Okay, this story has me a little steamed, I'll admit it.
A 15 year old boy in Williamstown Borough, PA, recently developed a mysterious "bite" on his foot after playing football in a town park. Mom took the boy to the doctor. The doctor declared the wound to be a brown recluse bite, apparently without hesitation. Mom went to the town and said "You've got to do something about these dangerous spiders in our park!" The town officials had a pest expert investigate. No spiders were found, nor does the park have suitable habitat for brown recluse spiders, according to the expert. "That's not good enough," says Mom. "I want you to spray the park for spiders." The local news picked up the story and ran with it. Now the town council is considering paying a pest control company to rid the park of spiders by spraying pesticides.
What's wrong with this picture? Where do I begin...
The spider being persecuted for this bite simply does not exist in Pennsylvania, according to the country's leading arachnologists and brown recluse experts. No known populations live there. Period.
True, brown recluse spiders do occasionally wind up in shipping cartons and make their way from southern states, where they do live. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that someone in town received a shipment from the Midwest that contained a brown recluse spider. How did this spider wind up in a ball field in the town park, poised to strike the feet of innocent children? The brown recluse is a shy, nocturnal spider that hides in dark places during the day. Bites are rare, even in places that are teeming with brown recluses.
The doctor in our story confidently declared the wound a brown recluse bite. Keep in mind that no one actually saw a spider in this case - not the doctor, not the mother, and not even the boy. There are dozens of things that cause wounds similar to brown recluse bites. Doctors, it seems, are just as brainwashed as we are by the media hype about brown recluse bites. By some estimates, 80% of diagnosed brown recluse bites are actually something else Without the spider, there is no proof this boy was bitten by anything.
Remember, the pest control experts brought in to investigate found no brown recluse spiders, and reported that no suitable brown recluse habitat exists in the park.
Local TV reporter Shannon Davidson adds to the hype by titling her story "Dangerous Spider Bite." What she doesn't bother to report is that most brown recluse spider bites actually heal fine, without intervention. Yes, in some rare cases the bite turns into a deep necrotic wound, and in even rarer instances the bite can be fatal. Reporting this as a confirmed brown recluse bite (which it is not) and using the term dangerous to describe the spider is just plain irresponsible. If she did a simple Google search about brown recluse spiders, she would find plenty of documentation by doctors and arachnologists refuting the premise of her story.
So now these township officials, whipped into a frenzy by the hysterical mother, the ill-informed doctor, and the scare-the-public tactics of this reporter, will very likely waste taxpayer money trying to exterminate a spider that doesn't exist. And in doing so, I'm quite certain they will succeed in wiping out the native spider populations, and possibly contaminating the park, where their children play, with pesticides.
Brilliant.
Have a brown recluse story to share? I've started a discussion thread in the forum.
Comments
This sounds like that episode of the Simpsons when Springfield launches an anti-bear task force (including stealth fighters) when a Grizzly tips over Homer’s garbage.
Overprotective, hysterical moms and sensationalistic, ratings-hungry TV reporters are a bad combination. It’ll all blow over by the next news cycle.
That must be quite a bite to generate such a ruckus. I’m thinking if not a spider, then perhaps a flea masquerading as spider. The real danger here is as in all crime, by convicting the innocent the guilty gets away. Guess that won’t be the case here as all innocents are considered potentially guilty and condemned to be annihilate along with the guilty, that is if the guilty is already long gone on the nearest dog.
The media is to blame for “starting the fire.” Every so often they love to do informational pieces abt brown recluse spiders and hantavirus-carrying rodents. The dr. was stupid to declare it a “brown recluse spider bite.” Mom didn’t bother to research brown recluse spider bites on the internet and get further testing, maybe from an ER? Sure…get the helicopters out and have overnight malathion drops, “just in case.” It’s creating a war where there never should have been one in the first place. Chicken Little?
What this mother should be MORE worried about is her child playing on grass sprayed with pesticide. What’s wrong with her?
I happen to live in north central Arkansas, true brown recluse territory, and know several people who have been bitten. Every bite was in or near a building in an area that usually sees no activity, not out in open nature.
All of the bites I know about healed just fine without intervention and without scarring. I don’t want brown recluse spiders in my home, but other than that, I leave them alone. They’re not vicious, just defensive.