Experts are warning Northern California residents to look out for the bite of the sometimes deadly brown recluse spider.  There has been some debate as to just how prevalent the recluse is in northern California. Some experts argue that the spider’s population is limited to the southeast, southern California, and Baja California. Nevertheless, the same skeptics have acknowledged the expanding web of the spider’s realm in the foothills. A number of Brown Recluse bites have been reported in Amador County. The spider’s presence beyond its natural habitat is blamed on modern transportation, in which spiders have been known to travel long distances on trucks, trains, and planes.

Recluse spiders seem to favor cardboard when dwelling in human residences, possibly because it mimics the rotting tree bark which they naturally inhabit. They also go in shoes, inside dressers, in bed sheets of infrequently used beds, behind pictures and near furnaces. The common source of human-recluse contact is during the cleaning of these spaces, when their isolated spaces suddenly are disturbed and the spider feels threatened. It is important to seek medical treatment if a brown recluse bite is suspected. Cases of brown recluse venom traveling along a limb through a vein or artery are rare, but the resulting mortification of the tissue can affect an area as large as several inches. While it is possible, and even likely, that many cases of "brown recluse bites" are indeed misidentifications of other infections, the brown recluse has justly earned its reputation.