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.