Brown Recluse Spider Bites - Now is the time to spray your house! (graphic pictures)

myself ^ | 5/9/03 | brigette

[stlnative]

This is a semi-vanity post - but others should learn about this nasty little spider and the damage it can do.

This is my 3rd day into my second Brown Recluse Spider bite that I have had in the past 3 years. The first one took over 6 months to heal and left a 3/4" diameter crater in the back of my neck at my hairline. I was bitten again 3 days ago, at least that is when I notice a pin head size bump on my right forearm and thought it was just a mosquito bite. Today is day three and I decided to keep a record of this new bite this time if it decides to get worse or hang around for 6 months like the other one. It was pin head size 3 days ago. I found a website after my first bite that keeps records and case pictures of brown recluse spider bites (warning if you think snake bites are nasty or anthrax sores are gross - well Brown Spider Bites are just as bad - they get uglier as time goes by!). I did not record my first bite as I figured it would just heal. But it got worse and worse as the weeks went by.

Anyway people in the midwest should learn about these nasty little spiders, even more if you have kids... you should bug bomb your house often and keep clutter away from and inside your homes. Right now the little nasty things are moving back indoors due to all the rainy weather we have had in the midwest.

Today is 5/9/03 and I am into my 3 day of being bitten by BRS (Brown Recluse Spider). My picture below looks like it is not much of anything and I am hoping that it stays as little as it now. But I am prepared to record it this time if it does get worse. Hopefully my picture of my 3 day old bite will help others recognize when they have also been bitten by a BRS, everyone is affected differently depending on the size of the spider and how your body handle the poison. Since this is my second bite it may not get any worse.



I have started a bite history on a website that has records of over 400 BRS bites (tons of photos there that would make your jaw drop if you have never seen what a BRS can do to you once it bites you) My case number is #995 (maybe they have 995 recorded cases now) the website url is http://www.highway60.com/mark/brs/default.htm

My little bite is how all of it starts for some people, that little bite can turn into this...
Graphic Picture of Hand after a BRS bite and the link to this persons BRS bite story

I don't think I need to say more here - just visit the BRS Bite site and use the search link at the top... Put in the information you want (if you just want to see the stories with pictures check off just the "Yes" next to the Picture option and hit the search button at the bottom.

Do yourself a favor and your kids a favor... spray or bomb your house at least once each season (spring, summer, fall, winter). You can buy house bombs at any local discount store in packs of 3 for about $6.00.

I posted this so that people mainly in the midwest can learn about these nasty little spiders, I didn't do it to draw attention to my own bite... I just know now how nasty they can get and how you can lessen your chances of being bit. I got bit before I had a chance to bomb my house... it has been rainy here and I should have known they would start coming in through the cracks between the window screens and window frame. All in all I should be fine, but some people do not fair as well.

[stlnative]

Here is a perfect example of case that is like yours possibly and shows it as the days go by, it looks like nothing at first... and then it gets ugly... but not as bad as some cases have.

[Chameleon]

I got an itching about mid-day yeserday on the hip right at my wastline underneath the boxer strecth band and belt.

I realized it was a bite, and my wife noticed it last night. Last night it had a pin hole in the middle of a red swelled area about the size of a dime (but oval in shape) that was raised like a welt, maybe 1/8 an inch, but uniformly raised.

Tonight it was about the size of a quarter, still oval in shape. There is a distinct hole in the middle of if, and another less noticable hole about 1/4 inch high from the center.

The swelling seems to have gone down, but the holes are perhaps even more noticable than before. But right now it's confused with some red marks where I touched the taser directly to my skin, and the belt/boxer marks right on my wasteline.

I'll see what it loos like in the morning, and if it still looks sketchy, I'll figure out how to get some pictures up.

[RIGHT IN SEATTLE]

That leg looks like a hot personal pizza!

[knuthom]

Pets can also be bitten

My beagle was bitten. The vet had to anesthetize her and cut out the dead tissue. It healed okay, but she has a bald spot on her leg where no hair will grow.

I also know of a pregnant woman who was bitten and lost her baby as a result. Another thing for pregnant women to worry about.

As for the shock therapy, might the dog shock collar work? Would that be strong enough if applied directly to the bite?

[Chameleon]

I think the shock method is a big ? - whether it works or not...So you'd be experimenting with a dog collar or stun gun.

But you can get stun guns for around $17 (i.e. www.familydefense.com), and I'd get the cheapest, least powerful ones they sell for this kind of application, as the voltage should be plenty high.

[MattAMiller]

We had those in Southern California as well. I got a nasty bite when I was 12. If left untreated they can do major tissue damage. It's nothing to get paniced about, but make sure you get any unusual bites treated. Never let the doctor tell you it's nothing unless he's taken a really really good look at it.

[stlnative]

Here is the latest of mine - I had to press my arm up to the glass on the scanner while the scanner went through it's high res scan. So some of the redness does not appear since I had my arm press against the glass. The core is is slightly bigger now and about 1/16" of inch across. The first outer ring is about 3/8" of inch across. 2 new blisters have popped up and are those smaller reddish dots directly to the right and left of the core. the rashy dry skin area around it seems to be on one side only right now and is about 1" in diameter. The core is sunken in with the first outer ring being raised, It almost looks like a cigarette burn that is healing. It is itching like crazy and hurts to even have anything touch it lightly.

