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Hi Glenn, Statistically speaking, it's unlikely that you were bitten by a spider or spiders. Spiders are identified as the culprits by staff in hospital emergency rooms somewhere between dozens and hundreds of times more often than they are actually responsible for the bite or bite-like injury. Blaming a spider, particularly a brown recluse, has gotten to be the lazy doctor's way of saying, "I don't know what caused this." In the non-medical world, spiders are blamed for bites hundreds of thousands of times more often than they are actually responsible. In states with no brown recluse populations whatsoever, where medical personel have never seen an actual brown recluse bite, that spider is identified in doctors' offices and hospital emergency rooms as the cause of bites from dozens to hundreds of times per year. Not surprisingly, the suspect spider is never brought in for identification by the victim. In states with large brown recluse populations, where medical personel are at least somewhat familiar with the appearance of actual bites, the number of reported bites range from single digits to tens per year, and the spider is brought in by the victim for identification more often than not. We didn't change when science replaced superstition as the prevailing view in the industrialized world, we just started using different terminology. Now we state our prejudices and fears in scientific terms instead of superstitious ones. Me too, all of us, because that's what humans do. Should I take my soapbox with me or leave it here for the next blowhard? All the best, Stan
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