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/ 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.
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)
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.
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
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 ?
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!!!
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.
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.
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!!!!
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 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.
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?
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.
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!!!
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 pus 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?
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 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.
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’m replying to Mrs Stanley…
I suspect you go to a different doctor and it may of gotten infected
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 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!
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!!
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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 !!!
How long do you leave the baking soda on for?
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.
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 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.
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 pusy 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 pus still inside the bite and possible infection….
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.
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!!!
What kind of spider has long is green and black?
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.
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!
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
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 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!!!
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 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!!
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 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.
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 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
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 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.
i got a spider bite around 2 weeks ago at camping and i have no idea what bit me. it was just a regular bit but i kept scratching it and now it looks like a small/medium size bruise. it looks like semi-dark yellowish in the middle and around it red. you’ll see on the picture. i have no idea what to treat it with. so far im only using hydrogen peroxide and cortizone. my other bite blistered out already but my other bite (one im worried about) somewhat looks just a tab bit smaller. anyone help me?
bitten on the back of the leg 3 yrs ago. treated with anti-biotics, 3 months later it healed. I real wish this site was up then. Bitten by Hobo 3 days ago, use baking soda trick no bite left at all thanks alot everyone
I live in NY could you help identify this spider we found on our scavenger hunt walk down by the creek. Sue and Kids at Daycare
I got bit by an unknown type of spider on 5/26/2008 on the back of my heel. I didn’t know it when it happened, but the next day and several days later it was so red and swollen I could not get my shoe on. A week went by and I went to the doctors and was put on antibotics and the bite site was lanced. Nothing came out but clear liquid. I limped around for two weeks and pulled a hamstring. I just finished thearpy for the hamstring. But the heel is still sore and the side of my foot is still sore. The skin all peeled off the heel a month and a half ago on the bite area. There are about 5 darker dots on the heel too. I think I was bitten that many times. Any ideals would be appreciated. Thank You
I am a spider magnet :). I live in a rickety old house constantly under atk from insects. I have been bitten by a brown recluse 3 times, and a number of other species as yet to be identified. In my opinion, the Baking soda thing works the best. My grandparents told me to do it many years ago, I’ve been using it ever since, and it’s never gone wrong. It reduces swelling, and draws out poison. There is no science and no needed measurement, just put some baking soda in the palm of your hand and add water until you get a thick paste, then apply directly to the bite, and let it dry COMPLETELY until it begins to crumble off of it’s own accord. Anytime will work, but as soon as you notice a bite that is a suspect spider, I would suggest using it, the earlier you get to it, the less damage the venom will do.
By “locally” do mean no Dr? YOU NEED TO SEE A DR! Did you read the lead-in article to this thread referenced in #92? Print it off and go to a Dr. An open bite lesion is a much more serious spot than on arms and legs and thats bad enough.
I got bitten a week ago by, I believe, probably a black widow… They’re common around the outside of my house. But, it could have been a different type for all I know because it happened while I was sleeping. This was my first “major” bite. All others were like mosquito bites, just minor annoyances that healed on it’s own.
This one became noticeable in the morning as a highly raised white head on my leg, near my knee. It hurt just a little bit, but I pressed out the pus and applied some hydrogen peroxide to it. By the next day it had developed into a nickel sized red rash… Almost looked like ring worm. By applying hydrogen peroxide daily and then eventually some “Cell Rejuvenator” lotion (Peter Gillham’s brand) daily it’s remarkably improved over just a week’s time. The skin is turning back to normal. It still has a little ways to go, but I’m happy with the progress.
The hydrogen peroxide worked well to keep it disinfected. And the cell rejuvenator (made of essential oils and other good stuff) helped to sooth the rash, further disinfect the area, and promote healing.
Cheers!
Yeah I would just like to know what I can do to treat the bite locally. All I have been doing is putting neosporin on a bandaid. It’s ugly and it’s right on my neck. Seems to be getting larger by the day. Im gonna be upset if it leaves a giant scar on my neck.
On 7/29/08 an important new treatment story was added to the lead-in article on the Spider Bite Treatment thread. If you are hunting for treatment, and read that area before this date, go back and hunt for the story from Gerald.
