Spider Bite Treatment
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Written by Jim on August 2nd, 2007 with
150 comments.
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I was just bitten and quickly ran to the internet to look for information about treatment for the bite that is currently swelling, burning and itching. After finishing reading the extensive history of Gerald’s spider bites, I still don’t know exactly what to do for my bite, but it won’t matter for very long as it has taken so long to get to the end of his “article” that my foot is rotting away and close to falling off.
HOME REMEDY FOR SPIDER BITE:
If you do not have access to a doctor or emergency room, the best thing you can do to counter the acidity of the venom using a paste of baking soda and water. Simply paste it on, let it dry, repeat as many times as you want until redness starts to diminish– it takes the sting and pain away too. You may also add baking soda to bathwater and bath it that way, but the paste is going to concentrate on the area better.
This will NOT prevent necrosis of the skin, if the type of spiderbite causes this. However, it has in my experience, interrupted and slowed the process, and lessened the damage and subsequent scarring. This will also NOT prevent infection when the spiderbite enters the bloodstream causing more widespread damage to your nervous system. These kinds of bites MUST BE TREATED BY A DOCTOR. It can help relieve your pain while you’re on the way to the doctor.
I am concerned about my 6 year old son. On friday he came home from school telling me he was bitten by a spider at recess. He was climbing a ladder when *it* got him. He said it had a lot of legs, was a spider, and dropped away when he flung his arm about. Then he said he had to pull something out of his finger (I thought stinger, and that it was a bee or wasp even though he told me it was a spider…). The nurse looked and didn’t see anything. No redness, swelling, or anything so she washed it and applied ice for a few minutes. I looked him over, and didn’t see anything.
Fast forward to Saturday morning. His finger is so swollen! There is redness too and I draw a line around the redness. I gave him benadryl after watching it and applying ice for a while with no changes (not better and not worse).
On sunday his whole hand (top) is completely swollen, there is redness (rounded) on the back of his hand and his palm is also red in places, his finger is so swollen it looks as though it is bruised and there are little blisters that have formed in the night. I rushed him to the urgent care and they suspect brown recluse (my son did say it was a brown or red brown bug). She has him on four days of prednisolone (sp?) and amoxicillan for 7.
This morning when I look his hand over I see the blisters are still there, the back of his hand is no longer red but the swelling persists. His finger (palm side…bitten on knuckle) is still red and in that crease it is almost purple with a larger blister.
Is he getting better? Is there more to do? I am freaking out a little after reading all this stuff!!!!! I am to take him back if he isn’t getting better in a few days……but I see a few days can lead to lots of trouble.
I should also add he has a loss (but not total) of appetite, is tired, cranky, and complained of headache on Saturday (though not sunday or this a.m.)
I’m sorry I don’t have pictures to post. I will try to do that this evening.
Thanks for reading and considering a nervous mom’s frantic post….
Stacy
Carefull Stacy if it’s oozing, and getting bigger turning colors than he needs to go to the doctor. You say a blister if the blister is changing colors take him in. They need to take out the damaged tissue if it’s as bad as it sounds.
i got a spider bite on my backside and then i proceeded to dissect it and now i have a big gaping hole. please help me, im afraid of dying.
Hey, I live in Eden, Utah. I woke up one morning about 3 weeks ago with a strange blister on my tummy. It had a red ring around it and the inside was pusy and black….I figured it was a spider bite, very itchy. I put tea tree oil on it and it went away about a week later…but it left a nickle size scar. I learned it was a brown recluse spider bite…I am glad I used tea tree oil on it …it never spread.
I am writing to ask a question for my mother actually. She has had a bite on her finger for several days now and it is very painful, red and it almost looks like the skin is peeling on the bump. Last night she ran warm water over it and tried to squeeze it some and she actually pulled a spider out of the bump. It is dead but could it have been alive and living in her skin? I have been trying to look this kind of incident up online all morning with no luck. Everything i read says it is impossible for a spider to even get under the skin, but it definetely was! She even has the dead spider in a baggy on a qtip. It appears to me to be a brown recluse from the pictures i have seen online. It is a tannish color with a very small body and long legs. It is too small to see any markings on the body or how many sets of eyes it has. I have told her to go to the doctor but she still has not. Does anyone have any idea if this has ever happened to anyone else before, because according to several sites online, it is impossible (kind of like the urban legend of spiders laying eggs under someones skin). Please HELP!!
Hi, i’ve got a bite, actually I’ve got three bites. And there’s a chance they happened over night because i didn’t see or feel the spider. i’m sending you pictures and i really hope you can help me identify what bit me and how to treat it ? My mother’s and RN and she told me to put ice and bacitracin on it, but i don’t know i guess i’m looking for reassurance to her answer.thank you.