I do not think will get very bad, it may end up leaving a small 3/8" diameter core that will eventually turn black and flake out leaving a scar and a slight crater in my arm. As I said I will keep an eye on it and if it is worse by Monday I will see my doctor. I know the one on the back of head a couple years ago stayed about this size for quite some time before it expanded to about 3/4" across with a huge crater. The larger it gets the longer it takes to heal.

Do yourself and your family a favor and at least go buy some bug foggers from Wal-Mart and set them off and leave the house for few hours. Then do a hunt for dead spiders and check their backs for the violin or fiddle shape on their backs, on young ones it is harder to see the fiddle shape. Make sure you open up your closets as I bet yours may have been inside your clothes when you put them on.

Gee I have hairy arms!

[stlnative]

http://www.sabramsmd.com/

Welcome to the web site of Stan Abrams, M.D. The purpose of this site is to provide you with hard-to-find information in two areas:

Many people are sensitive to the bite of the Brown Recluse Spider, and endure needless suffering including amputation or death due to lack of good information readily available to medical personnel. The Treatment of Brown Recluse Spider Bites section provides details of a simple first aid treatment of venomous bites that is usually all the treatment needed to resolve the problem.

The Health through Nutrition section provides an explanation of the Health Model, through proper nutrition, and the Disease Model, which only treats symptoms. Also included are descriptions of AIM nutritional supplements.

[stlnative]

An excellent close up of a Brown Recluse Spider

Notice the 6 light dots (3 sets of 2 eyes) on the botton area of the fiddle marking and the obvious fiddle shape of the upper front part of the spider.

A very good article on IDing the BRS and other spiders.
Identifying and Misidentifying the Brown Recluse Spider

[sport]

Bookmarked

[WaterDragon]

When I had about 20 guinnea hens I hardly ever saw a single bug. They are gone now due to biosecurity measures.

What do you mean, your guinnea hens are gone due to "biosecurity measures?" I live too far north to be much troubled by creepy crawlies, but still....guinnea hens sound good.

[WaterDragon]

I don't believe you.

[piasa]

Hope you're putting some Neosporin on that...

[Bella_Bru]

Hair spray is a great bug killer/torturer. When i was in FL, I loved killing those big, naty, flying roaches with it.

[diamond6]

LOL

[Mugwumps]

The stun gun treatment sounds very effective. Tea Tree oil has healed bites from the deadly funnel web spider. From http://www.living-library.com/dodt/teatree.htm :

"As an interesting conclusion, the following sheds some light on the antitoxic properties of tea-tree oil.

The venom toxicity of the black widow spider may be matched by that of the funnel web spider found only in New South Wales, Australia. This spider first made the news in 1927 when a two-yearold boy was bitten by one and died within ninety minutes. Since then five other deaths have been reported. The latest was a seventeen- year-old pregnant woman, who died in Sydney in 1970 after being bitten on the breast.

The following account dates from May 1983, and comes from Harry H. Bungwahl, New South Wales.

"A rather extraordinary episode happened to me recently involving teatree oil. I was bitten on the foot by a funnel- web spider... it happened at night time about I a.m. He gave me a vicious bite, and it was very painful ... I lay down on the bed and tried to think of some way to soothe the pain of the bite, which was very severe. I then thought of the small bottle of tea-tree oil which was in the bathroom. My wife went and got it and applied some to the bite and there was an immediate easing of the pain. My wife then went to ring up Taree Hospital, and while she was doing that I put some more tea-tree oil onto the bite which, in a short time, stopped being panful! My son drove me to the Taree hospital - the foot was no longer painful but my lips and fingers were still tingling . . . the spider was identified as a male funnel-web spider all right ... I was given no treatment but was kept under observation for a period of four hours, and then discharged."

It is interesting that both tea-tree oil and the funnel web spider are found only in New South Wales. "

[rmlew]

What would antibiotics do for a poison?

[SamAdams76]

On the subject of spiders, I don't think it is an accident that there are so many people who are "phobic" of spiders and snakes. Those are the two most dangerous things humans are likely to run into while foraging/hunting, etc. Thus, I think a fear of spiders and snakes "evolved" in humans over time and became sort of instinctive - as a self-preservation mechanism. That is why today you see people (and not just women) have a literal panic attack when one of these things suddenly appears. I know that when I run across a spider, especially a large one, my heatbeat skyrockets, my pulse quickens and I reflectively swat out at it (with a magazine or something) with the object of wanting to kill it immediately. Even if I know it is harmless. This is instinctive for me and I seem unable to control this impulse. That is why I think it is instinctive. I do not have this reaction with any kind of other bug (except maybe a wasp or hornet in which case I don't try to kill it but just run!).

[George W. Bush]

They survive the drying/crimping, raking, acid spray preservative, and then baleing to a few thousand pounds PSI.

You must have a nuclear baler.

[auggy]

Thanks Kevl!

That's the first I have ever seen of a "nest". I plan to look for them today. After looking at all of the photos they tend to scare the heck out of you.