Hello all,
I was bitten by a unknown spider in rhode island on either 4th or 5th of july
on the afternoon of the 5th of july at approximately 2:30 pm i had pain behind my knee i showed my wife and there was a hive ( raised skin area red in color ) the size of a pimple on the back of my knee. KEY thing here it was NOT ITCHY it just hurt anyway i disregarded it and went to work.
byt the time i got to work at approx 5:30 the pimple was the size of a dime in diameter but the skin around it was turning red with the middle now darkening more pain insued. at work i vomited 3 times towards the last hour of my 8 hour shift my face went numb for about 10 mins and i had hot flashes on and off. I drove my self to the hospital at 3 am
waited a while to be seen was given intravenous antibiotic 2 pill antibiotic pills benadryl and vicodin then was let go at 8:30 they did draw a circle around the infected area of the skin which at this point was the entire back of my knee. a softball size circle pain still ensued i went to bed seeing as if i was up for over 24 hours at this point. i woke up later that evening in immense pain at this point my leg at the knee area was completely swollen to the point where i could not stand or put any weight on it. I was taken back to the hospital.
This time i was admitted for 2 and a half days. they tried every antibiotic they had to stop the infection
with no results. then they used sulfa something a very powerful antibiotic that it was so powerful they had to draw blood and check the levels in my body every 4 hours because you can become toxic from it.
I was told that it could be MRSA, West nile, a very bad case of cellotis, lime disease. or some kind of posionous bite.
MRSA – NEGATIVE
WEST NILE – NEGATIVE
Cellotis – Present due to a bite of some sort
Lime Disease – NEGATIVE – they tested this 2 times
They did a punch biopsy they day i left the hospital last wednesday and they did a full mri of my leg 3 hours of no movement ouch
anyway here i sit with a area of skin the size of 2 1/2 inches in height and 4 inches wide with skin just peeling away kinda like when someone gets real bad sunburn layer after layer of skin just falling off and the area around the punch biopsy is turning black still sore swelling is gone now thanks to TREMADOL if you ever get bit tell them you want this as long as you are not allergic it is a all natural drug that was the only thing that removes the pain and swelling,
I will wait 2 more days to find out more and keep you posted.
But as for a poisionous bite
here are the signs i know first hand
1. starts off as like a pimple looking thing but is slightly painful (NOT ITCHY)
2. In My case it grew 10 times its size in less then 8 hours
3. the initial bite area will be darker then the rest of the infection
4. Pain alot of pain – imagine a charlie horse that never goes away thats the best way i can describe it.
things to do to help.
1. If you or someone you know believes they have been biten by something and you have a lump or pimple watch it closely.
2. If there is pain but no itchiness GOTO THE HOSPITAL
3. Another key sign is it is warm to the touch the bite area was hot very noticeable temperature difference in the skin in the area and the area that was not infected.
4. Warm compress wet warm towel is what the doctors used on me.
BOTTOM LINE GOTO THE HOSPITAL !!! do not wait it will cost you your skin and i am serious.
hopefully everything works out ok for me
still trying to be optimistic
joe
One of my triplet grandbabies(15 mon.old)recently got bit by a spider. We didn’t see the spider but we have hobo’s and brown recluse in the house that we’ve seen(and killed). It left a hole and fang marks and was nasty and pus looking, My son-in-law put a paste of bentonite and charcoal powder on it and bandage.
They would change this dressing every day and after one and a half weeks, the wound is closing up and is now just a small red dot. When the bite first happened, there was also small red lines starting out from the bite but cleared as soon as the paste of bentonite and charcoal powder was put on it.
when you see a white blister thinking it may be a pimple and then try to squeeze it out and find that the area becomes hard, red and painful ,then through out a short time it gets larger or more oozing ,and you want to just squeeze it out hoping thats all it takes. what your actually doing by squeezing it or ignoring it ,the posion is breaking through the skin from the inside and (sometimes the hole closes)
it goes backwards and travels at this point you must get medical attention. they give a shot directly in the wound to numm it and a small cut is done in the center releasing any ooz and slightly stuffed with medicated string gauze for about a couple days leaving it inside along with antibotics. for extreme cases the precedure could be more serious but myself has experienced this and my husband who hadi t from his finger and traveled to his elbow had to be admitted for 2 days.
we got better dealt with what we had to go through its way to scary and also it affects your entire blood system for all kinds of problems! If a doctor refuses to treat you go find another, also dont be stubborn and not see a doctor cause you dont want to wait 5 hours its worth the care for yourself more and for payment you can work something out even if it takes awhile. I care for people this is why I tell this story.
