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.

[auggy]

Thanks, Myrddin! It's along way from Pocatello to Henderson, KY(or vice versa). I think maybe, I have seen them around here. Thanks for the info.

[strela]

There's something they don't tell you about guinea hens in the manual - they scream. And scream. And scream. And scream ...

I had half a dozen a few years ago. I'll never have another.

[mdmathis6]

What is worse is the case I saw as a nurse when a patient was bitten by a recluse and she delayed treatment of the bite, using her own, Homeopathic remedies to treat it. She came into our ICU in shock...not only did the the bite itself take its toll but a certain strain of "strep" hitched a ride in thru the bite and she developed generalized Necrotizing Fasciitis. Didn't make it......:(

[RaceBannon]

My sister bit a spider once....

[Centurion2000]

YIKES ..... I knew BRS's were bad but not THAT bad.

[tictoc]

I dropped the S volume of the Britanica on a palo verde beatle once (big nasty mean ugly critters) and it was gone in the morning.

You are the first one to tell me of a use for the Britannica. (Got my set in 1994 just before the Internet blossomed, dumbest purchase I ever made.)

[RightOnline]

"My little brother got bite by a spider one time and my mother wrapped the bite with plastic wrap. I never did figure out why she did that."

Ummm............well, always heard that plastic wrap keeps meat fresh, so................

[FITZ]

He inhaled enough insecticide to cause severe liver damage.

I'm glad you pointed that out ---I won't use insecticides.

[AppyPappy]

If you don't have them but they live around you, they will scare the devil out of you.

[blackdog]

Scrapie control. Guinneas free range and can bring disease/spread it. What would be the point of having Guinneas and having them penned?

[daylate-dollarshort]

"These things are not a problem down here where I am."

I wouldn't count on that.

I notice that you live in Georgia. My brother lives in Gwinnett County (Berkeley Lake) and he discovered them in his home and a storabe shed in his backyard.

The University of GA has a current program to discover their range throughout the state. They acknowlege the spiders presence they just don't know how many and the distribution.

There was a popular notion that the Brown Recluse was only flound in the Panhandle area of our state (Florida) but that is absolutely untrue. Three years ago, a fellow about two miles from here was bitten on the leg by one and died despite treatment.

My wife was bitten by a Brown Recluse on her right thigh. The ulcerating infection spread quickly to some orthopedic hardware in her knee. She had to undergo surgery to remove the hardware followed by two and a half months of IV antibitics. She is fine.

It should be noted that these spiders are found worldwide, most commonly in the tropics, with some species reaching temperate latitudes. Here in Florida we are blessed with three varieties of the buggers, all very poisonous:

Loxosceles reclusa, the brown recluse
Loxosceles rufescens, the Mediterranean recluse
Loxosceles laeta, the Chilean recluse

I would be very surprised indeed if you have some where you are.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

They don't like open places. The Empress Palpatine used to get annoyed with me for alloing spiders to survive in our home, until she began to realize that living in the woods tends to lend itself to having a lot of bugs around - and that spiders tend to control that.

[daylate-dollarshort]

Get a new map!!

[Mamzelle]

A flock of hens can be helpful. I've noticed the areas they frequent on my property are less likely to have ticks.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

We have a mixed wood lot - some pine, some hardwood, some cedar. Ticks galore. I hit the low hanging spots with Sevin dust in April and again in June, and will dust the dog and the cat with it this week (the vet said it was probably OK - I haven't noticed any ill effect from it), and we normally don't have a tick problem the rest of the summer.

[Mr. Jeeves]

We had Tarantulas twice as big as grapefruits everywhere. The darn things actually seemed to travel around in herds of hundreds of spiders. We kids used to catch them and tie a string around their waist with the other end pinned to our shirt. They're a pretty docile critter in spite of standing a foot high and being big, black and hairy.

LOL! How did they get along with your jackalopes?

[daylate-dollarshort]

"I would be very surprised indeed if you have some where you are."

Make that, "...if you didn't have some where you are."

[Ronaldus Magnus]

Seven bites in Wisconsin on the linked website alone! What do you suppose it would take to drive these little buggers to extinction?

[SarahW]

Also, it doens't have to be a recluse to give you a nasty, nasty bite... any violin spider (there is more than one kind) bite can be very bad.

[Twinkie]

A good non-poisonous thing to use in addition to the bug
bomb is diatomaceous earth. You have to not get that on
your hands and in your eyes, though. I sprinkle it on
window sills and outside door thresholds all the way
across and about an inch wide area. Anything that crawls
in through the window or across the threshold will have to
crawl through the diatomaceous earth and it causes them to
quickly dry up. I find all sorts of dead bugs on my window
sills where they try to crawl in. If kids or pets play on
the floors, just work it in the carpet so they won't get
into it.