Deckman, southeast Alaska also has the brown recluse. One of its bite's attractive effects is to create a necrotic area surrounding the bite. A friend of mine vacationing in Haines went to the doctor to have her leg looked to- it had an angry painful raised circular spot on it bigger than a dime. All the doctor could prescribe was benadryl. Eventually, the core area dropped out, leaving a hole in her leg which eventually filled in except for a dimple.

(Hummmph. Now I don't know what to believe. I just looked it up and found this. I see what you mean about the official view, Bob.)

by Rick Vetter, M.S. updated October 2004

"Throughout the United States, spiders get blamed as the cause of many dermatological wounds in medical diagnoses. In virtually every case, NO spider is seen nor felt inflicting a bite, nor is the alleged spider collected in the incident. "Potential spider bite" diagnoses are made solely on the symptoms of the lesion. In the case of necrotic wounds, "brown recluse spider bite" is a very common conclusion of medical personnel throughout North America including such ludicrously inhospitable places as Canada and Alaska where no brown recluses have ever been found. This is in spite of the fact that the brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) is native only to the South and central midwestern states (circumscribed by southeastern Nebraska south to Texas, east to Georgia/westernmost tip of South Carolina and southernmost Ohio with additional rare finds being made beyond this area). In addition there are several related species that exist in the southwestern U.S. deserts from Texas to California; however, they do not inhabit the coastal California regions where most of the human population is concentrated. (see distribution map at http://spiders.ucr.edu/images/colorloxmap.gif)   The members of the genus Loxosceles are known as recluse, violin or fiddleback spiders. Occasional, RARE occurrences of the brown recluse do occur outside this region because of the spider's proclivity to hide in boxes and the subsequent movement of possessions or commerce from its native area. However, occurrences outside the native areas are still extremely rare and they typically encompass finds of single specimens only, not burgeoning populations of these spiders."

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