I got bitten by an unknown spider about 3 days ago on my left tricep…thought it was a mosquito but later that night it changed into an itchy, hard, bump that could only remind me of a ringworm. I knew instantly it was a spider bite. Treated it with alcohol and neosporin until I read this website. First I cleaned it with soap and water and let it dry. Then applied ice for 10 minutes, instantly…watery pus/blood started coming out followed by the sac/string came out. It continued to “leak” so I applied the alcohol soaked cotton ball to clean it up a little. Now I have some carmex and a bandaid on and gonna see what it looks like in the morning.
I was shocked to see the athlete’s foot thing because as soon as I realized it was a spider bite, my sister came at me with a can of that stuff and I told her to get that out of my face, I wasn’t putting athlete’s foot stuff on my arm..then I read it here and that it worked. If the carmex doesn’t work, I’m going to try the raw potato slice, then the athlete’s foot cream. I do have insurance and work in a hospital but it’s nightmare to sit in the ER just to get an antibiotic. Good luck to all and STAY AWAY SPIDERS!!! WE DON’T LIKE YOU!!!
I just recently woke up this morning and found a bite on my leg. i know it is a bite because it’s red and has been swelling up allday. I don’t know if i should seek treatment because i never have before for a spider bite. Tommorow will be the second day of seeing it and it now has a white top to it that it didn’t have earlier today. Alot of redness Pain in the area when it’s pressing against something. It is on my leg. Should i go to the doctor? I think i will tommorow because it feels extremely bad.
Anyone know if waiting 2 days would be deadly if it was a black widow or brown lucluse?
i got bit 2 days ago ti has fever and herts i found the pic that looks like mine but i cant fined any info on it
hi! i think my mom was bit by a spider in our home and it has dry rings around it. There is no red mark but it leaves a dark spot on my mom’s skin? She has 2 more on her skin and they don’t hurt her but it looks like a spider bite!
Look up for the brown recluse.
Something that is good to use is a blood purifier.
My favorite is Echinacea tincture. For the first time take 2 dropper full, then take 1 dropper full a day on an empty stomach with plain water. Use 1 half cup water if you add to water to take it. Drink more water if you can. I use mineral water, because it helps me burp. You can eat a piece of bread right after for nausea. Don’t use juice of regular food for at least an hour after. I used this treatment that I got at Whole Foods natural grocery store and always keep it on hand for any infections. In spider bites I use for two weeks, with brown recluse bite, which is famous for this bulls eye pattern. Didn’t notice it was serious until started to swell up. From studing herbal supplements knew to take Echinacea tincture, and then learned what bite me. Water and baking soda thick paste helps relieve swelling and itching. It is good to document all information and take pictures as it goes through the stages. Still take the Echinacea tincture at least a week after symptoms are gone.
What kind of spider has long is green and black?
Hi, I was sitting on the couch 2 days ago (on sunday) after being outside BRIEFLY watering the grass. Out of NOWHERE about 20 min later I suddenly felt like i had a bruise or something on the inside of my wrist. I looked down and there was something that looked like a mosquito bite welt but it was yellow in color, not flesh color. It didn’t itch right away… Over the next few hours it began itch and form an oblong red ring around it about the size of a silver dollar, and swelled a bit. I put ice which certainly seemed to relieve the itching and pain temporarily. The next morning I woke up and it had turned into a tiny little volcano looking pimple with a white head which was actually yellow not white. Not to mention I AM EXTREMELY SCARED OF SPIDERS i quickly realized this was probably a spider bite (just my luck!) I did some research the entire next day and completely freaked myself out as I live in Houston, TX (which has lots of recluse apparently!)
I am completely shook up and have annoyed my fiance to end because I am deathly afraid my arm will fall off. It’s been 2 days I asked the pharmacist at Walgreens today what to do and all he said was to put benadryl on it and if it’s not better in a week to see a doctor right away. Reading every one elses experience has certainly helped and has been very informative. I can only hope it will heal on it’s own and is NOT in fact a brown recluse bite. OUCH!!!!!!! Feel Better Everyone!!!
Adding to my post yesterday: I went to Walgreens again today as the Benadryl anti itch-did NOT help the insane itchiness AROUND the bites (not the bites themselves which itch…weird) and asked for the ichthammol ointment (black salve) which they had behind the counter for only 3 bucks. My mom used to use it for us when we were kids to help bring splinters and such to the surface…I read the post on here about it drawing the poison/infection out as well, and decided to give it a try. Will follow up and let you know what happens. So far no change.
