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.
ping...
"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
Just leave the Jumping Spiders and the Golden Garden Spiders.
If you leave the Mud Dappers alone, the will take care of the spiders. That is all they do, catch spiders to fill their nest.
That's worked well here in New Mexico this year. It didn't work for the last five years though.
You killed 'em there & made it rain here.
I've lived in TX for 30 years off and on (going to be on again, be forewarned); I never had enough spider left to use a magnifier on.
To be fair; if it's in the house, it's dead. If it's in the yard, I just give it some room. Of course, everywhere in the world is within 5 feet of a spider.
Yes - they're definitely in Illinois/Wisconsin area. My sister is a doctor, and used to live in Oak Brook. She treated a few bites every year, and always warned me about them. A few of the bites that she saw came from people who were bitten while sitting on portable toilets. The spider was under the seat, and didn't like being sat on.
I had to refrain from smashing the CRAP out of them before I identified. I was a nervous wreck about recluse spiders! I probably had them, but never knew!
I was bitten by one in 1985, but didn't suffer as much as some people I have heard of. I didn't feel the bite when it happened, but assumed it happened on Friday while I was at a flower nursery. That evening my left arm began to hurt, and I tho't I had unknowingly bumped my elbow, but I began to feel sick. The next morning I nearly fainted twice, but did not associate it with my arm hurting. On Monday, the arm was swollen and red, so I went to the doctor and told him I must be losing my mind that I had bumped my elbow and didn't remember doing it. He said I had been bitten my a brown recluse spider, and had me look at my elbow in a large mirror. You could see the puncture mark, but there was a white ring the size of a dime around the bite, which is characteristic of the brown recluse bite. My arm was swollen and red from the elbow to my shoulder and the pain was terrible. I don't remember what the doctor prescribed, but he would not allow me to go on a planned trip. I made several visits to his office that week, and on Friday he lanced it, and I took antibiotics until the infection was cleared up. Maybe the skin on the elbow is tougher than the skin on other parts of the body and that kept me from having a worse experience and a bad scar. It was bad enough and I wouldn't want to repeat it.
A buddy of mine was bitten in South Jersey.
Eliminate the cockroaches that the brown recluse lives on..
I have seen coyotes, (lots) bald eagles (twice) Wolves, (twice) BEARS, black widow spiders, wild turkeys, golden eagles, and rattlesnakes. All of this in the Lower Peninsula, west of Ann Arbor.
Michigan has all sorts of things, some more pleasant thaan others.
Actually, I have friends who were bitten here in New Jersey. And, yes, it is nasty!!
Thanks for sharing those wonderfully disgusting photos.
Set up a monthly service to treat for all pests. Once the food source is gone, the spiders will leave also.
Good luck!
yep. gotta love the various wildlife around here. i've seen all of those but the bears and wolves just south west of lansing, and i've seen wolves and bears further north. my favourite was one species of snake which is supposedly endangered, that we found.
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