The Brown Recluse Spider Quotes

“It is important to remember that although brown recluse spider bites do happen and, in rare cases, can cause significant medical problems, millions of Americans in the Midwest are currently sharing their homes, although maybe not happily, with millions of recluse spiders without incident.”
― Richard S Vetter, The Brown Recluse Spider

“Also, when the press reports on brown recluses, it is common for the recluses to be referred to as “deadly spiders” (Fig. 8.3). Think about this for a second. Most brown recluse bites heal very nicely and death is extremely rare. The same newspapers would never publish an article headed “Mother Takes Innocent Children to Soccer Practice in a Deadly Car.” Yet there will be many more vehicle-related fatalities every day than deaths from brown recluse spider bites in a decade.”
― Richard S Vetter, The Brown Recluse Spider

“Shifting Blame An article by Benoit and Suchard in Consultant in 2006 brought up an interesting point about why brown recluse spider bites and generic spider bites are so widely believed in by the general public: people have difficulty accepting that the root of an affliction of theirs is an internal cause that might be considered a weakness. This is even more difficult when it might be some lifestyle choice of the patient that possibly contributes to the problem. Sometimes skin wounds appear as a result of an intrinsic condition such as a virus or venereal disease. Perhaps a lifestyle choice is involved, such as a lip cancer lesion due to chewing tobacco. In such cases, it is comforting to consider that the affliction is not the fault of the sufferers. A spider “attacked” them while they were sleeping. Nothing they could have done would have prevented this accident.”
― Richard S Vetter, The Brown Recluse Spider

“Unfortunately, there is something dramatic about spider bites in general and brown recluse bites in particular that causes them to be frequently diagnosed. In discussions with physicians, they readily admit that the diagnosis of “spider bite” is a safe determination because it can neither be proven nor disproven.”
― Richard S Vetter, The Brown Recluse Spider

“The easiest way to collect live brown recluses for research or general enjoyment is to seek them out at night in structures when they emerge from hiding places and are active.”
― Richard S Vetter, The Brown Recluse Spider

“One example of this damage occurs when ill-informed physicians diagnose brown recluse spider bites as the cause of skin lesions in areas of the continent where recluse spiders of any species are exceedingly rare or have never been found. When the quantity of brown recluse bite diagnoses greatly outnumbers the verified specimens of recluse spiders in a particular area, it logically follows that the spiders cannot be responsible for all these incidents. Some of these misdiagnosed skin conditions, such as cancer, lymphoma, group A Streptococcus bacterial infection, and Lyme disease, can cause great suffering, irreversible damage, and possibly death. When a wrong diagnosis is made, spider bite treatment is ineffective and the correct treatment is delayed or never given.”
― Richard S Vetter, The Brown Recluse Spider