The Carmex Treatment!
I was bitten on 6/13/08 – yep Friday the 13th by a Brown Recluse on my thigh which I initially dismissed at a mosquito (I live in Louisiana). By Sunday, I knew it was more serious that a mosquito bite. After reading this forum throughly, I tried a few of the treatments and found one that worked. I washed the bite and then applied a thick coat of Carmex and put a bandage over the bite on Wednesday, June 18th – 6 p.m.
That night, my entire right side of my hip down to my toes was on fire! Yesterday morning the 19th, the bite burst open and the poison sack oozed out along with the sac string. The bite is now really oozing a thick bloody mess. This is a good sign though as at least the poison is coming out. I have added Neosporine to the Carmex and covered with bandage. The severe pain is lessening! Also – the bite is not getting bigger – it remains about the size of a quarter and I see no blackening or blistering…yet. I will post an update after this weekend.
I just wanted to thank you guys for sharing your experiences on this website. It really helped me. I wish I would have known about it sooner, since I have been bitten 3X’s, by probably the same spider. The first time I went almost a week and a half w/out any treatment. I didn’t know that what I had on my left side hip was a spider bite. But after I couldn’t take the pain anymore I went to the Dr. All he gave me was antibiotics and a creme for the inflamation. He suggested Tylenol for the pain.
I was so upset when the medicine did not really help me. I finally convinced my mom, who was a nurse, to burst the spider bite open and take out everything that was inside. As you can imagine, it hurt a lot but once all of the dark blood came out w/pus I felt much relieve. After that we kept the area disinfected and clean. The next day as I laid in bed I felt something running through my side and it was more blood w/gunk.
To be honest I freaked out a bit because it was a lot, it didn’t hurt, but I hadn’t done anything for it to come out like that. Well afterwards it healed on its own and became a scar. The 2nd X, it wasn’t as painful as the first and I decided not to go to the Dr. My friend gave me a bee sting reliever and it completely healed the wound. However, a small bump and a scar remain. I believe the bump is due to the venom that did not come out. The 3rd bite however, was the most painful one of all. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a hold of the bee sting medicine and endured the pain for a couple of days.
I was waiting for it to mature like the 1st bite so that we could pop it again. Luckily I found this website and tried out the carmax and band-aid remedy and it WORKED! I put the carmax and band-aid just before I took two tylenols and went to bed. The next day when I woke up some gunk had gotten out and then the rest came out that morning. Right now I still have the band-aid on but I have neosporin on. Thank you so much for all your help again.
– Gaby
My question is: there is a lot of info for how to treat a spider bite.. but what about a LOT of them like over 50 bites, and over 8 or 9 of them are not the venomless dry bite but have caused an obvious allergic skin reaction. I mean just treat each one like the single bite or should i be worried because the sheer volume of bites?
I was bitten in bed over the course of a few days then found the wolf spider after connecting the bites to sleeping in the bed as i normally sleep on the couch. it looks like spots of poison oak but, i didn’t get poison oak in bed. i live in Georgia and after the bites started i experienced kidney and chest pains for a day or two, and stiffness in the joins where i got bit, in the back of the hand knuckles wrists elbow sides hip knees back of knees ankles calfs chest and right under my adams apple.
It has been 5 days but i was bit over the course of 3 or 4 days so its been 2 days since the last bite. how much longer am i going to be itching because its real bad itching to the point of hydrocortizone creme caladryl and taking benedryl pills doesn’t really help it much.
When i had poison oak it lasted a month and had to get steroids from the hospital to stop it i hope that wont happen from this but it seems like its getting slowly worse not better what do i do ?
Dear readers,
I was bitten today may 14th 2008, I do not have a clue what kind of spider has bitten me. I AM SCARED TO DEATH!!!!!
I really appreciate all of the great comments on home remedies, but I don’t know whether to go to the hospital or not .
i got bite by some spider (I don’t know what) and i have a big red ring on my thigh and a hole the size of a pencil eraser, pus started to come out so i popped it! and boy did that hurt! Now there’s an empty crater on my leg!! and around the crater its purple/black i have no clue what is up? hopefully it will go away I’ve been applying neosporin to it an peroxide and have had the same results! so anyone with the same symptoms, holler back!
i was bit by a spider on my foot at the heel and it was really hurting. I didn’t notice it until it was time for me to leave work (a lot of pain by then) When i arrived home i asked my wife if she had seen anything on my foot and she said no.
