Have you ever been to the Rockingham Meeting House? One of my favorite places on the planet....early in the morning before the sun dries the dew on the spider webs in the cemetery. Magical.
Posted on 08/31/2013 4:22:53 PM PDT by Morgana
FULL TITLE: How FOUR cops rushed to kill spider in wheelchair-bound teen's home after she called 911 fearing it could have killed her
Police in Portland, Oregon, received an unusual call earlier this month when a teenager phoned requesting assistance to deal with a ‘massive’ spider.
The caller, Makenna Sewell, wasn’t a prankster or someone with an extreme phobia of spiders, but instead suffers from muscular dystrophy and is wheelchair-bound.
She believed the spider was a brown recluse, a species with venom so toxic that it could have been deadly for her compromised immune system.
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Sewell was home alone on August 16 when she saw the creature, which she described as being about three inches across.
Just a few days prior, her mom Shawnda had been bitten by a spider on the back of her leg during the night, which had resulted in a nasty wound and a trip to the emergency room.
Initially Sewell tried to call her mother, her father, the friends her parents were with, her own friends and two neighbors.
When she couldn’t reach anyone, Sewell decided to call the non-emergency police hotline as a last resort.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Map lies!
We have them in Wisconsin. I saw them by the dozens when I was in NJ. Whoever you got that map from, they’re wrong.
it’s the same as every other map of the brown recluse range.
I saw a girl that got bit on the arm by one in Plant City.
“I had one bite my wrist several years ago. In the morning it was very itchy.”
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Are you sure it was a recluse? That does not sound at all like the typical bite.
Have you ever been to the Rockingham Meeting House? One of my favorite places on the planet....early in the morning before the sun dries the dew on the spider webs in the cemetery. Magical.
MD at ER said it was a classic case based on reaction and ‘fang’ marks. Have seen them in the house before and since.
Two reported sightings in Greene county this week, but mostly they stick to the hills of the southeast.
No. Maybe I will make the trip someday.
My 5 y/o son and I took an early morning hike last fall after a rainy night. The first mile or so we saw dozens of water droplet covered webs like that. Very beautiful with the morning sun shining through them. My son just wanted to be sure that no spiders got on him.
I saw a large mama wolf spider about 5 in across with dozens of baby spiders crawling on her back. It was so cute! She would walk along and then stop every 3 feet to make sure everyone was on board. LOL
I think wolf spiders are really cool and they hunt other bad insects. We have lots of black and brown widow spiders around here in Louisiana, so I’m always cautious reaching into dark corners.
I was born with one about that size, dead center, already caved in. It itches occasionally to this day.
Well spider’s have 8 legs... so 4 sets of handcuffs needed ...so there is some logic to needing 4 cops
Amazingly (to me), maggots are used to treat the necrosis in addition to antibiotics, and clean-out the wound quite nicely. Kinda creepy, but medically effective.
I got tagged by one at the beginning of Summer but I didn’t know what got me. I was pulling the mower out of the shed and felt something “pinch” the back of my leg. Showed the “sting” to a nurse at Church and she asked me if I had felt a wasp sting. I said no. She told me to get to the Doctor the next day. The doctor said it was a Recluse but I didn’t get a lot of venom. Had a three week course of several different meds. I don’t think I even have a scar.
In May of 1990...my hospital roommate during a 3 week stay after almost being took out by my gallbladder was a HVAC man bitten on the back of his elbow by a brown recluse. While no one saw the spider..it was not collected and sent to a professional for ID...However:
1. It happened in NW GA...well within the range of the fiddleback...or brown recluse.
2. He had been working in the attic of an old house the day before being admitted...a place anyone from around here that spends time in attics or crawlspaces knows is prime habitat for the brown recluse....It is a reclusive creature.
3. The bite was identified by two experts in brown recluse bites...The owner of the HVAC company who sent his employee to the emergency room when said employee showed up for work with a small hole in his elbow the size of an eraser...which have started as a small pimple the day before..because the HVAC company owner lost a good man to disability 15 years previous after the man lost his arm below the elbow after showing up to work with the same hole in his elbow. HVAC men around here know the brown recluse well.
The second expert to ID the bite was Orthapedic Surgeon Dr. Michael Slutsky..who had skillfully saved the limbs of many brown recluse bite victims in this area for years. I heard him tell HVAC man just how close he came to losing his arm below the elbow...another 12 hours in delay and it was a goner.IV antibiotics that cost 1,00 bucks a bag and several hours surgery scraping bone free of dead tissue saved the HVAC man’s arm.
The man was admitted on the Friday I was with a eraser sized hole...we both headed to the Er at the same time the next morning...the hole was the size of a half dollar...and I could see his elbow joint.
Now...You can believe About.com guide Debbie Hadley if you want...but I’m gonna go with those with skin in the game. Miss Hadley is free to come to fiddleback country and let herself get bit to show us just how harmless the fiddleback is.
I don't believe she said that no one ever gets a serious injury from a Brown Recluse. I know that they do so it doesn't matter. I do know one thing for certain though. A Recluse bite can be entirely cured with an herbal poultice leaving no scar and alleviating almost all of the pain while it's working. I am the son of a physician and I would never go to a physician for a Brown Recluse bite.
Black Widow spider
Brown Recluse Spider - see his little violin up front?
Not very big either - I got bit by one and never felt it until the venom made all my joints ache. Fortunately not particularly sensitive and did not end up with huge gaping wound but it took two massive doses of IV antibiotics to put it to rest.
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