Brown Recluse Spider

Jerry,

Sure hope it wasn’t a “brown” the effects can be nasty and long lasting. Not to scare you, but keep an eye on it. I had a student that was bitten on the leg. It took skin grafts to finally get it healed.

As soon as you get back in your shop, I want you to make one of these- the one in the middle-

Then when you see another spider- go Gallagher on him!

Lew

Hey Jerry…

About 3 years ago, my wife was out in our barn, and she got bitten in the back of the left knee. It hurt her, and we kept an eye on it, but did not suspect a spider bite. About 30-36 hours after the bite, she got a huge fever and almost passed out. I looked at the site where she was having pain and thought, “oh God, we’ve got to get her to a Dr.” Lots of antibiotics and some dead tissue later… man what an ordeal. We’ve learned our lesson since then.

I totally agree with Lew…

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Nasty little buggers. I took a bite on the upper thigh several years back. There was a zone of necrotic (dead) tissue approximately 1/2˝ in diameter and about an 1/8˝ deep around the bite. It took a long time to fill back in. Jerry – you can Gallagher one for me anytime.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

Oh I am keeping an eye on it since the swelling and bruising is still there. I hope it wasn’t a Brown also. I’ll get a couple of pictures when the wife brings my camera home from work.

-- Jerry, Measure 10 times cut once. Set in the foothills of the Smokey's

I had spider almost get the best of me a few years back. I was at a wedding and when we were leaving I walked into a spider. The thing bit me right below the throat. I didn’t think to much of it. the next thing i know I was puking everywhere. I couldn’t talk and I was sweating something fierce. My wife and sister decided I had to much fun so they took me home for the night. I could hear my wife saying something isn;t right, but i couldn’t say boo.

The next day i had what i called a sheriff badge on my chest. The red and white bullseye type marking was rather large and off to the ER i went. AT the time we weren’t sure what it was that got me. We just hoped it wasn’t a brown recluse because of the skin issue. I guess I was rather lucky it wasn’t worse.

I hope everything works out ok for you.

A photo is worth a thousand words – here is what this little spider can do (and no, this isn’t me or anyone I know, just something that was forwarded to us). But PLEASE, if you are squeamish, you might want to pass on the pictures . . . not pretty!

Day 3 http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk185/TomStockbridge/day3.jpg

Day 5 http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk185/TomStockbridge/day5.jpg

Day 6 http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk185/TomStockbridge/day6.jpg

Day 9 http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk185/TomStockbridge/day9.jpg

Day 10 http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk185/TomStockbridge/day10.jpg

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

I live in Central FL where we have EVERYTHING that crawls, flies, bites, stings or eats you. We’ve had a problem for the past few years with Brown Widows, an African import. They’re just as deadly as their Black kin. They have the same egg sacks that are spikey and white as cotton and NEVER smash ‘em with your bare flesh. The webs are irregular and usually there’s no other sign of her BUT, she’s around and you’d best keep an eye out. The only advantage is that widows are shy and don’t really like attention. Bites are uncommon and usually due to disturbing them in their hiding place.

Widows hunt at night so if you like to putter in the garage in the evening, wear your gloves when turning lumber over and don’t forget to look up. Also, if one is established, you’ll note whitish fallout [fecal matter] around her lair. Sometimes that’s all you’ll see. If you do, look above the fallout for a hiding place, a nook or cranny or some other smallish space large enough for a spider about the size of your pinky to fit in. Hose it with poison and wait. She’ll drop out eventually. Then you can ID her by flipping her over with a stick to see the bright orange to red hourglass on her abdomen. Creepy!

As a side note, I allow Daddy Long-Legs to stay around as they are a natural enemy of widows. Their fangs are too short to harm humans but they have no problem with widows. Other than that, I keep a can of Raid handy.

always,
J.C.

P.S. Sac, do not suffer fools in hospitals lightly, they have a tendency to bury their mistakes. Seek someone who’ll listen to you and take you serious. Recluse bites aren’t usually fatal but as those pics show, they are disfiguring and can lead to worse conditions like myelitis or MRSA which CAN kill you.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

I don’t want to really get into it, but my husband was bit around 72 hours ago by something on his neck. He was sure, as I was, it was a brown. His neck is pretty nasty but is not bruised. It looks nothing like the pictures on the links here.It happened in bed, he woke up asking me to look at it. The only way I could explain it is it looked like this () A smile and a frown together,that was bright red with a whole bunch of red dots around it. It was no time at all that it looked like connect the dots. It is now this huge scab looking thing. He did not get ill. It’s funny how things happen. I am so thankful for this post, as we were both sure this was a brown recluse that had done this.
Thank you so very much. I also am praying yours was not either. I can not thank you enough for posting this when you did. I myself almost died of a spider bite in 1992. So they can be very serious.
Again thanks. I learned a lot here with the links and all.
PEACE!!!

