Spider Bite Treatment
Have you been bitten by a spider? If so, then this page will provide you with some great information about treating spider bites. Even though 80% of bite victims never see what actually bit them, most assume it’s a spider and most point the finger at the Brown Recluse Spider.
Spiders rarely attack people and bite only when threatened, such as when hiding in clothing and being pressed against the skin. Only a few spiders are big enough to inject their venom into your skin and of those spiders, only a few species have venom strong enough to do any damage.
Some experts recommend capturing the spider while others warn against it do to increased risk of being bitten a second time. Having the spider will most definitely help in the identification and treatment process.
If you can’t find the spider and didn’t see what bit you, or if you have multiple bites, it’s probably a TIC, Bed Bug or something other than a spider.
Unfortunately, many Doctors have not had to treat spider bites and information on identification and treatment is often confusing. Below, you’ll find a number of comments that have been left by visitors from around the world; this information may help your doctor with the treatment process.
See Brown Recluse Spider for information on how to ID the Brown Recluse and Brown Recluse Spider Bite on how to ID the Brown Recluse bite.
One visitor, Gerald, stood out among the rest and offered some great information on the treatment of spider bites; I’ll start off with his story and go from there. Feel free to leave comments and I’ll make sure they get posted to the site.
Gerald’s Story:
I could write a book about spider bite treatment, but I’ll get right to the bottom line. My wife and I have been bitten by Brown Recluse spiders several times each over the last 20 plus years thanks to our rural Northwest Arkansas farm lifestyle. Fortunately we knew a quick, safe and economical cure for them so it was a 10 minute distraction to treat it, making it little more than a mosquito bite. We learned it from our vet long ago, after my first bite went poorly.
In our area farm vets combine a high incidence of personal Brown Recluse bites with a lot of medical knowledge. Who could be more motivated or equipped to find the cure? Vets fix themselves by injecting 1/10th CC of Dexamethasone (a cortisone) divided into two or three subcutaneous shots right around the perimeter of the bite inflamed area. [Dexamethasone is a high potency steroid used to decrease swelling and inflammation]. He recently said he had used it to treat himself six or more times in his career plus a few times on his kids and wife. My wife and I together tally about a dozen bites treated that way.
I once asked a farm vet in another town where we take horses how he treated his spider bites and he told me the same thing. Over the years about two dozen of our friends with bites tried our advice with complete success. In total that is almost 50 bites given this treatment that I know of, and every single one started to mend immediately. There were no failures and no negative consequences. Several times a friend told his doctor what he had learned and what he needed done, and the doctor did it, usually saying something like “Sounds reasonable to me. I know the way I’ve been doing it doesn’t work well and there is no risk with such a tiny dose. There is no down side to trying it.” Not all react that way though.
None of the bites caught early needed antibiotic treatment and more than half got none. If a doctor is doing the injections they usually prescribe antibiotics too. If it gets to the open lesion stage you need them. Treatment in the first 48 hours is always best, but it works much later too.
The worst case I’ve seen cured was a woman sharing a hospital room with my mom about 10 years ago. She had a bite on her foot and had been in the hospital about two weeks when we met her. The lesion was about 3 inches across and about every other day the doctor unwrapped it and scraped the necrotic tissue out to her heart rendering screams. He and a consulting doctor had begun to discuss amputation. We told her and her husband and two adult kids of our experiences and advised they consult some out of town doctors. They found a doctor in Springfield, MO that had used cortisone to successfully treat several cases. When her then doctor refused to listen, confer with the other one, or release her, they took her out anyway. About two months later we got a long letter profusely thanking us for butting in. She was by then healed up and on her feet again, feeling we probably saved her foot and maybe more. No doubt that took more than a tenth of a CC.
Other kinds of cortisone might work, but both vets preferred Dexamethasone. It is thin like water so can be injected through tiny insulin needles, an important matter when injecting a super tender spot three times. A tenth of a CC isn’t much. It is about like 1/8th of an inch of a wooden pencil eraser, then split that in thirds per injection. That is a small fraction of a normal systemic dose given for arthritis and such, so risks are also tiny. Visit MedLinePlus and read the precautions so you will know what to advise your doctor about, like pregnancy or fungal infections.
It’s not new knowledge. My bad first bite I mentioned was in the eyebrow. I had a small bump there but thought it was just a rare zit. I also had a bad sinus headache I tried to treat with hot compresses and a muscle massager on the cheek to break it loose. The third day I had to take a flight some states away to deal with another’s emergency. I woke up with one side of my face badly swollen, but had to go. The pain and swelling became worse as time passed and it was two more days of frantic work before I could get to a doctor without causing another crisis. By then I was a mess, but recovery began after a big cortisone shot (unsure what kind) in the hip. The doctor said he usually injected around the bite, but he couldn’t because cortisone injections near an eye can damage it. That doctor knew and discussed site injections with me back then, well before we happened on the topic with our vet. Back then I didn’t grasp the rarity of that doctor’s knowledge of spider bites or my good fortune in going to him for treatment.
Combining my doctor’s information with that of the vets taught us an effective treatment we used occasionally, but had no clue so few others knew it. That only came over time as others told us their past or pending treatment methods. Many we headed off, but some we couldn’t. About 1996 the web came along and gave me a peek into how pervasive ineffective treatment was. The web was slow, and blogs were rare, but all the medical “fact” sites said the “antibiotic only, cut open, scrape, suffer, and live with the crater” was the only effective spider bite treatment. Most shared verbatim wording. I thought I ought to write up what I knew and get it out there somehow, but wasn’t sure how, so I procrastinated.
