Brown Recluse Spider
The brown recluse spider is part of the genus Loxosceles and is sometimes known as “fiddleback” spiders or “violin” spiders because of the violin-shaped marking on the top of the cephalothorax, which are the head and the thorax. The brown recluse spider has six eyes, which are all arranged in three pairs (sometimes a pair may be so close that they look like one eye rather than two). Their eyes are also their most noticeable feature which makes it easy to identify a brown recluse spider.
Identify the Brown Recluse Spider
The violin-shaped marking is typically found only on more mature brown recluse spider. The brown recluse is range from a light tan to a darker brown color with their entire body being covered with thin hairs. The brown recluse spider is about 3/8 inches long and about 3/16 inches wide. Although the male spider are somewhat smaller in body length than females, their leg span is usually the same length.
If there is more than one color on the legs, or if the legs are dark brown, or if there is more than one pigment on the abdomen, it is NOT a recluse. Note: spitting spiders (genus Scytodes) have a similar eye pattern but do not have the violin mark.
The brown recluse spider is found throughout the Midwest and the southern central part of the United States. It is very rare to find a brown recluse spider outside of those particular areas. Brown recluse spiders are typically found outside in many different areas such as under rocks or logs, woodpiles, dirt, or debris. However, during the cooler months it is not uncommon to find brown recluse spiders within the house, especially basements, attics, closets, or anywhere else that is dry and warm.
Many times during those months the brown recluse will go without any food or water. It is nearly impossible to fully get rid of brown recluse spiders once they have become established in these areas of the home. The brown recluse does not spin a web either to catch their food; instead they hunt their prey which usually consists of insects, either dead or alive.
The brown recluse is actually somewhat nocturnal, as they spend most of the daylight hours hidden within rocks or logs. They line these homes with webbing, which is later used for holding their egg sacs. If a brown recluse spider is seen during daylight hours it usually has to do with the fact that they are hungry, otherwise they stay hidden.
Our Brown Recluse Spider Bite section has some very graphic pictures of what happens when people are bitten by a BRS and pictures of the spider. Rick Vetter over at UC Riverside Dept of Entomology also has a page on Entomology - Brown Recluse Spiders. The agricultural extension service of the university of Tennessee has a brown recluse spider packet in pdf format the you may also find helpful.
Here is a quick test to determine if you may have a Recluse:
1) Has 3 pair of eyes, one in front, one on each side.
2) Has Violin shaped marking
3) Legs must be one uniformly light-colored
4) Only one pigment on the abdomen
5) Fine hairs on legs, no spines
6) Body length is less than half an inch (3/8 usually)
Brown Recluse Spiders
Brown recluse spiders are not aggressive unless they are aggravated, which is like many other species of spiders as well. Some cases where they may bite is if they are trapped between skin and other surface or when putting on clothes that they are hiding in.
Because of that it is extremely important to thoroughly shake out clothing before putting it away to ensure that there are no hidden spiders that could possibly bite. The brown recluse spider bite is often not even felt, which makes it very dangerous. In some cases the bite is noticed right away because of immense pain, for others it can take several hours before the bite is even noticed. The reaction to the bite depends on how much venom is injected.
The only deaths reported from a brown recluse spider bite have been with children under the age of seven. However, the brown recluse is one of four species of spiders that is dangerous to humans along with the black widow spider. If bitten by a brown recluse spider it is vital that the victim seeks medical attention right away, and if possible capturing the spider and bringing it in will help ensure accurate identification. More about the Brown Recluse Spider Bite
Written by Jim on August 4th, 2007 with
110 comments.
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Hey, I found one of these spiders in my home. It had a weblike feature in front of my bedroom door. Its the biggest brown recluse I have ever seen. it has some markings on it.
The recluse had a web and my dad said most brown recluse spiders do not make webs in your house like that.
Is this true and if not, how do I get rid of these spiders?
What is the span of the spider across? I believe I killed one in my house today. All the pictures on-line look just like the one I killed. It looked about 3 inches across. Of course I didn’t get real close. Also you say it is almost impossible to get rid of them. Can’t you spray insecticide? That is how I killed the one.
