Brown Recluse Spider Bite
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Written by Jim on August 5th, 2007 with
333 comments.
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Hi, my name is Gary and I am from Central California. Several years ago I was bitten three seperate times by something, I don’t know for sure what, but from what I have seen on this site I tend to believe they were from a Brown Recluse.
The first time was on my lower leg. I developed the hard knot and what appeared to be a second degree sun burn in a large area around the bite. I did not know when I was bitten. I became sick with flu like symptoms, ie. fever, chills, neausea and body ache all over before I found the bite. I stayed home in bed for two days.
When I discovered the bite, because of the soreness and itching, I cut some Aleo Vera Cactus and applied a compress to the bite area, really dumb not to go to the doctor but, I was not sure what caused it. I was fortunate, it healed and there was no scaring or complications.
The second bite was on my stomach at the waist line right at my belt. I had the same visible indicators, ie. the hard knot and redness but no other sickness as with the first. I again applied an Aloe compress for several days.
The third bite was the same and symptoms like the second. I do not know if my body developed a tolorence to the venom or what but it was an odd situation.
So, some of these things I”ve been reading about sound more like MRSA than it does a brown recluse bite. If you have sudden swelling that later turns necrotic with a lot of pus, it may be a brown recluse, but it also could just be as easily c-MRSA. You need a doctor’s opinion, and a culture of the spot. If your doctor won’t swab for MRSA, insist on it!!
The brown recluse is he one of the most dangerous spiders of all. If you look at the spider bite at the top of the screen that is a really bad bite. Don’t go near the brown recluse!!!!!!!12
how do you treat the brown recluse spider bit?
I have just gone to the doctor for a spider bite. He believes it is a brown recluse because it has all of the characteristics of the bite. Unfortunately, like many people, I did not see the spider because it was evidently hidden in my clothing. As far as treating the bite, the doctor gave me a steroid shot and gave me a very strong antibiotic. He also told me to keep warm, moist compresses on it for a few days. I experienced headaches, dizziness, weakness, severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, chills, fever, and achiness, especially up into my shoulder, and down my right arm, as I was bit on the chest. I experienced these symptoms before I actually noticed the bite area. I hope this information helps others who suspect they have been bitten, and I hope noone else has to go through this experience. It is bad
I wish I still had my pictures. I was bitten on the back of my left leg when i was 14. I left it alone for 2 weeks before going to the emergency room. Mine progressed differently because i have a high immune system. By the time I went in my leg hurt a lot. I had been limping on it for 3 days. They drained the infection and i went in for outpatient surgery the following day. They had to remove a chunk of my leg that was about the size of a softball cut in half. The hole took 3 months to close completely so i basicaly went around with muscle tissue exposed for 3 months, well we has packing in it and a stretchy bandage around my leg to hold the packingin and the packing was change several times a day.
When it finally did heal it was only a few weeks before residual poison/infection surfaced next to the scar. It poped on its own and we went to the doctor and they cleaned it. These spiders are EVIL ! seriously. If you EVER find one in your home, kill it and spray your house ! Its not worth the experience, o and the surgery cost about $5000, so its also not worth the expense. If you get bitten the first signs are swelling and getting red and or dark. I tried to convince myself it was “just a bite” that would go away on its own like any other. it wont. Doctor told me that had I waited much longer they would have had to amputate my leg to get rid of it. if it had psread upward tward my hip it would have been too close to organs to cut out effectively. These bites can kill you. they hurt and are seriously not worth the trouble. these bites act similarly to cancer, but the response time for their growth is much faster. if these bites hit a sensative area you may be looking at weeks or even days. these spiders are not just your common house variety that you set free in the garden. BE CAREFUL !
My boyfriend realized a couple of days ago he had what looked like a mosquito bite.Now two days later it is doubled in size and has a huge hole in the middle.It also is kinda white in the middle and when he pushes it pus comes out.I’m thinking it could be a brown recluse from the pictures i have seen.Should I be worried?
i was bitten by a brown recluse spider on a thursday night. by friday morning my toe was twice its size, purple and red. not only that but the infection had started running up my ankle and leg. i immediately went to quick care were i was put on an iv and given two types of antibiotics along with pain killers. it was very painful to walk, not to mention how uncomfortable the chills and fever were. i really do advice if you get bitten seek medical attention asap! im glad i did. =)
I live in Central Missouri in the basement of my sister’s house. She had warned me about the brown recluses and how I should check every night before I go to bed to make sure there aren’t any in my room, especially my bed. I was lying in bed reading my book tonight and noticed something scuttling across my carpet. I immediately grabbed my empty water glass and stuck it over the spider. I went to google image search to look up a picture of a brown recluse. I compared the actual spider to the picture and realized that I had actually caught a brown recluse! It was headed toward my bed and I caught it right before it got to my quilt that spills onto the floor. I feel very fortunate, and a little freaked out at the moment. What if I hadn’t seen him and he got in my sheets with me and I woke up with a bite? It gives me the willies just thinking about it. I encourage everybody to buy spider traps!! I know I’m going to tomorrow when I go to town to run errands!!!
there are many half-inchspiders on our front porch in washington. they are brown with very big bulby thorax. we have noidea what type of spider they are and worried that they might be a recluse. please help!
does anyone know if it can re infest itself years later after you were bitten?
I went to Yucca Valley, CA this weekend (the high desert) and this morning took a clean pair of jeans out of the overnight bag we took with us to wear. I hadn’t unpacked our bag yet, but it was left open pretty much the entire time in the trailor we were camping in. Immediately after I had put the jeans on, I felt something pricking my thigh. I thought it must be a sticker from the desert or something, so I waited a little bit, but continued to feel it pricking me. It hurt. I ran into the bathroom, and when I took my pants off, I saw a brown spider fall out. My leg has been hurting all day, and there is obvious swelling and a pretty big bite on my thigh. It is swollen, and has a little redness to it. I am just scared of the Brown Recluse and hope it isn’t one. I tried to compare it to the pictures online, and it looks so similar I can’t tell.
Does anyone think I should see a dr?
I live in cali and i have a bite, 1 on my stomach and 3 on my thighs next to my bottom, its day 4 and i’m hella scared i dont want to pop it but i have to seek medical attention tomarrow.
i think i have a brown recluse bite. this morning, my arm hurt and i thought it might be a spider bite so i looked it up and most of the symptons seem to fit. i have a small white bump and the surrounding skin is red and it hurts and this morning i felt very nauseus but i thought i was just getting sick. now i realize it might have been the bite. what should i do?
Cure for Brown Recluse Bites…
My doctor from Central Florida, David Klein, was a Navy doc and used to run into soldiers with recluse bites. He developed a treatment to stop and reverse the spread of necrotic tissue cause by the bite. He prescribes a Guanethldine/Lidocaine spray in an N-decyl solution that has to be made up by a compounding pharmacist. It re-vascularizes the area and is the only treatment needed. I have seen pics of the healing in soldiers and personally saw how well it worked on one patient with a recluse infestation in her house who repeatedly suffered from multiple bites. She had beautiful legs and this treatment kept her from having to have chunks scooped out.
umm did the spider byte effect ur arm can u at least send me some pics soo i can see becuz my teacher is showing videos and pictures about brown recluce spiders on how bad there bytes are wen did u get bite by one
I believe this is a brown recluse spider bite. I haven’t had any treatment yet but I guess I’m going to the ER today because it’s just getting worse. I took some antibiotics that I had from a previous bite so some of the redness & swelling has gone down over the last 3 days but the hole is just getting bigger. So I had my daughter take pictures so I could send them to you.
