Brown Spider
Brown Spider, Family Sicariidae (Loxoscelidae) has other names as well, including violin spider, Arizona brown spider, fiddle spider, necrotizing spider and of course, the brown recluse.
The brown spider is small and inconspicuous with slightly darker brown markings on the cephalothorax. These markings vaguely resemble the shape of a violin, hence the common names ‘violin’ or ‘fiddle’ spider. The species native to this area are closely related to the infamous brown recluse of the Midwestern United States, but the markings are less obvious.
Distribution and Habitat of the Brown Spider occur in the southern United States through Mexico and Central America. These spiders like to hide among desert debris and around dwellings.
The bite of a Brown spider can be dangerous to humans and may result in loss of limb or life depending on the neglect of treatment and other factors. The average person bitten by a brown spider usually suffers from a spreading sore. If you think you have been bitten by a brown spider bite, seek medical attention sooner than later!
Written by Jim on May 17th, 2006 with
40 comments.
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About five days ago, I woke up to an itching sensation on my arm.
Because I was rushing, I didnt pay it much mind. By the time I got to work, I felt itching sensations all over my shoulder, arm, and back. I’ve counted 12 bites all together !!! They are all located on the left side. They looked like spider bites to me, but still I was unsure. They are small red bites with only a small pus center, rather than a big pus center like the photos I’ve seen on this site. Well, they were before all the scratching !! They dont itch all day, mostly in the morning and at night. Tonight, I was laying in bed watching T.V. and out the corner of my eye, I saw something scurry across my pillow. IT WAS A SMALL BROWN SPIDER !!! My first reaction was to smash it ! And thats what I did ! When I removed it from my pillow, it was not totally smashed, and I could see that it had two rather large fangs for such a small spider ! So I smashed it again. I now wish I would have taken photos of it. Could this one small spider have bitten me all 12 times? Did I take my frustrations out on the wrong insect? Or could there be more spiders lurking in my bed !!!!!!!!!!
I think I have the same problem as you Danette!! I also saw a small brown spider, but it was on my bed, and I can’t find it now!
yes i just got bit by a spider i have a small hole between by ring finger and my pinky finger the spider was a jumping brown spider and it has light brown legs and it was hairy i wanted to know what do i do because it bit me and im having slight numbness in my hand i put rubbin alcohol on it but i wanted to no if i squeeze the bit wit whatever it bit me with ,it was a small spider.please let me no what i should do im trying to catch it so i can put it outside because i have a baby.
Please help!
we had about an inch and a half in diameter brown fury spider with a turtle shape back, white on the top of the leg, and a yellowish, beige strip down the back with lining of the same color around the shell like back. on the butt he has a v coming up towards his back in the yellow beige. please, please let me know if you can identify this spider. we live in South FL.
thank you,
Norina that sounds like a wolf spider…
a brown spider with a yellow circle bit me on the cheek. People say it was a hobo spider but i don’t think it was. It has been a day and i haven’t seen any symptoms except slight cheek swelling where it bit me.
I am visiting Oahu and have been bitten at night the last 2 nights. I am sleeping on a blow up mattress on the floor. I don’t feel the bites as they happen, only upon wakening and they itch really bad. Two are on my leg in the groin area, one on upper thigh and one right behind underarm towards back. They are red, swollen and itchy, look like hives.
This a.m. I took the sheet off and found long legged small brown spider under it, is attached as the one called live. I found another on floor close to mattress, different style of spider. Am enclosing pics of bite and both spiders. Would appreciate any info. Wondering if I should seek medical advice.
Didn’t get a photo but I saw a large skinny long legged brown spider on our wall in our bedroom about the size of a silver dollar. It looks much like a recluse. It was large and I understand that recluse is small about 3/8 of an inch.
This one was much bigger and moved very quickly when I got close and disappeared before I could kill it. What spider could that be?
The more I check the more I believe that what I saw was a recluse. I’ve read that they get as big as 3 inches.
