Greg Laden has an excellent post on that Rittenhouse ‘spider bite’. It looked to me like he had a rash on his leg, which could be caused by any number of wicked little beasties — most likely a tick. Rittenhouse did brag about bravely killing a spider, but that could have been a scapegoat he found and killed without evidence, a common practice among right-wingers.
Greg makes a good point, that brown recluses actually are often scapegoats. They are reclusive (it’s even in the name!) and non-aggressive, and as one of the few spiders most people can name, it gets named without cause.
There was even an account on old Twitter to which you could send spider photos for judgment on whether they were a recluse or not. It was entertaining, because most of the photos sent in were not of recluses, and were mostly innocent, harmless spiders that were then murdered by ignorant people. Recluses and black widows are the witches of the spider world.
I had to wonder where Rittenhouse was running into recluses, because they sure aren’t found in Wisconsin. I guess he has moved to Texas. I think Texas is a black hole sucking all the notorious bad actors into it’s gravitational well, but it does have recluses.
Like Greg Laden, I also heartily recommend the Vetter’s book, “The Brown Recluse Spider”. To anyone who has any interest at all in the truth about how rare spider bites are, you should immediately get a copy of this book from your favorite book source.
Yeah, leave the wolf spiders alone. They’re harmless. I’ve handled a few and I was probably more threatening than the spider.
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blockquote>I guess he has moved to Texas. I think Texas is a black hole sucking all the notorious bad actors into it’s gravitational well, but it does have recluses.<\blockquote>
Apparently, there is an impending mass exodus from Washington state to places like Texas because woke!! Ahhhh!! Oh noes!
Link to article that I can’t be arsed to link properly cause I don’t remember how and am on my phone…
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/may/05/two-surveys-suggest-most-spokane-residents-are-con/
I left Texas for the same reasons I moved to here so I say “Go on! Git!”
Also, grew up in rural Texas. Yeah, widows & recluses are pretty common, but you kind of have to hunt for them. Usually, most “dangerous” when moving old brush piles or debris and such. You might accidently disturb one of your not careful. Which, you should be cause…Texas. Frankly, it’s the copperheads you watch out for.
Well, borked that up. Poo.
I assume there is a GoFundMe.
I’ve killed two of these brown bastards, and each definitely had a symmetric violin shape on the backs of their hellish abdomens. I continue to sleep well at night.
The violin is on the cephalothorax, not the abdomen. So you killed innocent spiders?
Leave the spiders alone. If Rittenhouse ever goes to Eurasia he may have to face the ultimate horror…hedgehogs! These insectivore land pirhanas are well known to strip Republicans to mere skeletons in minutes! That is why Fox News is so scared of Europe (sark).
“Greg Laden”
Obi Wan voice. That’s a name I have not heard for a very long time.
There’s a song you can use to tell:
https://youtu.be/-X2QS2DBuKY?si=Z_2EDKHdPVk_puc-
10#bsr0:
A very nice little song! “. . . and even if it is, you’re all right — as long as you don’t squeeze iiiiitttttt . . . “
I guess he has moved to Texas.
Per NBCNewYork:
Repeat after me: Yee-haw!
Guys! I found the perfect bird for Rittenhouse!
.
Hooded pithoui is full of neurotoxin
“This bird doesn’t make sense”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/Oj4RdDWeliY
I called FAKE when I saw the rash. I’ve seen a few brown recluse bites in my day, I know brown recluses, brown recluses are my friends, and that is no brown recluse bite!
When I lived in Oklahoma I knew where all the brown recluses hung out (hanged out?) I also observed how they moved which may be unique to the brown recluse: graceful, like a skater, the Alicia Liu of spiders. They raise up on their toes and glide away.
I never had an issue with brown recluses. My Arizona upbringing taught me to shake my shoes and clothes for unwanted critters, but I never found a brown recluse hiding in my moccasins!
Yeah, shouldn’t a recluse bite have a necrotizing boil at the site of perforation? An even rash sounds more like some innocent fungus has caught a nasty case of Rittenhouse.
I liked them ever since I was a little kid in southern cal.. There was a spot in the yard that was always had grass spiders have never seen them any other place. I only get shocked when I find a black widow where I did not expect to see one mostly just leave them be only watching some times. I have had many arguments with people who think spiders try to bite you and are dangerous it is a useless experience and seldom yields any thing good.
wish I could get golden orb spiders to live in my yard but there is no enough for them to eat here I guess
never seen a brown recluse anywhere out here.
Obviously he found it under the rock he crawled out from under.