Brown recluse Spider Bite - Scary Stuff

M.D. Holloway · 05-20-2005, 08:08 PM

Keep an eye out for these nasty buggers! I know a few guys that have been biten and it ain't pretty. Caution - pics are a bite rough but it gets the message across!

Bite after the third day:

M.D. Holloway · 05-20-2005, 08:10 PM

Forth Day:

M.D. Holloway · 05-20-2005, 08:11 PM

Day 5:

M.D. Holloway · 05-20-2005, 08:12 PM

Day 6:

M.D. Holloway · 05-20-2005, 08:13 PM

Day 9:

M.D. Holloway · 05-20-2005, 08:15 PM

Nad on the 10th day...

Oh Haha · 05-20-2005, 08:15 PM

Holy Christ, that is nasty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You keep those suckers in Texas, man.

Is he/you going to lose the finger?

M.D. Holloway · 05-20-2005, 08:33 PM

These nasty critters have been found as far north as Indiana - when we lived there, a 6yr old girl died from a bite.

Met a guy that got bit by one that crawled into his bed - lost most of his tricep, another guy was a Dallas Water dept worker, lost a good portion of his soleus (calf muscle).

I have killed a few Brown Recluse here, killed more Black Widows - 6 to date. A good friend got bit by a Black Widow years ago in AZ - worst time of his life. Interesting thing, in the past 50 years, only a dozen or so people have died from Black Widow bites.

bryanthompson · bryanthompson's Garage

daaaamn!! my dad was bitten by one of those when he was real young, and it didn't get anywhere near that bad. He said what they did "back in the day" was to get some super hot water, almost boiling but not quite, put it in a coke bottle, and hold it upside down over the bite. I guess it sucks the posion out somehow?

Bob's Flat-Six · Bob's Flat-Six's Garage

Mike,
I feel for your buddy.

Thanks for posting this. I was blown away buy the last pic's.

What's the prognosis ?

cstreit · cstreit's Garage

I guess it would... As the water cooled it would create vacuum...

My aunt got bitten by one of those. From what I understand, you stand to lose a fair amount of mass when they bite you. I guess living in the cold north ain't so bad afterall.

Chris

Bob's Flat-Six · Bob's Flat-Six's Garage

My wife works in the medical field and said with something as serious as this you need to go to the right place for treatment.
A research hospital is what she advised, Like UCLA.

vash · vash's Garage

wait a second. did your buddy go to the doctor right away? that last photo, is hideous.

thank you so much for posting the photo of the spider, i will smash them. they dont attack, do they? even a black widow will retreat, unless there is an eggsack.

M.D. Holloway · 05-20-2005, 08:57 PM

Chris - they get to Illinois!

Bob's Flat Six - the pics or from my friends brother-in-law. I was told he lost a good chunk of his hand. The poison is different than the Black Widows which seems to arrest the nervous system. As best that I understand it, the Brown Recluse releases some sort of enzyme that eats away at the protein in your muscle and it basically rots on your body. I should scan the web and see it I can't learn more.

M.D. Holloway · 05-20-2005, 09:05 PM

Vash - those lil bastids are aggressive! They like to hide (hence the name) but when disrupted they go for you. Thats speaking from experience. I guess they have a pretty keen sense of self awareness and know that they will quickly perish but not before putting some serious hurt onto you! Gotta luv it.

The Black Widows I have killed all were very timid and ide upon provocation. If I didn't have kids, I would have let them go their marry way but a huge fear would be seeing Emmy or Max reach into their toybox or into a corner to get a ball and get hit by one. They wouldn't stand a chance and it's a slow demise. Problem with the anti-venom for the Balck Widows is that you can only take it once in your life. Take it again and it will kill you. Get bit again after it and you will be in reallyy bad shape.

djmcmath · 05-20-2005, 10:42 PM

While I was in college, a whole wing of the dorm building was infested with those buggers. They didn't come out until after the lights were off. You'd flip the switch and wait, and about 30 seconds later you'd hear the scrabbling. Flip the lights back on and watch half-a-dozen skitter back into the ceiling. Crazy. I could not have slept, no chance.

Miraculously, I never heard that anyone got bitten, though I don't know if it's a miracle of non-biting or of a brilliant coverup in the tiny crowd of tight-knit students.

Dan

elwood-914 · 05-21-2005, 05:23 AM

Yuck! I can usually take gory pictures but those freaked me out. I'll gladly deal with the black widows, rattlesnakes and small scorpions here.

88BlueTSiQuest · 05-21-2005, 06:35 AM

The part of Kansas I live in is heavily populated by Recluse spiders. In KS, they are considered a 'common house spider'. I killed 2 just last week, one that had fallen in the kitchen sink that was a full grown adult(roughly the size of a half dollar with all legs extended, and one that my daughter had found under the trash can in our master bedroom that was the size of a nickel.

I don't blindly kill spiders, I always identify them before killing, as some spiders I like having in the house as they arent' a nuissance and kill other bugs. But the only spider I have found in this house are Recluse, which is really starting to concern me, as our chances of being bitten are obviously pretty high.

I have acquired a sort of morbid curiousity of them though. They are somewhat interesting to watch, as they appear to be pretty clumsy and lack grace, for a spider. The adults have such long legs, that they appear to wonder around in a drunken state. The juveniles move like normal spiders. I have only seen 1 adult that I cornered take on a defensive poster, none of the juveniles have ever done this.

The easiest way to properly identify a Recluse is to first look for the lack of markings on it's abdomen, as it'll be a uniform color and can vary from tan to grey, see the pic above. The 'fiddle' is sometimes pronounced, like in the above pic, on the spider's head, but a lot of spiders tend to have this marking, and it can fade on some adults. The BEST way to identify them is by their eye pattern. Most spiders have 8 eyes all facing forward. Recluse have 6 eyes in paired clusters. All on top of their head, with 2 facing forward, 2 left and 2 right. There's only 1 other spider in the states with this eye arangement, and those are harmless spitting spiders in Florida.

I always grab a flashlight and shine it on the spider's head, to varify this eye arangement before killing it(just making a mental note of how many I find). To date, we bought this house in November, and I have killed roughly 20 Recluse spiders in that 6 months time.

88BlueTSiQuest · 05-21-2005, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by LubeMaster77
. I should scan the web and see it I can't learn more.

Here's a decent page. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2061.html

88BlueTSiQuest · 05-21-2005, 06:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by LubeMaster77

The Black Widows I have killed all were very timid and ide upon provocation. If I didn't have kids, I would have let them go their marry way but a huge fear would be seeing Emmy or Max reach into their toybox or into a corner to get a ball and get hit by one. They wouldn't stand a chance and it's a slow demise. Problem with the anti-venom for the Balck Widows is that you can only take it once in your life. Take it again and it will kill you. Get bit again after it and you will be in reallyy bad shape.

Black Widows are known to be able to kill with their poisen. And I've heard that a Widow bite is one of the most painful things to endure. But I guess once you get over the initial pain, it's overwith, aside from the occasion relapse of pain(psychological?).

A Recluse bite is a gift that keeps on giving, so-to-speak. I have heard that some Recluse bites never heal, and amputation is used at times.