Thank you,
Piper Wood
Well I’m doing a follow up! I went to the ER & was treated immediately. The doctor said it was a Brown Recluse Spider that bit me & they put in a IV full of mixed antibiotics. Then they cleaned the wound & gave me prescriptions for an antibiotic & a drug the doctor said was used for leprosy, to try & stop the tissue damage from the bite. I have taken great care of my wound & I’m happy to say that even though it still looks bad, it looks 100% better than it did. I’m also sending follow up pictures.
Thank you for your website, it helps so many!
This Is The 2nd Time I Get Bit By A Brown Recluse Spider. At First I Did Not Know What It Was. But When The swelling Started and The Pain, I New It Was A Spider Bite. The First Time That I Got Bitten I Did Not Seek medical Attention Until I Could Walk No More Due To The Pain. The Emergency Doctor said That If I Would Have Waited One More Day, I Would Have Probably Loose My Leg. This Time I Went Immediately To The Doc. and The Suffering was a lot less.
“Mercer” is a mispronunciation of the acronym MRSA which stands for Methicillin Resistant Stapholococcus Aureus. Basically the “bad” kind of a staph infection.
I might drop a pic later, but, my bite is in a, well,a sensitive spot kinda. That thumb is horrible, but hardly the worst of the pix out there. I’ll start by taking a day 3 pic of my new third cheek and daily thereafter. If it gets worth seeing, I’ll send them.
I think I was bit in my sleep between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. I noticed it the first time when first sitting down at a hard wooden desk, in class, Thursday afternoon. I don’t know why but, I new it was a bite. I even thought $#17 !, I hope it wasn’t a brown recluse. I did the logical thing. I ignored it, hoping it would go away. Just about the time I decided to go to sleep Thursday night, My heart relocated to my left butt cheek. I felt every stinging beat, ALL NIGHT.
I don’t have insurance (OK, so I don’t even have a job) but, there is a campus clinic for non emergency stuff(ibuprofen and band-aids mostly). Friday morning found me there. Doc said this was the third brown recluse bite this week. One, a week before, was also from my building. Dude got bit on the face. TWICE!. He looks like the elephant man. Doc says I gotta go to the ER. It’s weird having to show an old lady your backside. Actually she wasn’t all that old
I don’t have insurance, so if I go to the hospital they’re gonna bill me. If I don’t, I could end up there anyway, getting a cheek removed. Doc gave me a tetanus shot (dude, I’d almost rather get tetanus-ouch!). she gave me another shot (I swear she was smiling). Now, I got pricked in both cheeks, there’s what feels like half an orange sticking out back there and the nurse tells me to sit down for twenty minutes to make sure I don’t have a reaction. You should seen me react to that chair, I swear that chair will never forget it.
Seriously, that thumb picture is scary. Its not the worst fiddle back wound on the net but, its part of a series he captured daily till day 10 (that’s the one above) at which time he finally goes to the hospital. In the uncropped photo you see the medical equipment in the background. The scary thing is that the wound looks pretty normal until day six. You just can’t see the subcutaneous damage. These wounds rot, literally rot, from the inside out.
The serious (read DEADLY) complications occur from blood infections caused by dead rotting tissue INSIDE your body. The wounds will typically go over an inch deep (not sure how deep, but a few first hand accounts indicate as far as the bone, there are images to verify this). Most toxins attack specific organs or the nervous systems, shutting down kidneys or causing one to stop breathing or a heart to stop beating. This is different, the poison is necrotic. It kills ALL tissue types in the localized area. It will keep on killing, possibly for years. Wounds can reemerge years after they have “healed” and are difficult to treat because the toxins have spread by this time. Doctors want you as soon as possible, many treatments are useless after 48 hrs from the time of the bite.
The antibiotics treat for blood infections and other complications, but the toxin must be removed either by lancing the wound or by the body itself (actually, probably a combination thereof). The amount of venom actually injected is a factor as well. Some bodies react worse than others and some are not able to eliminate the toxins very well. All should be taken seriously. Few end up like dudes thumb, but only an idiot like me won’t go to the ER. Day 3 the pain is tolerable, but she gave me painkillers. The wound is like a 1/4″ blackhead on a hard red bump about the size of a small orange if you cut it in half. Gonna hope for the best here. But, I know its gonna suck.
I Just want to start off by saying that Now I finally know what happened to me! I was in Thailand and was bitten by something, what I thought was a spider, on my foot three times.I didn’t feel anything at the time it happened, but woke up the next day with a sore foot. The marks started off as small red dots and began to become bigger and deeper giving it a volcano effect. The bites continued to get bigger, averaged the sizes of a peny or even quater, and occasionally caused pain while putting on shoes and such, so weeks later when I got back home I went to the doctor. I told him I thought the marks came from spider bites and he thought I was stupid because a spider bite shouldnt look like that; he told me it was possibly mersa. When the Mersa test came back negative, I continued to believe they were spider bites on my foot, and now months later I finally get some closure! And yes its true it takes a long time to heal; I still have those three marking on my foot, but they are no longer volvano-like, but just scare-like.
Wow! This is a terrible place for me because I live in florida! you know the saying “The Sun Shine State” more like “The Best Place To Get Bit By Over Millions And Millions Of Spiders!”
I was bit by something a week ago and there was immediate swelling but it went down after two days, leaving behind no marks.
Last night I woke up and couldnt close a fist all the way waking up to find a little red prick like mark under my finger, for a second bite. There is no pain unless I try to make a fist in which it just feels like the muscles in that finger are tight. There is no puss pockets or anything, it’s been roughly 10 hours since the second bite.
How can I get rid of spiders if that is indeed what it is?
PLEASE HELP ME
Hi.
I bought a new guitar amp which was packed somwhere in the far east as they are these days, and a little spider fell out the box. I killed it.
I didnt get bitten but it led me to this site.
All i can say is im glad i live in England and we dont have these little gits running riot in our back gardens thankyou very much.
If you live in the USA i would think about catching a flight to England as its much much much safer.
The only danger here is the Gordon Brownspider !!
Good luck !!
these bites may look like nothing when it first appears. if you start to feel a little weaker or any other problems with you body please immediately notify a doctor. even if the bite is still little and looks like nothing. if you get a spider bite and you think it may be a brown recluse spider bite don’t hesitate to call the doctor and you must go to the hospital.
I have two bites right now. I’m not sure what spider/insect/etc bit me, but I’m pretty certain it’s a bite.
My reaction to the one on my arm is swelling–and earlier today, I had white pus beneath the skin, and the tissue was hard to the touch. I squeezed it and clear fluid comes out. I’ve had this bite for about four days now.