-- Allison, Northeastern Ca. Remember, Amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic!

Don’t send that spider down here Sac, we have enough of those nasty critters. On e is called the redback, it likes hanging around in places like wood & outside dunnies. Not necessarily leathal but will make you very sick. another is the Funnel web, a nasty leathal critter indeed. None in my neck of the woods luckily.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Who said there are no monsters left on earth ( besides a few crazy humans), they were wrong.

-- "so much to learn and so little time"..

Good Morning folks. It’s been 38 hours now since the bite. the finger is stil swollen and bruised. No skin tissue as of 7am this morning. So it may heal and be done with. I’ll still be keeping a close eye on it. Thank you all for your support and such. Allison the timing of this post was a little uncanny it seems.

My main objective of the post was to just remind folks that there is this danger in our shops.

The home of the Black widows here in TN, well all of the ones I have seen are easily identifiable by the funnel like web leading into thier home/den.

Anyway I’ll keep you all posted if any changes take place.
Thanks again for all your post and information on this hazard in our shops.

-- Jerry, Measure 10 times cut once. Set in the foothills of the Smokey's

Thanks for the heads up. Here in So Cal we don’t have the Brown Recluse, but Black Widows are everywhere. I’ve taught the kids how to identify their webs, which are just a mess. No funnel or shape, just strands going every which way. I have found them in meter boxes, around the swimming pool, in the kid’s climbing toys, under the picnic table, in the firewood pile, just about every place imaginable.
And then we get to the rattlesnakes…

Stay safe!

-- Furniture Medic- the prescription for damaged furniture

I found a black widow in my garage a couple of days ago. Here is my spider removal technique:

- Get a can of compressed air and turn it upside down. Inverting the can causes the air to come out extremely cold and frosty.
- Spay the cold air on the spider. This will paralyze it for a minute or so.
- If you are an animal lover you can put it in a bag, and release it somewhere else.
- If not then you can easily grab it and smush its guts out.

Going after the spider without paralyzing it first can be hazardous. They sometime jump at you, and your neighbors will think you are strange when they see you jumping around the yard hitting yourself all over.

-- Scott, San Diego

In northern Michigan they’ll grow to the size of a small tree frog. A few years ago when we were camping in our truck camper in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore the kids found one one night that I swear was as big as a half dollar legs and all. I’m sure it was a brown. They had it trapped under a glass bowl and it had another spider in its jaws darn near as big as it was. I just had the kids get back and I took off the bowl and danced like James Brown for about 2 minutes on both of them then sprayed Raid around the campsite, camper and on the soles of my shoes just to make sure;, those things were hugh!!!

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

Hello folks, Sorry I haven’t given an update. Lew reminded me to tho. I am 65 hours into the bite. The finger is still swollen and not tender to the touch. The bruising is still along the bite area still extending to the hand joint. It has subsided on the bottom area of the finger. If I push slightly on bite area there is some pain. It is kinda weird since the pain, even as slight as it is,is still there as I type this out. So I am not sure what to think of this swelling and bruising still being here. But as it says about the Browns bite, some folks will heal in time on thier own. With the antibiotics maybe this is the case. I’ve prayed it is. Further up dats in a day or so.

Thanks for asking Lew.

-- Jerry, Measure 10 times cut once. Set in the foothills of the Smokey's

Look out Jocks, looks like we Aussies sent you a present;
http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse?SIMID=47cb24ylrddq&STATUS=A&QRY=spider&STYPE=ENTIRE

Australian spiders set to train with astronauts for space shuttle mission ”Nine eight-legged Australians will travel to Boulder Colorado, U.S.A on Thursday 16th November 2000 to assist with training for the STARS (Space Technology And Research Students) ‘AstroSpiders-Spiders In Space’ experiment.”

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

I’ll be closing out my comments on this experience. The swelling is still there but it is down. Still some bruising but not alot like it was. I’m thrilled I didn’t go through any issues with the sloughing of skin and suck.

Be carefull out there folks. Spiders everywhere. I killed another recluse yesterday.

Thanks for your responses to the post here and I hope it has brought about awareness of dangers lirking in the shop that we may not have considered in the past. Stay Safe.

-- Jerry, Measure 10 times cut once. Set in the foothills of the Smokey's