A report in the East Oregonian (subscription needed) about a woman who had ten pounds of skin and tissue removed after being bitten by a spider was picked up by the Associated Press and made its way into papers across the country. But Rod Crawford, Curator of Arachnids at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum, posted a doubting Reader Comment to the East Oregonian’s site: “…99% of the time these cases are caused by about 50 different non-spider-related medical conditions; recently, the dominant cause is skin eruptions caused by antibiotic-resistant staph infections, which can be quite serious if not treated for what it really is by medical personnel who believe in the common superstitions about spiders.” He went on to chastise the paper for not consulting a spider expert (the reporter did talk to a local entomologist). The Seattle PI printed reactions today from “dubious” and “exasperated” arachnid experts echoing Crawford’s complaints.