My other one is on my inner thigh, and it hasn’t swollen much, but it appears to be a small ant bite that has a circle of redness about half an inch in diameter, and a larger lighter circle about and inch and a quarter in diameter with three red vein like lines extending from the epicenter of the bite by 2 inches or more. I have had this one for possibly one day.
Both bites itch and are tender to touch.
I live in barracks and according to my dad, barrarcks-dwellers can be prone to spiderbites, and in particular brown-recluse bites. I don’t know if these are, but I plan to go to sickhall tomorrow morning and get it checked out.
Any advice? Do you think it is a recluse? Or just a harmless spider/ant bite? [I react to fire ants with terrible tender swelling and a small white blister]
Hello, my name is Staci and I saw what I thought was a pimple on my right shoulder that had somehow developed a black scab. while washing in the shower, i accidently scrubbed the scab off. then the next day, i had nausea, vomiting , chills, and high fever. the area became raised and red in color, almost like a sunburn. I ended up going to the doctor 2 days after seeing the sore. The doctor’s could not confirm if it truly was a bite or just an infected boil, but the doctor ended up prescribing bactrim and gave me pain pills with no further action. 2 days later. my fever remained, i still had chills and by this time it was oozing and looked like an ant hill full of a maroon pus-like substance oozed out. I went back to the ER and they immediately cut a long slit, drained it, and filled it with packing and gave me clindamycin and lortabs for pain. They told me in 3 days the packing could come out. I will text my picture to you. I believe it COULD have been a brown recluse but who knows??
I GOT BIT ON MY RIGHT INDEX BY WHO KNOWS WHAT I WORRY BECAUSE I LIVE IN SAN DIEGO CA AND IN MY AREA I HAVE ALL KINDS OF SPIDER INCLUDING BROWN RECLUSE I AM CONSTANLY CLEANING BECAUSE I HAVE SMALL DOGS AND I AM AFRAID FOR THEM. THE BITE I HAVE IS SIMILLAR TO THOSE PICTURES HERE IS BEEN ONLY TWO DAYS AND MY INDES IS GETHING SEWLLING AND REED AND LOTS OF LIQUID COMES OFF WHEN I SQUEES IT WHAT SHOULD I DO???????????
My boyfriend has a spider bite on his leg and its hard as a rock, its hurts him all the time and its as big as a silver dollar and the doctors tell him he’s fine.. What should we do?
Hi im nick. about four years ago i was working in a furniture warehouse in las vegas. i had what looked like an ingrown hair so i kept draining it. about 3 days into it the thing looked infected and was the size of a tennis ball and i could barely walk. i could see two puncture wounds. i used hydrogen peroxide with no results. i think the next day the skin in between the puncture marks came off i could see what looked like a green blood clot so i grabbed tweezers and pulled it out. it was about 1 1/2 inches long and i got an instant feeling of relief. it healed in about a week after that. i was told later that it was a brown recluse. and have seen similar photos and descriptions here. i have a great immune system. i highly recommend seeking professional help. now i have a scar about the size of a nickel i got really lucky.
I was recently bitten by a brown recluse spider and never know pain like this I did 4 years in the Army and broke many bones, but the pain the recluse bite give is like no other. It started off looking like a pimple, then an ingrown hair, but know it turned black and has red swollen bumps all around
I was bitten by a brown recluse spider in florida and days later my leg ws twice the size as normal and I could not even walk. There was a big black hole and surrounding that was a red mass.
Ok, here’s the deal.
Look at this map: http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/images/loxomap.gif
If you’re outside of the green area, THERE ARE NO BROWN RECLUSES WHERE YOU ARE.
There are many other things that can cause similar wounds. Most doctors have no training regarding brown recluses (or any spider) and misdiagnose the “bites” constantly. There are TONS of other spiders that look like brown recluses.
Calm down, get some real facts and stop contributing to the hysteria, people.
In regards to ryan–
that map is as true as the maps they have for fire ants.
I am in VA, and I have fire ants, and black widows, and brown recluses, have seen them all. You need to educate yourself.
This reply is obviously too late for the amputee. But HBOT HYPERBARIC CHAMBER saved my wrist. I was bitten two years ago and thought it was a bee sting so I never got a doctor to look at it until the night fevers and numbness in my hand made it impossible to use it. I think the reason I had no necrosis was because I used activated charcoal and colloidal silver on the wound constantly until I went for HBOT
Wow I remember these days. I got bit by a Brown Recluse Spider when I was really young! Probably around 8 or so and I’m so thankful that my mother took me to the ER. I broke out in hives and everything.
My bite never got as bad as some of the pictures up there, but i did have a hole about the size of a quarter into my knee cap! It’s some pretty nasty stuff!
my aunt got bit by one, left a hole in her leg it was gross when i saw it and i hope i never get bit by a brown recluse and good article
I was about 15 years old, I was sleeping and the next morning I went to work. I picked up one of the children that I wayched and quickly put her down,The pain in my side was awful. I went on about my day, the pain got worse. I wet to the local ER and was told that it had nothing to do witht he bite I was just getting sick. Well I woke up the next day with a fever of 105. I went to my doctor this time and he even said its not the bite that now looked like a big boil,they got my fever down and sent me home.My leg then went numb the next morning and my feer was up to 105,So I went to the other hospital ER in our area in Va they to told me it wasnt the bite. this time they ran some test and my kidneys were shutting down and they admited me and still said that it had nothing to do with the bite well the next morning the bite started ozzing they say because of my temp being so high. They finally tested it and it had brown recluse and now along with it also blood poisiong. It ate about 5 in into my side I was in the hospital for 2 weeks. My advice is to push them if the docs say that its nothing make them look closer.I amlucky to be here. thanks
ewwwww i hate spiders i heard brow recluse live in humid places
I got a bite last night. I woke up sometime in the night and thought I
saw a spider on the comforter but shook the cover thinking it was a
dream.
Today my leg…it is my upper thigh was itching like crazy and at first
I thought it was a mosquito bite. I scratched it a couple of times then
forgot about it. I was aware of the sense of it on my thigh but too busy
to really take time to think about it. Within the last hour I felt the
irritation and touched my leg through clothing to feel a hard area around
a raised area. When I looked it was a blister in the middle of a reddened
area the whole area about an inch or so across. I put ointment with
a solution of peroxide on it, then decided to look into spider bites?
I have no clue how this would have happened? I was in bed with this
sort of dream…woke up and shook the bed out. So today I wonder
what this is?
No fever, just a sense of discomfort, itching, a hard area to touch
with a blister…not white, not puss, just clear at the moment.
Thanks,
Karen
i grew up in st. louis, and had a basement bedroom as a teen. one morning i woke up with a small red-ringed blister on my wrist. my entire arm ached, so my mother took me to the emergency room. when the doctor started to wipe at the blister, it came completely off my wrist, revealing a dime-sized necrotic-looking hole. after thorough cleaning with an antiseptic, and with some cortisone cream and antibiotic treatment, it healed up in a few weeks, but i still have the scar. the diagnosis was that it was an incomplete (not all the venom was injected) brown recluse bite, and i feel very lucky after seeing some of these pictures.
don’t be brave, get medical care for any kind of bite!
