I read up on the Brown Recluse spider before moving to KY. My understanding is that it is not venom that is responsible for the really scary looking bites, but a form of flesh eating bacteria.
Sounds like this is it’s UK counterpart. And yeah, sometimes it’s just a minor bite, and sometimes it’s, well, just google brown recluse bite in images.
I used to work in a place that had brown recluses everywhere......................
I was bitten by a brown recluse 25 years ago when we lived in California. I still have itching where that bite occurred. I was really sick for two days until a co-worker looked at the bite area and told me I needed to have the bite mark removed. It looks like a target. Grey in the middle and red around. I had it removed and was on antibiotics for 10 days. I recovered with no apparent side effects, except for the itching that frequently happens these days.
They are nothing to mess with. The first night after being bitten I had the chills so badly that I passed out for a couple of hours. The second night I had projectile vomiting. (My husband was out of town those couple of days or I would have had him look at my back) The third day is when I went to the doctor. The spider had set up shop behind the toilet tank in our bathroom. I did remember that I felt like my back had been hit by a large water droplet when I took off the shower cap that day. My husband found the spider and killed it. Perfect violin on it’s back. Anytime you get unbearable itching somewhere on your body, check for that target. Get to the doctor ASAP.