Family lived with 2,000 spiders for five years and what happened amazed scientists

A family unknowingly shared their home with more than 2,000 spiders for five years - and what scientists uncovered left them astonished. In total, 2,055 brown recluse spiders were discovered in the property in the US state of Kansas.

Of those, roughly 400 were venomous. However while researchers were counting and capturing the creepy-crawlies, something peculiar emerged regarding the house's human inhabitants. It appeared that the arachnids and people steered clear of one another. And remarkably, none of the residents suffered a single bite throughout the five-year period.

Brown recluse spiders are venomous, but their bites typically only cause blistering or swelling that subsides after approximately a week.

Once this species establishes itself in a property, they are extremely challenging to remove, as they spend considerable time concealed in items such as furniture, along with small crevices and corners that frequently escape human notice.

The creatures "can survive for many months without feeding", with females requiring mating just once to progressively produce offspring throughout their lifespans.

The Kansas family only discovered they had been living with the creepy-crawlies in 2001, despite having resided there for five and a half years. Initially, the homeowners believed they were dealing with harmless insects, but pest control revealed a more sinister reality - an infestation of the feared brown recluse spiders.

In a bid to rid the home of these unwelcome guests, scientists embarked on a three-month mission, working through the night to capture the spiders. While some had to be killed to prevent their escape, most were captured alive.

After six months, a staggering 2,055 spiders had been collected, with the majority classified as "small" spiders.

It's thought that many of these small spiders were relatively young, as brown recluse spiders are not typically venomous until they reach around 5mm in length.

The study, published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, estimated that there were approximately 488 venomous spiders in the heavily infested home.

Surprisingly, despite the large number of venomous spiders, the family living in the house had not been bitten and remained unharmed.

"Despite a conservative estimate of 400 envenomation-capable brown recluses in the Kansas home (≈20 percent of the total recluses captured), no envenomations of the occupants occurred," the study confirmed. It also noted that bites from recluse spiders are often misdiagnosed and their severity can be overstated.

The team cited a similar survey in Chile that found another family who had lived with hundreds of spiders - but suffered no bites. They concluded that doctors, particularly in areas where spiders are not widely found, are misdiagnosing dermatological lesions as bites from the spider.