Hi folks , I feel sorry for anyone who has to go through a bite as I did. I live in PA. and got bitten from a load of material shipped in from out west. I lived in MO for 7 years so I knew what it was and got to the doctors but the problem was there not use to dealing with them up here. It’s got into my blood stream and I ended up hospitalized for 7 days. Now my concern is that since then I have had nothing but one medical issue after another. Up till that point I was healthy and never even got sick now I’m dealing with all kinds of internal problems that require antibiotics. I would like to think the venom was out of my system by now but can’t get a direct answer on this. If anybody has heard or delt with anybody that has been thru this or has any suggestions I sure would appreciate it.
Please write- jfurman1@ ptd.net
My boyfriend has a bite that puts all of these pictures to shame!! He’s been suffering over a year. Its on his foot. He suffers with pain day and night. Recently he won’t pick up his phone or answer e-mails (except maybe a word or two-he lives 300 miles from me). He is now addicted to pain killers and won’t go to the hospital for fear he won’t get his pain meds. He is a good guy but may die or lose his foot. Any advice?
My first bite was treated with cortisone. 2nd bite on my tongue, in a glass of milk. It was at 10:30 at night but I wasn’t sure so didn’t want to call the doctor. I found in my nutrition book that large doses of vit. C counteracted venom of bl widow and rattlesnakes. I took 30,000mg that night, the next day and 20,000 for 2 weeks later. A pink spot was on my tongue the next day and one month later a green spot – the ulceration? I had no reaction as I did with the first bite. First reaction was flushing, dehydration, shaking, hallucinations.
I am wondering now if that venom is causing problems yet. I would like to hear from others. Tests taken for my “problems” are unstable in results from one test to another. First I am anemic and then not. A nurse at the health dept. said a team of researchers came for a year and found no answers.
I have done much research on the spiders, their habitat, longevity, propagation and prevention of that and of being bitten. I would send one to anyone for $4.00. Brireward@ yahoo.com
Well two nights ago i had this red place on my neck and it bothered me and then it started to swell up my mom thought it was a mosquito bite and then this morning i woke up and couldn’t move my neck and i went to the hospital and the docter told me i had got bit by this type of spider he prescribed a high dosed anti biotic…
Hello.
I am very scared!!!! I just found a giant spider in the trash can. It is the size of Washington….the quarter not the state. I have gone around my apartment with a candle and hair spray shooting anything that moves. Started a small fire in the bathroom but it is now sanitized of the awful vermin. You MUST tell me how to evict these spawns from my dwelling. I have been praying for god to remove these demons from my apartment. I am reminded of a story from my grandad. He was once bit by a spider and he later died in a plane crash.
Scared of Planes
Chris
Thanks for the info everyone my brother Cory moved down to Florida and he’s see’s them down there all the time, his fiance’s mom got bite by one and now she has a gapping hole in her stomach. He also told me that the brown recluse down there carry staff infection and mrsa. Do they have that anywhere else, could someone let me know if they do. Thank you and i’m glad i live in New Hampshire
Last night my husband went to put his jacket on, when he got it off the coat rack he accidentally flipped the collar up, and there sat a spider where it had been hiding in his collar. My husband took it over to the kitchen sink and flipped it in a bowl of water. I got to looking and thought it could be a BRS, it was actually pretty small. I knew BRSs was poisonous but I had never researched them and always thought they got pretty big.
So I just never thought much more about it until I got to reading they usually are about 3/4 of an inch long…….I really think it was a BR. If there is one, do I need to look for more? I am a arachnophobia and not even sure if I can sleep now after seeing this site. Also I live in Kentucky, are they rare here….If anyone knows please let me know. Thanks a lot!!!!
I was bitten by a spider ,unidentified,I thought it was a mosquito at first but 2 days later it grew until it was a large marble size,I went to a doc who gave me antibiotic and would not drain it.that night I took off the dressing to clean it and fortunately the top came off w/ the gauze,I took all the green and yellow goo out with a hard core and went to a different doc the next day,they cleaned it again and packed it so it would not heal over from the outside first.gave me a super shot of antibiotic and changed the first prescription saying it wasn’t adequate..it took 6 more visits to heal.
this winter i was bit again, 5 times, it got under my shirt and under my armpit.. I was unable to find the original Doc and had to instruct the new ones as how to treat them. first remove all green and yellow stuff,clean w/saline and hydrogen peroxide, pack it with medicated packing and dress it with triple antibiotic then a wet(saline)gauze covered w/ a dry gauze. change packing for a few days and then keep wet to dry till its healing well…hope this might help someone some where somehow.
well my friend and i were playing outside and we lifted a big brick and there was a huge brown spider i live in washington it had an ovalish body and dark brown with tanish lines on it what type of spider is this?also i was in my room the other day and i say a spider that was white on its body and a black topp to it??
My good friend has a brown recluse bite on her pretty face. She is now in ICU she looks so bad and she can’t breath on her own. Can any one tell me what might become of her I’m so scared for her. It’s on her cheek by the way????
I really like brown recluse spiders I know their bites are terrible but I’m fascinated by them but really scared i have a friend who live in Oklahoma and he brought a black widow and a brown recluse back from Oklahoma.
hi im from macon ga and i woke up one morning with my temple swollen like a golfball so i went to the doc and they said it waas a cist so they gave me a antibiotic valled cipro and so i went home.well it got worse through the day fast and the next morning it had a nipple like place stickin out from the knot and were 2 small wholes i was in soo much pain so i went back and they sent me to a sergen to look at it.he opened it up and was nothing to drain it was all dead tissue from the recluse bite.so he cut it all out and had to go bak alot to put freash packing in the whole and i forget the other antibiotic but i also was taking loratabs.i found the spider later on the floor deadand im still sleeping with the lights on.this just happend about 4 weeks ago im lucky to be alive and at that nothing there now but a red place not bad scaring or anything.they are very nasty spiders and will kill you if you dont seex medical attention soon.
I used to live on the central coast of California and I was bitten by one around 1996 or so. According to the “official” little maps and charts, they don’t exist there… but they do. Many of the reports that I have been reading come from all over. Because they are “reclusive” many haven’t been “officially” confirmed. If they have been confirmed to be in places like Southern Illinois then they can be anywhere. It would make sense that where ever one could hitch a ride on a piece of furniture or a box, they could find a nice warm place to live and breed out of control.
I was living in a small, old trailer at the time and I used to always find little “harmless” looking “garden spiders” that were impossible to get rid of. I didn’t really think much of it. Now that I look back, I realize that place was INFESTED with them.
One morning I woke up and had a huge red welt inside my inner thigh. The pain got worse… and worse… and worse. It finally developed into a rock hard, 2″, puss filled knot in the center, surrounded buy about an 8″ red halo. It was one of the most painful experiences in my life.
So especially if you have kids or are elderly, get some of those little triangular glue traps and put them in closets, behind furniture, under the bed, couch, etc. If you can’t afford it then just make some from duct tape or packing tape & cardboard. It’s cheap works the same way. Believe me, getting bite by one of those things is more painful than you will ever want to know. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Oh and to add to my post a little…
If you suspect you may have BR’s as unwanted room mates … and you can afford it, CALL PEST CONTROL. If you can’t afford a good fumigator then use the internet that you have in front of you to do your homework. If you want to get rid of them then you are going to have to wage a full blown war. We’re talking about a full scale Jihad of biblical proportions on those little brown reclusive terrorists. Just so you know, bug bombs wont do much to them since they tend to live deep in your walls, attic and way back in there. The most “reclusive” and hard to get to areas of your home are where they like to hang out.
