Although not "native", brown recluses have been found in Alachua, Bay, Duval, Jefferson, and Leon counties and Meditatranean recluses found as far south as Dade.
the worst brown recluse case I saw was right here in Hudson FL, not sure where she was when bitten.
I heard Missouri was the worst for brown recluse. where I was from up north it was the lyme tick. funny, I've had fire ants all over my feet and hands while gardening/working around the yard and sometimes they don't bite, other times they will bite for no apparent reason. on the other hand I'm a magnet for bee stings. picked up a rock in Utah once with a scorpion on the underside of it and lucked out. I've been told to always wear gloves while working with the soil down here due to a lot of harmfull bacteria in the dirt, but rarely do.
My point is, brown recluse are not an established species in the state of Florida. The only ones ever found are isolated incidents, where they have been brought in via luggage or moving and only like 2 breeding populations have been found, ever.
We as bug men hear many times a year that people have BR's in their house, and it simply is not true. Also seems every time someone gets a spider bite they say its from a BR. Happened to my mother in law, and a guy that worked for me several years ago. Both dr's said it was BR bites.I had to educate both dr's on this fact
At the end of the day, I don't claim to be a dr, but dr's aren't bug men either
Read this article on the BR
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/spiders/brown_recluse_spider.htm
Here is what attributes most of the bites claimed to be from a BR
http://pesteliminators.org/SpidersYellowSacSpiders.aspx