I was bitten in the back of my neck about an inch from my thyroid gland. At first I thought it was my usual allergy reaction to food (which I get on a daily basis), but the area started to get painful, and then I got a stiff neck. Started out as a lump the size of an egg, then the center appeared to be open and pussy looking while the outer was red and very painful, not to the bite area, but the surrounding area. Due to being ceptable to infection and stuff, had antibiotic on hand and started on it. Went to the pharmacy and asked what I could put on the bite area. They recommended putting “PRID” on the bite area, cover with guage and keep cover. I’m on day 3 of bite. I have had every flue symptom the last several days. I’m feeling better except that the bite area is now VERY painful. We did call the emergency room and they tell us that they don’t treat spider bites anymore-go figure….
The bite does look better, but still showing signs of a lot of puss still inside the bite and possible infection….
I was bitten on the belly while clearing out an old wooden building. Don’t know what actually bit me, but did see (unidentified) small brownish spiders around the area.
I wasn’t aware of the bite until I bathed that afternoon, so it may have been there as long as 8 hours. At that time it was a slightly larger than dime-sized raised area, intensely bruise-purple in color, with a whitish perimeter 1/8 to 1/4 farther out. There was a puncture mark in the center, or perhaps 2 marks very close together.
I DO NOT KNOW EXACTLY WHAT BIT ME, but I saw an identical original bite on a friend, who then went to the doctor for treatment with antibiotics and later treatment of necrosis removal. Her bite was identified as from a brown recluse. She ended up after months of worsening discomfort and treatment with a 3/4″ deep pitted scar about 4 inches in diameter, so I certainly didn’t want to follow her actions.
Here in Illinois there is a product called PRID on the market. It is called a ‘drawing salve.’ PRID is specifically for applying to small puncture wounds in which small particles can’t be removed and are causing infection. (It comes in a small orange can. It looks like dark brown ear wax!)
So that evening I applied PRID to the wound site, being careful to mash some directly into the tiny central puncture mark, then covered the bite with a band-aid. The following morning I repeated the procedure, but first pricked the center mark with a sterilized needle to make sure the PRID was getting inside the wound. I repeated this action morning and night for 5 days until there was no swelling and very little redness except for the tiny mark where I had pricked the center. It has now been 10 days since the bite, and all that’s left is a little red scar mark less than 1/16″ diameter. There is no longer any area swelling, no heat, no tenderness; just a tiny bump that you might not be able to feel if you weren’t actually looking at it.
I’m not telling anyone else not to go see a doctor, but . . . well, just telling you what I did.
Every one in the house has gotten spider bites including my children, what is discouraging, is when the majority of doctors I have been to in the ER dispute that it is a bite. Even More maddening are the comments and/or accusations about staff common among drug addicts, but my two children (11 yr. and 13yr.) I’m sure are not using methamphetamine. Personally I think some doctors out there need to pull there heads out of their…….well you know. Having two of them lanced myself on my face (leaving noticeable scars) I would suggest immediate treatment if you think you have a bite, I have used hot milk and bread poultice, heat milk adding white bread till it becomes a thick paste them put mixture in a “white” cloth or sheet(no idea why it has to be white but that’s what I was told) then place directly on wound. Very painful but effective at drawing out poison/infection, but not as painful as a scalpel 2″ under the skin. Thank you every one with the home remedies, they are good to know, especially when some doctors don’t seem to.
I just finished reading Joe’s (# 91)story and am wondering if what he is describing could be anthrax instead. Debbie (#19), her wound really looks like “Cutaounous Anthrax” or also known as anthraxia. Check out this biological warfare disease, the Center for Disease and prevention has a lot of info on it. Including that it doesn’t hurt. Yeah right! That’s only if you don’t touch it. The symptons are much like a spider and tick bite combined. I think when one gets it, doctors just treat it and don’t say anything about it so it doesn’t get reported to the CDC as often as it actually happens. The CDC has some pics of it. They say it don’t hurt, the lady who swelled up so bad that her eye exploded, must have felt something. Most cutaoneous anthrax cases clear up on their own without treatment but I highley reccommend treatment for it as a spore could develope as much as 120 days after contracting one from a simple task like opening your mail. I did a lot of research on it when I was sick. I am still not sure if that is what I had or if it was a spider bite. I am currently on a 120 day course of doxcycline. After reading several of the post here, I am not so convinced they are all spider bites. I hope this helps.
How long do you leave the baking soda on for?
I had a painful itchy spider bite on the inside of my arm,tryed just about everything,finally found some preperation H cooling gel in the medicine drawer, it took away the swelling and itching and it cooled, don’t know if it will always work on bites but it did for me !!!
i think i a spider bit me and we have no idea if it did or not what do i do if it did bite me.
thanks,:D
I have a spider bite and when I went to the doctor they gave me some antibiotics and told me to get a hot rag (not hot enough to burn but enough to relieve pain) and place it on my spider bite.
