J. Med. Entomol. 39(6): 948Ð951(2002)
ABSTRACT During a 6-mo period, 2,055 brown recluse spiders, Loxosceles reclusa Gertsch and
Mulaik, were collected in a 19th-century-built, currently occupied home in Lenexa, KS. We conservatively
estimate that at least 400 of these spiders were large enough to cause envenomation.
Additional collections from more typically infested homes in Missouri and Oklahoma in 2001yielded
45 and 30 brown recluse spiders, respectively. Despite these infestations, no envenomations of the
inhabitants of these three homes occurred. Considering the levels of infestations with no bites in the
homes presented here, nonendemic areas in the United States, which typically lack recluse spider
populations and have had zero to few veriÞed specimens of the spider, do not have sufÞcient numbers
ofbrownrecluse spiders tomakeenvenomationa likely scenario. Despite this, physiciansfromnonendemic
recluse areas often diagnose brown recluse bites which, therefore, are unlikely to be correct.
