Experts: Parents overreacting to spider scare at Illinois school

BEARDSTOWN, Ill. -- About a quarter of students missed class Wednesday at a central Illinois prekindergarten school infested with brown recluse spiders, but experts say parents are overreacting to a poisonous reputation that new research shows is largely undeserved.

School officials called in exterminators but opted to continue classes after the timid-but-venomous spiders were first found last week at Grand Avenue School in Beardstown, about 50 miles northwest of Springfield.

About 40 spiders were found in traps set last Thursday night, but numbers have dropped every night since then, dipping to three Tuesday night, superintendent Robert Bagby said. No students or staff have been bitten, he said.

Bagby said he decided to keep the school open after consulting with experts who insist children are safe because the spiders are nocturnal, reluctant to bite and usually cause skin irritations no worse than other spiders when they do.

But some parents criticized the move, saying classes should have been canceled to protect preschoolers.

"This is not like a high school student who knows to stay away from a spider," said Amy Davidsmeyer, who says she may keep her daughter home for the last five days of the school year.

Bagby said 14 of the school's 135 students missed school Tuesday after parents were notified about the infestation. Absences increased to 34 Wednesday.

Experts say parents are likely overreacting to myths that brown recluse bites can cause gaping skin ulcers, amputations and even death.

New research shows that skin lesions once linked to the brown recluse were misdiagnosed and were likely caused by infections not bites, said Phil Nixon, an extension entomologist in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois.

Nixon says the spiders bite can cause severe reactions, depending on an individual's sensitivity, comparing it to bee stings and other insect bites. He estimates that occurs in less than 10 percent of cases and can be cured with standard treatment in most cases.

Nixon said the spiders -- or sometimes hundreds of them -- are common in buildings and schools in the south, including southern Illinois, and cause few problems. In Missouri, authorities estimate 70 percent of buildings are home to brown recluses.

But Nixon said the spiders are rarely found north of Interstate 70 and their trumped-up reputation sometimes causes undue alarm when they migrate north in pallets, boxes or other packages.

"If you're a Yankee, you close the school. If you're from the south, you say 'Hey, these things are all over the place. What are you shutting down the school for?"' Nixon said.