The family’s home was completely infested with over 2,000 different spiders — some of which can have some lethal venom, but what happened next floored scientists’ research
A family were unknowingly living with more than 2,000 spiders over five years – and what scientists discovered left them stunned. In total, 2,055 brown recluse spiders were found in the home in the US state of Kansas. Of those, roughly 400 were venomous. While some spiders are harmless and are actually a benefit to having in the home, some insects are almost the exact opposite and can cause immense harm.
The family had noticed spiders every so often around their home but it wasn’t until five years after they’d moved in that they realised they were venomous brown recluse spiders. Pest control were called in and got to work catching all the spiders. What the researchers then found after studying the case blew them away. Despite living together for so long, none of the occupants had got bitten.
Brown recluse spiders are venomous, but their bites usually only result in blistering or swelling that goes down after a week or so.
IFLScience explained that once the species is in a home, they are incredibly difficult to move, as they spend heaps of time hiding in things such as furniture, as well as little nooks and crannies that often go unnoticed by humans.
On top of this, the animals “can survive for many months without feeding”, with females only needing to mate once to gradually give birth over the course of their lives.
The family in Kansas only realised they had been living with the creepy-crawlies in 2001, despite having lived there for five and a half years.
After initially believing they were harmless insects, pest control was brought in and revealed they were the dreaded brown recluse.
After counting those captured, some 2,055 spiders were collected over the course of six months, of which the majority were classed as “small” spiders.
It is believed that many of the small spiders were relatively young. Brown recluse spiders tend not to be venomous until they reach roughly 5mm in length.
The findings, published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, suggested there were around 488 spiders capable of venomous bits in the “highly invested” home.
Scientists were shocked to find, however, that the family themselves had not been bitten at all and were completely fine as a result.
“Despite a conservative estimate of 400 envenomation-capable brown recluses in the Kansas home (≈20 percent of the total recluses captured), no envenomations of the occupants occurred,” the findings of a study confirmed. The study added that often, bites from recluse spiders are misdiagnosed and their severity can be overexaggerated.
The team cited a similar survey in Chile that found another family who had lived with hundreds of spiders – but suffered no bites. They concluded that doctors, particularly in areas where spiders are not widely found, are misdiagnosing dermatological lesions as bites from the spider.
