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Brown Recluse Spider in Northern Virginia? (vanity)
myself | 6/1/2005 | Pyro7480

Posted on 06/01/2005 7:17:47 AM PDT by Pyro7480

I share a duplex house with two other people. My room is the basement, while the other two live in rooms on the second floor. We share the living room, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor. Our house is just outside the DC Beltway in northern Virginia, south of Alexandria.

On Sunday, one of my roommates was apparently bitten by a brown recluse spider. She didn't get it looked at immediately, since she thought it was just a really bad pimple. By yesterday, however, it was quite apparent that something was wrong. She went to a doctor, and the diagnosis was confirmed, that she was bitten by a brown recluse. The doctor told her that they get a bunch of these in the summer months in the area.

I was under the impression that the brown recluse was only found in the south central region of the United States. Are they now prevalent enough in Virginia to cause the doctor to say such a thing? It doesn't make sense to me that she was bitten, most likely in her room on the second floor, while I haven't even seen anything that looks like a brown recluse spider in my basement room. You would think that something like that would more likely get into a basement than into a second floor room.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: brownrecluse; spider; virginia
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To: gieriscm

ping...


121 posted on 06/01/2005 8:38:42 AM PDT by BCR #226
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To: ArmedNReady

"The only time that I had a really bad problem with a bite was the first bite."

I must really be losing it! I forgot about the time when I was bitten on my hand. It got infected, "healed" but the infection remained, got down to the bone, infection turned to sepsis. Required over a year of several antibiotics.


122 posted on 06/01/2005 8:39:21 AM PDT by ArmedNReady (Islam, the Cancer on Humanity.)
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To: ArmedNReady

Cool , I'd like that , as I said , we had lots of spider books


123 posted on 06/01/2005 8:42:27 AM PDT by Dad yer funny
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To: pbrown
"I kill all spiders now"

Just leave the Jumping Spiders and the Golden Garden Spiders.

If you leave the Mud Dappers alone, the will take care of the spiders. That is all they do, catch spiders to fill their nest.

124 posted on 06/01/2005 8:43:31 AM PDT by Deguello
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To: ctlpdad
If you kill a spider you make it rain.

That's worked well here in New Mexico this year. It didn't work for the last five years though.

125 posted on 06/01/2005 8:51:09 AM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: Doctor Stochastic

You killed 'em there & made it rain here.


126 posted on 06/01/2005 8:52:07 AM PDT by ctlpdad (Liberals - weeds in the lawn of society.)
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To: bonfire
I lived in TX for 11 years and I NEVER killed spider without checking it out w/a magnifying glass first.

I've lived in TX for 30 years off and on (going to be on again, be forewarned); I never had enough spider left to use a magnifier on.

To be fair; if it's in the house, it's dead. If it's in the yard, I just give it some room. Of course, everywhere in the world is within 5 feet of a spider.

127 posted on 06/01/2005 9:01:29 AM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: Grendel9

Yes - they're definitely in Illinois/Wisconsin area. My sister is a doctor, and used to live in Oak Brook. She treated a few bites every year, and always warned me about them. A few of the bites that she saw came from people who were bitten while sitting on portable toilets. The spider was under the seat, and didn't like being sat on.


128 posted on 06/01/2005 9:01:48 AM PDT by July 4th (A vacant lot cancelled out my vote for Bush.)
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To: Doctor Stochastic

I had to refrain from smashing the CRAP out of them before I identified. I was a nervous wreck about recluse spiders! I probably had them, but never knew!


129 posted on 06/01/2005 9:09:15 AM PDT by bonfire (dwindler)
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To: Puddleglum
My gorgeous feral cat Spot was bitten in three places on the jaw by some sort of spider last year. She quit eating and hid for a few days. Her chin turned all black and had to be shaved and debrided.

My vet's first thought was brown recluse, but he's not sure that Spot (at 13 pounds) would have survived that.