My brother was bitten by several spiders while working under a house.
We are not sure what kind of spider but assume it is brown recluse,
Mainly because of the extensive damage. The doctor that treated him said that brown recluse don’t exist in florida. Is that true? Thank You
This spider is very scary… I don’t want my thumb to be like the one in that picture. However, no fear, just shake out your clothes before wearing them and just be careful of what your getting your self into. Personally, I have nothing to worry about so I am okay, but I like being awared of this.
If i suspected i was bitten by a brown recluse along with any other treatment i would use charchol poltice and change it often.
Charcoal poultice is a gooey layer of medicinal activated charcoal that is applied to the skin for the purpose of pulling chemicals out from the underlying body part. This is often used to help control pain and decrease inflammation, sometimes with spider bites. Pain is controlled by adsorption of the pain chemicals of inflammation and by assisting the inflammation of healing by adsorption of the toxic waste products of inflammation.
I have to say that the Brown Recluse is an elusive little twerp. I was bitten in the 1st grade on my ankle. The poison traveled up my leg and into my groin area. I took no pleasure in the pain or the treatment that followed. (3 months) If not for the quick thinking of my mother, the consequences could have been disastrous. As for the doctor mentioned above, maybe he should do a little more research before informing a patient that the Brown Recluse does not exsist in Florida.
I got bit by a brown recluse (in southwest Florida) in 1990, I was 18 years old. I didn’t feel the bite but noticed a large bubble just below my knee. I went to 3 different doctors that had no idea what it was but, of course, charged a fee to look at it, anyway, I ended up limping and the veins in my leg were very noticeable so I went to a dermatologist and he knew right away what it was. He ended up carving out the poison that was in my leg and also told me that if I waited any longer that I would have had to have my leg amputated. My friend just got bit on his stomach the other day fixing up a sailboat, that is why I am on this site. That pitcure of that guys thumb is so scary and makes me see how lucky I was, my scar looks like a cigar burn.
I think this is very helpful to understand how serious a brown recluse spider bite is.
10 minutes ago my big brother found a brown recluse in our bath room, it is huge and he wants to keep it! After viewing this information, I think he has lost a nut in his head.
Thank you for your hard work on the web site :} I really think what you are doing is very sweet.
Brown recluses arent huge.
Hi, my husband was bitten 2 times in 2006 and 1 time in 2007 and he was treated with antibiotics for the first 2 and they were on his backend where there was a little more meat so they were just as painful as the 3rd one but easier to treat they gave him 2 different kinds of antibiotics and had him check back they healed fine then he got the 3rd one and it was on his index finger and he said it looked like a black head and popped it out and from then it started getting bigger and the swelling went all the way up to the middle of his forearm when we finally got him to ER it was swollen and red and he was put on IV right then and they gave him 2 IV antibiotics and pain meds and then bandaged it and sent him to a infectious doctor to make sure it was not that inf. you get in hosp., but now everywhere, he confirmed it was a bite and they sent him to physical therapy and they did wet dressings for 2 days and he stayed on the meds for at least 2 weeks he got lucky it only left a scar on his finger but he almost lost his finger it looked like the pic on here of that finger after the bite but did not get as bad as the 2nd pic we beleive his bite came from our pickup cause they all showed up a day or 2 after he had worked on it and it sat for mths in texas where we were living and that is where the first 2 bites happened and the 3rd one happened here in Va. so yes after all those I beg anyone to PLEASE PLEASE get medical attention ASAP if it is at night or weekend go to your ER don’t wait till the next day or after the weekend it has been 5mths since his last bite and it is still tender!!!!!!!
Thanks Philip for the correction in the Brown Recluse text! Greatly Appreciated!
It is true that the brown recluse is not just in the lower Mid West. I am a home inspector in Oregon and they are up hear,,, Fact. Just caught one crawling up my living room curtains this morning.
My son is twelve and like three days ago he got bit by a spider. We took him to the doctor and he really could not tell us what type of spider it was. The doctor cut it to take any liquid out and gave him an injection for infection and some antibiotics but it seems to look a little worse. I wish someone could send me a picture of a bite so i can really know what im dealing with.
