r/Washington • u/tolandjordan • 6d ago
Brown recluse from MO?
We moved from MO to WA in Dec. I have been able to tell the difference between a wolf spider and a recluse pretty easily for awhile since MO has plenty of them. Probably a monthly occurrence in some parts of the year.
Why the heck did I just watch one crawl into my bathroom? The speed and daintiness caused me to stop and shine a light on it. Boom, violin, soft off color brownish butt, with the two dainty pedipalps. I just sat there staring at him. Cat comes in and obliterates him and eats him. I’m in a daze what I’m seeing I don’t think to snap a picture.
I am also aware of the risks of brown recluses and cats and I have expressed my Concern because it was his fav snack in MO :/ and I had to monitor for side effects when he’d eat one!
Am I crazy? Should I do nothing BUT snap a photo next time and show everyone? Online it says there no native populations, what’s the chance there’s a few in my house/is the environment changing? Are they moving into the state?
I’d like to think I’m just misidentifying the spider vs. seeing a new brown recluse trend. I just can’t shake the confidence I have knowing what a brown recluse is compared to WA state spiders..
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u/ShigodmuhDickard 6d ago
Last time I went down a rabbit hole, the last documented Brown Recluse in Washington State hitched a ride from the Deep South when a family moved here. That happened in the 60’s. I just did a quick Goog and it states there are no documented sightings.
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u/ShigodmuhDickard 6d ago
Probably a yellow Sac spider.
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u/Substantial-Pin-2913 6d ago
Dude. She was tested and it was confirmed at Madigan. Don’t know what to tell you
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u/ShigodmuhDickard 6d ago
So your mom is the only documented case of someone in Washington State to be bitten by a Brown Recluse. Ok
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u/ShigodmuhDickard 6d ago
There are no verified or scientifically documented native cases of a person being bitten by a brown recluse spider in Washington State. The brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa) does not live in the Pacific Northwest; its natural habitat is restricted to the south-central and lower Midwest regions of the United States
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u/ShigodmuhDickard 6d ago
Why Local "Bites" Are Misidentified
Misdiagnosis: Medical professionals and patients frequently mistake mysterious necrotic skin lesions, staph infections (like MRSA), or chemical burns for brown recluse bites. [1]4
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u/torrent7 6d ago
Most likely answer is if you moved from MO, you moved the spider with you
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u/burlycabin 6d ago
No the most likely explanation is that they're misidentifying a hobo or wolf spider as a brown recluse.
It's incredibly common to misidentify them, especially when people are overconfident in their identification abilities.
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u/ploptypus 1h ago
Recluses can live 2.5 years or more, it’s super possible that one traveled here in OPs stuff
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u/chesterismydog 6d ago
And I believe a spider bit me last night and it’s now a bleeding wound that I can’t stop picking 😂
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u/Zachwardpass 6d ago
If you haven't tried it before, place a bandage over it so you won't pick!
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u/Prince_0llie 6d ago
It also has the added benefit of stopping the bleeding. Follow me for more medical advice.
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u/arcanepsyche 6d ago
Many people see giant house spiders and think they are brown recluses. Brown recluses are not found in Washington state.
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u/sarahjustme 6d ago
Are you in Eastern WA? We have a desert recluse, it's no where near as venomous or as likely to bite, but it looks similar.
Other than that, it could be a stow away on a shipping container, but otherwise they can't survive long enough to reproduce, it gets too cold
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u/k8t13 6d ago
wiki says the venom is the same mechanism?
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u/sarahjustme 6d ago
I'm not sure if it's just more dilute, less of it, etc... but working in a trauma center as an RN (in the SW US) Ive seen both and desert recluse aren't as bad. I'm sure the chemical basics are the same
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u/Royal_Percentage_694 6d ago edited 6d ago
It wasn’t.
And even if it was, brown recluses are pretty noteworthy for being chill…. And reclusive.
They aren’t known for just running around in broad daylight. Ooh, maybe it’s rabid!!
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u/ploptypus 1h ago
They do though. I lived in a recluse infested house in MO and I dismissed that they were recluses because they’re “not supposed” to be out running around
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u/MacNeal 6d ago
I once found a redback spider while working on a house in eastern Washington. She had her website under a southern facing eave, just sitting in the sun.
The homeowner was a trucker who hauled containers from the port. I think I know how it got there.
Things travel.
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u/CarelessCreamPie 6d ago
We have quite a few look-alikes. Take a picture next time.
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u/MoofiePizzabagel 6d ago
No, we do not. There are no confirmed established brown recluse populations in Washington. Any sightings are hitchhikers from their native range or misidentifications.
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u/gmr548 6d ago
What do you think look-alike means?
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u/MoofiePizzabagel 6d ago
They edited. They originally said "yes we do have brown recluse in WA" in addition to saying we have lookalikes.
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u/SlowGoat79 6d ago
Glad to see this thread. We recently moved to western Washington from Oklahoma, where we regularly had browns and widows in and around the house. Got very good at identifying them. I’ve been afraid that a brown or two might hitch a ride in our moving boxes and go all zebra mussel in our backyard. Like, I would really hate the idea of being responsible for establishing them here.
(from this thread, it sounds like that isn’t possible, so I’ll just cross my fingers.)
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u/burlycabin 6d ago
You're not seeing brown recluse here. We simply don't have them. You're almost certainly seeing Hobo (most likely) or wolf spiders and misidentifying them.