The glue traps that I mentioned (the .edu page on them mentioned that 50 or more isn’t an excessive amount!!!) may help you find out where they are most concentrated but wont eradicate them. Simply spraying raid or black flag around your base boards may help a little but not much. I recommend using LOTS of boric acid or Diatomaceous Earth Powder underneath and behind everything. That stuff is relatively safe since it “dehydrates” them to death rather than “poisons” them. Once it gets on their ugly little legs, they take it back into their nest and it eats them away. It also works miracles for getting rid of cockroaches, silverfish, ants, etc. Be sure to use generous amounts in every little hiding spot that you can think of.
You will also want to use silicone or plaster patch, etc. to fill any and every little hole or crack that you can find where they may be hiding out. All of this stuff is very affordable and if you want to rid yourself of them, you’re going to have to put in a little effort. Hope my advice helps. Good luck and happy hunting… Don’t let the bed bugs bite
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saturday i was in the shed getting old boxes out for a yard sale and i noticed later that under my ankel started swelling. i have not twisted it or felt no sting.it burns on the bottom of my foot.not a bad burn just a small burn feeling.today issunday, it is still swelled. i dont see any bite marks.but we do have a lot of spiders around here.i am worried because i hate spiders.
I was bitten by a brown recluse(s) on three different places on the back of my uppper right arm. I didn’t notice for a couple of days. The bite areas turned very red, itchy, tender and the skin toughened. I tried to self-medicate for almost 2 weeks. Praise God, I had a mild reaction to the bites. I finally went to seek medical help and the antibiotics started to work immediately. I am healing nicely with none of the lesions shown in some of the photos. I should have sought medical attention sooner and will if ever bitten again.
I have had 2 spider bites in my whole life. 1 on my butt and 1 on my thigh. The 1 on my butt was from a Brown Recluse. It was noticed at the lake while my family and some friends were camping. It looked like an infected bruise. It was all kinds of colors like: BLUE BLACK PURPLE PINK RED YELLOW AND GREEN. The other 1, I was not informed on what kind of spider it was. All I know about that spider bite is that it started out looking like a mosquito bite with a little bit of red around it, but then the red started spreading so I went to the doctor
hey i think i got bit, please help me, i don’t feel good.
I was bitten by an unknown spider which exhibited symptoms at the site of a brown recluse. Or it may have been a black widow. I sat on a deck chair with a cushion that had just been brought out for the first time after being stored all winter. The bite was on my back, just above my belt line where my T-shirt was pulled up. About 20 minutes after sitting in the chair, I felt the bite but it itched and felt sort of like a mosquito bite. Because it was on my back, I couldn’t see it and didn’t think anything of it until it got large and painful about a week later. A doctor told me it “couldn’t be a spider bite” and that it was probably a boil of some kind and I could have him lance it if I wanted to. I put hot compresses on it and it seemed to go down and I left it alone (remember I couldn’t see it). About 2 weeks later I flew on a plane and it swelled up like mad and got super red and hot. I was driving a moving van for 2 dys back to where I live and I got very sick on the way with body-wide flu-ish symptoms. When I arrived home I checked it out and the area was getting necrotic and it hurt. I think the flying and the sitting put pressure on it and released the toxins from the site and that’s why I got sick. I also think it took so long to manifest because the bite was in an area that has mostly fatty tissue and very little blood flow. At that point I KNEW it was a spider bite and that I had to do something.
I ended up treating myself using the following natural remedies in 3 basic steps.
1. Draw the poison to the surface:
I moistened Aztec Clay with an echinachea tincture then plastered the “mud” over the bite and the surrounding red/purple area and bandaged it securely. I left it on for 24 hours to draw the poison & infection to a head. The area of redness became smaller and more concentrated and I could feel a “tip” just below the skin in the center where the fangs went in, but the wound was still closed.
2. Open the wound
I washed it off and put a nickle-sized blob of “Prid” drawing salve on the center of the bite, rebandaged it and left that on all day. When I removed it, the wound had opened up and a large amount of green pus came out. I cleaned it completely, put some peroxide on it and then went on to the next step.
3. Removing infection
Moisten Powdered Golden Seal root with Echinachea tincture to make a mud and pack that in and over the open wound. Bandage securely and leave on for 24 hours. Repeat as necessary and remove any pus that is present.
This treatment worked for me and is currently working for my friend who was bitten last week. I don’t claim to give any medical advice, this is just my experience. The area remained a little hard for some time and about a year and a half later it came to the surface again and I repeated the clay treatment. It didn’t open up that time but afterward it went away completely and there is no evidence of it anymore. Another friend was once bitten and she said hers reappeared periodically for about 3 years!
Why these herbs?
Echinachea is used as the wetting solution because it is reported to combat and/or prevent necrosis which is a big problem with these bites.
Golden Seal has antibiotic properties and I have used it as my topical traveling medicine of choice for many years after I used it in an emergency on a staff infection in the tropics and had ALL redness go away overnight. If necrosis isn’t an issue, you can dab Teatree Oil (also antibiotic) on a wound or bite and then sprinkle the Golden Seal on top and the oil will make it stick. The mud forms a scablike covering that protects the wound but still allows it to breathe – especially good if you are camping or traveling. I usually leave it on for 24 hours at a time. If an area gets too dry from the treatment, you can alternate with a golden seal, echinachea, comfrey salve. You can also try putting the Golden Seal powder on the open wound and rub the salve on the surrounding area.
NOTE:
It’s very important to wash your hands before and after treating open wounds so you don’t carry secondary infection to or from the wound. Dispose of or sterilize anything that has touched the wound or its excretions. DON’T put your finger on the wound and then dip it back into the salve for instance. The easiest way to use Golden Seal is to put it in a small spice can so you can shake it on. It is expensive, but you don’t need much. Just a covering to stick to the wound.
thank you very much i am on my way to the ER right now. GOD Bless you. I hate Hospitles,but i am not ready to Die either. semper fi.
Well, I live in Alabama and we have them here..just about an hour ago I was watching TV and I felt a tickle on my leg so I brushed off my shorts..about 30 sec later I felt a tickle again so I stood up and shook my short leg and a large B.R.S fell out… I hit it with a DVD case and put it in a jar…not sure if I was bit but will wait and see…and yes it’s DEAD.
I did go and get 16 sticky traps and put them around the house.