Thank you.
Yesterday (I live in the MidWest), I was at the pool, and I noticed that something was crawling on my arm - It wasn’t very large, however, it was tan, and had fairly long legs, it’s body was an oval-shape. Was it a premature recluse?
Thanks
I live in missouri and there are A LOT of brown recluse spiders here, I didnt realize that they were actually poisonous cause i thought they were wolf spiders (and someone told me that brown recluses were the only poisonous spiders), well the ones that i’ve seen, are freaking huge! Some are definitely bigger then my hand and one that i saw last year was bigger then both of my hands. It was mostly just their legs that made them big but they were big enough to scare me.
Sometimes when I’m cleaning the pool one will be in there and that’ll scare me pretty well too.
There is a woman who lives across the street that was bitten by a brown recluse spider, the shot (or whatever) was easy cause she got to the hospital quickly but then the bite didn’t get better and it was because the needle hadn’t been cleaned. Well, that was my comment, thanks for posting this! it just might have saved my life if i ever got that close to a spider
My boyfriend got bited from a brown reclous spider. There are two red bite marks on a bump that is red and pink. The bump (bite area) is very hard and we are very scared.
Please, if you have any information, get back at me, I’m scared. Thank you and godbless
Well was looking around on information on Recluse’s found this site interesting enough to write something down. In Illinois and got a brown recluse in a cup right next to me. Never knew my room would be any type of place a spider would want to be.
Apparently I got to thinking. If you don’t want spiders to be chilling in your room. Clean it or move things around weekly. Since they love to be in places that are undisturbed, the more you move things around and clean such as vacuum, especially in cracks and corners, especially closets where I found this little guy hiding.
Make it a habit to keep your house unwelcome for visitors like that. Just an opinion.
I just found one in my house. how do i find the nest to get rid of the rest of them. I am deathly afraid of spiders, of any kind .
I found one this morning in my bathroom. It was little just sitting on the wall next to my shower. I was able to look at it for a minute before I killed it. And it was small but I wanted to make sure I knew what it looked liked before I killed it.
My Freind was bit two weeks ago on her chest, and I know they say 24-48 hours but she was mowing the hard and about 2 hours later when she went to take a shower it was all black and oozing. She went right to the ER and they knew what it was and didnt make her wait.
They gave her an IV with antibiotics, then they gave her a shot mulitiple times around the bite site. Then scrapped it and stiched it up. She is okay now, she had never been so scared in her life. Be aware of greenery, trees, and so on that they are in but because we disturbe them, they fall onto us and bite. With my friend the spider crawled under her shirt and her bra.
So please protect yourself when outside and under trees and so on.
my brother (tyler) got bitten by one just yesterday…..7/8/07….by a brown recluse…..he is in the hospital right now…and im really worried…….he got bit while he was sleeping…….we were camping in the woods . it looked like a blister……and lf you look really close you can barely make out two little marks…….the brown recluse is deadly so try to stay away…..and if you get bitten go to the hospital right away.they like to hide in stones and piles of wood and dark dry places.
my brothers only 9……..please pray for him….i still haven’t got a phone call…i really hope he is ok.
July 10th 2007
My daughter was bitten two years ago by the Brown Recluse Spider, and to this day she still brakes out on her calf of leg, burned like, plus all the other symtems every once in awhile and goes to the emergency for antabotic treatments, some times they put a piggy back on her so when she comes back to hospital for the rest of her treatments,then they release her with more antabotics and pain meds!
I was woundering if anyone has been bitten and if it lasted that long?
I would like to see a picture of a Wolf Spider bite. I have seen the one of Black Widow and Brown Recluse spider. I seen that a Wolf Spider swells and gets red around the area where bit. I would like to see a picture. My sons ear is swollen and red but I can’t see any teeth punctures. My son swells and bruises when he gets bit by a mosqitos and that is what we thought it my have been. But I am now worried b/c I just killed a Wolf Spider in our house.
