Scary story time! The Hockey Schtick catches the latest about spiders from ABC News. After discussing a person getting a horrific bite from a Brown Recluse (which they later go on to say “it could have been something else”) in Kansas, we get
The Daily Mail sounded an alarm about a University of Kansas study by graduate student Erin Saupe, saying the “deadly” spider was “spreading … to a town near you.”
The study was published last year in the online journal PlosOne
The spider’s habitat is limited to the Southeast and Midwest, stretching from Kansas east to the Appalachian states.
But Saupe of the university’s Geology and Biodiversity Institute used computer modeling to predict how it’s habitat might move north to states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and even New York, dependent on climatic suitability for the species.
Go that? Might move north. The computers tell us so. I suppose going out in the field to verify would be silly.
Vetter worked with Saupe on her master’s project, in which she tracked the spiders’ predicted migration through “ecological niche modeling.”
She used two models to predict the spider’s range in 2020, 2050 and 2080, given the effects of global warming, concluding they might move north but those left behind would die off.
Kansas is a “hotbed” for these spiders, said Saupe, who has predicted that they might become extinct in the southern portions of their range by 2080 as the climate in their natural habitats becomes to warm and their mobility is restricted.
Yawn. Let me know when it happens here in Reality Land.
I will not be here in 2080 so I am not going to worry about the spiders.
Wait… we are to cry about the supposed eradication of spiders that are deadly to humans? ummmm… why?
Here’s another question: When did we lose science? Since when was SCIENCE done primarily by sloppy computer models?
When did graduate studies become accepted with no basis in science? No collected data?
Bring back DDT.
Well, I for one wish spiders would abandon the south and move up north. Can’t stand most of the little buggers, though, I was cured of my arachnophobia (really had it.)
I wish the damned spider which builds its web on my driver side mirror would either switch to the passenger side or go away.
Nothing that a little Ortho Home Defense won’t cure, GB. Planning on spraying tomorrow, on my day off.
I agree!! And I have already started noticing them coming back this year. They gave us a vacation from themselves last year. Have a feeling they will be back with a vengeance.
I have my sprayer primed and ready Captain!!
I thought the brown liked to live in homes. How would climate change have anything to do with that?
David, David, David, why are you using facts and reality in this debate?
Teach. Teach. Teach. I can’t understand you when you speak Realist.
They also live in the Central Valley of California. Saw all kinds of them when I was stationed at Naval Air Station Lemoore.
The idiot even has his geography screwed up!
Really enjoyed this article.Much thanks again. Great.