I was at a park one and I was stung on my right ankle and it starded to sting so I thought it was an insect bite but 1week later it started tolook real nasty so i contacted my doctor and I had surgery. I did not take any picturs because I didn’t know there were sites like this.
i’m from england
my leg started to itch on the night the next day i had a ring round part of my calf it then turned in to a blister and popped leaving my skin very red . it looked like something had eaten into my leg. anyway it got infected and was painfull. it ended up taking a year to heal, and now i have a scar but the skin on it is very thin so i have to be careful not to scrape it of bash it as it would take part of it off
I recently was just bitten by what i think is a brown recluse i havent found out yet though if it was or not, but i was at home (springfield ,TN) and packing for the lake and once i left and got there i felt an itch on my arm (so it must have bitten me in my sleep i have no idea but i do live in a very old house in the country) and it started to turn red fast but as a few days went by i noticed a blackish brown spot in the center of it and started to feel sick at night then noticed the heat coming out from my arm. it had swollen into a huge know which went down the next day i am going to get it looked at tomorrow morning hopefully to find out its healing already, it has already kind of unswollen but still itches and sting like crazy. so ill keep posted.
WE LIVE IN FLA .I GOT A BROWN RECLUSE SPIDER BITE IN JUNE 09.IT STARTED OUT LIKE A ANT BITE .IT WAS PAINFUL AND I DIDN’T GO GET HELP CAUSE I WASN’T AWARE OF WHAT THE SPIDER COULD DO.BUT SOON FOUND OUT IT IS NOTHING TO MESS WITH.THIS IS NOW THE MIDDLE OF JULY AND I’AM STILL FIGHTING THE BITE.DON’T WAIT!MIND WAS ON THE BASE OF MY NECK NO ROOM FOR ERROR THERE.
You can use activated charcoal which has a negative charged to it and will remove the positively charged venom but it must be put on immediately. One can also use a product call HEALON, comes in a small white bottle and costs like $40 bucks, has all the healing herbs in scripture. Get books on activated charcoal to learn how to do the WET compress, (note, you have to keep the charcoal wet like pudding consistency wrapped in syran wrap over the area.) But always consult your doctor anyways. You can do this as a first response.
A week ago i was laying in bed just about ready to fall asleep and i felt this sharp piercing pain on the front of my throat , just instinct i slapped at it and jumped up and turned the light on and i believe it was a brown recluse lying on my pillow, almost immediately it started to swell, its burned and was really red and hurt so bad! The next day i stopped by my doctors office to ask what i should be watching for since ive never been bit by a spider before and they took one look at my neck where over nite it had formed a huge red knot under my skin, they said they would call me in some steriods and antibiotics and that i should start them right away. Now i have finished my steroids and have 1 day of the other left and i have 2 hard knots under my skin that itch so bad you want to scratch your skin off but it still hurts to touch it. I had a bad headache for the first 3 days was sick , had chills and cold sweats .I am still getting the cold sweats just not as often.I asked my doctor if she wanted me to bring the spider in so she could see it (my husband saved it) she said no its a recluse we just need to watch it cause it might rot my skin off and that it was a bad area for that to happen!
PLEASE HELP!!! I am relocating to Alabama and just recently found out that brown recluse and black widows can be found in that state. I have 3 little children and I am terrified that one of them might get bitten…specialy by the brown recluse after seen all the pics of the bites and the necrotisis that can cause. How bad is the infestation of these spiders in Alabama? Do you see them alot inside the houses?
Thanks for your time!
just an update,
A female Dr in the ER yesterday gave me a shot of anti biotics, a scrpit for keflex, prednizone and loratab. I’ve been putting ice on this bite for a week to the day now that the bite occued and i believe the ice greatly slowed down the effect of the venom. The dr said that normally it would only take days for the bite to form a black hole on top of my skin but mine hadn’t yet, it was deep purple.
today , the deep purple area is raised more than yesterday and has widened in size. the pain is considerably better though i haven’t noticed a change in the swelling much.
At least this Dr did something about , which is much better than the first ER dr that i saw an hour after the bite happened, and the surgeon i saw the next day.
Female Dr in ER adviced that if the dark purple becomes black, to get to a surgeon ASAP so they can take out the dead tissue.
Black Skin = dead skin/dead tissue.
I got a bite a week ago…I am not 4 sure what it is..it kinda looks like staph infection..but I just don’t know..I have gone to the hospital and they don’t seem to know what it is either…it looks like “Jennifer” ’s picture but I don’t know..the hospital put me on “bactroban” and “Clindamiacen”…if anyone has any advice on what to do…please contact me at “Pccatcher2013@yahoo.com” thank you
i look i down i saw my bite it was the size of a dime.It was like i watched grow before my eyes.Then,the next day it was the size of my palm.Without waiting another day i went to E.R room to get it checked then they had to drain it! Ouch!!:(
I got bit exactly 7 days ago and have been on 4 antibiotics for 5 days with little results. I researched and ordered this kit which arrived yesterday. Today (24hrs later) my bite has come to a head and is draining by itself. My swelling is down 50% and my pain is gone. It uses activated carbon with some liquid solution and costs about $30. If you think you have been bit, don’t wait! Seek medical attention quick!
ok so i live in San Diego CA we just moved and yesterday i noticed a particularly painful bite of some sort. It is on the back of my knee which makes it very hard to wear jeans, i wasn’t too concerned till today, when it was even more painful, and when i looked at it i noticed it now has what looks like a white head on it, and it is redder. There is also a line that seems to be tracing what could be a vain. I don’t want to let this go any longer then i have to, and if i could get some advice that would be great.
(the center is whiter then in the picture)
CAN ANYBODY TELL ME THE DIFFERNCE BETWEEN THE HOBO AND THE BROWN RECLUSE? ARE THE SAME BECAUSE TO ME THEY LOOK VERY SIMILAR AND THEIR BITES LOOK VERY SIMILAR AS WELL.
Wow! My husband was bit by this spider a few days ago in the screwed up apartment we just moved into! He has a Very dark area around the side of his elbow and what looked to be 4 white pimples clustered together.2 days later,after the swelling,he has four dark red craters and skin hardening under the bite site.Im taking him to the doctor today and we are moving out next week because of the landlord will not upkeep the grounds or the units!!!!
Wow, I never have been so anxious about the unknown in my life after seeing this site and not knowing which way my body is going to react on the 7th day. I fell asleep on my couch 6 days ago and woke up randomly at 2am because I felt pain at the base of my breast. I felt the area and thought I had developed a tumor because it felt like a hard round knot under the skin. I looked in the mirror and saw a quarter sized bright red area with little bumps on it. I went to my bed and slept 6 hrs. When I woke I had an orange sized area that was light pink and the same quarter size area.
Much to my dismay, I was encouraged to go to the doctor and I didn’t go until a day later. My doctor explained the seriousness of this and I exclaimed how terrible it would be to have a big gaping hole in my breast! So, she gave me a prescription for lipoquin; but, because it was over $100 out of pocket, I asked if there was anything similar that had a generic brand. There wasn’t really, but my doc agreed to try CIPRO. Might have been a big mistake on my part because my doctor has not seen a lot of improvement with it.
On the 3rd day, you can see the picture I sent where I now had 3 big circles of bright red as large as my hand. The first 2 days i was in pain and it hurt to even where a tshirt. Because I had to go to work I just had to endure the pain of even a wire undergarment that went right on top of it – ouch! On the 4th day, 3 or 4 white dots appeared in the quarter size nucleus. On the 5th day the quarter nucleus became purple. On the 6th day, I completely panicked because the quarter nucleus became very dark purple, which you can see in the 2nd picture I uploaded.