Thanks,
Ross
What do i do with this type of spider that bit me the brown spider is there some type of treatment or something.
this spider hasn’t bitten anyone yet – could you possibly tell us what kind of spider this is. poisonous? we are in S.California (Santa Monica), yesterday 2 of these spiders made there homes 1. at our front door 2. at our kitchen window.
the photos are of the 2 spiders – both have the same coloring, same size but one has a more round abdomen. appreciate your help! actually looking at the photos again I’m wondering if they are the brown widows that I saw on your website???
i have been bit by something in my sleep. and I woke up to find a bump like teena has posted up…and it is itchy and sore….And it is only one bit and i can’t see any teeth marks… but it bothers me that if it is a spider it will come and bit me again..and im am deathly afraid of spiders…..also…do spiders bit in one general area because i got it on my hip and i see that alot of others got it on there arms….can anyone help me?
Thought you might be interested in these pics of a Brown Widow. They are not native to CA, but are a relatively recent invasive species. Pretty, but a bad bite.
hello all, i found a bite (at least i think it is) under my waist line!!! it doesnt hurt and looks to have a small area of pus on top of the bite. It is realy hard i mean it feels like a pebble under my skin. can any one help me out here??? i live in Kansas
Aright, so I just switched rooms in my house and Im sleeping on a different bed – just across the hall.
I woke up the next day realizing I had huge (in my opinion) bumps behind my knee (right) and where my ankle meets my foot (right).
They itched pretty bad and the one’s behind my knee bled apparently because when I showed someone what was going on they’re just all red from so much scratching.
The 2 on my foot leak pus, along with one on the left front-side of my knee. I have about 7-9 of these total all on the right leg.
They’re all circular with a small pus center and slowly leak the pus over time. The bump is firm if I press on or around it and I put some benadryl cream on it and took 2 benadryl pills just so the urge to itch is gone.
Anyone have any idea what this could/may be? Or have any of you encountered this problem?
Thanks
i just caught to little spiders in my back yard sorta a brownish color big ones kinda mean to the little one fond em while messing around in the wood pile they are realy fast i have em in a bucket right now i havent been bitten yet they are on a secure place i dont know if its a common brown spider but one is 1 centimeter the other alittle smaller than the big one they are a brown color and they are pretty fast and its hard to see there fangs tell me what kinda spider it is please so i know to be careful!
My bite is exactly as this girl’s bite. It is a reddish, circular bump about an inch in diameter and occasionally itches. I was also bit on my hip and have had the bite for almost two months. What do I do to get rid of it?
i have been bit by something in my sleep. and I woke up to find a bump like teena has posted up…and it is itchy and sore….And it is only one bit and i can’t see any teeth marks… but it bothers me that if it is a spider it will come and bit me again..and I’m am deathly afraid of spiders…..also…do spiders bit in one general area because i got it on my hip and i see that alot of others got it on there arms….can anyone help me?
I`M having the same spiders bits as Jamie #16 and “#7 ….this as been going on for two & a half weeks and now my 4 month old as got bit too… I have try every thing I can think to kill the spiders but a day or two they come back….. can some one tell what kind of spider this is?
I believe i got bit by maybe a nursery web spider while i was at a strawberry patch its about the size of the end of a writing pen the circle part it didn’t hurt at first but now a few hours later it kind of aches is this harmful. it has a lot of pus coming from it. its a perfect circle with kind of raised edges. has anyone had similar bites?
I was bitten by a spider yesterday sitting at the picnic table . It was a grayish/tan color and the body was not big at all the more and more i look at the brown recluse it looks like that but the body is that that big? could you tell me what it could be. i have no bump that is noticable today so i was just wondering?
i believe i got bitten by a brown spider because the facts are that it looks like a mosquito bite itchy and sore and don’t know anything about these things so i researched a brown spider bite and it told me what felt like and what it looked like.i need to do something about it but what???
thank you
harmony mccullough
Well, I’d have a picture, but it’s dark and I don’t have a camera.
I walked outside my front, and saw a spider on a web in the corner of the porch and decided to take a closer look. It has a small thorax, an overly large abdomen (at least as big as the rest of the spider), it is about a quarter of an inch in diameter and is a dark brown – almost black. On the abdomen there is a perfect white hourglass.
Have I found one of these brown widows I’ve been hearing so much about? I’ve looked all over the internet, and I haven’t found any pictures or information that describe what I’ve found.