I believe I was biten by one a couple of days ago. I went to Pheonix just this past weekend, and thought I got bit there because my friend got bit by one on her breast (no joke), she had to go to the er and get surgery, they had to cut it out of her and so she’s got a healing hole with dressings in it. She couldnt even sit down or walk.
My ankle got a blister on it and spread with a red line to another big red blotchy spot that is very hard and bumpy. I read about these spiders last night. This morning my husband found a spider in our bedroom and caught it with a cup. I keep looking at it and it looks just like a brown recluse. I don’t have medical insurance so I havent gone to the dr. I don’t have symptoms of fever, pain, cramps etc. I’ve been icing it and it’s draining constantly.
Any suggestions? I live in San Diego, CA
Have some type of bite on back side of leg. Think it is a spider but cannot find where and when it happened. Just noticed it late Thur night. Today, it is hard and somewhat itchy in the white center, red surroundings and hard in the infected area. Could it be a brown recluse? Could not see fang marks but under magnifying glass looks like an infected hair follicle.
Curious. Thanks
Ryan.
I tried several ways to send a picture of my brown recluse spider bite to http://www.badspiderbites.com, to go along with my posting. I keep getting the message that this is not a real web address.
UPDATE: (Send pictures to help@badspiderbites.com)
I just wanted to let people know that these spiders are also in MA a close friend of mine was bit by one almost 2 years ago she didn’t know what it was and ended up in the hospital. She is fine now but still has a nasty scar from where they had to cut the posion out.
Just wondering, I felt something crawl over my foot just half an hour ago, and kicked it, and it was a huge brown spider. I had a glass close by and cupped it over it and now have it in a very secure container. I have seen ones that look exactly like this many many times before, at least 10, and my dad, who is a conservation officer keep telling me its not a brown recluse.
It looks exactly like the ones in the picture except its last thorax is a light tan except the first part, which has a darker brown color. Also, its front two ’short/fang like’ appendages are not far apart like in the pucture, but it holds them together. I can take pictures if need be, the container is clear.
Can someone please let me know if the characteristics can vary? Or if there is a species of spider around alabama that looks similar??
These brown recluse bites are very serious. I don’t know if the bite occured in Memphis while on a trip or back home in New Orleans. However, I noticed this pus bump in the middle of my foot. As the days and weeks passed, instead of my home remedies working, it appeared to only get bigger and painfull.
I finally went to a Doctor and he told me had I waited any longer, I would have lost my foot. Now that I am a parent, I am constantly looking my son over and I use insect repellant each and any time we have to go outside.
Don’t take any bites for granted and seek medical attetnion immedaitely.
Update on my post above: We had two specialists look at th spider and confirmed it was a chinchilla male? However you spell it, but it was THAT type of Brown recluse.. the chinchilla.. Because I had kicked him, he didnt inject much of the venom, just simply ‘nicked’ me according to the doctor, and it was red, swollen and grayish a little, but it has started to clear and Im getting better… thank SO much for your effort though!!
Turns out all those years when I saw these spiders in our house (10 total in 12 years) my dad was WRONG when he told me they were NOT borwn recluse. he had told me they were wolf spiders, and they look NOTHING like wolf spiders! So we are having our house inspected and sprayed… maybe this wont happen again
My house is getting on, and the workers said that we had at least 4 brown recluse’s. I thought that i had never saw them before so Iooked at the pictures online. I then remember when i was 7 that there was one in my bedroom right next to my bed.
So just to finish this off, it would be great if i knew how to get rid of them
Hey everyone I was bit by a brown recluse spider last Sunday July 15th. When I noticed that I had the bite it was that night and didn’t pay attention to it till Monday evening. So I called the doc. and we just did not agree on some stuff so he would not see me and the other doc in town was on vacation for the week so I decided to take care of it myself.
For the first couple of days I stayed online trying to figure out what to do because I did not want a big hole in the back of my leg. Well anyway my sister in law had some steroids and some antibiotics so I’ve been taking those and at night i get a large bandage with powder meat tenderizer and a little bit of water and stuck it to the bite for the night, every night and during the day I kept a bandage on with neosporin.
Well with doing all of this today July 23rd and it is healing and almost gone and the biggest it got was only the size of a dime. Thank goodness!