I went to sleep and awoke several times throughout the night and by morning it was a big sore hard bubble with green stuff and red surrounding it.
I went to the hospital because my ankle starting hurting all the way up to my leg. The doctors couldn’t help and just gave me antibiotics. I then went to my mothers house and she busted it open and cleaned it out for me.
I felt better right after that and took my medication as usual………
Someone help.
Was bitten by something 5-6 days ago….Started farily small and has grown into a large lump.
The bits is on the back of my leg. Last night I couldnt bear the pain anymore and squeezed the hard, blue, and affected area. Goo started coming out. Clotted blood, pus and some other foriegn stuff.
Leg still hurts today, and dark blood pours ou7t when I squeeze the area.
No heath insurance, so I dont want to go to the doctor.
any advice would be appreciated
I live in Florida and two members of my family have been bitten by the Recluse. My son seems to not have much problems with them but my other half got bit on the upper thigh and within 5 days it was a volcano. The redness was getting bigger and bigger and this kid told us about this salve called Draw Out or Black salve and told us to put it on the bite and cover it with a bandage. Every 6 hours change the dressing and add more of the salve. We did this and I would say it took care of it almost right away. Within a couple days it was already closed and healing. He now has a big scar on his leg but at least that salve took care of it.
I found the salve at Walmart for about $5. You can also use this on other bites, boils or anything like that. It actually draws out the infection. Pretty neat stuff.
I got bit two days ago and it’s now starting to get bigger and itchy and when I scratch it, it burns so I’m assuming it’s the same deal and will be using the salve. Please try this product, it worked for us and a few other people I gave it to. I think you can probably also purchase it in a drugstore though I never checked.
Good luck to you all
Teri
I’ve had the bite in the picture shown below on my forearm for 6 days now.
It started out looking like a pimple and now it is the size of a quarter. Red Rash is over a third of my forearm, guess I should get to the Dr. and get meds.
I think I may have been bitten by a rather weak southern black widow. I have a small red bump surrounded by a white ring that is then surrounded by red ring. My entire leg is sore and weak. I also have sharp pains around the bite. I have been having abdominal pain, dizziness, chest pain, headache, fever, dry mouth, and high pulse. I don’t have insurance so I am not sure what I should do. Please someone help me!
I live in Lake George NY. Last year I developed a sore on my rear. It was pretty painful to sit and went away over the next few months. Another incident occurred in October near the original bite/sore. I finally sought treatment from a PA 12 days ago. He diagnosed bug bite and prescribed Agumintem, misspelled. I went through the first 10 days and got another script for a second 10 days. The bite has crusted over and the pain is slight. Am I on the right course?
I have what I think is a spider bite n my neck- – –
my neck itched – the outer layer of skin peeled off to make it a dime size red sore. it looks like one teeny dot in the center-I put poroxide on it- doesnt hurt
Do not know what bit me, but this is what happened.
Mon – noticed what I thought was an ant bit on my inner left thigh near the groin.
Tues – was sitting at my desk and felt a painful blister. When I looked at it, I found a pustule the size of a pencil’s eraser. I broke the pustule (now I find out I shouldn’t have done that). I started taking Benadryl and acetaminophen.
Wed. – called my physician and he prescribed Augmentin. Experienced chills and was shaking a bit, but this subsided.
Thurs. – went to physician. He said it was NOT a spider bite, but another venomous INSECT. Recommended staying on Augmentin and using hot compresses. He said if it comes to a head, go to a surgeon.
Fri – Saturday – center has become larger and it is draining blood and pus on its own. It feels so much better after we drain it and apply more Neosporin, under sterile conditions.
What type of bite do you think I have experienced? If it isn’t better by Monday morning, I am going to a surgeon. I have not had any other physical symptoms. Pictures being sent now.
Last April, my husband was bitten – we applied the cold used black tea bag – very helpful – continued to treat with antibiotic cream and antifungal cream … this took months to clear up.