By the way, I live in Central Arkansas.
hey i live in spain and i found a orange and black striped spider it was almost the same size of my hand i went to pick it up and move it it raised its to front legs so i backed off as i backed of it ran at me and the ran back and kept doing this for several minutes so i left it it didnt look nice either the fangs wear rather big with red hair around them i will try and find a picture but if you know anything please inform me
many thanks charlie
My grandson was bitten on the ankle by what experts think was an Arizona brown spider or brown recluse. He is in the hospital on intraveneous antibiotics and the tissue is necrotizing. If you google brown recluse spider bite pics, you will see what is happening and our fear.
Hello,
Ground this one up in my garbage disposal this morning…. It was brown and had a 4-5 inch circumference. I live in SE Michigan … any ideas what this is? I DO NOT want to see this again, I have a toddler and incredible fear odd spiders. All help suggested.
I think I got bit by a spider last night. I woke up this morning and my thumb is swollen yet it didn’t get bit. I have a small red bump on my hand that stings when I touch it. My fingers are slightly swollen, but they dont hurt. I live in Upstate NY, could it have been a brown recluse?
About a year or two ago, I had been bitten by these small brown spiders, I’m sure there were more than one because I counted how many bites I had when I had awaken…and there were 47 spider bites on my legs, groin, hips, and my left side!!! They itched horribly bad, and looked exactly like Teena’s bites at first, then got progressively worse to where pus was coming out so bad that my clothes were sticking to me. The day after I felt kind of like I was stuck between a dream and death, this went on for a couple of months. I sought no medical treatment of any kind for this (I’m the kind of person who never goes to the doctor for anything, nor uses any medicine). Then about half a year or so later, the same bites appeared except there were 13 of them this time, recovered in a few days.
wow this is alot of help my step dad got bite two times a a spider and lived!!!
Hi, tonight at about 11:30 we were looking for a cat because we live out in the country, and she dissapeared after we heard a loud screach… As we were searching we saw this HUGE spider, brownish grey, crab like leggs. Insainly huge abdomen … very scary, we want to know if it is poisinous, we live in the SLO area and want to know if this has happened to anyone else and if they know what it is, and what happened if they god bit… include pictures if any!!!!!! thanks
My daughter was bitten before 9pm Aug 26th. Was a quarter sized red mark. I marked it in case it was a brown recluse. In the mornign i woke up and it grew half an inch at 9am. After looking up bites and talking to other bite victims I called the hospital and made a same day appt. well an hour after making the appt. i noticed the red area was swollen and buldging a bit. So i decided to hit the ER instead. While there it grew anouther half inch from the morning.
After waiting a few hours I was told it was a Brown spider bite,was given antibiotics for her and sent home to wait it out.
the red area is slowly growing slowly. So im gonna watch it even more. Its the size of my palm now, hot to touch and tender.
I have found a Grass or wolf spider, a small dark brownish redish spider and the brown recluse in my home so they are all suspects of who bit my 3 yr old girl.
I was bitten tonight by a spider that looks like the picture on here of the recluse it was alot smaller than I expected it to be I felt it bite it stung and now itches there is no mark yet I tried to use the spider to compare but ended up squashing it cause it was still moving and they really creep me out I have noticed a lot of spiders lurking around my home which I moved into yesterday….YUCK!!!!
What symptoms should I look for and be worried about?
Hello,we live in Peoria,Il. county side, have six acres, we have these big black spiders, they get into the house, they also run and are able to stand atop the pool water,tried to hold them under the water, doesn’t phase them.They are fast, going to get exterminator out this year, they tend to come inside when it cools down outside.
I have been fighting these little brown devils for several years now. They like woodpiles, porches, but don’t hesitate to move into the house. You get an itchy spot that looks like fang marks. 2 little dots and if you scratch it, watch out, the poison spreads and the sore just gets worse. I usually get 2 days of headache that won’t go away no matter what medication I take and 2 days of mild diarrhea. Getting the yard sprayed on a regular basis helps, but if you have houses around you that are vacant or not maintained they do and will come back. Just thought someone might benefit from this info. I’ve become an expert.
My father found a huge brown shaprly jointed legs, definate hairs, flat octagonshaped body, small abdomen, light brown on sides and hour glass shape inthe middle of it, turtle shape looking pattern to the flat body and thick with furry looking black things on his fangsnot bulbs like brown or hobo looking thiink with black furry tips on them mean and and transperant in th efirst joints of there legs pleas ereply we have no clue neve rseeen one like it. CJ
my son came home from school with a blister on his eyebrow, 3 days later it is large and red and getting bigger i took him to the doctor and she tells me it is a skin infection but when i came home and moved his bed i found a spider that closely resembles a brown recluse he says it doesn’t hurt and it doesn’t bother him at all. the doctor said if it is even a spider bite they would treat it the same way . but i am still worried. i kept the spider (dead of course, got to love pledge!)