I hope my story will help someone else. Good luck for anyone who has a spider bite I know they hurt but hang in there.
I just recently got bitten by one of these recluses.
just so yall know you can spray the lil demons with insecticide. bug bombs will work only if last resort (they dont usually work)
I woke up this morning, headed to work about 8:00am and noticed that I had two bites on my right forearm, at first they looked like a mosquito bite. But after several hours passed I relized that it had tripled in size an was itching. I scratched it a little and it grew three times the size it had been. By then I was worried about this bite, so I began to ask about at my work.
The reaction that I had gotten from my co-worker was scary as they told me that I should go see a doctor ASAP because by the look of it I had been biten in three different parts of my body and “they were positive it is a brown recluse sprider bite”. Well here I am at 10:35pm on July 28th and I am feeling very unlucky.
As I look down at my arm which continues to grow in size from a few inches to now three inches by three inches and counting. This swollen area has a tempature easily double what the rest of my body is. I feel very restless, overly anxious about tomarrows visit to the doctors office
Why, OH WHY?
I live in Louisville, KY and as I was getting out of my car, my sister said she saw a spider on the door. Later that day I got into the car again, not thinking about what my sister had said earlier. Some time later I was sitting on my bed reading when I noticed a bruise on the inside of my forearm, it is a very light color. There are two tiny brown dots smack dab in the middle of this bruise. If I apply pressure, it causes slight pain.
Dear people
I have a brown recluse spider in my house and don’t know how to get rid of them!
If you know how to prevent these spiders from getting into my home, please let me know!
It’s incredible how many people have taken myths about the brown recluse and turned them into fact. Finding a true brown recluse outside of the central US between texas and georgia and up to ohio is EXTREMELY rare. In fact, in the state of california there are only 75 confirmed recluse specimens IN STATE HISTROY.
In the midwest where they are common, the average home often shelters 12 or more recluse spiders at a given time and the residents often live this way for years without even knowing. Despite the fact that they are so common, bites are still very rare in these areas.
Many people are paranoid about the brown recluse spider. Most recluse bites DO NOT become necrotic. As for the fellow who said that he has seen recluses the size of his hand (Alex post #15) …ridiculous. As with all animals, a few individuals will be beyond the norm, but a spider growing to 10 times its natural size is for a sci fi movie, not this board.
To someone knowledgable about the spider, i find that about as believable as being told that your golden retriever is 9 feet from nose to tail and weighs 400 lbs. same level of credibility.
Thanks Kyle for clearing that up and the detailed information!
Jim - BadSpiderBites.com
To add to what Kyle said–even for a specialist, positively identifying a specimin as a brown recluse is extremely difficult. Generally, the only accurate way to identify it is by cutting it open and examining the internal structures. Brown recluses look almost exactly like a VERY large number of other brown spiders. They are very occasionally found outside of their general habitat area, but those are individuals brought to new areas through shipping, much the same way South American banana spiders will occasionally be brought to North America.
And this contradicts what is stated in the orignal article, and is very important: IF YOU ARE BITTEN OR STUNG BY A VENEMOUS ANIMAL, SPIDER OR OTHERWISE, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CATCH IT FOR IDENTIFICATION. You only waste time that should be spent seeking medical treatment, especially if the animal is small or difficult to catch, and there is a VERY good chance you will be bitten or stung again in the process. Hospital workers do not necessarily even know all the venemous creatures in their area by sight, particularly ones that are difficult to identify. If you can provide a good description, that may be helpful, but attempting to bring the animal itself with you is a BAD idea.
Anyone claiming to see a brown recluse bigger than a half dollar did not see a brown recluse. These things are generally no bigger than 1/2 of an inch. That’s what is scary about them, they are SMALL. I have them in my house, they were in my last house, and the house before that.
They are generally very unagressive, and will only bother you if you bother them. They are also very hard to get rid of. They are NOT bloodthirsty killers….but still scary. I know for a fact that I have been bitten at least three times in my life with no ill effects: itching like a mosquito bite, and it’s gone in a few days.
