Suspicious Spider Bites on LI, NY...Black Flesh Symptoms

Newsday ^ | 6/29/02

[DaughterofEve]

"In what experts say is a rare if not near-impossible occurrence on Long Island, at least three people have been diagnosed with brown recluse spider bites this week." "The clustering of three or four cases in one week left many skeptical."

[Clara Lou]

My son has a suggestion as to the origins of these spiders' arrival on Long Island. As a teen he worked in produce in a grocery store here. He said that they occasionally got all sorts of insects in the produce. He said there were numerous varieties of spiders and insects-- a huge black widow, for one. Why not a brown recluse that managed to over-winter in L. I. and reproduce?

[Clara Lou]

I was stung by a scorpion here in Central Texas when I was a kid. The pain was fiery and ferocious. (Wasp sting X 5, I'd say.)It was agony while it lasted. The pain subsided fairly soon. The scorpions disappeared around here about the same times the horned toads did.

[discostu]

Spiders hop on stuff all the time, then get transported across the country (hence why so many warm water ports have banana spiders). Wouldn't be surprised if this little bugger hitched a ride with some snowbirds (that's what we call winter visitors) leaving my kneck of the woods and going home to LI, and now because the whole country is unusually dry he's havin' a great time and probably doesn't even know he's in the wrong part of the world. The problem with being in such a mobile society is that bugs no longer have a "range" in the classic sense. Remember the medfly.

[NautiNurse]

Hyperbaric medicine is now used for slow healing wounds (especially diabetic ulcers). Hyperbaric FAQ

[hellinahandcart]

Hyperbaric Oxygenation

Apparently they're using it to treat wounds and burns now. It was news to me.

[VOA]

Full recovery may not occur at all. There was a local lady who got bitten by a brown
recluse several years ago who still has neurological symptom.

I took about a year and a half to recover from my brown recluse encounter.
And I'm left with some circulatory misery in the affected leg...thanks mostly
to a nit-wit ER doctor who gave me steroids (prednisone), not antibiotics on the
first day.
He did when I showed up the next day with my leg turned black and blue.

Oh well, what do they call the person who graduates last in med school? "Doctor".

[lwoodham]

Spiders, I say kill em all and let Lord Arachnid sort it all out.

[discostu]

I wouldn't count on that behavior. I see recluses all the time, they don't like to hang out in their web, they like to hang out in nooks and crannies (like a reclusive person, sometime the name of a critter is useful) and if you've got a bug rich zone (that's where I usually run into them, edge of town, usually near construction) they aren't content to sit and wait for food. But they're only a problem if they feel threatened. If you follow standard desert survival rules (never put any part of you where you can't see it, use a stick or the toe of your shoe to flip over all ground objects before picking them up, when you see a critter let it be) you'll be fine.

[Wednesday's Child]

Thank you for your replies. I didn't know that either.
The link was very informative. I've saved it because my dad is a diabetic, but he's never been offered this treatment.

[RandallFlagg]

Well, that's their behavior in my town. The rule is if it looks like a widow's web, avoid it.
Now about tarantulas (The movie was just on AMC)....
They say that the tarantula can only see about a foot in front of them...LIE!!!! I've been chased by one when I was in Texas. The li'l sombich did a FULL CIRCLE about three feet in diameter and proceeded to run after me. Luckily there was some gravel near my escape route so I grabbed a handfull and pelted it until it was uninterested.
Bottom line: I HATE SPIDERS, and THEY KNOW IT!!!!YAAAAHHHHH!!!

I love praying mandids, though.

[agrandis]

Just killed 5 of those critters in an apartment here in MO. There are other spiders (outside the US, at least) that can cause similar symtoms.

[agrandis]

Then there's this one:

THE AGGRESSIVE HOUSE SPIDER

Tegenaria agrestis

This common funnel-weaving spider is found in the northwestern United States. Its body is about inch long; it has a dull tan color with darker markings on its oval abdomen. This spider makes thick webs with the funnel neck back in a wall crevice and the wider mouth opening into a room. They are found only in moist areas of basements or cellars, in ground level window wells, and so forth. The spider has been given its name because it readily bites when touched or pressed. The bite, not initially painful, resembles the bite of the Brown Recluse spider (not found in the Northwest) and other bites that result in ulcerating lesions. A close relative is distributed in the northeastern United States but is not aggressive. These cellar-dwelling, funnel-weaving spiders were introduced from Europe where they are very commonly found in structures.

