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.
Thank you!
"The only time that I had a really bad problem with a bite was the first bite."
I must really be losing it! I forgot about the time when I was bitten on my hand. It got infected, "healed" but the infection remained, got down to the bone, infection turned to sepsis. Required over a year of several antibiotics.
Cool , I'd like that , as I said , we had lots of spider books
I saw your reply about the time it healed and then went down to the bone. What was scariest about my sons bite was that 6 months after we thought the worst was over, it came back again, full blown, kinda like when someone thinks they are cured from cancer. I see we DON'T have them in Washington State but the ER docs sure thought we did. I can't see how you got rid of the bite by a home cure similar to popping a boil, you must be lucky.
Wonder if chlorine might do the same to spider venom (or others) if the bite was opened up sufficiently? Chlorine bleach screws-up just about anything it comes in contact with (take my word, I work with swimming pools).