Just because you are bitten doesn’t mean you will suffer from the severe necrosis seen in internet pictures. For example, some people die from bee stings, it all depends on how allergic you are to the venom. Kill ‘em if you see em, keep your home clean and clutter free, be smart.
I have this bite on my side for around 3 days, it is red about a silver dollar size and very red about the size of a dime you can’t tell in the picure but it has a very hard area under the skin and that is about the size of a quarter. It is very painful and i can not sleep on that side. Any ideas? Oh i live in kansas and the house that i stay in just was treated for field spiders and brown recluses.
I’ve been bitten by a brown recluse spider in the leg (my right leg) but im ok now; however, even after 7 years, there is still a hole. The hole is filled in, but you can still see a dimple and dark stop. Don’t take any chances and see a doctor.
My daughter was bitten on the neck on Friday night while she slept. It has a black place in the middle of the bite and red running up and down her neck .The doctor put her on medication on Sunday the 12th and said it may be a brown Ruclese spider but was not positive. She takes 2000 mg a day. I am worried.
While on holiday in Florida, my young daughter was bitten on her backside, we actually treated it ourselves for several days before calling a doctor. The doctor identified the wound as a Brown recluse Spider bite. The wound started off, looking like a boil, but quickly escalated to a large swelling, infected site with 2 small puncture holes,with a small hardened red area surrounding it, with oozing pus coming from it.We have had to seek further medical help on our return to the U.K. We have also found a similar looking Spider on our bedroom wall, but I am unaware whether the Brown Recluse Spider will live in our different environment. Anyone have any advice?
Just like it says here, “Don’t pop it and seek medical attention ASAP!” It started on Satuday that looked like a pimple, so I popped it, but come Tuesday it looked like what you see in the photos. I came to this website and discovered that what I had was definitely a spider bite, God forbid a Brown recluse spider, see picture below.
So after seeing the pictures from previous people, I immediately seeked medical attention. I was given an IV of Cleocin Phosphate and Clindamycin HCL pills. It is better to be safe than sorry so please, seek medical attention even if you suspect it is or not.
I’ve been bitten by 2 brown recluse spiders (one on my lower right leg and one on my left elbow) when I was a kid I have indentions as results. I believe I have some in my apartment now I keep killing them when I see them it’s usually when I go to pick clothes off the floor they run out. I’ve killed 4 or 5 in my bathroom alone behind a rack I keep my towels on. Where can I find the glue traps at? I will try to take a picture and send it if I kill anymore.
If you are looking to use a glue trap to snag the brown recluse spider, then visit your local hardware store and they usually have them in the lawn and garden center.
I recently got a bite last week and it didn’t look like much but then it started hurting when walking and now I am limping and can’t kick for drill team. It’s on my upper right thigh. So it like spread out under my skin and then it got all tight together really hard and last night in my hot tub all the pus started coming out with blood. I don’t know if it is a brown recluse but it looks like the spider bite picture with the little pimple thing. I haven’t gotten it checked out yet but now that it has died down, should I still worry about it?
Hi, last week I had got bitten by brown recluse spider or it seemed like that is what it was. It was like a mosquito bit but with a bump the 1st day then it got to be a big hole in my thigh with a white bluster, it was bleeding and a lot of pus was coming out of it.
I had went in the emergency 5 days after I got bit and it was so bad that they had to put me in the hospital. I just got out yesterday where they did some kind of surgery on it to take all the stuff out.
After the surgery, the doctor came in to talk to me he had said I lucky I came in when I did because I had lost a lot of tissue in my thigh; I was also lucky that it ate up my fat tissue first. Can you believe that it was literally eating my skin and my insides?
He said that the bit was like if I had got bitten by a rattlesnake. Crazy that it could have been a spider called brown recluse. Now I have a hole the size of half a dollar that is an inch and half deep.
If anyone out there has something like my bite, please just go to the emergency room and do not wait until it is too late!
I was bitten by something on Aug.17 and not really sure, but doctors think it may have been a (brown recluse) spider.
I have been to the doctor 2 days in a row and am not real sure the doctors in this area are real familiar with this type of thing.
I’m e-mailing photos and hopefully can get some kind of feedback on this.