Today I’m re-motivated, because this month a friend had a recent spider bite on his finger treated the old way and it turned into the typical horror story. That led me to begin searching the web for sites that gave good treatment advice to refer others to. I was shocked. Twelve years after I looked last time, nothing is better. Only the volume of horror stories has grown. Twelve years ago a letter like this might have altered our current reality. Well, maybe by 2020 ——. There is very little mention of treatment with cortisone or especially site injection. A couple of visitors on this site www.badspiderbites.com/brown-recluse-spider-bite/bugs-2/ like #67 received systemic cortizone treatment and it fixed them but that’s about it.
By telling you this I am not advocating self medication! I am however, suggesting that you ask your doctor how your bite will be treated; if the old way is mentioned (cut and scrape), then offer the information found on this page. If your doctor is closed minded and is not open to suggestions, then it may not be a bad idea to seek the advice of another doctor.
A doctors knowledge is based on experience and not all doctors have had experience with treating spider bites. We found that the emergency room and after hours clinic doctors seem to be more open minded and have steered several friends in this direction who later reported back that their ER doctor said “sure, that is how we treat spider bites anyway”, and not just locally. For example, a relative was helping move someone to Atlanta. While loading he was bitten on the stomach. Days later and the night before they were leaving at 6 AM I saw him and he was worried about it. I told him to go to an ER along the way or once there and what to ask for. In Atlanta they injected around the site, saying that was their normal treatment, and he was healed in few days. If that fails too, ask a farm vet how he treats his own bites and what doctor he suggests.
I’m not a doctor, and I’m not giving medical advice beyond “it’s OK to shop for the right doctor” but this treatment approach needs exposure, discussion, and trials. I believe widespread use could eliminate untold suffering and costs to people like earlier writers to these blogs. If you have any questions I’ll be watching this site for discussion. If you want to discuss something privately, Jim has my email address.
Thanks for sharing Gerald!
Spider Bite Treatment at Home used by Gerald:
Gerald offered the above information to help those seeking medical attention with treatment suggestions that can be offered to the doctor. The information below is what Gerald and his wife use to prevent the need for a trip to the hospital.
NOTE: We are in no way suggesting that bite victims try treatment without consulting a doctor first and in fact, we strongly urge you to seek the advice of your doctor immediately after being bitten. However, when doing so, and after reading Gerald’s story, you’ll have information that you can present to your doctor that he/she may approve or disapprove of. I’ll repeat this statement at the end of Gerald’s home treatment.
My wife is hyper-sensitive to all kinds of stings and bites. A bee sting that is ten minutes of pain to most of us would usually cause so much swelling a trip to the doctor for a cortizone shot was needed. The doctor prescribed an Epi-pen (Epinephrine emergency injector) in case she reacted even more severely sometime.
Spider bite kit
That all changed when we discovered the Sawyer Bite & Sting Kit, also called the Extractor. Imagine a big plastic syringe with a cup on the nose that somehow creates great suction when you push the plunger down. It sucks lymph and poisons right back out the same holes they went in without need for cutting. Routine stings and bites quit hurting her in 15 minutes and no swelling occurs.
Though primarily a snake bite tool, it is just amazing for plain bites and stings from bugs of all kinds, cleansing small puncture wounds, and especially poisonous spider bites. We have an Extractor in every car, truck, tractor, and building on the ranch. By the way, you can buy them in the sporting goods department of most Wal-Mart stores for $13.97 last time I checked. (Incidentally, I have no connection to either Wal-Mart or Sawyer)
Venom Extraction with the Extractor
To use, select a clear cup that fits the bite site and press/twist fit it into the nose of the yellow barrel. When you apply the Extractor the skin humps up like half a marble from its power. I’m surprised it doesn’t cause a hickey but it never does. You may suck some blood out and that’s OK. Especially if applying to a puncture wound. A few minutes is usually enough. The disposable razor is there to shave a spot if hair is breaking its seal.
Because this is mechanical removal of venom or contamination, it can work on almost any kind of skin breach, unless already bleeding too much to help. From splinters to Black Widow bites it has got to help if used promptly.
I once attended the Waurika, OK rattlesnake festival. There was a small sunken stage with about 400 rattlers piled around and a half dozen guys (women are to smart?) wading among them and doing unreasonable things with them. The point is, they had some EMTs standing there, each with cocked Sawyer units in hand.
Two warnings: Don’t get blood inside the yellow barrel, or get water in it during cleanup. That can damage it. It is a complex mechanism inside with springs, seals, lube, etc. Also, too much force attaching the cup can crack the barrel nose causing an air leak and ruining its value. Glue can fix it usually.
Don’t confuse the Extractor with those little rubber cup snake bite kits that have been around for at least 60 years which contain a little pointed razor for cutting open the bite site before trying to suction out the venom. Those old kits contain instructions such as “Relax, stay calm, keep your heart rate down” and “start cutting X’s on yourself”; In my opinion, such kits kits are so bad it ought to be a crime to sell them to the unsuspecting. If you check the medical sites like Emedicine, Medicinenet, etc., you’ll find such kits are not recommended but they do say good things about the Extractor.
