Overview
- Pest-control teams and researchers collected 2,055 brown recluse spiders over roughly six months after the family recognized the infestation in 2001.
- The study estimated about 488 spiders were capable of envenomation, yet the occupants reported no envenomations across more than five years in the house.
- Most specimens were small juveniles, and brown recluses are not typically venomous until they reach about 5 millimeters in length.
- The findings, published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, describe the species' tendency to hide, long survival without food, and reproductive traits that complicate removal.
- Authors cited a similar Chilean household survey with no bites to caution clinicians against attributing skin lesions to recluse spiders, especially in areas where they are uncommon.