Posted on 06/01/2005 7:17:47 AM PDT by Pyro7480
I share a duplex house with two other people. My room is the basement, while the other two live in rooms on the second floor. We share the living room, dining room, and kitchen on the first floor. Our house is just outside the DC Beltway in northern Virginia, south of Alexandria.
On Sunday, one of my roommates was apparently bitten by a brown recluse spider. She didn't get it looked at immediately, since she thought it was just a really bad pimple. By yesterday, however, it was quite apparent that something was wrong. She went to a doctor, and the diagnosis was confirmed, that she was bitten by a brown recluse. The doctor told her that they get a bunch of these in the summer months in the area.
I was under the impression that the brown recluse was only found in the south central region of the United States. Are they now prevalent enough in Virginia to cause the doctor to say such a thing? It doesn't make sense to me that she was bitten, most likely in her room on the second floor, while I haven't even seen anything that looks like a brown recluse spider in my basement room. You would think that something like that would more likely get into a basement than into a second floor room.
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That's what I always did prior to my hubbys bites. I kill all spiders now except Daddy Longlegs. I still pick them up and put them outside.
I have them upstairs much more than downstairs myself, I'd say about 5-1. The best non-posionous solution I have found is to take 2 inch masking tape, tear off about 8 inches or so, and leave it on the floor in the areas where you see them WITH THE STICKY SIDE UP. They prowl around at night, they don't get in a web. If you picked the right places you should catch several on each piece of tape in a few weeks.
Yuck!
I've seen these spiders.
I tape up the outside door to my basement room. More often than not, it's pillbugs that get stuck on it.
Just cover your furniture with plastic or sheets or there will be a film left behind.
I got bitten by a recluse on the ear lobe a couple of years ago. We were staying with relatives in a guest bedroom that's seldom used.
The spider had taken up residence in the bed.
A friend of a friend of mine was apparently bitten by a Brown Recluse spider on a visit to Maine about 7 or 8 years ago (Islesboro, in Penobscot Bay). He was bitten on the thumb while picking wildflowers. It became infected and the doctors had to amputate the top joint.
I think these things are fairly rare, but it's always possible that one of them may get into that proverbial shipment of bananas or otherwise hitch a ride into new territory.
Delmont Jr was bitten in Washington State. I don't care if you call them Brown Recluse,Black Recluse (how about Colored Recluse) Hobo, Velveeta's Revenge or what, they are nasty little buggers.
When they opened the wound in the ER, they almost had to call a hazardess materials team to ventilate the whole floor of the hospital it smelled so bad. The patient was then on a morphine-dilaudid drip with the strongest anti-biotics out there.
Another thing, 6 ,months after the wound was somewhat healed, it flared up again, almost as bad as the first time. I guess if they don't irrigate it well enough, it comes back, just like cancer.
OMG!!....why did this man wait so long to get treatment!
i would question that she was bit at night...by a brown recluse. it still could have been a spider that she rolled over on. The Brown recluse wound becomes necrotic whereas other spider bites tend to look mean but no necrosis.
it's not uncommon to wake up in the morning and see a huge red area that looks like an infection with no pain. they run their course over several days.
nick
Alot of people,including my wife,confuse wolf spiders with brown recluse.Wolf spiders will turn and run when you put anything in front of them,a brown recluse will not.The larger,brown spiders are usually just wolf spiders.A brown recluse doesn't get as large.Just something to keep in mind:D
Do a search on wolf spider to see the difference.
yeah, i love the range maps of both the brown recluse and the hobo that show no activity near MI, and we have both.
wood piles can be a great source for finding things that scientists say don't exist in MI.
I'm an occasional listener of George Noory on Coast To Coast when I'm up late and he's lately talked about a friend of his who waited too long to get a Brown Recluse bite looked at and may end up getting his leg amputated. These bites are nothing to fool with.
Is that you, grandpa?
I have a great deal of experience with brown recluse spiders. It is possible to find them in any part of the country. In areas where they were not naturally found, they can show up in boxes that are shipped. They can also live for extended periods without food. There are several members of the recluse family and it is thought that they all possess some degree of toxicity. My suggestion is that you look at a few pictures of the spiders online. Brown recluses are generally small and very inconspicuous. They can also have considerable variation in color depending on locale. The ones that I see usually have golden tan legs and more reddish brown on the body and where the legs attach to the body. Contrary to the "legendary" description, the body is not fiddle shaped, there is a VERY TINY fiddle marking on the head of SOME, not all, recluses.
There are tons of these spiders on my farm, usually in the animal pens or barn, frequently under animal bedding. I've been bitten at least a dozen times. After the first few times, I learned that you almost never see the spider bite you and that the first sign is very similar to a red ant bite (a small pimple-like raised area). I have found that the "pimple" does not get pus in it like a red ant bite. Also, red ants hurt when they bite so you usually know immediately. In brown recluses the bite itself is painless (possibly because the substances they inject have pain-killing properties). In my experience, if it is a brown recluse bite, and you pop it, not much liquid comes out. My "treatment", as soon as I have a "pimple" that I am pretty sure is a recluse bite, I take a fine needle (26 or 27 ga.) amd make a small hole in the top of the pimple. Then I take a large syringe (35 or 60 ml without a needle on it) and I put the tip of the syringe firmly over the pimple. I draw back on the syringe until I get some fluid going in the syringe. I do this several times over a 10-15 minute period and try to get out at least 0.1 ml of fluid (more is better). This technique seems to get out enough of the toxin so that the toxin-related reaction and necrosis are minimal.
The only time that I had a really bad problem with a bite was the first bite. It was on my shin and got pretty nasty. At it's worst point, my entire lower leg from ankle to knee was varying shades of black, brown and blue. Fortunately, there was not a huge amount of tissue loss, just about 1" x 3" and down to the bone in the area that was the center of the bite.
If I have time this afternoon, I'll round up a couple of brown recluses and take pictures to post.
btrl
We got a Black Widow in with some grapes and didn't notice until we got to Shea Stadium ,LOL!! FReep mail me if you wanna hear the complete tale , BTW , I know spiders,my sister was petrified and we had lots of spider books,this wasn't the false Black Widow
Thank you!
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