Unfortunately the medical sites don’t recognize the Extractor’s value in treating spider bites, where they specifically caution against doing any kind of suction treatment. That isn’t surprising since most of their other Brown Recluse advice is wrong too. I wrote the earlier story about the quick, effective treatment by Dexamethasone injected around the bite. Actually, we now reserve that for older more advanced bites. If we get a bite now, we normally know by the delayed burning pain in a few hours. Usually we can see the twin fang marks on the red mound also. We use the Extractor on it, pulling out one or two tiny beads of lymph containing the venom, then put a good dollop of cortisone creme on the spot, cover that with a bandaid, and by morning the bite is history.
Here is why I think it works so well for spider bites, and is also relevant to the Dexamethasone site injection method too. The bites are extremely shallow, unlike a fang injected snake bite. The venom is deposited in the first under layers of the skin served only by the very slow moving lymphatic system, not the fast moving blood circulatory system, and there it stays for many days. It and its associated bacterial infection don’t start moving much until the necrotic hole eats it way deep enough to get into the faster circulatory system.
The early swelling and pain up a limb plus fever and overall illness make one think that the venom has traveled a lot, but I don’t think that is true. Most of that is the allergic reaction to a small invasive injury it recognizes as a great threat. The swelling and heat is the body’s soldiers massing for battle.
The venom is usually injected inside the shell of another bug where it paralyzes them and pre-digests its insides so the spider can suck it out later. I think that the venom stays at the contact surface between the digested tissue and the healthy tissue walls of the lesion. It is not inside the good tissue, just on its surface and in the most recently digested tissue. On a small lesion of the whitehead stage (not yet open to bacterial invasion) a good suction effort seems to remove the venom with the digested tissue and some surrounding lymph. Top it off with the cortisone cream and a bandaid and you are fixed. If it has reached the open lesion stage, its time for Dexamethasone.
DISCLAIMER: We are in no way suggesting that bite victims try treatment without consulting a doctor first and in fact, we strongly urge you to seek the advice of your doctor immediately after being bitten.
Gerald’s story should serve as information that you can pass along to your doctor. Your doctor may find this information helpful. You should always seek the advice of your doctor.
Written by Jim on August 2nd, 2007 with
99 comments.
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This page about spider bite treatment was informational about bites, but it did not actually give much information about how to treat a bite!! I would like to know what to do if I or my children get a bite. We will obviously “seek medical attention immediately”, but what should we do with the bite on the way to the doctor? Ice? Heat? ??
Hello NH, information has been updated - See Above.
is there a cream or some kind of medicine you can buy over the counter to treat a supected sider bite?
Most everything suggests antibiotic lotion or cream. Visit your Rite-aid or Wallgreens and ask for exact type.
Specific treatment for any type of spider bite will be determined by your physician. Treatment may include:
* Wash the area well with soap and water.
* Apply a cold or ice pack wrapped in a cloth, or a cold, wet washcloth to the site.
* To protect against infection, particularly in children, apply an antibiotic lotion or cream.
* Give acetaminophen for pain.
* Elevate the site if the bite occurred on an arm or leg (to help prevent swelling).
* Seek immediate emergency care for further treatment. Depending on how bad the bite is, treatment can range from administering corticosteroids and other medications to surgery of the ulcerated area. Hospitalization may be needed.
* Prompt treatment is very, very important to avoid more serious complications, especially in children.
Don’t wait on the bite! If you look around, you’ll see stories about people who waited because it seemed small - it can change very fast, so seek medical attention to be sure.
I just recieved my first spider bite I did go to the dr. but there is no pain just alot of oosing and redness. is there any other cure for this.
i was bit by something unknow, i think it could possibly a spider bite, the other day it was hard at the site and hurting somewhat….had a nurse on my job to try to ooze out the pus/poison i guess and treat it with an old fashion remedy but since then infection feels like its spreaded and half of my arm is hurting now, the site is so inflammed and warm around the area…i can barely feel any comfort at all when moving it…sure the swelling is gone now, but the pain is terrible.
please help…and where can you go for treatment….that wont charge a arm and leg
Thank you for this site. Is the poison in spider bites acid or alkaline? For example, mosquito bites are acid.
I have been bit by something, a spider I assume, on my collar bone. I am about to panic, it hurts really bad and I don’t know if I’m just panicing or if I am truely sick at my stomach. I hate spiders, terrified of them, so I’m kinda trippin’. Hospital or no?
For spider bite treatment, I use a paste of water and baking soda which draws the poison out of the wound. I simply place the paste on top of the spider bite and the bite starts to improve within a few hours.
I recently recieved a spiderbite on my inner thigh, talk about an uncomfy spot to get one, right at the inseam of my pants. Anyway, I’m assuming the little bugar was in my pants (which I’ll admit were on the floor when I picked them up) and I didn’t feel the bite until about an hour later.
The rubbing of my pants actually made the spider bite worse and caused it to swell and was purple and yes it was very gross. However, I did what Laura said on the 30th of April and made a paste of 1 tsp bleach, 1tbsp of baking soda and 1tsp of water. Something my grandma taught me a long time ago, as Laura stated, it draws out the poison and relieves the pain.
After that it’s neosporin and a bandaid unless of course it’s horribly bad in which case take your butt to the hospital before it kills you! Anywho, that’s what I do and it works wonderfully. I work in a garden a lot and here in ND there are massive amounts of little black spiders all over the house (point in fact I’ve killed 12 in the past week alone due to the fact that I have two small children and rather them not get bitten). I wish for a state that has very few spiders!!!
Yeah I know, it’ll never happen, but one can dream!
Yesterday I woke up with a several bites on my arm. All the bites are in the same area. I really don’t want to go to the doctor since it’s soo expensive.