There was a woman recently bitten on a bus in London by what was believed to be a tropical spider. It caused symptoms similar to the Brown Recluse, too. Could be an introduction of some foreign spider has occured in LI.

[agrandis]

Oh, I see I posted info on the same spider, T. agrestis. Different common names, same critter.

[Spunky]

Known to live in the Pacific Northwest from Washington east to Montana and south through Oregon and northern Utah, Maybe this one hitched a ride to Long Island. ;-)

The hobo spider, Tegenaria agrestis, is a European immigrant that has only recently (1980s) been implicated as a potentially poisonous spider in the United States. Other names used for this spider include the aggressive house spider (although this spider is not usually aggressive) and, less commonly, the Walckenaer spider and the Northwestern brown spider. However, in seeking name stability, the American Arachnological Society has chosen "hobo spider" as the spider’s official common name. The name "hobo" is linked to the spider’s presumed spread to distant cities via the railways.

Hobo spiders have been reported to have a bite that can leave a necrotic (i.e., rotting flesh) wound that progresses over several days—similar to that caused by a brown recluse bite. Another reported characteristic symptom of hobo spider bites is a headache that persists for 2 to 7 days and does not abate with analgesics.

[Dan(9698)]

Spiders in Wyoming are not just suspcious. --- They are cynical.

[duckbutt]

sister was bitten on the forehead - - got out of her car and thought a leaf had brushed her forehead - - swatted at it and then felt a little sting. Got into the house and saw a small bump. In a few days, the skin around the bite site had "died" and she had a quarter sized discoloration -- started to fester -- finally had to have surgery to remove the dying tissue, had skin grafts, stitches, etc. She now has a scar in her forhead about the size of a silver dollar. Glad they caught it early -- but it took her months to recover......

[rintense]

Wouldn't be uncommon for them to hitch a ride in produce boxes either. There have been several instances here in Michigan where grocers will open up a box of oranges, etc. and see a scorpion. Tarantulas have also been found in crates of bananas.

[rintense]

Just posted the same thing. It is very common for insects to be transfered all around the country in produce crates.

[duckbutt]

the hyperbaric oxygenization works. I had radiation to the head and neck because of cancer that metastized to the lymph nodes. One of the side effects is a narrowing of blood vessels in the jaw. I had broken a tooth and it could not be saved, but the oral surgeon was experienced with dealing with patients who had radiation.

So, the long and short of it is - - before he could remove the tooth, I had to undergo 40 hours of hyperbaric treatment at Mt. Vernon hospital in Virginia. The end result is that this encourages new blood vessel growth that seems permanent. I say "seems" because they've been doing it down there for about 25 years and they've been monitoring folks.

Well, the doctor did the surgery to remove my tooth -- said "my, you're bleeding real good". Then, I had to undergo 20 more hours afterward to speed healing.

If I had not had it done, the healing might have been extremely slow, or I may have suffered from osteo-radio-necrosis (death to the bone via radiation). He said it wouldn't have killed me but the pain that it would cause would make me want to die.

While I was doing this, they also treated people with wounds (usually diabetics), folks who have had amputations, a lot of folks who have had jaw injuries/replacements, and of course, folks who suffered from carbon monixide poisoning.

I would be in the chamber for two hours at a time. About the size of a large coffin -- definitely not for someone who was claustrophobic. They would show bootleg videos, and you could communiate via a speaker -- there were always two people in the room, in case something happened to one - - because there was NO WAY you could get yourself out of one of those.

If I ever lose another tooth, I would only have to go through the post-surgical hyperbarics, as they do consider the growth of the new blood vessels permanent.

Whew! that's a lot to say.....but it's not "voodoo" science -- it's real stuff and it's effective on a lot of conditions.