Woman Finds One Dozen Recluse Spiders in Her Manhattan Apartment
Posted on October 4, 2010
A woman found a recluse spider in her kitchen sink in her New York City apartment on East 21st Street in Gramercy Park. The spider was confirmed as a brown recluse spider by an exterminator. She was told it was an isolated incident and that she probably brought the recluse spider with her from somewhere else. She says that's impossible because she had not been traveling to regions known to have brown recluse spiders. The woman put out sticky traps in her apartment and captured 11 other recluse spiders. After this she decided to move.
Brown recluse spiders are not native to New York. This map shows regions where the spider is thought to reside. Most brown recluse spider bites are minor, but some bites do generate severe dermonecrotic lesions. You can read more about the venemous bites of brown recluse spiders here. An article here says an arachnologist determined the spiders to be Mediterranean recluse spiders, which have the same venom as brown recluse spiders.
Here is the woman's spider tale. Take a look: