I'd like to think anyone with a brain will mix a bit of riot cover in to protect from raider rush and to be honest I think Firewalkers are actually a bit overrated vs recluse. I don't think I've ever beaten a determined recluse push with firewalkers. They might stall the advance but the best recluse solution in jump fac is cloaked juggle (which has the benefit of generally eating crabs as well).
But yes, most things cloaked will chew them. Cloaked snitches are particularly delicious. If you can draw them into fairly open terrain, fencers eat them as well (and badgers might have merit in pushing them off their cliffs into fencers (or at least pushing them back). A conventional shield ball can stack racketeers (the price difference between 280m recluse and 350m racketeer isn't that big, especially when racketeer will also negate anything heavy in the spider ball as well). Gunship facswap offers nimbus clearance. Airswap offers phoenix. Spider has good AA of course, but if you can do enough damage on that first strike you can retake ground.
That said I've done some recluse vs raider Science (recluses vs various facs on Trojan Hills - a map that is strong for spiders but ought to be viable for most bots), and found a ball of (for example 10) unescorted recluses are likely to cook equal value of any raider with a larger hitbox than a glaive as they approach (especially bandits and ducks). Pyro vs recluse ball seemed to be about 50:50. Equal value of blitzes might prevail provided there isn't safe spider ground nearby (Kodas are likely to destroy themselves unless microed very well).
Anyway, I've just given three different archetypal strategies to counter skirmishers (outrange, cloaked advance, airswap) on top of raiders (which do work in low density situations, likewise stingers at key points). Do we really need more options?
As
Aquanim says, facing overwhelming recluse balls is not a cause of failure but a symptom of it. For that recluse ball to grow to battlefield dominating size means you've failed to deal with the threat a long time up to that point.
10 recluses are almost as costly as a scorpion. A single scorpion used right can end a game. It's really no surprise that similar value of Recluses used as intended should be decisive as well.