Can any of you recommend me something I can buy. I’ve been putting some cream to calm down the itchyness. It’s funny that it doesn’t itch where the actual bites are, but some parts of my arms. Today I woke up, same bite size as yesterday, but I have a few red dots where i had been scratching around my arm.
I’ll be going to a Walgreens today and ask the pharmacist on what he/she recommends.
My mom has had some of the same bites, but her bites have turn black, they look like small bruises. Other than that they have stayed like that for the longest.
Thanks
Id like to have some kind of home remedy for spider bites i think i have one its making me very ill and i dont have any insurance
I was bitten by something (unknown if spider bite) on the inside bend of my arm. The redness and itching did not begin to improve until I started taking 4 grams (that’s 4,000 miligrams) of Vitamin C per hour. After three such doses the improvement is so great that I am taking the 4 grams every 2 hours. The wound is greatly improved and much smaller and no more itching or redness.
I use large doses of Vitamin C to treat numerous things. And no, if there is a wasp sting, illness, etc. there is no diarrhea. I have taken as much as 7 grams per hour wih no problem.
this is a very great site for those who dont kno what to do if there’s a spider bite..!!!
A cold (used) Black Tea Bag as a compress helped tremendously.
Three months ago, my husband was bitten. The area was red, very swollen and painful. The center of the wound appeared to be chemically burning. I grabbed the closest cold compress I could find - a tea bag - and applied it to the site. Within 15 minutes, the hot skin temperature had cooled significantly AND the swelling and hardness of the surrounding tissues diminished and softened.
For several weeks, we continued to treat the area with tea bags, neosporin, clotrimizole, gently cleansing off the skin decay, and carefully bandaging the tender area. Three months later, he still has a thumb-print sized red spot.
It was horrific. I’ve taken the time to research folk remedies and web-md. Some reports led me to believe that neutralizing the burn with tannic acid (tea bags) and/or baking soda would be beneficial. Personal experience taught me that as well, so I want to share the story. Thanks for this website. Those things are scary!
Thank you for posting this useful information!
Hello,
I got bitten by something (I’m assuming a spider) over a week ago. I thought it was a mosquito bite at first, but soon found out that it wasn’t a mosquito. It bit me on my knee and the pain in my leg has been really bad. A week or so later, the poison is finally oozing out, but now my knee seems to be more swollen than before. Could you please send me some home-treatment suggestions?
Our house is not finished and we have had problems with spiders for two years. Our children have been bitten and so have we. Orkin did not help. I had to have one lanced. I have used black drawing salve from the pharmacy. If you have to squeeze the bite then apply the salve. One doctor told me not to squeeze the bite but it was painful.
Yes I have a spider bite on the back of my leg and it’s infected. I have been to three different doctors and they all said it looked like a spider bite I thought it was a bug bite. I am on day 4 and it still hurts and it’s swollen and red.
Yesterday I couldn’t even sit on it or walk on my right leg it hurt so bad. I think this happen when I was asleep Friday night and I woke up Saturday morning and it itched so just be careful out there.
Found this site in desperation - great to read other peoples´ ideas. I live in Southern Spain and have a large bite on my calf. I have been attending the local centro de salud every other day. They have diagnosed it as a spider bite. This happened six weeks ago! Didn´t feel it at the time, but very tense and painful, with huge red/white/red rings around bite, that night, followed by blistering and oozing the next day.
The medics have been scraping it with a scalpel blade to get rid of the hard septic cover and then applying antibiotic cream. It hasn´t worsened but it really isn´t improving either - I still have an open central crater about 2cm across and a hard red ring around it. I think I´ll try the baking powder paste myself between treatments.
Any other ideas?
Here is a picture of my spider bite
SPIDER BITES CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS. My buddy got bit on the toe. Gangrene set in. The spider bite treatment by doctors was to cut off his toe and continued up as time passed, cutting. Soon after they had cut off his leg, he died.
The recent news reported that some 6 people had been bitten as they sat on the toilet, 5 died. It seemed that under the seat of the toilet has just the right temperature and moisture for the spiders.
I’ve been treating and finally am successful in getting rid of a bite. I used soap and an anti-biotic. It’s been at least two months.
Three days ago I noticed a puffy red area on my calf that had 2pin holes and some white pus. I have only been treating it at home with rubbing alcohol and antibiotic cream but it is still there. After reading the above comments I am going to call my Dr. in the morning to have it checked out.
I was bitten by a red spider mite two days ago (I know what it was, because I didn’t realize it was biting me as I watched it until it hurt like CRAZY and I had to kill it. It’s surprisingly painful when they bite, even though they are incredibly tiny! After two days of treating it with rubbing alcohol, then peroxide, it has unfortunately become a a very small open hole with tiny blisters around it and a wider, 4″ rash circling it.
It itches like crazy off and on. I went to the doctor today for something else and showed it to her. She wasn’t that concerned, but told me to use cold compresses and Neosporin ointment until it went away. But that if it became, literally, a growing open hole, to come back to see her again. So I guess while I am sensitive to spider bites, it’s not that big a deal and can be treated at home with patience and OTC medication. But it still ITCHES!!!
My daughter woke with a red mark on the palm of her hand. Painfull and swelling. Wev’e taken her to the Dr. anticipating some form of bite. She’s on antibiotics for pain and antihistimines. It will be going on 2 days and the swelling is still there.