This website is really helpfull. I was doing yard work two days ago and by the time I was done, I noticed a red mark on my ankle. I thought nothing of it. Went to sleep. woke up, went to work. By the night I came home and noticed my ankle was a little swollen. Still thought nothing of it. Came home from work today and it’s really swollen, to the point of discomfort when walking. I thought it was a hornet bite, I got the tweezers to fish out a stinger, but noticed there were two holes inside of a red area about the width of a pen. I made a baking soda and water paste and put it on, literally a half hour into it I could see the venom being extracted out. Somethings deffinitely happening. It already feels better. After this its neosporin. Wish me luck!
i got bit by a brown recluse last Thursday. I know it was a brown recluse because I caught it right after it bit me, then looked it up on the internet to ID it. It was identical. It crawled up my pants leg while i was sleeping and when i felt it, i touched my leg (thinking it was probably nothing) and nothing happened, then i felt it again crawling so i touched my leg again, then it bit me. it felt like someone had taken a pin and stuck me in the leg with it. It startled me more than anything but i knew i had been bit by something so i quickly grabbed my pants in my fist, got up and to the bathroom, raised my pants legs to my knee and turned my fist over. i saw the spider and grabbed as many of it’s legs as i could, then put it on the bathroom sink to have a good look at it. i saw the marks on it’s back and thought it looked like a brown recluse.
I picked it up again (barely alive by then) by it’s legs and took it to the kitchen, where i placed it in a zip lock bag. then looked it up on the internet.
I called my boyfriend at work and he took me (and the spider) to the emergency room. an hour after the spider bite, the doctor saw me and the spider in the bag. He said there was nothing he could do but he would call the Poison Control Center anyway. He gave me a prescription for Loratab and referred me to a surgeon.
I went to the surgeon the next day. The surgeon poked on it, pushed on it and said there was no infection and nothing to drain, so there was no surgery needed.
By this time i had broken out into a rash all over my body from an allergic reaction, which he also did nothing about. My ears and face were badly swollen. He asked me if i had broken out into a rash and i answered yes. He said “where”. >:0 I said , holding out my arms “my skin is not normally this color and my ears and face don’t normally look like this” He told me that it wasn’t an allergic reaction but that it was my body’s way of reaction to the bite.
The surgeon said that until there is an infection there was nothing he could do. When i asked if he could do anything about the reaction on my body, he said “i’m a surgeon, i know nothing about that”. He didn’t even offer to give me a shot of benedryll.
I left that office more scared and in pain than when i went in. It’s been VERY frustrating for me to deal with because NO ONE seems to want to do anything about this.
I’ve sat around for days now, watching this venom eat the inside of my leg. but because there is NO OPEN WOUND and not infected there is nothing anyone will do about it. i’ve never dealt with this kind of thing before, so i’m relying on things i read and things people tell me for information on what to do.
I know it itches like mad at times, i’ve put ice on it to keep down the swelling and the allergic reaction went away the next day. it’s black, purple whit and red. but no open sore at all, there’s a little clear blister near the bite mark and that’s it.
The whole thing is almost the size of a basket ball now and is hot to the touch. in the middle, the skin is hard to the touch and also hot.
This spider bit me on Thursday and it is now Tuesday. I’m running out of loratabs and patience. I don’t know what to do for it.
I called the emergency room earlier today in an attempt to speak with the doctor that saw me last Thursday but he wasn’t there. Another man at the emergency room informed me that if i came back in for the same reason, i would only get the same results. They would only refer me back to the surgeon. So i called the surgeons office and he’s on vacation til Monday.
I’m at my wits end with this whole thing. I really did believe that if i got to the emergency room fast and early then the better chance i had of not having to deal with a huge scar or surgery. I had no idea there was no anti-venom for brown recluse bites. I certain didn’t expect to be told to go home and wait til it’s INFECTED!
OK, so what have i learned from all this so far.
1) I won’t bother to go to the doctor for another brown recluse bite, because it will not do any good at all.
2) Benedryll acts as a neutralizer when taken with pain meds. (in other words, the pain killer won’t work because the benedryll will cancel the pain killers effect)
3) Anti-biotics are NOT preventative meds therefore doctors won’t prescribe anti-biotics where this is no infection.
My son got bit last night by something on his leg. Tonight it is really swollen and has a red spot in the middle. I have put the baking soda solution on it, and gave him a bendadryl. I will see how that goes. If there isn’t a change after a few attempts I will try the carmex tomorrow. I will try to post updates, as that seems to be missing from this site. Lots of good ideas, just not a lot of follow up.
Woke up one morning with 11 bites on my arm. Thought they were mosquito bites but as they got itchier and redder I realized they were spider bites. As I had heard some horrer stories of bad infections I applied tea tree which made it itch more. I then applied a hydrocortisone creme which reduced the itching. I covered them with gauze to keep it clean and to keep the creme on. Evening time was the worst as my eyes were even itchy. I realized that benadryl antihistimine was necessary. This worked. Over the course of the next few days I repeated the treatment, also adding a poultice of plantain and green clay. % days later the wounds are now closed and healing. I think i was lucky judging by some of these horrific stories. Hope this helps someone else. I believe it was a brown recluse spider.
