My uncle was a doctor in Kansas City at a pediatric hospital. He was a toxicologist, and specialist in brown recluse spider bites. The author of this piece and

My uncle was a doctor in Kansas City at a pediatric hospital. He was a toxicologist, and specialist in brown recluse spider bites. The author of this piece and my uncle most likely knew each other well, it seems they've published papers quoting each other and some pop news stories about brown recluse spiders mention both of them. Brown recluse bites are definitely thing, and particularly dangerous for small kids. Not super common, but he threat is real. One article says he used to see about a dozen bites a year, which increased in recent years to about two dozen. Just because Rick Vetter wrote this article specifically about not finding them in Cali, it doesn't mean they're something to be ignored where they're more prevalent, ie the Midwest.