Raised red marks have come and gone, but the redness is still spreading slowly but surly. It’s still itchy. But unlike many of the comments i’ve read on your site. There is no apparent bite mark or hole. At one point she reached 105 deg. We’re taking her in tomorrow, but any comments would be appreciated.
I have a spider bite on my uncle with 2″ dia very red area and a blister in the midle, I lanced last night and treated with Cortaid, it does continue to drain, and as long as it dose drain probably will get better, but I am going to try the tea bags and baking soda.
My grandmother used to make a baking soda paste for bee stings I am going to try on my spider bite. Used baking soda and cider vinegar - enough to make a paste. Was putting hydrocortizone on it and still will - thought at first I was bit by a misquito as well - but it is red with a yellow pus center just like the pics on this site. Hurts a LOT now, been about two of three days since I noticed it. Friend told me it sounded like a spider bite and gave me some scary stories about them so I had to look it up on the web. Will update on the cider vinegar baking soda trick in a few days to let you all know how it went.
i was bitten by a spider in LA three months ago on the crease of my butt and it was little at first then grew and my mothers dr. friend told her he had a lady come in and she waited too long for a bite on her arm and they amputated it sooooo……i went to the hospital and had it cut and drained for only $500 dollars with insurance thank you dr. world for being soooo cheap!!!
I moved back to Austin Tx and three days ago i was bitten again and this time luckily its on my cheek…..hurts really bad drained a bunch and my head hurts …..im really kinda freakin out .
will i live? hope so
i got stuff to do tomorrow
i was bit by something on my cheek near my ear.. just felt like nothing there like a fluff had landed and i brushed it away. felt like a sliver was stuck in… thought maybe a blind pimple. 24 hours later swelling and grapefruit like surface. my daugther thought she saw 2 black spots. put after-bite on it and had an antihistamine.
36 hrs later hiving on the area /(size of a nickel), teeth numb, glands along the neck and under chin swollen, more hiving, swollen pink around the bite area. went to the doctors, cortesoid/antibiotic cream, benadryl, antibiotics and aspirin.. blisters for several days.
Day 7 - swelling going down, blisters drying up, some blisters remained with pus in them - that came out with the cleaning.. now day 10, blisters gone, teeth are mine again, glands normal. still on antibiotics, benadryl, cream and aspirin… looks like a few layers of skin gone, raw pink skin - not sure if it will scar.
I am applying vitamin e around new pink area. don’t know what it was but wont lay outside anymore, may go see my doctor to see if i need to see an allergist as i swell up with mosquitos and blackflys..
I appreciated the information. I noticed a small red spot on my lower calf on Saturday that looked like a mosquito bite. It grew worse over Sunday. Last night (Monday) it looked really awful. It had grown into a 4 inch, hard, red-hot area with a bright red quarter sized center and in the very center was a blister. That is I went to the web, and became convinced it was a brown recluse spider bite. I iced it and propped it up for a while. I decided to try an experiment, and treat it like a bee sting. I rubbed it with meat tenderizer. The meat tenderizer did make it sting. The blister opened up without popping it.
I made a paste of unseasoned meat tenderizer, water and thick-it. Thick it turns water into a clear gel, and is used in health care for stroke patients. Any binding agent would probably work, such as unflavored metamucil or even oatmeal. I wrapped it in a clean rag and kept an ice pack on it. This morning I searched for spider bite meat tenderizer, there are some similar recommendations from professional sources. Meat tenderizer has an enzyme that breaks down venom. It is also very, very salty.
It was dramatically better within an hour. This morning it continues to improve.
I was camping in Oregon by Diamond Lake. I pitched my tent under a tree that turned out to be full of hobo spiders. When it rained at night, the spiders were washed onto the tent and they got up under the rainfly and inside the tent. I noticed them in the morning and got out and cleaned off the tent. I was looking in the mirror and noticed a bite between my underarm shoulder. It was purple, like a blood blister with a little white cap. I had headaches, nausea and my vision was blurry. I drove to the emergency room in Bend, Oregon and the doctor said he couldn’t do anything for me, what an idiot. I rubbed some neosporin on it and it seems to be improving. Be careful where you pitch your tents.
I was bite by unknown suspect spider - it occurred Weds morning by Weds night my arm had swollen the size of a grapefruit lump with itchy red wet blistery area about 2″ x 4″ - it began to affect my breathing - ER treated me with benadyl, steriod and sent me home. Each day the area got larger - no pain - I went to my health food shop where they recommended Black Chosh ointment mixed with Black Chosh tablet powder into a paste - THIS WORKED! It does not smell great but it reduced the redness, swelling, infection and it has stopped spreading. I am going to my MD tomorrow - because the area is now hard like a rock -
Black Chosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) is a plant from the buttercup family and can act as a anti-inflammatory, suppress LH levels which help control hormone surges that cause hot flashes, also helps alleviate insomnia.
Dosage: tincture 10-60 drops/daily
Root or tea 1-2 gms/daily
Most common form of Black Cohosh is Remifemin - usual dose 2 tablets (60 or 120 mg per tablet) twice a day.
** Caution: it can cause stomach problems, headache and dizziness, and should be avoided if you are taking medication for high blood pressure.
Help, I was recently bit by an unknown spider or thing. I believe this occurred as the cleaning crew hit my office and it disturbed the spiders. The bite is on my right arm and it looks very odd. The wound it red, looks filled with pus and a small line protruding from it. I am going to the doctors tomorrow.