Got bit by a spider mite two days ago (I felt and saw the little bugger do it). By yesterday I had a red area about 3″-4″ around which was hard close to the bite site, and very HOT. I’ve used cool wash cloths, baking soda and water (didn’t have meat tenderizer), wet tea bag, cortizone cream, and ice pack. Finally, with the ice pack I’ve seen the site shrink in size. It’s still a little warm around it, but it’s no longer hot and hard. The blister is still there, and is a little larger, but everything else, including most of the itching has eased up. Of all the things I’ve tried, the ice seems to have done the most to improve it.
I got a spider bite – just wasn’t sure which one, as didn’t know i was bitten straight away. The area had a tiny blister looking mark with an area of roughly 2inch diameter on my forearm that became red, itchy and raised.My arm was also aching.
I prefer anything that is Nature, rather than chemical like.
so I tried all the things that came to mind:
1. Lucas Papaw cream – which seemed to help a little – but it still felt itchy, red + swollen. I decided best not to squeeze it, or pick off the top.
2. Putting ice on it gave it great relief!!! and elevating/resting it was good too – helped with the achiness. Apparently best not to do too much, and help the body rest and heal.
3. Homeopathic cream called “sting stop” – was helpful with the itchiness and redness.
4. Used a self help hands on harmonising art called Jin Shin Jyutsu – really helped to de toxify the bite area
5. Best discovery seemed to be when I put on some pure peppermint/spearmint/almond oil (i’m using to clean my teeth actually called “OraMD”) it seemed to really take the pain away fast!
So I really focused on all this healing over a couple of days. After I used the oils on the second evening, I woke up next day, with out the swollen itchy sore red area. I put a drop of oil on the actual bite about 3 times a day. By day 4, the bite mark area is half the size of my wee fingernail and looks like a small itchy bite that has almost healed.
Hope this helps someone.
Guys some of you are scaring me. I am a nurse of forty years and I have also been bit 3 times by a recluse while lioving in Louisian and now I am living in Colorado and last night was bit by what I believe is an itsy bitsy sac spider.
My first bite was an absolute nightmare! I was leaving the hospital after a very long 12 hour shiftand as I exited the door of the hospital something fell and landed on the backside of the round part of my ear. Initially it burned aand stung. Got home aND WASHED THE AREA , CLEANED WITH PEROXIDE AND FELL IN THE BED, EXHAUSTED. Woke up in less than an hour and my ear was hot and felt like it was burning. I looked in the mirror and it was covered in blisters and swollen at least three times normal. Went to the ER and they could not see the bite marks, doctor accused me of laying under a sun lamp and burning it. I told him he was nuts! They gave me SoluMedrol IV and started on antibiotic and go see my regular MD in few days and get it checked. Plus told me not to come back to work until it was better. I worked in SICU at the time. I was miserable. When I went back the doctor could see the two holes a spider leaves when you have been bitten by one. It took a very long time for this to heal up took antibiotics for nearly two months, at one point my ear was hangin just by the upperedge of the ear and it continusly drained serous, thin yellow to bloody green yellow pus.
Second bite was not quite as dramatic but I saw the spider run across my foot while mowing. It was definitely brown recluse and initially just small red lump about size of pencil eraser. By the next day it was larger and my whole lower leg hurt. Went to work and one of the docs noticed aa red streak going up my leg thru my think support hose. He looked at it asnd sent me to ER. The opened it and drained it and gave my IV steropids and huge shot of antibiotics in my skinny behind and 2 weeks of antibiotics and steroid dose pack to take. My doctor told me not to ever wait again if I was bit by a spider or even if I was unsure as each bite increases your sensitivity to such bites as your body builds up antigens againist the toxins. I had it opened and drained by doctor three times before it completely healed. It is not unusual to develop a staph infection in such bites as we all normally have a certain amount of healthy staph on the outside of our skin. However if this healthy staph gets thru an opening to the inside it is not a healthy resident and can cause serious problems. How many have you have started antibiotics and not finished taking them because you started feeling markedly better, this is a really big no no.If you do not completly kill the bacteria by taking the full round of meds you are setting yourself up for a big time infection by discontinuing the antibiotics prematurely you allow whatever bacteria is left in your system to mutate and become resistant to that antibiotic and now a change is necessary to rid it. You are setting yourself on a road that developed MRSA. Which totally means Methicillin Resistant Staphalococcus.
Third bite I stepped on one inside my shoe and the course ran similiare to one on top of my foot. I only had to have it lanced twice. Check your shoes always before putting them on. Lesson learned.
