Brown Recluse Spider Bites - Now is the time to spray your house! (graphic pictures)

myself ^ | 5/9/03 | brigette

[stlnative]

This is a semi-vanity post - but others should learn about this nasty little spider and the damage it can do.

This is my 3rd day into my second Brown Recluse Spider bite that I have had in the past 3 years. The first one took over 6 months to heal and left a 3/4" diameter crater in the back of my neck at my hairline. I was bitten again 3 days ago, at least that is when I notice a pin head size bump on my right forearm and thought it was just a mosquito bite. Today is day three and I decided to keep a record of this new bite this time if it decides to get worse or hang around for 6 months like the other one. It was pin head size 3 days ago. I found a website after my first bite that keeps records and case pictures of brown recluse spider bites (warning if you think snake bites are nasty or anthrax sores are gross - well Brown Spider Bites are just as bad - they get uglier as time goes by!). I did not record my first bite as I figured it would just heal. But it got worse and worse as the weeks went by.

Anyway people in the midwest should learn about these nasty little spiders, even more if you have kids... you should bug bomb your house often and keep clutter away from and inside your homes. Right now the little nasty things are moving back indoors due to all the rainy weather we have had in the midwest.

Today is 5/9/03 and I am into my 3 day of being bitten by BRS (Brown Recluse Spider). My picture below looks like it is not much of anything and I am hoping that it stays as little as it now. But I am prepared to record it this time if it does get worse. Hopefully my picture of my 3 day old bite will help others recognize when they have also been bitten by a BRS, everyone is affected differently depending on the size of the spider and how your body handle the poison. Since this is my second bite it may not get any worse.



I have started a bite history on a website that has records of over 400 BRS bites (tons of photos there that would make your jaw drop if you have never seen what a BRS can do to you once it bites you) My case number is #995 (maybe they have 995 recorded cases now) the website url is http://www.highway60.com/mark/brs/default.htm

My little bite is how all of it starts for some people, that little bite can turn into this...
Graphic Picture of Hand after a BRS bite and the link to this persons BRS bite story

I don't think I need to say more here - just visit the BRS Bite site and use the search link at the top... Put in the information you want (if you just want to see the stories with pictures check off just the "Yes" next to the Picture option and hit the search button at the bottom.

Do yourself a favor and your kids a favor... spray or bomb your house at least once each season (spring, summer, fall, winter). You can buy house bombs at any local discount store in packs of 3 for about $6.00.

I posted this so that people mainly in the midwest can learn about these nasty little spiders, I didn't do it to draw attention to my own bite... I just know now how nasty they can get and how you can lessen your chances of being bit. I got bit before I had a chance to bomb my house... it has been rainy here and I should have known they would start coming in through the cracks between the window screens and window frame. All in all I should be fine, but some people do not fair as well.

[scott7278]

Now I've got the eebie-geebies. I never will forget when I was in my old apartment and felt a tickling sensation on my left arm. I laid there for a moment, thinking I was dreaming, and then I turned on the light in time to see a HUGE spider running behind the bed.

IT TOUCHED ME! IT TOUCHED ME! OH, THE HUMANITY!

I hate those darn things.

[templar]

You do not really feel them when they bite... it is the after you have worry about as it swells and turns black in the center.

About 3 1/2 years ago I was bitten repeatedly on the head by one of these critters. There were between 11 and 13 bites (some overlapped and the rotting sores made it difficult to count) with the ones on the top being the worse and getting less severe as they progressed toward the front of my head. I think the thing may have been slowly running out of venom and just kept biting till it was empty. They are a really nasty painful bite after the fact as you don't feel them bite. I figure that either it got in my hat or got me while I was sleeping. I treated the wounds myself using a flax seed poltice made with very hot epsom salts solution. The poltice seemed to help with removing the necrotizing flesh and kept it from spreading while the wound ran it's course. I think gangrene could be a problem, and the necrotizing of the flesh seems to penetrate deeply enough ( my skull became visible in the worst one) that a bite near an artery might actually rupture the artery. I survived, it took about four months for the wounds to completely heal and there is still a depression in the skin on my head where the bites were in a long line about an inch wide and 6 inches long that is something like half or more of the depth of the flesh on my skull.

I've also been bitten by a black widow spider, and as bad as they are, I'd say the fiddleback is by far the more dangerous.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

I think that is a black widow female who eats her mate after
mating.

[kcvl]

LOL!

[Hot Tabasco]

Take a bowie knife, heat it over a campfire till it is redhot, slice thru the wound then suck the poison out. Tomorrow you will be able to hop on your horse and get out of Dodge...... :)

[VOA]

Another (possible) brown recluse survivor chiming in.
About 10 years ago, I had a "knot" on the shin, weird rashes for about a week,
then developed a hideous fever and the lower 2/3 of the leg (with the "knot") turned
an ugly Darth-Vader Death brown-black. (Probably ensuing bacterial infection
from the wound.)

ER doctor f---ed up, gave me only corticosteroids; he woke up
and got me on antibiotics the next day.
The leg was saved, I was recovering for about a year.
Folks need to understand these things can KILL children, the elderly and
those who are physically weakened by disease.

[Hot Tabasco]

What happens when you have your house bombed? Do you have to wash all exposed surfaces -- for instance dishes?

No, in the above instance, its usually the dishes that are the first to go and totaly impossible to recover......

[firewalk]

bttt

[ValerieUSA]

My son Garrett and I got bit soon after our move to Texas. The bites festered for months, and were hideously ugly.
The poison just keeps eating away at the tissue and the wound grows. Hydrogen peroxide to kill the raw edges finally worked at stopping the destruction so real healing could begin.

