No Utah has no brown recluse (which is not to say someone might move a couple there with their furniture, but they can't get established there and quickly die) it is too dry. But the hobo spider can have a bite similar to brown recluse, and people sometimes think it was brown recluse. The brown recluse lives in the more eastern part of the midwest.
About those hobos - DO NOT use spider spray! I just read about them and it turns out that one of the things that keeps hobos under control is other spiders, which eat the hobos. If you spray, you will kill off the beneficial spiders but not the hobos. The spray is not effective on them at this time of the year. You could try glue traps too if you are worried about hobos.
Hobo spiders live in dark areas usually under something - like a pile of wood, under your house, in dark crawl spaces etc. They are nocturnal. Again, these are places that horses do not go. I would think that _YOU_ would be more at risk than your horses. Hobo spiders came from Europe and were probably sent here accidentally with a load of something or other, and probably arrived as egg cases. They became established in Oregon first, and by 1980 or so had arrived in UT. They don't cause much trouble in Europe because there are more aggresive spiders there that eat the hobos, so the hobos are not able to come in contact with people. (These spiders that eat the hobos are more aggresive to OTHER SPIDERS, not people.) However, out in the West, there are not so many aggresive predators for the hobos, and if people unwittingly help them out by spraying and killing off the other predators, the hobos do quite well.
The bite can be bad, but this only occurs about 30% of the time. Most of the time when a hobo bites it is a defensive bite and they inject no venom. Of the bites that have venom, only a small portion of those cause real problems. Most heal just fine within two months. However if you get bitten you must catch the spider and bring it with you to the clinic. That way they can identify it and give appropriate treatment.
I'll be interested to hear what the vets say about horses being bitten by spiders. Say hi to Drs. Isom and Wright for me and yes, Jacquee' is my real name. I was the only person there raising Jacob sheep so that should identify me to both vets. I agree with you about Dr. Reece!!!
Nice to hear about UT again, it brings back old memories.
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