I took care of a young gal about thirty, who had been bit by one on her breast. Within minutes she had a anaphylactic reaction and became totally paralyzed and had to be placed on a ventilator for nearly two weeks. Her breast became necrotic. Let me explain necrosis to you all it is when the wound get balck and starts leaking or not leaking grossly purulent and oftentimes smelly stuff. This had to removed surgically and then the wound was packed with Iodoform gauze and dressed to collect the drainage and allowed to heal from the inside out. This was undoubtedly the scariest reaction I have ever seen in my forty years of nursing.
spider venom is a combination of the excrement, urine and feces to you guys, and oftentimes a paralytic agent the a spider produces to paralyze thier prey so they can munch out on them. The lovely excrement part is what sets you up for the infection and the venom is the part you get the awful reactions too. Tobacco and meat tenderizer are great initial treatment to draw out the venumand hopefully some of the toxins. ICE to slow down and constrict the capillaries in the are and slow the progression of the nasties to a larger area. Take a dose of Benadryl half a teaspoon of the liquid kids Benadryl for kids under 50 lbs which is 12 and a half milligrams 25 to fity for kids fity to a hundred and 100 mgms for adults size people and it might help to take some tylenol and or aleeve for the pain.
If your bite gets larger than a quarter you really need to see a MD and get some steriods injected around bite and also systemically either by mouth or by IV. Also antibiotic of some kind for a minimum of 10 days to two weeks and longer if still not completely healed. As long as there is induration in the area, the redness, harness and signs of pus etc, continue to use the meat tenderizer paste, baking soda or the awesome black drawing salves mentionsed in some of your notes. This will continue to draw the ugly out. Once you have the yuck out of the bite area, Use tea bags which have been wet in warm water around the edges of the skin, leave on 5 to ten minutes, do not remove the tannic acid stain as this stimulattes the askin to grow from the outside edges and recover your wound. This is also a great help for healing diabetic ulcers and skin breakdowns on the feet and toes. Apply Tea tree oil to the wound when thier is not longer rotting tissue evident. Tea treee oil is a bacterialcidal preparation the kills any foreign backteria that might enter again and it is also bacterialstatic and seals the wound from outside bacteria penetration.
Use heat wraps after the first 72 hours. As this draws more what blood cells known as phagocytes which help your body eat and destroy the bacteria that is there. Flush the wound with warm soapy water water at least twice a day and if it is in a place where you can soak it, by all means do that for at least 15 to 20 minutes twice a day. dry thoroughly by patting it dry with sterile dressing pads. Don’t rub as you can further break down the area. When the area stills has the yucky stuff and nexcrotic tissue in it, do rub this and remove before you redress the wound. Use a sterile dressing and a little more soap and then rinse with clear warm water and redress with your decided upon debriding agent, baking soda, black salve, meat tenderizer paste etc. Keep area as elevated as possible.
These spiders and other insects can be your friends eating other pesky varmits. But they can be most unkind. Please do not wait if you are bit to seek medical help.However I realize we all do not have health insurance, nor are all of us rolling in dough to go pay for care. Urgent care centers and your doctor’s office are more inexpensive than an ER. There are also a lot of clinics for medically indigent, google your area and find one near you. They will only charge you a small fee or none at all. they recieve federal monies called Hill Burton funds that help cover the expenses of treating the medically indigent.
I got bit and the surgeon had to cut out a golf ball size area out of my bottom. he said he may have to take out more later. is it to late for the Dexamethasone treatment? please help!!
I moved in about 2 weeks ago to a new house and have found small spiders around the house. I already killed five spiders and though they are small they look like a smaller version of the brown recluse spider. I haven’t found the source of where they are hiding yet but since moving in I have been bitten a little more than 20 times! In 2 weeks! What I do is rub hydrogen peroxide all over the bite and around it a couple times a day. I can’t say it’s a super fast fix but it makes the redness and swelling go down eventually and then it disappears all together. It may not be the best cure but just thought I’d share what works for me. Good luck everybody!
Was bit twice this week both on lower left leg. Burst 1st bite and it looks like it is drying out ok-small swelling and bruising starting around bite wound. 2nd bite looks less swollen but still looks like approx. dime sized postule surrounded by several inches of swollen red tissue (infection). Have tried using vinegar, baking soda treatment and hot compress, still looks like skin is stretched (shiny and swollen) over postule colored white head thing. Have been bit before and went to hospital. No insurance, slightly dizzy and definitely discombobulated today. Bites are 2 and 3 days old. Any ideas?