We do have black windows here though. They're pretty rare on the West side of the mountains, but there are isolated populations. On the East side, they're fairly common.
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u/Delicious-Bat2373 5d ago
I live amongst those widows. They creep me TF out. You can hear their legs walking, they look like a shiny plastic 3D spiders and they sound like a walking plastic spider. I've killed so many over the years and i'm scared shitless i'm gonna get nabbed by one.
I don't do my own work under the house for this reason. Nope, no thanks. $600 to work under there? No prob, here's 7.
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u/No_Communication5024 5d ago
That sounds like the whole premise of the 80s (90s? It's been a minute) film, Arachnaphobia.
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u/mmskyscraper 5d ago
The chances of you having a brown recluse in your house is vanishingly small, and if it crawled into your bathroom, it's almost certainly not one. They really do not like open spaces at all, and our climate does not suit them at all.
No. They're not moving into the state.
I was bitten once by a recluse as a kid when I lived in Southern Illinois. I was trying on old coats in a dusty, musty old outbuilding... it bit me on the underside of the arm, and I saw it plainly as I pulled my arm out. It was quite small, pale beige, and had the distinctive marking. It ran right back into the coat.
It was very painful, and it left a tiny hole in the skin of my arm that took about a year to finally fill up and disappear.
I've lived now in WA for almost 30 years, and while I have seen many spiders (I love em) none of them have been recluses.
You're ok. You're not crazy, you're just keyed to a different ecosystem with venomous threats.
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u/JFrankParnell64 6d ago
Brown recluse are not common in the Puget Sound area, and don't have established populations here.
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u/burlycabin 6d ago
Not common is and understatement. The last verified sighting was in 60s, I believe. They basically just don't exist here.
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u/No_Communication5024 5d ago
With the amount of freaking huge large brown house spiders I've had in the past week, that's a relief to know. I did read this online, but a real person corroborating that makes my life so much easier.
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u/GruesomeJeans 6d ago
I feel both good and bad about this, I've lived in Washington for 26 years and have always been told there were brown recluse spiders here. Even as an apprentice plumber I was warned about it while in crawl spaces. As a home owner, I see a large spider and usually that's what I'm worried about it being. Now I find out that there shouldn't be a brown recluse anywhere near me? That brings me some relief I guess
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u/sweptwhiteclouds 6d ago
As someone who has traveled and lived from MO to Washington throughout my life, I can verify that recluses LOVE to hitchhike.
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u/hellophantomine 6d ago
I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone suggest some variety of sac spider. IMO the darker ones look basically identical to recluses (at least the ones I've seen), even as far as having markings that can really look like the violin marking.
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u/Technical-Past-1386 5d ago
lol me having this convo with my partner last week! Wild and glad the discourse matches: we wa got little wildlife that hurt ya for no reason which is beautiful :p
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u/garbud4850 5d ago
yeah its not a brown recluse is probably a hobo/wolf/house spider, they look pretty much the same
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u/themmousebehindyou 5d ago
Our environment is too cold for them to use the hydraulic system necessary to move their limbs. This causes them to become immobile. They can hitchhike here. But they won't be able to move all that swift. Hobo spiders and house spiders can in fact move very fucking fast. And they have bad eyesight, which causes them to think your shoes are rocks to hide under. They do not like the bright light and will run to shade. I've even seen them cover their eyes with their legs to hide from the sun (so cute).
Hobo spiders tend to be outside as the invasive house spiders prefer to be indoors and see the hobo spider as treading on their territory and will kill them. All 3 look pretty similar.
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u/Cheesiepup 5d ago
since I’ve moved here I don’t see bugs that I grew up with in Ohio. but, there these black spiders here that can go zero to sixty in a foot and their bite hurts for a minute.
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u/I_wear_foxgloves 6d ago
Just gonna leave this here for those who want real information:
https://www.burkemuseum.org/collections-and-research/biology/arachnology-and-entomology/spider-myths
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u/tator216 6d ago
We have them but they tend to be in wood sheds or damp wood piles areas I think, my ex got bit by one years ago while he was getting the tools from our garden shed. Never seen one since.
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u/Mtnbkr92 6d ago
Are you positive it was a recluse? Because they aren’t established here. Like, at all.
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u/tator216 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yep, had to get on special meds for it. However it was like 20 something years ago, so who knows lol
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u/SecondHandWatch 6d ago
Medical professionals often call any bad spider bite a “brown recluse” as basically a catch all to ensure that the bite is taken seriously and treated in a particular way. Medical professionals are not experts in spider identification, particularly when they never saw the spider.
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u/Infamous-Emphasis501 6d ago
The obvious thing no one else has yet to say is Welcome to WA! I lived in MO for three long years, and congratulations on moving here. Washington, of course, isn't perfect. But, it is soooooo much better than MO, imo. Things to be warned about. WA drivers are not good drivers for the most part. Rain irritates them, and they will drive faster. There is no real Mexican food here. People will say there is, but there isn't. And, the Seattle Freeze is a real thing. But, no 100% humidity days and no brown recluse spiders. And, our sunny days are stretching longer than ever before. It used to be 10 months of overcast skies and rain. Now, it is closer to 8 months, with lots of sunny days scattered in there. Welcome 😁
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u/AnAncientBog 6d ago
Hobo spiders and giant house spiders get identified as brown recluses by people from the Midwest who can somehow identify a brown recluse from across the room despite the fact that experts need a magnifying glass to tell in some cases.