KEEP AN EYE OUT
Moore says another worrisome spider has come onto the local scene. Called the hobo spider, this arachnid is not native to the U.S. and is slowly moving from the western United States to the east. Its bite is painful, like the black widow, with localized symptoms, like the fiddle back, causing necrotic damage.
About Our Expert
Dr. Chris Moore is a medical doctor who has held many wilderness safety roles in the community during his tenure. He was the director of wilderness and event medicine at the UTC College of Medicine, helped start Baylor’s Walkabout program and Outdoor Chattanooga, and has served as trip physician on multiple outdoor excursions far and wide.
Big problems can come from small sources.
For example: On average, shark attacks account for about one death per year. The same for alligators and bears. Bees, hornets and wasps, on the other hand, cause an average 58 deaths per year in the U.S.
Of course, the fact that you’re much more likely to come across a bee in your day-to-day wanderings than, say, an alligator accounts for much of this. But that same fact is what prompted us at Get Out to ask our expert Dr. Chris Moore about stings, bites and any other problems bugs might cause out on the trail.