I’m replying to Mrs Stanley…
I suspect you go to a different doctor and it may of gotten infected
I just got bit by something. It hurt at first but I am not feeling sick at all and my mom suggested smearing toothpaste on the bite. it really helped with the itching
I just wrote a long letter, but because of my stupid computer i’m writing a short version. I got a brown recluse bite in Colorado 6 years ago, but i moved back into my parents and in a few weeks I’ve had six pimple looking bites not enough to think bed bites but I’ve also had fever, aches, sweats, and more one of the times I woke up with a dead spider on my back, it looked like a smaller daddy long legs, almost like a big mosquitoes smashed on my back, I have no clue what it is. I hope to hear ideas.
My 18 year old son supposedly got bitten by a spider during the day. He said his little finger swelled up some but I never saw it. He became nauseaus very quickly, started feeling numb on the left side of his body. Later he began jerking motions, that seems to be controlled some by a muscle relaxer. So far the bite area does not look infected. He has been also receiving treatment for lyme disease. Does anybody have those kind of symptoms from an insect or spider bite?
i have a spot on my arm that resembles a pimple, but the entire area is warm to the touch.
before looking up why my arm was warm, i had squeezed the area and puss came out, just like a pimple. it was warm before i squeezed it and it’s still warm on the area, which made me look up symptoms and led me to this site. i suppose it was an insect or spider?
i live near nyc, are there any insects in this area that would cause this?
Okay, I was bitten on my hip, right near the bone, about 3 months ago. At the time I just assumed it was a pimple until it turned red and purple and started to swell, overnight. I admit I was sort of embarrassed and did nothing about it. (Stupid, I know!) Over two weeks time it got worse, more swelling and very painful. It hurt to walk. I then realized I better go see a doctor and quick. That following morning I walked to use the rest room and felt blood dripping down my leg. It had popped on it’s own. As I started to clean it with just warm water, I noticed it had made a hole about half an inch wide. Really gross.
Two days after that I kept cleaning it and using neosporin and band aids… swelling went away and so did the pain and hole. Just a tiny brown mark remains. Sort of like a birth mark. Today I write because it seems I was bitten again. Same place pretty much just a few inches lower. I too have no insurance and can’t afford a dr. so I just tried to care care of it myself. Within 4 days it went away same way as the last time just more oozing. I am very, very glad I came across this site because I know now if this happens again I better seek medical attention or treat it with something! I might not be so lucky the next time. Thanks!!!
THANK YOU GERALD!!!! Bitten by a Brown Recluse at bottom of right index finger, just above webbing to middle finger. It was Sunday afternoon and I went to bed that night sweating the consequences of such a bite. Monday AM my wife found Gerald’s protocol using injections of a steroid around the bite. It worked like a blessing. Many folks in Central Florida suffer pain, disfigurement and huge expenses needlessly in treating Brown Recluse encounters. I spent less than $50.00 for the “cure”.
Thanks again
Gerald.
My granddaughter has a big swollen area on her forearm. I am concerned because I believe it is a spider bite. it feels hard in the center, red and itchy. The you can see a huge circumference around the hard area. She is only 1 yr. 7 months. Should I be really concerned?
I was bitten twice maybe by the same little bugger. Both on the back of my thigh the right leg was swollen and red with the famous bulleye dot in the middle.It looked like a bee sting but I did some web research and conclusion brown recluse… The left leg looked like a oil pimple so I didn’t do anything. Until it started to have the same phase as my right. It feels fine when I’m laying down but once I stand up there’s so much pain I can’t bare it. I’m a us Marine so I know pain but even these oil punks can bring me to my knees. I put some Chinese herbs found at acupuncture and that’s when the oozing blood started spilling out. She told me the herbs are sucking the venom out. Since then the swelling is practically gone, but still Oozing blood so I’ve started using baking soda to treat the winds will update to see progress.
i work construction in the desserts of California I’ve been bitten several times by things unknown. One time it turned into staph i ended up with “spider bites” every where so they appeared to be, needless to say that was timely and painful, that time i let someone talk me out of what i usually did, that won’t happen again.
I learned this from a friend of mine who passed on recently; when my boy was 2 years old he had a boil, rather large one, on his butt cheek, my friend told me to get a pan and boil some water so i did clueless as to why, he then asked if i had a glass bottle with a small neck, he then put the bottle in the water for a few minutes, then placed the opening of the bottle center on the boil and within 2 min it pulled everything out of my sons boil, the cooling of the bottle creates a very strong suction, if i get any strange bumps, boils or what ever that is the first thing i do and so far it has worked great!
That’s it except for the time i chose to listen to someone else my bites are not that big of a deal, then again what works for one might not work for someone else, my son is now in his 20’s and my friend has passed on so I’m passing his knowledge to others which has helped me for 20 years!
