Native to Omaha,NE?

juggalo69

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Messages
448
I have been told by a few people that we have black widows and/or brown recluse native to Omaha,Ne. Now I have lived here most of my life and have always been into spiders but I have never seen either species in Omaha.
I know that recluse are native to western Nebraska but I didn't think they got this far east. Can anyone confirm or deny this for me? The people that have been telling me they have seen them are kind of arachnophobic and probably wouldn't know a brown recluse from a grass spider but I figured I would ask anyway.
 

KUJordan

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 22, 2005
Messages
344
They sure are native to Omaha, Lincoln, Valentine....just about the entire state of Nebraska. I personally found 5 L. mactans on a road cut just outside the west edge of Omaha. Each spider was no further than 10 yards from the next one and I only stopped after 5 because I ran out of containers for them! They are there, and are very plentiful if you know where to look for them.
 

juggalo69

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Messages
448
I can't believe that I have lived here all my life, been rooting through woods, basements, wood piles, all the places you would expect to find these species and I have never ran across one. Never heard about a bite on the news or anything, you figure that some stupid kid or ignorant adult would get bit within my lifespan and considering that NOTHING exciting ever happens here I'm sure that would make the news
 
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