Living in a home with brown recluse spiders might sound like a nightmare to most people, but as Sunni Son shared with PEOPLE, it’s just a reality of life in Arkansas. The 37-year-old mother has spent nearly two years documenting her family’s experience with these venomous arachnids, and despite what you might see on social media, she insists, “I have never felt more calm in this journey.” She posts her experiences on TikTok under the handle @lambbchops.
The outlet noted that the internet often reacts with panic or suggestions that she should pack up and move, but Son is staying put. She says that moving would likely just lead her family to another home where these spiders are just as prevalent. For Son, the reality of living with them became impossible to ignore in June 2024, when a tornado tore through their property.
She has shared that the storm damaged the roof and destroyed trees, which likely disturbed the spiders and forced them to become more visible as they searched for food. Son spotted the first spider crawling toward her in the living room, and after identifying it online as a brown recluse, she took the situation seriously. She immediately called in professionals, noting that she has never been a DIY person when it comes to pest control.
The house is as much their habitat as it is hers
The brown recluse is a native species to the United States and is well-known for being a significant issue in states like Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas. According to the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, the brown recluse is a medium-sized, soft-bodied spider that can be notoriously difficult to manage without a deep understanding of its habits.
These spiders are primarily nocturnal, hiding in dark corners during the day, which is exactly how they earned their name. They thrive on small insects, and their presence can be a real headache for homeowners and pest control professionals alike.
The challenge, as Son has been told by multiple experts, is that total eradication is “virtually impossible.” However, she revealed, “Recluses have shown up in every corner of our home and it’s never been concentrated. There isn’t a place seemingly off limits to them.” This reality led her to take extensive precautions. “I am a very stubborn person and did not want to believe that, so that’s why I started doing everything I could to help with the situation,” she said
She told PEOPLE that her family invested in targeted treatments, including having the walls and crawl spaces fogged and using extensive trapping methods. She has also changed her family’s daily habits, ditching cardboard boxes for plastic storage bins, using robot vacuums to keep floors clear, and making it a strict rule to shake out clothing before putting it on.
The danger of these spiders became very personal on Mother’s Day 2025, when Son was bitten. She explained to PEOPLE, “I wasn’t aware then that their initial bites don’t often hurt, so I didn’t feel it bite me and figured I was in the clear,” Son admits. “It was about two hours later that I started feeling severe pain. It was in the middle of my back, almost on my spine.”
She admitted that the following days were brutal, involving body sweats, severe joint pain, a full-body rash, and swollen joints. She couldn’t get out of bed for 48 hours. The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture notes that while only about 35 percent of bite victims experience the severe, necrotic tissue damage often associated with these spiders, the systemic reactions can be serious, sometimes requiring hospitalization.
Despite her painful recovery, Son told PEOPLE that the bite never became necrotic. She remains transparent about her experience online, acting as a resource for others who find themselves in similar situations.
She noted that her viewers often assume she is dealing with a massive infestation, but she clarifies that pest control professionals have told her otherwise. A true infestation would typically involve finding 20 to 30 spiders in traps overnight, whereas “In our case, we may find five to six [spiders] in a single trap over a few months.”
She told PEOPLE, “Our home has a few spiders, but it also has so much wildlife that we wouldn’t get anywhere else in the area. Before the tornado, we had a shady backyard full of trees, and now I have a beautiful backyard oasis and garden where my kids play. From the bad comes the good.”
Son isn’t the only TikToker to share stories of creepy crawlies. One Montana woman shared that her house is also filled with wildlife, just of the snake variety. However, one Australian mom got a little too familiar with spiders when she found them in her underwear.
Published: Jun 17, 2026 09:57 am