Are there brown recluse spiders in eastern NC?

Question

I could have sworn I killed a brown recluse in my apartment last nite. But no one believes that it was a brown recluse. As soon as I killed it I looked up pictures of it online and it looked ALOT like a recluse.

Answer 1

Yes for sure. they live there.

Answer 2

I live in Greensboro now but used to live in Raleigh and I know I've found them in both places and in Wilson, NC.  I don't know if that helps. :)

Answer 3

They live there, but they're rare.

Answer 4

Eastern North Carolina is a bit of a stretch out of the spider's reported natural range, but I am not going to say it is impossible.

This website has a lot of good pictures of the brown recluse;

http://bugguide.net/node/view/33493

Spiders commonly thought to be Brown Recluses;

Southern house spider males; (does live in your area)

http://bugguide.net/node/view/47644

Spiders of the family tengellidae; (Native to the western US coast)

http://bugguide.net/node/view/84276

I have seen people mistake grass spiders for recluses, and those live in your area too;

http://bugguide.net/node/view/31823

Spider ID is a lot harder than most people think.

*an important thing to note is that recluses are rather small spiders, with a body length of less than half an inch as an adult.