Thank you Denis
I just wanted to tell the person on this site thank you for the post about using a potato for a spider bite. My husband was bitten on Monday 1/4/10 or Tuesday 1/5/10. He showed it to me as I was about to walk out the door for work, it was just a small pimple like bump on his right elbow. I blew it off saying, things are always biting you. Later that night he called me at work and told me the bump was now the size of a golf ball, it was hurting, and very hot. He also complained of just not feeling good and had a very bad headache. Had a fever that got as high as 101.0 When he got home from work on 1/6/10 it was bad ( we both work the night shift). I took a sterile needle and attempted to get some of the gunk out of it.
Some came out, but not a lot. Then the area begin to spread and the site was now down the forearm and up to the middle of his bicep. It was so hot I was getting concerned so I started looking up what could have possible done this. Well I know we have black widow spiders here at my house, because I have killed 3 of them myself. But I had no Idea we had brown recluse spiders till I found this site and saw what one really looks like, and low and behold I found on crawling in the kitchen one night after the bite.
Anyways, his arm had not gotten any better by that following saturday. I used the baking soda paste poultice and his arm looked about 5% better. we went to a urgent care center and the doctor said he thought it was a spider bite and gave him a tetnus shot and a PCN base antibx. And told him to come back in 2 days and they may have to lance the site. Well when I got home I had already purchased all kind of home remedy products the day before to work on his arm. I tried the baking soda again and it helped slightly. Then I did the potato poulitice and WOW!! After the first application he bent his arm up and soooo much drainaged came out. It was crazy!!! I then applied one for him to use for the night. He slept with it on and that morning when we took it off, it was about 75% better.
Most of the reddness and swelling had gone down, and the pototo looked awful, because it had pulled all of those toxins out of his arm. Needless to say that by that Wed which was only 3 days later the only thing that was still showing any form of infection was right around the bite!!! The rest of the arm was back to normal, he was feeling himself, and today almost 2 week to the day, his arm is completely healed. Please dont wait until the area affected is necrotic or needs to be lanced, just try the potato!! IT WORKS!!! Thank God for natural remedies!!!!
What do you do when you can’t find the spider? And you were bitten in bed while sleeping over night? Do you need to fumigate the house, or does that do any good? It has been very cold out and it might be that the weather drove the spider inside.
If you have ever been bitten before you will recognize the symptoms! My family has always treated bites with tobacco. My leg was swollen from a bite a while back. It was painful and I could not stand. My Aunt was like duh, mija, mix some tobacco with spit and put it on the bite and cover it with a band-aid. I did it for two or so days and my pain was gone. No hole and I could walk on my leg again.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS SITE!!! My husband was bitten 2x by a brown recluse…we live in Florida and we DO have brown recluse’s!!! We followed Gerald’s advice to the letter and thank God we did…this thing had started to get ugly. My husband was determined to do it the Dr.’s way which would be scraping and healing, leaving 2 huge holes in his arm. One of my husband’s roofer’s had been bitten by a B.R. also and had to end up with skin grafts….this motivated my husband to try the shots of cortizone!!!
OMG!!! A MIRCLE cure for sure!!!!! After the shots we kept the sites clean due to infection and also black salve on the bites…..I am telling you these bites were UGLY!!! The very day the cortisone shots were done around the bite sites HEALING begin!!! AMAZING!!!! Redness, infection, everything began to heal!!! He is still healing but no skin grafts needed and more loss of flesh…these bites went from a half dollor size to a quarter size in one day on the cortizone shots. The next 3 days the bite sites went down to nickle and dime size…..Truly Amazing!!! A cure in our book for sure!!!
I was bitten by a spider on the rt. forearm in 8/08. It became a raw meat wound in about 1 week ER Dr. sent me to dermatologist. My life has gone down hill since. My ankles swelled to thigh size and wept, my kidneys shut down for hours.
My entire body has broke out in white salt size raised bumps. I itch constanly, my ears got infected & my eye drained thick white matter. OhSU Dr. said Dermatitis. Naturpatic tried
lots of concotions, nothings helps. Now i am going a herbaligist route with Snake root & Plantain oraly. Otherwise I have my affairs in order.
bite marks were 2 on each side like a claw with a deeper penatrating mark in center lower than claw. I saw the spider large but killed it with no thought of saving it to identify. My entire body is a mass of red and itching dry rough skin.
Anybody got a clue or want to help ?
I have worked in rural ER’s for 26 years and I agree with the info on using dexamethazone but here is something you can try if you can’t get to the ER.
All venom is made up of different combinations of proteins. They do their harm by breaking down the tissue.
We used to keep a bottle of “Adolphs meat tenderizer” in our ER. I recommend you keep one at home. If you get stung (bitten) by something that uses venom (bee, hornet, spider), immediately make a paste from the white powdered meat tenderizer mixed with a little water and apply the paste under an occlusive dressing. It will break down the venom. Meat tenderizeer works by breaking down proteins! But, it won’t harm the skin. It works much better than baking soda.
Dr. Bob