recluse

spiders.ucr.edu

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Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#111

Post by mikeyouse »

cgriswald wrote: post #106
mikeyouse wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Although I have my doubts I take it your never been to Mt Diablo during mating season then? The place is filthy with tarantulas. Just a random YouTube but at certain times of the year, the road is covered in them: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g4w5UbvaYy0

Cool vid. Nope, never been there, but I want to go now. I'm in the hills of the peninsula. I've done a ton of hiking near my house but I've never found one.

Yeah, as far as I've found they stay in the East Bay. I've seen one in the Oakland Hills, but my friends that are big bikers have relayed disgusting (to me) stories about all of the tarantulas they encounter near Mt. Diablo and out that way.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#112

Post by VikingCoder »

mikestew wrote: post #88
VikingCoder wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish I could tell some system who I designate as authorities for given subjects. And then I could see the news annotated by the authorities I chose. Or by the people they acknowledge have authority over those subjects. Linus Torvalds is an expert on Linux. John Carmack is an expert on computer graphics. Tiger Woods is an expert on Golf. Al Gore is an expert on Climate Change. I don't care what Tiger Woods th…

I want to flag a comment, "I disagree, but this is the most persuasive point someone has made." In theory, that is my understanding of the voting system on HN. Based on the downvotes I have received over the years, it's obviously not perfect in that respect. But upvote the comments that contribute positively to the conversation, and you might rarely downvote a comment that detracts. I click the up button for plenty o…

I don't take it that way.

Far more often I see it as "I agree."

But what is most interesting to me is, "I disagree with your conclusion (or the assumptions you are starting from), but I think your argument is well said."

I'd often like to de-emphasize the people that I agree with. I don't need my own opinion echoed back to me so much, thanks. That's what FB, Reddit, HN seem to tend to do.

Or, they find "engaging" content. Which is normally obnoxious, offensive, and flat-out wrong in uninteresting ways. They feed on my pugnacious attitude for clicks.

I'd rather spend more time talking with people who accept the "Principle of Charity" as sacrosanct, than talking with people who will quibble about minor points.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#114

Post by kinleyd »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #84
nimbius wrote: post #58

Working in a midwest auto repair shop, we get our share of spiders and such. Brown recluse spiders are just that, reclusive. Ive seen them take up residence in old tire piles mostly. Ive rarely seen a recluse, but our shop bathroom has a small window where a particularly large hobo spider has set up shop. We named him Biggie because, well, its a huge spider that just sits on a web all day munching bugs and judging yo…

This made my morning. Thank you.

Mine too. Thank you.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#115

Post by gmiller123456 »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #69
okreallywtf wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know that it was a brown recluse? I'm not disputing, I'm just wondering if it was assumed based on the injury or if you were able to find the actual spider.

Just going off what the doctors told me. A friend later told me that MRSA sometimes mimics the same symptoms, but both occurred during summer, and not around other kids or in a hospital setting.

Unfortunately doctors tend to over diagnose a lot of things as brown recluse bites[1]. So, unless he specifically tested for it, there's a really good chance it wasn't a brown recluse bite.

[1]http://spiders.ucr.edu/necrotic.html

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#116

Post by larkeith »

njarboe wrote: post #103

The Myth of the Myth of the Brown Recluse I have lived in California for 25 years and have never heard about the Brown Recluse living here. I guess I don't watch enough local news, but I think that Rick Vetter, being in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside, is going to have an extreme over exposure to people who think the Brown Recluse is a problem. The random people who send him spiders are worried about the…

Anecdata: I live in Oregon, and have always been mildly concerned about visiting California because I thought brown recluses lived there.

I genuinely have no idea where I got the idea.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#117

Post by lifeformed »

aidenn0 wrote: post #94
cantankerous wrote: post #77

I've lived in Portland OR, Mid MO, and the Kansas City area. In mid-Missouri, the brown recluse is the standard house spider. Pretty much every spider in my house there was a brown recluse. I had a weird bruise-y/necrotic bite on my hip that I assumed came from one that got in bed with me. It healed up fine without any medical intervention even though it lingered for awhile. I suspect a lot of people get bitten over…

I live in the Santa Barbara area, and bugs are way less, probably because of how dry it is compared to the midwest. In mid MO I've seen ticks large enough to keep as pets! However, we do have a lot of black widows. They aren't super aggressive towards humans, but they tend to go in places that you only sometimes visit (the back of that one drawer in your toolchest you don't use very often, woodpiles, Christmas decora…

Don't forget to check if they're in your gloves too!

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#118

Post by smpetrey »

> Only a handful of specimens (less than 10) have ever been collected in California and usually there is some connection between the spider and a recent move or shipment from the Midwest. There is a great "awareness" of brown recluse spiders in California mostly through a misguided media barrage which is fed by a fear of the unknown and unfamiliar. I repeatedly have seen the media in their "quest to seek out the truth" write completely speculative stories about the existence of the brown recluse in California. Unfortunately, the truth is not nearly good enough to sell news and therefore, a speculative story is fabricated based upon faulty assumptions.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#119

Post by wmeredith »

lisper wrote: post #105
jngreenlee wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry couldn't help but LOL and sorry for getting off-topic. >Al Gore is an expert on Climate Change. Might need to rethink that. He's a fundraiser and tv personality. Think 'evangelist'. It's not evident that he understands complex systems or probabilities better than say, Taleb. AFAIK, so far all his historic projections have been incorrect. This is the danger of 'celebrity'. Similar with Neil DeGasse. That said, I…

> It's not evident that he understands complex systems It's not evident that he understand evangelizing either. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Al Gore. The world wold be a much better place if he had won the 2000 election. But the one image that sticks with me is the scene in "An Inconvenient Truth" where Al is being driven around in the back seat of a plush town car. A more tone-deaf image in that context is…

I also found that humorous/obnoxious. He is literally a limousine liberal. (I say this as someone with a liberal streak myself.)

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#120

Post by mikestew »

partiallypro wrote: post #110
mikestew wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as black widows go, I have only seen/caught a couple of them and never heard of anyone being bit by one. You need to get a bit east, say, North Carolina. You'll want to look carefully when pulling up those old pieces of wood out by the shed. Wear gloves.

I think Black Widows are more common in the American South West than anywhere else. I'm in Tennessee and brown recluse spiders are very common, but I've only ever seen one black widow, ever. Black Widows are less aggressive afiak and are usually outdoors. Brown recluse love cardboard boxes and storage areas, indoors...so their bite is more common.

I'm in Tennessee and brown recluse spiders are very common, but I've only ever seen one black widow, ever.

Could be just NC, too, dunno. It's the only place I've seen black widows, and though not common, I saw more than a few. OTOH, I was surprised to find out NC has scorpions, too, so who knows what goes on up in those mountains. :-)

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