When I went to the doctor, she said CIPRO really isn’t helping and is not a drug that targets tissue well enough. So, she switched me to Avalox, but only as a second option to sending me to a plastic surgeon to try to do something by cutting me in some way. Because it is Friday, all of them and the surgeons my doctor is familiar with were gone.
The doc said it is not dead cells yet she doesn’t think because the skin can still blanch. She told me to watch it all weekend and go to the hospital if the quarter area stoppings blanching, which will mean the cells are dead and they will cut a hole in me! After looking at these pictures, I have no idea what is going to happen from here. The area itches along with other parts of my body and my upper left arm feels like it has been punched. I have not had any fever or aching yet, but have been really tired. I was told not to try to squeeze the area no matter what because my body would be using the whatever I would squeeze out to try to fight the venom. They said that what is best is to hope the antibiotics and my body fight the venom off and the area becomes a head…and, then I am meant to squeeze out the stuff.
But, because it is getting dark, they think I am going to have dead cells. I am praying that the Avalox stops the cells from dieing. I am reading on here that antibiotics don’t treat the venom only the other things that can occur like staff infection. Must eat lots of yogurt to replenish the good bacteria being killed by 1800 mg of strong antibiotic. Does anyone have a better antibiotic that has worked once it got to this stage?
I found a squishy nob in the roof of my mouth. My mom is a nurse and she opened it. The site was numb but now it is sore and is sunken in and looks like a rounded triangle. Is this a brown recluse bite? Should i seek medical attention? I live up in the Rocky Mountain area, real woodsy. Can they survive and thrive in the Montana-Idaho area?
Are Brown Recluse Spiders very common in Michigan? I was recently camping and one night my friend saw a rather big bug on the tent wall above my bed(it was very dark). She knocked it off the wall and I forgot about it. The next afternoon as we were packing up our things, I saw a spiderweb in my bag located near were the bug was spotted the night before. I’m deathly afraid of spiders so I got my friend to get it out with her shoe. It seemed small at first but just kept going deeper into my bag. I saw it continue to go under one of my clothing items at the bottom of the bag so I asked her to keep going. She pulled the item away and a huge (well huge for me) brown spider was revealed and it started to scamper away. At this point, I wasn’t generally in the best state of mind but I would say it was roughly about the size a quarter in full span. We killed it and even though I’m home now (it happened three days ago) I’m still obsessing. I have alot of mosquito bites but I would notice if I was bit by this spider right?
My father just got bite by a Brown Recluse and he waited about three days until he went to the ER but when he went they immeatly cut the infected area out and gave him 21 shots beside his wound and 5 other shots in his side.Now each day until his wound heals he has to boil it out with peroxide each night just to make sure he doesnt get a big infection started.And then he later repilied that he was so glad that he went or he’d be dead.
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Answer to Kaitlin’s Question; Yes brown recluses can appear anywear and please check your ”Moswuito Bites” out and makesure that that spider did not bite you because brown recluses bite but have a venom that nums your skin so that you will not feel the bite wait about 2 days and if one of your ”Mosqito bites” start getting red around the area you where bitten take ammiteadte action and go to the ER ASAP !!! Or your life could be in danger.
Hi! I was bit by a brown recluse spider just as my senior year in high school was starting. I am still unsure when I was bit but it was either when I was sleeping or when I was getting my senior pictures taken (in front of an abandoned shed with a bunch of rotted beach wood) but it was on my lower leg. At first it just felt like a really itchy mosquito bite. Eventually it grew and I asked my mom. She said it looked like an in grown hair (except there were two areas). One night at work my co-workers noticed the bumps through my pants (one just below the knee and one lesser one just above my ankle), and asked to see it. It was finally starting to hurt. My mom wouldn’t let me go to the ER because of my lack of insurance.
When I got home from work that night I was sobbing and ended up sleeping on the couch. I was in so much pain that I would just cry and convulse. The next morning, they burst open and I showed my mom my blood spotted pajama pants, then she thought something was wrong. I noticed a black center in each (necrotic tissue) and after getting meds to treat it, I ended up with two holes in my leg (about the size of a marble around and about 3/4 inch deep). I couldn’t go to school for a week and had to take two weeks off of work! I was broke, in pain, and after the incident, I was so terrified of getting bit again I hardly slept for months. I would imagine them crawling up my legs in my sleep.
Some nights, I crawled into bed with my mom to feel a little more secure (mind you, I’m 19 years old). It aslo compromised my immune system… i was constantly sick my entire senior year. I’m better now and not afraid of sleeping. I found that if you are bit, it is best to keep it cool (do not heat, you will die of pain). Cooling is less painful. ALso, use a warm tea bag to help draw out inflammation but more importantly GET MEDICATED! GO see a doctor and do not try to treat this yourself… the pain will make you crazy!
i was in gumbet turkey 08/08/09 and got bite the bar staff said it was a spider bite and to got to hospital as it was the night before we flew home i waited till i got home i was give high antibiotics by mt gp .the swelling has gone down but the hot and cold shivers or itching in my body have not stopped yet.
K seriously, all you people who are freaking out seriously should just got to the doctor and get it checked out. Don’t be worried as “blister” does not mean its a brown recluse. You should refer to the internet first to see if there is a established population of brown recluse in your area.
We just found one out side our house im scared it got away they are very fast !!!!! we dont know what 2 do that has been the second one we have found aroung our house we live in kentwood michigan
I was pretty certain that I was bitten by a brown recluse spider last Thursday at about noon. I probably crept between the tongue and side of my shoe when I was visiting a friend outdoors.
By evening it was getting very painful. By bedtime I could not even sleep. Finally, in excruciating pain at 3 a.m. I called 911…
I bounced out of it in about 36 hours and my guess was that it was because I take cortisone drugs daily due to Secondary Addison’s Disease–thank you for your article.
I wish there was more information and pictures on the internet focusing more on the ‘beginning stages’ of a spider/BRS bites. It’s certainly scary to see what a spider bite can do, and GREAT information on this site.
I have an unusual ’round’ itching spot on my back, and I’m not really sure what it is, I suspect being bit and am looking for information about what happens in the first week or so, and the ‘wondering if it needs medical attention’ stage.
Unfortunately my spot in on my lower back close to my side, and is very difficult to reach or to see in a mirror. I remember scratching it several days ago in a store, I felt a little moisture and I just figured that I had scrapped my back, it was healing/scabbing, and figured I just scratched a scab. I didn’t think anything else about it. A few days later (not even sure if when it was), but Yesterday I was watching TV and was scratching it again and thought to myself that it should not be itching anymore…….it also felt ‘hot’. I had my 8-yr old daughter look at it, she said “you need to leave that alone”, and said it was round with a dot in the center. It is as someone described above, ‘a white welt circle area surrounding a rashy red circle with one spot in the center. I looked up ‘ringworm’ and other rash information……I only have one. I have not experience the ‘extreme pain’ described by other bite victims above………but also take a low dose of Suboxone for Spinal Arthritis, so often mask pain if it’s not to severe.