Eleven months later, this morning, all of a sudden the pinky red leftover spot got a lot redder. He said it itched – I put Benadryl cream on it, thinking maybe he scratched it in his sleep. It looked almost like those ingrown hair follicle things at first. This evening, it’s redder still. ????????? It doesn’t seem to have a “hot spot” like it did in the beginning. I’m just puzzled. Any one ????????????
Thursday- at about 5pm my husband reported pain in his leg so excruciating that he couldn’t tolerate the drive home from work…so once he arrived to pick me up from where I work, I drove. When we got home, I was anxious to take a look at the “bite site” on butt of his right driving leg that he reported as being “immobile and painful” stopping him from performing simple, everyday tasks.
…later on that evening the pimple busted, he took a bath, the sore became larger and spreaded from the size of a pimple to the size of a dime. Thinking that it was a boil, we treated the infected area with peroxide.
During frequent monitoring, I observed that the bite site was oozing very little clear substance and blood. We continued to treat the bite site with peroxide, sterilized gauze padding and bandages.
Friday- it appeared that the hardened area and swelling had decreased. Although the bite site was on his butt his the pain consumed his entire right leg. His right leg was swollen from his quadriceps to the inner thigh above the knee. He continued to complain of pain after the pimple on top of the bite site busted.
Sunday- applied neosporin, peroxide, and bandage
-noticed rubbery white thick substance, medium bleeding
Monday- cleaned with peroxide, more bleeding, improved skin condition, the sore/bite site decreased in diameter from quarter to nickel size.
Tuesday- will try the egg membrane (venom suction home-remedy) and heated towel today. Needless to say, he has been unable to work since Friday.
Nevertheless, the pain has subdued, swelling has decreased substantially, and in the midst he has communicated his confidence in the power of prayer and positive thoughts.
I found this site looking for spider bite treatments. It took 6 months to get over one on my foot, now I have one on my calf that I can’t seem to get rid of. My bites are like a magnified fire ant bite…hard pustule center, red infection around it.
HOWEVER I want to tell you about my Yorkshire Terrier who was having problems last year, a mass on her right side, trouble walking, and sometimes a spasm of her right rear leg. I took her to her regular vet…the idiot just said “oh, her knee cap pops in and out but that is common with yorkies”. $180 later, after taking her home she seemed worse and I took her to a different vet the next day. He said she needed immediate surgery. They operated, removed the mass from her side, sent it to a lab, and it turned out she had been bitten by a brown recluse.
It took a long time to heal. She had a drainage tube in her side and pressure bandages for a couple of months after the surgery. She is fine now, but I vigorously exterminate my decks, stairs, around windows, etc. monthly. I do NOT like spiders of any kind!
This site works very well for me. I hope.
A couple weeks ago I woke up and went into the bathroom to urinate. I notice a small reddish bump at the bottom of my male part. I live in Rhode Island and it is January so everything is pretty much frozen, Im trying my best to rule out a spider. I popped what I thought was the pimple and pus came out. I thought it was gone but it wasnt. Tonight I popped it again, It increased in size a lot since that first day. Pus, blood, and a clearish liquid came out of the bump. Also, I could see what looked like two little dots around it, but I might just be scaring myself. I am going to try taking Vitamin C in high mg quantities and see if it clears up at all. If not, anyone have any remedies for this reddish, white liquid filled sore?
Im just really hoping it isnt a spider bite,It isnt giving me much pain, until of course I pop it, then it is quite painful, but other than that it is just there. Thanks for your time.
i am grateful for this website. As i move to the end of my second bottle of cephalexin 500 mg, i feel that after almost a month of treatment i should be getting better. i have one bite on my rt leg and the best i can figure about 9 bites on the left leg. the right leg irritates me but the left leg has gotten really red, hard, itchey, blistering, swollen and with the edema really created a hard leather band in the middle of the usually swollen area. like a figure eight, swollen above and swollen below the area.
My wife is a naturepath and we have thrown every thing in the book at this problem. christopher’s BFand C , professor cayenne, and plantain ointment have helped the itching and controlled the potential infection that some of you describe, i tried some comfrey leaves from the garden but we have been on vacation and have not had access to the garden lately. lately i have been worried about the pain in the shin bone especially when the 8 grand kids come running around.
