Spider ID Help

Spadata ^ | 4 Jul 2004

[WorkingClassFilth]

I think it's a black widow.

NOPE.

[WorkingClassFilth]

YOW!

Is that two of the buggers? What the hell are they doing? Those things almost look like the young instar of the critter in 'Alien.' I'd splatter that cluster with my M-16 if I was there.

[Vigilantcitizen]

This is a black widow....

[AKA Elena]

For the past three weeks we have been treating one of our older gentlemen Champion Schipperkes ... "Wolf", by common call name -- 12yo this last month. He firsr presented a great deal of swelling on the left side of his head over the side bones of the skull and jaw.

We hot packed the area and within two days all of the skin in about a two by two area had sloughed off and there was a single penetration point in the middle of a softened blackened area of skin. We drained and drained and drained and hot packed and hot packed ... gave antihistamines, antibiotics and aspirin.

After the head seemed to have most of the swelling reduced we started applying (a carcinogenic, but very effective) ointment to the entire debriding area (now about the size of the palm of an adult hand).

The vision in the left eye is gone, but he never went off his food and was in pretty good spirits throughout.

We presume that he was bitten by a desert recluse (indigenous to the Mojave Desert) which, unlike the black widow (which does neural damage and has been the cause of death over the last 40 years in two of my female Schipperkes and a Shetland Sheepdog who was left for a long time as a boarder in our commercial Kennel, after she had been treated for a black widow bite -- she was alive when she went home, but I somehow think that she was never going to recover), this "bite" seemed to be restricted to necrotic damage and it spreads and spreads. We have gone about 5 or 6 days without further spread, but that side of his once gorgeous head is like leather (dried out leather, at that, so it cracks easily).

[T-Bird45]

Had a similar Army medicine experience in Germany. Had a festering sore on my calf and went to the clinic staffed by our unit medics and PA. Medic looks at it and thinks I have VD, asking if I have had sex with somebody other than my wife. Told him no and to go get the PA (I was an officer and medic was a Spec4).

PA comes in and reams the medic for a faulty diagnosis. Told me it looked like a brown recluse had hitched a ride to Germany in my belongings because they weren't native. Treated me with local antibiotics on the sore, debrided the necrotic tissue, and gave me oral antibiotics to beat back the infection. Took forever to heal...

[Merdoug]

http://images.google.com/images?q=%22barn+spider%22&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search

I'm no expert on spiders but I think black widows have a nerve poison and brown recluse destroys tissue. Also, widows do not always have the characteristic red hourglass. Sometimes they have red or orange splotches on them. They will still be round, fat and shiny black.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

That's the famous Hot Springs Black Inch Spider. The dead variety rarely bites.

Glad to help.

[Physicist]

While we're at it, crabs are water-spiders and spiders are land-crabs. Arachnidae, the eight-leggers.

Crabs have ten legs. That itself doesn't mean they're not arachnids (although they're not; they're crustaceans), because not all arachnids have eight legs, either.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

That was Charlotte!!! Omigawd you killed Charlotte! You sick freak!

[nuconvert]

yep, that's the black widow

[Maven]

We have one cat. We like to keep him in practice with the laser pointer.

The laser pointer is an essential piece of cat training equipment! That and all the little fur-covered mice I keep tripping over.

Maven

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

It would be a much more nostalgic thread if you said you were holding the spider under your foot while you made the post.

Nostalgia?

[NonValueAdded]

Sorry for the flashback, Sweet.

[DannyTN]

You DO NOT need to move. Why would you move, when one bite of your wife kills spiders dead?

I think it's a wolf spider, but you need to confirm. The size is right. They are a little hairy and awful to look at.

PS: Every spider in Tennessee is brown and has a back that looks like a musical instrument.

[DannyTN]

Actually I don't know about moving. Until you get the recluse problem under control, you might seriously consider it. I've heard of people who have moved because of recluses and left most of their furniture to be rid of the pests.

[snippy_about_it]

It would be a much more nostalgic thread if you said you were holding the spider under your foot while you made the post.

I remember one about a snake. A freeper was stepping on it under her computer and looking for help identifying it, she didn't want to get up. LOL. Boy that's been awhile ago.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. That's the one. It was you! What a night that was. Thanks for the link.