I was bitten on my buttox when I was sleeping 6 days ago , at first I thought it was a mosquito bite but then it became red and swollen and it is painfull and there is a scab on it so I think it was a spider bite. I read somewhere online to put salt on it but that made it swell even more with more pain of course.
It is not infected, the only thing that seems to help at all is putting an ice pack on it, but because of where it is I can’t exactly sit there at work with an ice pack on it. I can’t afford to go to the doctor so if anyone could offer some advice I would be gratefull.
After realizing that I was most likely dealing with a spider bite, I tried a variety of treatments. Iodine - marginally effective; colloidal silver gel - so so; Oil of wintergreen - felt good for a while but didn’t do much; tea tree oil - worsened; finally stumbled over an old bottle of ‘Camphor Spirit USP’ and started using it, what a difference. The itchiness disappeared almost immediately, the open sore crusted over within a few hours, and now after applying it two or three times for the past four days, the whole affected area is reduced to a small red patch with flaking skin.
Here is the monograph from the bottle: ” To aid in the relief of sprains, bruises, headaches, skin eruptions, insect stings and cold sores: Rub into affected areas. Contains 10% w/v camphor. KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. ”
I have to say something about tea tree oil. I have used it successfully in the past to remove moles and ‘age’ spots, but I had forgotten about how it creates an intense itchiness. Since all here have reported itching with the spider bites, you can imagine the situation with the use of the tea tree oil - well okay, maybe you can’t: However itchy you were - double it and make it last longer. Big mistake. I sincerely hope that this helps someone.
I believe there is a way to detoxifie the venom, you can put carmex on it and cover it with a bandage. I was told this by my gram who put the carmex on the spider bits which i didn’t expect to work but the next day the bite burst open and started to pour out blood pus and the left over venom.
The Venom color is usually blackish purple color when it comes out of your wound it will pour a lot or a little depending on how bad the spider bit you. Also, these spiders are mating with common house spiders which causes a problem. It worked for me and although it may not work for everyone, I though I would mention it and help others out here. Also, watch for little sack to come out. If the sack comes out of the wound go to a doctor immediately.
Carmex is a topical lip balm commonly utilized for reducing cold sores and dry chapped lips with active ingredients being menthol, camphor, alum, and salicylic acid.
Hello, this is a follow up to my post found here: http://www.badspiderbites.com/spider-bite.php#comment-15256
1. Hot compressing it got the venom sack to draw towards the opening, and I was able to get it out without spreading more venom into my skin by just lightly touching it with a piece of toilet paper, when I pulled the toilet paper back the sack clung to it and came out with it. Yes, it hurt considering how far down my bite had really gone, however the pain resided rather quickly and from there it was just a matter of keeping it clean and not irritating it anymore.
Mind you though I did hot compress three times a day, twenty minutes each time. Best way I was able to get it hot enough was take a wet wash cloth and heat it in a microwave for 35 seconds. Judge how hot you can handle it and leave it on the bite for twenty minutes till it cools on its own. If you want, do it twice each time. Considering it helped with the pain for me it might for someone else as well.
2. I kept it covered up when I was sleeping. Just used a large band aid for bigger areas, or gauze taped over it, with a thin layer of Neosporin on it so the leaking it did while I slept didn’t make it stick and thusly removing it in the morning wasn’t painful, nor would it make the hole worse.
What this seemed to do was keep it considerably warm while I slept which in its own way left the same effect as the hot compress did when I removed the bandage. Wiped it clean and found that a lot of the gunk inside was quick to pull out to the surface. And on the plus side this kept it from not only getting irritated at night, but from getting infected by rubbing against my bedding and clothes or anything else through the night. The less irritation you cause to it the better off it will be.
3. Don’t let shower water fall directly on it if the bite has finally started to show signs of being in the clear venom and pus wise. I did once and felt enough pain to know better the next time. I have a hole that goes a little over an inch deep in my lower back, and the water shooting into it from the shower burned and irritated it. It hurt for a long while after that.
Currently I’ve found that like with most wounds one gets it itches, obviously I haven’t scratched it. Though I do have to say that chances are if your bite runs as deep as mine does DO NOT LET IT CLOSE UP FROM THE TOP. I had to go in to my Doctors office and he had to put a wick into it so that it heals from the inside out. This way dead tissue isn’t stuck inside, and as it heals it will slowly push the wick outward.
The wick itself is actually just a strand of gauze that has adhesive on both sides so it doesn’t stay stuck to the inside of the bite like it would if it were just plain gauze. Point is letting it heal up from the top and leaving the bottom bit alone isn’t wise. It will trap the dead tissue, as well as any remaining venom and pus inside of it. Could cause a very deep and bad infection to start up.
Granted it was painful getting the wick in, considering it was pushed into me by use of a long thin piece of surgical metal. But if this does happen don’t pull it out. The more it heals inside the more slack you’ll notice on the outer end of the wick. Cut some of it off and leave it covered with a non stick gauze bandage, as well as another layer of gauze taped down to it with paper tape. That way when you go to change the bandage it will not pull out the wick, and while it will feel itchy you won’t be able to do anything about it unconsciously like you might with a mosquito bite. Also cover it with plastic while showering, fluid of any kind other than what’s leaking out getting into it will only help it get worse at that point. So its best to keep it dry and let it do its thing on its own without making the bite get temperamental on you from being wet.
Yes the wick hurts being that it’s lodged in my skin; however it only hurts if something or someone prods at it. Other than that it doesn’t bother me one bit, aside from knowing that my lower back is basically a candle right now lol!