He did say that gravity probably helped save her . . . he thinks that since she was bitten on the underside of her jaw, gravity helped pull the poison downward and away from her heart, instead of being on (say) her back and being pulled downward and in.
130 posted on 06/01/2005 9:15:05 AM PDT by Xenalyte (It's a Zen thing, you know, like how many babies fit in a tire.)
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To: dead
Are the bites always really really bad, or do some people just react to it worse than others?

I was bitten by one in 1985, but didn't suffer as much as some people I have heard of. I didn't feel the bite when it happened, but assumed it happened on Friday while I was at a flower nursery. That evening my left arm began to hurt, and I tho't I had unknowingly bumped my elbow, but I began to feel sick. The next morning I nearly fainted twice, but did not associate it with my arm hurting. On Monday, the arm was swollen and red, so I went to the doctor and told him I must be losing my mind that I had bumped my elbow and didn't remember doing it. He said I had been bitten my a brown recluse spider, and had me look at my elbow in a large mirror. You could see the puncture mark, but there was a white ring the size of a dime around the bite, which is characteristic of the brown recluse bite. My arm was swollen and red from the elbow to my shoulder and the pain was terrible. I don't remember what the doctor prescribed, but he would not allow me to go on a planned trip. I made several visits to his office that week, and on Friday he lanced it, and I took antibiotics until the infection was cleared up. Maybe the skin on the elbow is tougher than the skin on other parts of the body and that kept me from having a worse experience and a bad scar. It was bad enough and I wouldn't want to repeat it.

131 posted on 06/01/2005 9:40:57 AM PDT by PeskyOne
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To: dead

A buddy of mine was bitten in South Jersey.


132 posted on 06/01/2005 9:55:10 AM PDT by Renegade
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To: Pyro7480
[ How should I eliminate the threat of being bitten myself? Should I call an exterminator? ]

Eliminate the cockroaches that the brown recluse lives on..

133 posted on 06/01/2005 10:08:54 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been ok'ed by me to included some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: hosepipe
I haven't even seen roaches in the house. Only the other common insect that feeds on trash - ants.
134 posted on 06/01/2005 10:11:10 AM PDT by Pyro7480 ("All my own perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded upon Our Lady." - Tolkien)
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To: absolootezer0

I have seen coyotes, (lots) bald eagles (twice) Wolves, (twice) BEARS, black widow spiders, wild turkeys, golden eagles, and rattlesnakes. All of this in the Lower Peninsula, west of Ann Arbor.

Michigan has all sorts of things, some more pleasant thaan others.


135 posted on 06/01/2005 10:56:44 AM PDT by tiamat (Can't sleep...clowns will get me..can't sleep...clowns will get me...can't sleep....clowns will get)
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To: dead

Actually, I have friends who were bitten here in New Jersey. And, yes, it is nasty!!


136 posted on 06/01/2005 10:57:49 AM PDT by Betteboop
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

Thanks for sharing those wonderfully disgusting photos.


137 posted on 06/01/2005 10:59:01 AM PDT by Betteboop
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To: SwinneySwitch
They are all around S. Texas.

Yep. I've killed lots of them and scorpians too. We have a quartely pest control contract here in central Texas.
138 posted on 06/01/2005 11:16:08 AM PDT by Liberty Valance (If you must filibuster, it's because you don't have the votes to win honestly)
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To: Pyro7480
Call an exterminator. Set up an "Initial Clean-out". He will have to spray for all insects in your home, because that's why the spiders are there. You can't spray for spiders unless the technician can actually hit them while he's treating. So little of their body ever touches a surface that fogs are really your only recourse to eliminate them immediately.

Set up a monthly service to treat for all pests. Once the food source is gone, the spiders will leave also.

Good luck!

139 posted on 06/01/2005 11:25:55 AM PDT by acad1228
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To: tiamat

yep. gotta love the various wildlife around here. i've seen all of those but the bears and wolves just south west of lansing, and i've seen wolves and bears further north. my favourite was one species of snake which is supposedly endangered, that we found.


140 posted on 06/01/2005 12:03:08 PM PDT by absolootezer0 ("My God, why have you forsaken us.. no wait, its the liberals that have forsaken you... my bad")
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