I found a spider hiding in the recess of a sliding door to my backyard.
It is rather large, slightly bigger then a quarter, brown and lightly hairy, and has a violin shape on its abdomen(topside), not its back. I know the brown recluse has a violin, but was told its only on its back, not its abdomen.I was not bitten, but would like to educate myself for future encounters.
Anyone know what kind that is? or is it a different kind of recluse?
Any help is appreciated. I live in phoenix Arizona, It took nearly a dozen electric fly swatter hits to kill it, i wanted to preserve it for pictures. Will uplod some in a couple days.
i dont have a picture but i been bittin by the brown sprider i didnt feel the bite when it bite me i saw it one day and throught it was a a relgualer bug bite so i wasnt really worried but my leg started to hurt were i couldnt ever walk on it so i went to the doctor and they told me i came just in time before it had made it to the rest of my leg but it was horrible and i hope not to get bite by any sprider again but people there yall got to be careful no of days people dieing getting bit and stuff like that just be careful
I’ve found several brown crab-like spiders in my house this week. they were all approximately 1inch in size and was semi slow and walked like a crab. one was crawling on my little boy and now im afraid to put him back in his bad. If i find another one i will take a pic. Im trying (unsuccessfully) to find info about it online. If you have any info, please contact me. thank you.
~Julz
I had this same problem I got bit by this spider at tumbling it didn’t look bad but was affecting my whole leg it may have been a big spider and tiny bite but a remarkable pain that I will never forget.Please if u guys go to tumbling at five star in northern Kentucky please try to make sure they cleaned that pit and that if one of your friends say i just saw a big spider ya-hi big please trust them believe them.
I keep finding small to medium size brown spiders with clear abdomens in my apartment. I’ve killed every single one of them, but I can’t figure out what kind they are!!! Can any one help?
On Thursday, the 27th of May, I had noticed that the left side of my right knee had a little pain whenever I would touch it. So I lifted up my pant leg and saw what appeared to be what my bff thought was “just a zit” because it was tiny and had a white puss center. So naturally I scratched at it and squeezed at it to get the puss out. Today it is Monday, May 31st, and now what was originally a tiny dot of puss is now a blackish hole with like dried blood or something on the top covering it.
The immediate area around it is very hard and it hurts. Then there is a larger area around that that is red and painful. And then if you poke above the red area above it (towards my femur, so proximal to my body) that part is tender too. It doesn’t itch or anything. Its sore when I walk but hurts more when I touch it. Its warm to the touch compared to the rest of my leg. I spent 20 min. earlier today squeezing it a whole bunch to try and get any infection out. Puss and a yellowish-clear came out as well as blood. I put a lot of hydrogen peroxide on it. So much that for about an hour, the edges of the hole were white from the peroxide. Oh yeah, the hole is about the size of a 14 gauge needle. And at first I hadn’t really noticed any bite marks, but that big hole is one, and now another bite mark is showing up next to it. It hasn’t bled or leaked any puss or anything yet, but its currently a faint black/purple-ish blue color.
Anybody know what kinda of spider or something bit me?! My Dad is concerned, he doesn’t know whats gonna happen to it- But he said that whatever bit me is giving me a bad bite. D: Please, if you know anything about what kind of spider this is, please email me at becca1339@yahoo.com
I plan on getting my RN to be a registered nurse a year after I graduate. I’m absolutely terrified of spiders to death. I’m not even kidding. I’m really scared, I don’t want to have to lose my leg or something because I don’t know how to treat it or anything.
My Dad is gonna get my an appointment with a Dr really soon, I just don’t know when. If your able to help at all I think you VERY much!!! I hope none of you ever get bitten by another spider, and certainly not this one. [[Ive been researching to try and find out but nothing comes to mind]]
IF YOU GO TO THE TOP OF THIS PAGE, AND LOOK IN THE LEFT HAND CORNER AT THE FOUR PICTURES, MY BITE CURRENTLY LOOKS LIKE THE BITE IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT HAND CORNER. D8