Rethinking my move to the Northeast?*

I have a kind-of job interview today (via Skype, oh, modern technology you never cease to amaze me), so I don't have a lot of time for blogging. Rest assured, ye few who read this thing, I have received your topic suggestions and I will get around to looking into them, eventually. Probably. In the meantime, let's explore a danger I currently don't have to worry about...but might if this new job thing works out and I move back to Massachusetts. And the globe warms.

Terrifying Brown Spiders Moving North with Global Warming

Fascinating: Wikipedia suggests that
you do not use coins for scale

Now, I'm not really afraid of spiders (unlike my sister, who literally cannot be in the same room as a spider, much to my chagrin--I can't tell you how many spiders I have killed on her behalf), but I might have to revise my stance on arachnophobia because of a new spider I just learned about: The brown recluse spider.

I had never heard of the brown reculse spider before I read this Good post that warned of a (potential) shift in their habitat due to global warming.  Apparently, though, Fox News claims it is "America's most feared spider." And we know if Fox News said it, it must be true.

According to the article I read, there's a chance that by 2050-2080, the brown recluse spider's habitat will have moved up to the northeast, encompassing many of the states I dream about living in (the left and right columns are based on different estimates of global warming changes):

Source

Thankfully, I'll probably be dead or close to dead by the time I have to worry about this. Thus I experience only minor panic!

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Back to reality. (Oh! There goes gravity!)

Although Google imaging "brown recluse spider bite" is a TERRIFYINGLY BAD IDEA, I'm sad to report that it really doesn't seem like these spiders are all that scary.  The University of California, Riverside goes to great lengths to inform people that really, you have very little to worry about. Nevertheless, this description of a brown recluse spider bite from Ohio State University makes me just a little scared, regardless of the actual risk:

The bite of the brown recluse spider can result in a painful, deep wound that takes a long time to heal. Fatalities are extremely rare, but bites are most dangerous to young children, the elderly, and those in poor physical condition. When there is a severe reaction to the bite, the site can erupt into a "volcano lesion" (a hole in the flesh due to damaged, gangrenous tissue). The open wound may range from the size of an adult's thumbnail to the span of a hand. The dead tissue gradually sloughs away, exposing underlying tissues. The sunken, ulcerating sore may heal slowly up to 6 to 8 weeks. Full recovery may take several months and scarring may remain.

Gah! I don't want an open lesion the size of an adult hand on me!!

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Eep! It's about time for me to get ready for this Skype interview business. I'll leave you with this: Think you have a brown recluse spider bite? You probably don't. Also, spider myths!


*Alternate title for this post, thought of too late: Based on the amount that I go outside, I think we should start calling me the White Recluse. (It's funny 'cause it's true.)