ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A University of Michigan library staff temporarily closed the building after three poisonous spiders appeared in a basement storage room.
The Mediterranean recluse spiders were found in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library on the school’s Ann Arbor campus in late January. The library reopened on Tuesday after being closed on Sunday and treated for spiders on Monday.
The spiders were not in the public space, said university spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen, and the staff closed the building due to a misunderstanding and caution.
Bites by the spiders can cause problems ranging from mild skin irritation to tissue death, according to University of Michigan-Dearborn Professor Anne Danielson-Francois, who identified an adult male spider trapped in a glue trap in the library.
“You are unlikely to be in any danger unless you need to be in close contact,” she told the Detroit Free Press. But if you’re the plumber crawling through a crawl space with a lot of these spiders, you could be a little bit, and that would be concerning. But just walking around the library stacks, it’s a very, very low risk. “
The Mediterranean hermit hitchhikes with people around the world and has been found in 22 states, Danielson-Francois told WJBK-TV.
They love caves and can be found in cellars and boiler rooms.