Where does the brown recluse spider live?

It is right to warn against the bite of the brown recluse spider. In regions where she often lives, you should know how to recognize the animals and what to look out for.

Small, brown spider with strong venom

• The brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) lives in North America, where it prefers warmer regions. So it cannot be ruled out that you could run into this spider even in the mild regions of Germany and Europe.
• Their cytotoxic poison is mostly local. That means it attacks the skin around the bite. Initially, this is painless, so that it is often not noticed. Pain then occurs within a few hours, the skin becomes red and severe necrosis can develop. Nausea, vomiting, headache, and muscle pain are also possible.
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• The Greek word "nekros" means "corpse". This describes the disease aptly, because necrosis is defined as the death of tissue and body parts due to insufficient blood supply. Fortunately, not every bite leads to incurable wounds, but if you react to the poison with necrosis, you will have to be prepared for slow healing. However, the local reaction on the skin area is not fatal, but very unpleasant.
• In particularly rare cases, loxoscelism ends fatally. Then the poison not only attacks the skin, but also the kidneys. Such deaths are known from Peru, they are extremely rare in the USA.


Spider bite - what to do?

If you live in Germany and only come into contact with the local spiders, ...

• The poisonous substance of the recluse spider is similar to the poison of some snakes, for example certain vipers. Here nature has drawn parallels between poisonous invertebrates and vertebrates.

Recognize the recluse spider

• The recluse spider is a brown spider that does not grow larger than two centimeters. It is all the more important that you can distinguish the animal from the numerous brown spiders around you. Their second name is Geiger or Violin Spider, due to an external characteristic. There is a dark drawing on the back that resembles a violin. The resonance arch points to the head, the bridge to the abdomen. This drawing can be seen in the photo.
• If you can get a closer look at the spider, you can see that it only has six eyes, as opposed to most species that come with eight eyes. Perhaps you can take a photo of the animal so you can look at it in peace on the screen. Since the recluse spider lives as a nocturnal spider and its bite is often not noticed, it is likely to be the exception that you will succeed in recording it. As a rule, the animals are not aggressive. So they only bite when they feel pressured and there is direct contact.

She lives in secret

• Unfortunately, the brown creatures like to hide between clothes or in beds. There the animal lives in secret during the day without being noticed. The most frequent bites therefore occur in bed or when getting dressed. Anyone who inadvertently comes into direct contact with the animal here must reckon with the dangerous bite.
• Despite this way of life, the spiders build a web, also this one in hidden corners. The spider lives with its irregular web in garages, sheds, piles of wood and in other dry places. She doesn't like to be disturbed. The females in particular rarely leave their retreat.
• The net is not required to catch prey. Brown recluse spiders belong to the group of food spiders (Sicariidae). They "tie" their victim to the ground with a sticky secretion that they spit out. Therefore, they do not need any neurotoxic poison, which immediately paralyzes the victims and thus prevents them from running away. With their cytotoxic poison, recluse spiders damage the cell tissue of their victims, the reason why human skin cells are so sensitive.

A kind of dangerous brown lives not only in North America. There are around 50 species in total worldwide widespread that predominantly colonize tropical regions. Loxosceles laeta is known in South America. Your spanish Names translated means "corner spider" or "spider behind pictures". Their venom is the strongest of the recluse spiders. In Peru, 10 percent of their bites are said to be fatal. The brown Loxosceles rufescens, a maximum one centimeter tall and rare species, lives as a cosmopolitan. You can meet her in the Mediterranean.