I’m also uninsured, and would have to go to the ER to see a doctor, but still not sure if it is even worth going…….it doesn’t have oozing and black/purple areas, nor is it sunken or swollen, just about a quarter size round area that really itches and burns. It’s the dot in the middle that makes me wonder………I can’t really look at it to see if there is a second dot or bite mark, and I know it should have healed by now, so need to figure out what it is. Does anyone think a Brown Recluse bite can go four to five days without turning purple, black, and oozy?
Use clay-powdered. It works as well as a poultice. Mix with spearmint oil and echinacea also powered. I use this with grease for my goats udders.
About two weeks ago I was bitten by a spider. I mow the grass and I know that there are a lot of them in the back yard. There are also some ants in the backyard as well. So when I saw this bite on my leg I thought it was just another fire ant bite. I tried calimyne lotion because it wouldn’t stop itching. when that didn’t work I then went and tried neosporin. With that it just sucked it up like a vacuum. So when I went to a friend’s place I tried having it in chlorine water. After about an hour, when I had to go back in the house, it just felt heavier. It got worse in the next few days. It turned into this bump which was filling with a lot of pus.
By the time I finally went to the hospital it was about the size of a dime and turning slightly black. What the Dr. had to do was some sort of shot into my leg and then he had to use a knife to get it open to get all the pus out. After he did that he made a cut that was a hole. The Dr. placed a piece of tubing gauze so it could stay open to drain. Right now I’m taking a medication for it and is looking a lot better. There are days when it itches so badly but I try so hard to ignore it. I’m one of those people if I have a must scratch then I will get it because I have the nails for it. Can someone please tell me if this sounds like a brown recluse.
Thanks Christine
North Port, Fl
tales from the spider killer: i hate spiders! kill count today was 8. we live in a wooded area by a lake in minnesota and they are everywhere! unfortunately i live in the basement so they like to visit me all hours of the night. i got bit the other night in my sleep, and i just killed a fishing spider 5 minutes ago who was staring at me in my bed. ick! i also saw the biggest spider of my life today (other than the zoo) and it was a big fat wolf spider. it’s body was about a 3/4″ in diameter with legs 2.5-3″ diameter spread. i was moving large stones from a rock pile and i almost shat myself. armed with a newspaper from the trash, i went back to show him some wrath.
i flipped the stone and there he was. whack! see ya. another time a year ago i saw a pretty hairy spider crawling across my floor. sometimes i let the small ones go but it was pretty decent in size and moving pretty quick so i grabbed whatever i could… a notebook i think, and after smashing it, numerous little period sized baby spiders started crawling every which direction from their mom’s back! this is in my bedroom ok? i almost vomited. probably one of the most grotesque things i have ever seen. no matter how many spiders i kill there are always more. it’s pretty ridiculous. just a few nights ago i felt one crawling across my face while watching tv.
umm nasty? what’s wrong with these little demons? and why won’t they just leave me alone? if they only knew that their life would be ending shortly after they cross me they would surely try harder to avoid me. spiders beware i’m coming to get you.
ryan “spider slayer”
I was working in the garden for my mom. As I pulled out some dead grass and weeds, there were several different things crawling in the dirt, the usual. Some small spiders, some bigger, nothing unusual for Texas. There were not any scorpions thank God!Some centipeds and larva, some earthworms. I tried to stay clear of their path and hurry. I was on my hands and knees. Anyway, that was Saturday. Sunday I was scratching my knee and noticed what I thought was an ant bite or mosquito bite. Sunday night, I looked at it cause my knee was really itchy and it was just a little round red spot. I was restless all last night and when I woke up this morning, my insides were sore and my knee really itches. It is now a red spot the size of my fingernail. You can’t see it, but I can feel a bump behind it. I just wanted some advice or comments as to what you think it might be. Should I get this checked out? I didn’t want to feel stupid over a mesquito bite if that is what it is. But I also don’t want to be stupid and loose skin or tissue around my knee….Advice???
Thank You!
Until you get to your doctor, go to the 24 hr drugstore, get a triple antibiotic ointment and betadine. Clean with betadine, let dry, apply ointment as on the directions. Do not go overboard with either product they both are easily absorbed through skin and could do damage to your organs so read and follow the directions on the product.
Go see your doctor.
Stop playing in dirt.
oh my gosh! i have something like the smaller bites above!!!!! it was redish and itchy and kind of hurt. and I’m scared to death of what might happen!i don’t know what to do!!!!!! i’m just going to go to the doctor and see what he/she says because a found a brownish yellowish colored spider crawling across my wall, it had a hard to see black line but it was a small line thingy. i tried to smash it but its guts and stuff weren’t on the shoe or the wall so i think it got away so now i’m even more scared!!! :”{
Hello,
I’m a research scientist that lives in an area where Brown Recluses are abundant. I invented a simple low cost first aid method to arrest Brown Recluse bites. 100s of people have used the method without failure. I have shown many physicians the results of arrested Brown Recluse bites using this first aid procedure as well as describing my theories on the physical and chemical properties of the venom. But, the physicians deny that these bites were ever from Brown Recluse spiders. In order to help people afflicted with this spider bite, are there any suggestions on how to get this simple procedure into the mainstream medical community? I think the medical community is incredibly fearful of trying anything (even simple non-harmful methods) without fear of legal liabilities. Maybe this is a great example of why our medical costs are out of control in the United States. In the U.S., a simple procedure can’t be employed to help thousands of people because of fear of legal liability.
Dr. Morton
P.S. I just saw the “Not intended for medical advice.” in the note above. I guess a solution to Brown Recluse bites will remain silent.
ok,i got bit by a brown recluse this spring and now i am one big sissy when it comes to spiders, I scream like a little girl,well i am, freaking out again there is this large spider on my railing right now,its back looks like a hornet,the rest is brown and its legs have dark brown strips on it,i don’t know if this thing on his back is a part of him or a eggs sack,i will try to download the picture,but i don’t know how so that may not happen,please help,thank mary wille
My name is Zach i just got off of a town bus and noticed i have a nickel size rash and in the middle a zit like thing i didn’t care and went on with my day 30 minutes later i felt sick to my stomach and a little dizzy and 2 hours from then i still feel sick is that bad?
I believe i was bitten on my calf while i was sleeping on Tuesday September the 22nd. I did not find anything till the next afternoon. i noticed what looked like a pimple that itched like crazy. I popped the bump yesterday night and nothing seemed to come out but i noticed that it was red and hurt like crazy when i touched it and the edges of it had become firm. This morning i woke up and it no longer itched but the firmness had spread and the redness had also. Well now my entire calf is beginning and the redness is still spreading. Should I seek medical attention?
Here are some pics of it from today.
Thanks for the info. My friend got bite and he’s in the hospital.
hi i have a spider bite of some sort i’m confused about it because i’m not sure rather it is a yellow sac spider or brown recluse spider that had bit me i’m only twelve and this is pretty scary for me because the bites i have seen are horrifying my bite looks about three millimeters altogether but it is surrounded by a fairly large red swollen area my grandma is to stubborn to take me anywhere so please, can someone give me advice?
Is the brown recluse spider really bad? Should I be aware of it? Should I worry? Please answer because I want to learn more. What is the most poison spider in the world?