For me i think that the vitamin c 4000 mg is a good idea, this is found in the cayenne pepper; i like the enzyme action of the meat tenderizer: i like the benadril and the neosporin applied topically to prevent infection. the idea of bleach, baking soda and water makes sense in neutralizing the acid based venom; i don’ understand the cider vinegar (acid) approach other than it is a good idea for just about everything else in general health. there should be a consideration for assisting the liver which has to filter out all of the poison.
Additionally i have had a huge boil on my back that squirts out 3 to 6 feet when you squeeze it, but i don’t know if it is related to the detoxing. i am very happy for my wife daily message of my leg. who is also a massage therapist. initially it was very tender and now i can stand more pressure as my leg is beginning to soften a little. it was at least scarrey to me, however i see that others have had it worse. I pray for us all, allopathic medicine continues to treat the symptom and not the cause as do the natural medicine types.
I am grateful to live in a time where there is an internet. maybe sometime the doctors will consult is for the healing arts and not just buying more condo’s in hawaii. we also have the brown recluse in california. Suerte. SSS Bob henry
In response to Phil and Rebecca:
My bite is very similar. About 6 or 7 days ago, I was sitting in my apartment room at the university I attend, and I felt a sharp, shooting pain in my left breast. I looked at it and it appeared to be a red bump, a little annoying pain, but nothing more. The next two days after that the pain continued on-and-off again, and as soon as I went to my doctor. (My ‘female” doctor, at the time I thought it was maybe swollen breast tissue or an infected gland.)
By the time I got a doctor’s appointment, (two days ago) it turned into a tiny black scab, with raised reddish skin around it, it was warm and hardened underneath the area. I knew it was infected and I expected her to give me antibiotics for my “breast problem”, but as soon as she looked at it she told me that something bit me, probably a spider. She prescribed Dicloxicillin, 4 times a day. I have been taking it for about a day and a half.
The area has continued to go from an achey, muscle pain in my breast and pectoral muscles, to a shooting pain, to no pain at all, switching from one or the other occasionally.
At my boyfriend’s house this evening (about 10 hours ago), I was in the bathroom and noticed that it was weeping a little bit under the scab, so I wiped it, but more liquid was coming out.
What happened next was the most horrifying thing to ever witness on my own body.
I touched and squeezed around the scab, hoping to void more of the liquid, and a thick gush of yellowy and bloody pus gushed out. I was initially a little shocked, but I kept trying to clear it out. It kept oozing and oozing, and when I finally gave it one last little squeeze I felt an almost audible *POP* and even MORE thick yellowy pus poured out.
I’ve never been one to be squeemish, but I felt my skin become clammy and my ears rang and my vision became spotted. That is the closest I have ever come to fainting in my life.
A few hours later when I returned home, I decided to lift up the bandaid I had used to cover the small crater-like wound, and as the bandaid came off, immediately yellowy pus and blood POURED out of the wound. It caught me off guard, and I again tried to squeeze out the rest.
AGAIN i felt a “pop”, and this time, THICK, almost hard, greenish pus popped out. I almost fainted and I felt myself almost dry heave.
I have since taken another one of my antibiotic pills, and covered the wound with neosporin. It is currently weeping a clearish fluid, I’m hoping the worst is over but I doubt it.
As much of a sissy it makes me sound like, that was probably one of the most horrifying, disturbing experiences with my own body that I can imagine.
P.S. Of course I’m currently worried about MRSA now, from my research I have been doing and every website I visit tells me it’s probably staph and not a spider bite….who knows? I’ll see how this antibiotic works.
I am NOT looking forward to clearing out the pus again tomorrow. 🙁
I have a solution to most spider bites that’ll blow some of your minds. It worked for me! I fell on this cure totally by accident! We were on a ranch about a hundred miles from the nearest town or another home. Called the doctor and they told me that when the bite begins to turn black and begins to ooze, bring my child in to be seen! ( I thought, are you kidding me?) Because there’s not much they can do for spider bites until they are really bad! ANYWAY, with that said….Take a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol, place the soaked cotton over the bite. Leave there for about 15 mintues. Then a bandage with Tinactin on it. That’s right Tinactin. (used to cure athletes feet) After the first application you will see the spider bite going away and the pain being drawn out. But continue to soak in alcohol and re-bandage with Tinactin about 3-5 times a day for 3 days from the first notice of the bite. I have used this remedy many times on myself, my 3 children and many friends. NO one can believe how quickly this works!
Make sure you consult a doctor before you try this.
