A good friend was bitten last week by a brown recluse spider. She did not suffer the relatively-rare-but-widely-publicized necrotizing effects of the spider’s toxin; however, she did feel poorly enough to see a doctor. She thinks the spider was in her clothing and bit her — five times! — in an frenzied effort to escape. I almost feel sorry for the poor, frightened spider. Almost. Mostly I feel badly for my friend.
As you can see in the Wikipedia article linked about, the brown recluse’s range supposedly only goes as far north as southern Iowa. How did this one, plus the one she killed in her sink a few days after the bite, get to northern Wisconsin? My friend has not traveled into the brown recluse’s range and inadvertently brought some back. Has its range extended this far north? I can only hope it does not creep that last five miles north…
ETA: I wrote this post a couple days ago, not realizing that it would publish on Easter Sunday. Hopefully, you are all so busy with church and cooking and family that you won’t read it until Monday.
kmkat & her kneedles 
Oh my! This makes me more than a little terrified. Your poor friend!
Hoping for a positive outcome
You and me both!
Maybe our winters are getting warmer and their range is expanding?
Had there been unusual wind patterns? Some spiders travel by floating on winds. Or some may have traveled north on a delivery truck.
We had a friend have a bad infection after a spider bite YIKES!
Oh, drat. I hope your friend is feeling better by now. I had an infected spider bite a few years ago (gardening). Not sure what type of spider . . . but the infection was not so much fun.
I would guess they arrived via shipping boxes. Not what was ordered, just a little something extra……Hope your friend is doing better.
I hate spiders, and have had two friends bitten by brown recluses. I hope your friend is alright — my friends had various reactions to them, but it sounds like your friend was better off in her reaction than either of mine. (*whew*)
(Wait. I hate spiders and yet I visited this post anyway. Why on Earth did I do that? Sometimes I make no sense, even to myself.)