Beardstown pre-K stay open, sets traps for brown recluse spiders
BEARDSTOWN, Ill. (AP) - School officials in Beardstown say a pre-kindergarten school in the central Illinois town is infested with spiders.
Superintendent Robert Bagby says 14 brown recluse spiders were found Monday in traps set overnight at Grand Avenue School.
Exterminators have laid hundreds of traps in the school since last week.
Bites from the spider are rare and usually minor. But in some instances they can cause lesions and symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.
Bagby says no students or staff have been bitten.
Amy Davidsmeyer kept her daughter home from the school yesterday. She thinks school should have been canceled because of the age of the children.
The school has an enrollment of 138 students.
(Beardstown is 21 miles northwest of Jacksonville.)
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