What Attracts Brown Recluse Spiders to Your House?

The brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa) has a well-documented, limited range: entomological surveys place its established populations in 16 states, forming a band from the southern Midwest through the south-central U.S. New England is not part of that range, and New Hampshire's climate is well outside what the species tolerates. A University of New Hampshire review of reported cases notes that brown recluse bites have been ‘diagnosed in states far outside its range, from California to New Hampshire,’ even though the spider is not established in any of them. That means our own legacy page's framing — that a house ‘meets its needs’ and attracts one — described an animal that, for practical purposes, isn't in New Hampshire to be attracted.

On the rare occasion a genuine brown recluse does turn up here, entomologists attribute it to transport — a spider riding in a box of belongings, a piece of furniture, or a shipment that originated within its actual range — not to the species expanding into New Hampshire on its own. If you've found a spider you're worried about, the more likely explanation is a common New Hampshire species that resembles it, since several local spiders are frequently mistaken for brown recluses. Species identification is covered at /pests/brown-recluse-spider; this page's job is only to correct the idea that a New Hampshire house attracted one.