Brown Recluse Spider in Northern Virginia? (vanity)

myself | 6/1/2005 | Pyro7480

[BCR #226]

ping...

[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.

[Dad yer funny]

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

[Deguello]

"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.

[Doctor Stochastic]

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.

[ctlpdad]

You killed 'em there & made it rain here.

[Doctor Stochastic]

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.

[July 4th]

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.

[bonfire]

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!

[Xenalyte]

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.

[PeskyOne]

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.

[Renegade]

A buddy of mine was bitten in South Jersey.

[hosepipe]

[ How should I eliminate the threat of being bitten myself? Should I call an exterminator? ]

Eliminate the cockroaches that the brown recluse lives on..

[Pyro7480]

I haven't even seen roaches in the house. Only the other common insect that feeds on trash - ants.

[tiamat]

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.

[Betteboop]

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

[Betteboop]

Thanks for sharing those wonderfully disgusting photos.

[Liberty Valance]

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.

[acad1228]

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!

[absolootezer0]

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.