We live in the country, and in the process of working in the woods, my husband apparently was bitten by a spider or spiders behind the ear and on top of his head. He is in quite a bit of pain, has raised bumps on his head (about 4 places) with redness, small white bumps behind his ear and his lymph gland at the base of his head near his ear is swollen. A heating pad relieve the swelling for a period of time. What can I do to eleviate his pain and help the situation. It is hard to treat his head with his hair (short) in the way. He keeps getting shooting pains throughout his head and it even hurts to just barely touch his hair! He is feeling weak, too.
Thanks!
I had two raised red bumps over my left eye. Less than 24 hours later I developed flu like symptoms, tremendous joint or muscle pain, and fever.
My Physician treated me with a steroid injection and a Medrol dose pack. The pain persisted for more than 24 hours after the injection even after taking tylenol with codeine around the clock!!!
#61 written on Oct 20, 2007, I have had the same thing happen to me. If you spelled your name with a y instead of an i, I would have thought I wrote the article. I took all the same meds for 2 years and decided that was enough. I had blood work done and it showed an infection, quite bad, for that long. Steroids got the numbers done and I did feel better but they are so bad for everything else in the body that I quit them. I have flare ups from time to time and a hot tub seems to help but I think I will be sore for the rest of my life. It is not polymyalgia rheumatica, I have never had pain in my shoulders, hips or neck. I think it was just a name the doctor could write on my chart. Blood work doesn’t lie, the pain wasn’t in my head, (which is what he thought at first). Spider, tick or whatever, the bite has really done a job on me. Wish we could keep in touch. Patty
i got bit a couple a weeks the spider that bit is unknown . i can not afford to go to the doctor. its red and hard . and its hard for me to walk .i need help asap
I’m glad to see the posts about natural treatments. I pretty much treat most things that way and find that its successful both for myself and the others I try to help using interactive sites that are naturapathic, herbalistic, homeopathic. There are lots of on-line sites for traditional/AMA medical treatment. (traditional in this use being somewhat of an untruth!)
I have had spider bites and treated them similarly to a couple of the comments here. I found in my case, and that of some others I’ve worked w/ that the Immediate use of a drawing poultice is a key in the treatment. It starts to remove the toxins and infectious ‘goo’ right away. I continued to do poultice on it for several hours after the initial bite, then daily for a few more days. Anytime after that there would be any sign of swelling etc, I would do another draw.
Colloidal/ or Ionic Silver topically and internally . Charcoal important -Again topically and internally. I used baking soda and charcoal ,and or a combination of those w/ the silver and or lobelia, calendula in the poultice mixture. Also internally fenugreek and Yellow dock. I will always try natural first. I am aware others do not, or may not understand or know about it.
In any case these spider bites are serious business, and should receive immediate and continued attention by what ever method you choose! G.
Please reply, thank you
I was sitting outside two nights ago and felt a bit on my wrist. Did not see the spider but looked around and I saw a lot of webs.
I put ice on it and then some cream. I then took some Benadryl and keep putting Hydrocortisone Cream 1% every few hours.
The skin around the bite is hard and it is a bit red around the area about 2 inches. I know it was not a bad spider, just want to know if I am doing the correct thing.
I read about the raw egg white and did not try it, should I and how long will this take. Can I take a hot bath because I have been using ice?
Please any advice would help. I did go to a drug store last night and was told I was doing the correct thing.
Thank you,
Frada Merritt San Francisco
i recieved a bit on my leg a month ago it looked like a zit but then no pus, it almost looked like a blister a few days later. i left it alone and the the swelling went down. Now all that is left is a pinkish red mark sometimes appears a purple color about the size of 1/4 a dime. it does not hurt and there is no swelling. i do not believe there is any pus or anyting inside. but iam still worried since there is some color duration of the bite. any ideas if it was a spider bite and should i be worried
I was bitten by a spider several years ago…It felt only like a pinprick and it really didn’t leave much of a mark. Several hours later I felt my throat get tight like I was choking. That feeling past and I went to bed. The next morning when I woke up, I was so stiff and sore that I could hardly get out of bed. After several doctor’s visits I was diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica. I have been on a treatment of steroids, plaquenil, and mega doses of ibuprophen. Help!! They said that the spider bite was just a coincidence and that yes, indeed, the symptoms for polymyalgia rheumatica could appear overnight. I’m still in a lot of pain even after all of this treatment. Any suggestions?