Anyway that’s my experience with it thus far. Hopefully that’s helpful to someone on here.
My step mother told me a old southern way to treat a spider bite. A few days after she told me about it my husband was bite by a spider and we didn’t have the money for a hospital visit. Not to mention my husband hates doctors and paying them. So, i did as my step mom instructed and IT WORKED!
Here is what worked for me. Open an egg, peel out the “egg membrane” (slimey film stuck to the shell) and place it on the bite. I know it sounds crazy but it works. Just put one on about twice a day and leave it on for a few hours at a time with a bandage and when you peel it off of the bite it will be yellow instead of white showing that the poison was sucked out.
It worked on my husband, my mother, and a friend of my step moms. Try it if you can’t get to a doctor quickly. Also, sea salt mixed with warm water or Alum works because it draws infected cells and bacteria out of sores.
On saturday morning I was at breakfast and randomly in the middle of eating i felt the area of my jaw closest to my ear tighten and swell. I then turned my head and felt pain from a spot right under my earlobe. I put my hand on the area and felt a large amount of swelling. (this happened within MINUTES). My boyfriend examined the area and noticed a few redspots in a rough diamond formation just under my earlobe. I immediately went to CVS downed three benadryl, some motrin and put ice on it.
The swelling went down quite a bit but not entirely. I thought it was getiing better, so over the next few days I started to decrease my benedryl dosage. Then yesterday (4 days after the initial reaction) it started to swell up again, just as bad. I began taking benedryl and the swelling went down.
Now-day 5- i took some bendryl this morning and the swelling has been managable…i can at least chew. the small bumps are still there, but there are no blisters or pus filled sacks. the skin over the swollen area isa little dry, but not red at all.
I plan on going to the dr this afternoon, but want to know if anyone has experienced a similar phenomenom or knows what may have bit me…or how long it will take to heal? Is this an allergic reaction to the venom or the actual venom screwing with my lymph system (cause what is swelling feels like a lymph gland).
any info would be greatly appreciated.
thank you!
I plan on going to the
Tea Tree oil can be effective to take the itch and redness out of a bite. It has antiseptic properties as well. It can be found at most health food stores and many vitamin centers.
I have a hobo bite and would appreciate any information about this bite and how I should go about treating it.
Thanks!
My 88 year old mother, the doctor believes, has been bitten on the outer side of her right foot. This has been a good 3 to 4 weeks. She is on her second round of antibiotics by mouth. He finally gave us a prescription for an antibiotic cream to put on it.
The bite is round about the size of a penny at least, it is hard, the skin around it is red, in fact her whole side and top of her foot is red and swollen. The doctor said for me to leave it alone, don’t soak it, and do not use a needle on it or put a poultice on it. He said the bite would eventually dry up and fall off. I can’t see this…. It has never drained, I have mashed around on it but it is really tender.
Her skin is soooo thin. We can’t put tape on her skin only cloth tape. We live in a really small town close to the mexican border, I’ve been tempted to take her to the emergency room just to get a second opinion. If it were me it would be different, I’m really worried. This is her second round of antibiotics to take by mouth.
Will this slough off or will it open on its on or will it have to be lanced?
I was bitten by a brown recluse a week ago and was horribly sick for three days…nausea…fevers…chills and blurred vision. I was away from home and did not seek medical attention. My bite is about five inches below my navel in no man’s land…and upon further inspection, I discovered two bites with central cores and fang marks, etc.
My husband, a biologist, told me to lay down with a towel underneath me three times a day and pour peroxide over the bite, which had spread and was festering with blisters. A week later, I have continued to use the peroxide method and at night I put on an antibiotic cream to avoid nasty/painful oozing.
It has almost healed over…it is still a little red and tender to the touch. But it is not getting worse and it is not going to leave a horrible scar. I am a big fan of home remedies and often use baking soda, vinegar, buttermilk and lyposine to treat sunburns, bites and other skin irritations as we are big outdoor folks.
Best of luck to everyone with their bites and concerns. Rest and lots of hydration is also a contributing factor in any type of wellness regime.
Godspeed.
I just wanted to share that I was bitten by a brown and ended up with MRSA. It took nine surgeries and has ruined my life. Please, if are bitten, seek medical attention!
I have been bitten by something, i am assuming is a spider over 20 times in the last 3 days. I’m kinda sick of it. I checked out my room and naturally could not find anything, cleaned up a couple of cobwebs, but no spider physically. Is there anything i can do to get rid of it or something i can eat to repel it?
My 29-year-old daughter was bitten a couple of days ago. She went to the doctor and was given and antibiotic and pain killer. Her calf is hard, red, swollen. She has hallucinations, fever, nausea, and incredible pain even on the pain killers. This young woman has a very very high pain thresh-hold. Today she is in route to the doctor again for spider bite treatment.
Do these doctors not understand that time is of the essence in venom cases? Why do they start out with such bottom end antibiotics when TIME matters?? I’ve told her to go directly to a different emergency room if the doctor will not treat this as life-threatening. She now has a large green/blue/purple spot off to the side of the bite site.
She was told by the doctor that it was a brown recluse. Today she also has numbness up to her hip and cannot walk on the leg. I will update later. I’m shocked at the lah-de-dah attitude taken by the medical profession toward these life and limb threats. If it was a cancer test that came back positive, it’d be viewed as a big deal.
It’s disturbing.