[CARDINALRULES]

I have had several close calls with BRS, but so far none have bitten me.

I just smashed one the other day as it was crawling on the wall behind the monitor...got it with my sandal.

My favorite method to kill spiders is using Aqua Net --the super hold stuff.
I had a big spider in a corner of the bathroom frozen in place for a few years...kind of like a trophy. ;-`)

[kcvl]

Pyrethrins are natural insecticides produced by certain species of the chrysanthemum plant. The flowers of the plant are harvested shortly after blooming and are either dried and powdered or the oils within the flowers are extracted with solvents. The resulting pyrethrin containing dusts and extracts usually have an active ingredient content of about 30%. These active insecticidal components are collectively known as pyrethrins. Two pyrethrins are most prominent, pyrethrin-I and pyrethrin-II. The pyrethrins have another four different active ingredients, Cinerin I and II and Jasmolin I and II.

Pyrethrin compounds have been used primarily to control human lice, mosquitoes, cockroaches, beetles and flies. Some "pyrethrin dusts," used to control insects in horticultural crops, are only 0.3% to 0.5% pyrethrins, and are used at rates of up to 50 lb/A. Other pyrethrin compounds may be used in grain storage and in poultry pens and on dogs and cats to control lice and fleas.

The natural pyrethrins are contact poisons which quickly penetrate the nerve system of the insect. A few minutes after application, the insect cannot move or fly away. But, a "knockdown dose" does not mean a killing dose. The natural pyrethrins are swiftly detoxified by enzymes in the insect. Thus, some pests will recover. To delay the enzyme action so a lethal dose is assured, organophosphates, carbamates, or synergists may be added to the pyrethrins.

Semisynthetic derivatives of the chrysanthemumic acids have been developed as insecticides. These are called pyrethroids and tend to be more effective than natural pyrethrins while they are less toxic to mammals. One common synthetic pyrethroid is allethrin.

In this report, the term "pyrethrins" refers to the natural insecticides derived from chrysanthemum flowers; "pyrethroids" are the synthetic chemicals, and "pyrethrum" is a general name covering both compounds. The EPA classifies pyrethrin-I as a Restricted Use Pesticide (RUP). Restricted Use Pesticides may be purchased and used only by certified applicators.

[templar]

I turned on the light in time to see a HUGE spider running behind the bed.

I grew up in Oklahoma. We had Tarantulas twice as big as grapefruits everywhere. The darn things actually seemed to travel around in herds of hundreds of spiders. We kids used to catch them and tie a string around their waist with the other end pinned to our shirt. They're a pretty docile critter in spite of standing a foot high and being big, black and hairy. Treat them gently and they don't bite. Get one mad enough to bite you and they are really painful. Someone once told me that the males make better pets as they aren't as likely to ever bite you. You can buy little bitty (baby?) ones in pet shops, usually only three or four inches across. Hopefully you could, in captivity, grow one to be large enough to protect you from small dogs though. Or maybe consume a burglar or two on the side.

[Johnny Crab]

I live in south Texas. I do KNOW that black widows and recluse are KILLED by your normal-sized roach bomb(fogger type). I learned this accidentally when we "bombed" our garage for roaches(dog food kept in closed, airtight garbage can there but spills sometimes happen). The next 2 days, a LARGE number of black widows and recluse were found dead/dying as they exited the garage.

The poison used was probably Raid. We did learn that Bengal(Louisiana folks) make the BEST over-the-counter roach killer and it doesn't smell like a chemical plant blew up.

[VOA]

In case you (or other posters/lurkers) haven't seen it before, there is a
Brown Recluse Spiker site that was linked here sometime back.

Google helped me find it, and here is the URL (warning, site does have some GRAPHIC
photos of Brown Recluse bites, including some UGLY wounds that require LOTS of
skin grafts):
http://www.brownreclusespider.net/

[kcvl]

Resmethrin is a type I pyrethroid insecticide. Pyrethroids are synthetic versions of a natural insecticide produced by chrysanthemum flowers.

Although pyrethroids are among the least toxic insecticides, they are nerve poisons. They act upon the sodium ion channels in nerve cell membranes.

The pesticide containing resmethrin being used in NY City is called Scourge (TM). It is 18% resmethrin, 54% piperonyl butoxide and 28% inert ingredients. Piperonyl butoxide makes the pesticide more effective by preventing insects from detoxifying resmethrin.

[kcvl]

Bengal GOLD® ROACH SPRAY

Kills roaches, ants, mosquitoes, fleas, ticks & spiders

Exclusive dry propellant formula

Breaks the Life Cycle - lasts 6 months

[Chameleon]

THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS THREAD!

I live in Texas, and noticed a bite at my wasteline yesterday. It has gotten bigger today, and appears from the pictures to be following a pattern just like a brown recluse.

Three days ago I got a taser because I don't think my wife would be comfortable with a gun for self defense.

The combination of the bite, this thread, my new taser, and subsequent research that says that stun guns are used to neutralize the poison, that the Oklahoma Medical Journal did a big study on this and so forth was too much.

One of the messages in the link you provide details a guy who was bit by a rattlesnake, and used the taser 5 times on the 45-minute ride to the hospital, and by the time he arrived at the hospital the bite had stopped showing ill effects.

I've just hit my bite 4 times with the taser, and now it does seem to be declining a bit.

Don't know if I was bit by a brown recluse, don't know what might have happened anyway, don't know if the taser helped.

But I'll keep you informed.

[kcvl]

GAG!

[kcvl]

GET TO THE DOCTOR!!!

[kcvl]

Check out these photos...

http://www.brownreclusespider.net/BitePhotos.htm