Hi to you all….
I had been to a baby shower early in the day, and when I came home, I wanted to take my dog for a walk, so I changed my foot-gear. put on a pair of my sneaks, and headed out….(NO PROBLEMS) until later that night when I took my dog out before going to bed…I got out side ok, but when I headed back into the house,I could hardly makeit up the stairs…I took my sneaks off and soaked my foot in hot water, which did absolutely nothing…the pain was worse than labor….it was incredible!!!! I screamed myself to sleep and called my daughter in the morning telling her about my problem….she said it was probably a spider bite and to make a baking soda and water paste and slather it on and leave it on for about 20 minutes my foot was red,hot and swollen before the soak, but it was MUCH improve after. I saw my daughter later that day and she was able to see the place where I had been bitten …..her advice was to check out my shoes with a flashlight before putting them on from now on….and believe me ….I WILL
I noticed a week ago that I had this redness on my left leg. I said oh something got me, so I put something on it and it went away than, a week later on the same leg I noticed another one but bigger real red and hurts real bad when I walk and has a pus head; I am going to the doctors early in the morning. I am scared and I don’t like the feeling it is giving me.
I’ve been bit by a spider and it hurts so bad! I got bit by my leg it was red yesterday but this morning I woke up and now it is purple. What should i do? I’m in pain!
This is in regards to Phil’s bite I have a sore that looks just like the one you have posted it’s very painful and my muscles are sore feels like I’ve been working out for a week straight or something and using muscles i’ve never used before, I know that it is a spider bite but not sure what kind, I was bitten a year ago with almost the same kind of sore. I heard that once you’re bitten, that you are more prone to being bitten again because of some kind of chemical that the spider injects along with their venoum. Sounds crazy i know, but could it actually be true? A picture of my bite can be found below:
My friend has a black dot with a white thing in the middle and it hurts to touch as i try to remove it. This is so sore for her; the spot is about the size of a dime and has a white center.
Please help
i have several odd sours which started as small pus marks resembeling an ant bite. In aday or so getting large and inflamed,painfull,weeping greenish pus Does not respond to any topical med
I came to this site to find a treatment for a spider bite on my hand and tryed the one with a raw potato and it helped, but its still swollen some and the area around the two puncture wounds still has some redness. So I’m going to futher treatment. But I think I’m going to try the one with the baking soda and water and if that don’t work, go back to the raw potato. I’m glad this site is here, too. Thanks!
Hi, I was bitten by a (spider) or some type insect inbetween my toe on thursday and by friday night my toes were numb and my calf and foot were very red in that area. I went to emergency room and ended up with antibiotics and pain killers, then sent home.
The next day it was full of pus and after taking a warm bath, it burst a greenish yellowish color. It has been 4 days and there is a huge whole inbetween my toe! What could this be from? Does anyone have any idea’s? my foot is real tender now and it is still hard to walk.
i live in fla and am on a little vacation in milwaukee. don’t want to go to the doctors, but i fear i have a spider bite that needs attention. there is a five inch diameter redness on my right arm with a small round sore in the middle. the skin about an inch and a quarter around the sore has hardened. the entire thing hurts to the touch and is throbbing.
advise?
I just wanted you all to know I got bit by a brown recluse when I was younger and if you clean the top off the put a thin slice of a potato on it, the starch in the potato will suck the venom out of the bite. The other thing you can do is take flax seeds and grind them up then put those on the bite. this should work with pretty much all venomous bites. The doctor said if I hadn’t done that I probably would have had to have surgery and have a portion of my leg cut out because of the venom.
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!!!
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!
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?..
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 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!
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.
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 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?
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 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.
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 have a hobo bite and would appreciate any information about this bite and how I should go about treating it.
Thanks!
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.
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
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.
Hello, this is a follow up to my previous post:
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 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 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 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
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 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 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 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!!!
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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?
Thank you for posting this useful information!
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!
this is a very great site for those who dont kno what to do if there’s a spider bite..!!!
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.
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
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 🙂
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!
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 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?
Thank you for this site. Is the poison in spider bites acid or alkaline? For example, mosquito bites are acid.
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
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.
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.
is there a cream or some kind of medicine you can buy over the counter to treat a supected sider bite?
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.