Update 8/24/07
The last I wrote to this site my daughter was on her way to get a different antibiotic because the one first prescribed did no good. Thankfully the second course of something stronger did. She is on about day 10 of this saga, she is still spending much of her time in bed, the tea glass bottom sized red and raised bite site has a purple center that is fading somewhat, peeling, and oozing yellowish bloody goo.
She has faithfully kept a sea salt and water wrap on it all of this time, changing the bandages several times a day, keeping that center portion leaking out the bad stuff. No one but the internet gave that advice. It has been a huge help in the healing. She is still far from healed, but is progressing nicely and can sort of walk on the foot now.
She was later told that the poison can be confined if one is given a cortisone shot at the site of the bite early on. Geeeeeee, the medical people should get their heads together on this and stop acting like it’s a small illness. She says it is the single most painful thing she has experienced….keeping in mind she had multiple days of labor in childbirth and emergency c-section.
I was just biten a few mins ago, and seeing as I’m an aracnaphobe, I wanted to find out the best way to deal with it. The initial bite hurt like crazy, very similar to a sewing needle stabbing me in my calf. It is a small brownish spider, NOT a recluse as fare as I can tell. There is a little swelling around the inteal bite. Not sure if it is serius, but any advice on spider bite treatment would be apperciated.
I was bitten by a spider about 2 weeks ago here in Louisiana and after 5 days I thought it best to go to the ER and have it checked out. I had originally thought it was a mosquito bite that had became infected because it itched so at first. I am not one to run to the Dr. over every little thing.
The bite was on the back of my leg, just under the bend of my knee. It was round, hard and red and warm to the touch but there was a blackish center. The Dr. who saw it said he wasn’t sure what it was (Duh!). After some research on the internet I drew my own conclusions from the other pictures that I have seen and have decided that it is the bite of a brown recluse.
It is not a pretty site and it is very painful with redness, swelling and pus oozing from the center. After a week of antibiotics, Bactrim DS to be exact, it has improved greatly and I am well on the way to mending, although there is still a small amount of discomfort.
It’s not nearly as bad as day 5-8. The picture above is what I believe to be a brown recluse spider bite. Good Luck to all who come in contact with these little buggers. Evidentially I sat on it and was bitten as they will not bite unless brushed up against or crushed from what I have read about these things. They love dark undisturbed corners and old clothes and shoes that haven’t been moved about in some time, so please shake everything out before you go putting anything on that came from your closets or anything packed away in boxes or storage.
Update 8/25/07:
Dear Readers, I have noticed the first thing most folks want to do with these pustules that come to a head is to Squeeze them! Bad Bad Bad. I wanted to do the same thing but this is exactly what you don’t want to do.
When you squeeze them like a zit, it causes the poison and all kinds of bacteria to spread throughout your body making it far worse then what originally started. This can spread through your bloodstream causing far worse problems, such as Staph and Cellulitis (nothing to do with fatty skin). It is a serious infection in the blood that can be caused by insect bites and bacteria entering the skin through a small crack or cut on the skin.
So please, Do Not Squeeze and seek medical attention if you see that it is not getting better. Also I have found that a clean hot wet washcloth applied to the site helps to draw some of this stuff out thereby relieving some of the pressure that builds up with these types of bites.
Also wash thoroughly with soap and water often. Good Luck to Everyone! I posted a pic on Aug 20 of my spider bite. It is much better now, but I don’t feel as if I am quite out of the woods yet. Now I have to watch it for any signs of redness again so I do not pick up a Staph infection or Cellulitis.
Even when the original bite gets better, watch for redness and streaks and warmness to the touch which could indicate an infection in the blood. Seek medical attention immediately if you notice these signs as this is nothing to play around with!
On about December 10, 2006, I woke up one morning with a swollen foot and a nasty eruption on my foot. I did not look for or see any insect, as I did not think of that being important to any firstaide. Initailly, I just thought it would go away, but on Christmas eve at a family gathering, my son in law saw the sore and insisted that we go to Urgent Care. The Dr. there said it looked like a spider bite and perscribed 2 antibiotics. It got better but did not go away, so on the second visit, the treatment was repeated after the 2 week period.
Although I do not have an open sore, I have had and still have many problem with that foot.
To this time, my foot reamins swollen and occassionally I think I am getting another sore on it. It gets very sore and itcty and I often suffer pain from it. It is so bothersome that I cannot sleep most nights. I am down the road from firstaide treatment, and now need secondaide treatment to releive my symtoms. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thank you,
Shirley Hall
i was bitten by something (might be spider). I felt so itchy when i was sleeping and i woke up with a round red spot in my right arm close to armpit..i still have it right now & it’s been 3 days, it’s little itchy and sore..i used hydrocortisone just now and i hope it’ll work..do i need to go to the doctor? or what other medicine can i use?..
Two years ago I was bitten several times over several weeks by brown recluse spiders which had infested my closet! One bite in particular was persistent. After trying anti-itch cremes, neosporine, ice, etc… My doctor husband told had no advice. The necrotic tissue was spreading fast!
A friend told me about an old remedy–you make a poultice out of the tobacco from inside of a cigarette that has already been smoked (the butt end that has been heated but not burned). It took me awhile to acquire the butts of a few cigarettes from smokers. It actually worked! After a few hours, the necrosis stopped and began to heal!
I certainly do not recommend smoking as a cure for spider bites but the chemistry worked for me! I kept the remains of those cigarette butts until they smelled up my first aid kit too much!
Why was Florida NOT on the list! We have brown Recluse, EVERY PLACE!!!!!! Sam I could send you pic’s of many kinds of spiders!!!