Spiders Bite 15 Inmates in Arkansas Jail

Yahoo! News ^ | Sat May 24, 4:45 PM ET | AP

[yonif]

JONESBORO, Ark. - Spiders have infested a county jail in northeast Arkansas, biting at least 15 inmates and confounding the exterminator.

The main offender appears to be the brown recluse spider, up to three-quarters of an inch long with long, skinny legs and a violin-shaped mark on its head.

Inmate Tim Steele, 26, showed off his lower left leg Friday, inflamed and red from a bite. A brown recluse's bite can cause a rash, swelling and flu-like symptoms and, in rare cases, can cause kidney failure, seizures and even coma, according to the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites).

"We're doing the best we can to get rid of (the spiders)," Sheriff Jack McCann said.

The Craighead County sheriff said a pest-control contractor has increased spraying, and that he began to address the problem a month ago.

The first complaints date to January, said assistant jail administrator Matt Vaughn. He said one inmate had "pretty substantial" symptoms and required medical attention.

"My understanding is you have to have direct contact to kill them," Vaughn said. "So it's kind of like we're fighting a losing battle. We need to figure something else out because what we are doing is not working."

[Qwerty]

Well, I'll be sure not to break laws in Arkansas. Sounds like my worst nightmare.

[July 4th]

Yow...it's not just a spider infestation, but a mean and nasty one.

[I still care]

Recluse spiders have bites that, instead of healing, worsen and become infected with time. You get a "bullseye" rash around it, then it get larger causing large amounts of tissue to die and slough off.

You can end up with amputations or even death from this spider.

[sackofcatfood]

How about bringing in some praying mantises?

I've had those eat everything from black windows to lizards.

[I still care]

"black windows"? LOL It took me a second to figure that one out.

Yes, I know its three in the am!

I always liked praying mantises. We had one that lived on the wall outside my front window, and it would watch you. It seemed intelligent - I would imaging the prisoners would get a kick out of them - or be freaked out by them, one or the other!

[ALS]

Had a woman locally that made the major mistake of smashing one on her neck.

flicking is your friend

[Consort]

Maybe they came in through a tunnel that the inmates are digging.

[Pro-Bush]

[ValerieUSA]

I had a few brown recluse bites and the wounds stay open and festering for months... had to keep pouring hydrogen peroxide into them to get them to heal. You don't want them to scab over because it seals the poison inside where it continues to eat at your flesh. They are way gross to look at and painful.

[stlnative]

My recent thread on FR after being bitten by a Brown Recluse Spider - Warning Graphic Photos of just how nasty a BRS bite can get

[Squantos]

Ouch !...........what was the recover time ?

Stay Safe !

[bonfire]

I have your thread saved under my favorites.....just in case!

[bonfire]

The pic in this thread of the recluse spider....does it usually have such a white body?

btw, I had a pest controller tell me that they are difficult to identify.

[kms61]

I was bitten on the arm a number of years ago, and while my experience wasn't as bad as some people's, the bite area wouldn't heal. I went to a dermatologist and he just excised the whole area. No more spider bite.

Then I popped the stitches lifting weights, so now I have a scar on my bicep that's about two inches long and a half inch wide.

[stlnative]

You are so right! - You have to keep removing the scab and keep cleaning it out.

I am almost at the start of 4th week with my second BRS that I have had in my life time. Mine is small but is painful and nasty, and has stopped getting larger. The first one I had took 6 months to heal (would start healing and then get festered again). Also people who have been bitten by a BRS can and probably will get new sores popping up during their life time as the poison stays in the body and will come out through a new area or the old bite area on your body that will also erupt from the inside out and take a long time to heal. To be truthful my new bite area may or may not be from a new bite. It is too hard to tell as most of the time you never see or feel it when you are bitten. It looks like a mosquito bite at first until it gets a dark brown or black center in it and grows a red ring of tiny protruding blisters. How big it gets and how far it spreads depends on the person's reaction and the amount of poison the spider left in you.

As far as killing them... I bomb my house with foggers (buy them at Wal-Mart or another Discount Store) It does kill them (read the label), but you have to bomb your house at the beginning of every one of the 4 seasons.

[ValerieUSA]

It took 4 months for the bite to heal. After I started with the hydrogen peroxide which kills the raw edges of the wound and the toxin, the healing really got underway, and I only have faint round pink scar that is barely noticeable where the worst bite was... it happened about 2 an a half years ago. I am very fair and usually scar badly, but this didn't crater as I was afraid it would.

[AlexW]

A few more notes on Brown Recluse bites....
While I have had many in my houses for 20 years, and know how to spot them, I have not, to my knowledge, been bitten.

50 years ago, these spiders were confined to the southwest US. Now they are much more widespread.
They are as the name says, recluses and you rarely will find them in the open. They will be in boxes, old clothes or gloves. They bite only if you come in hard contact with them.
The bite will start as a blister that after a day, will collapse in the center, looking like a volcano.
Do not delay, see a dermatologist at once. If treated in first few days with masive doses of Cortisone, the bite will heal.

[ValerieUSA]

yeeeowchie! When you popped your stitches did blood spurt out all over the gym? (may as well not limit the grossness of this thread to bites)

[stlnative]

That is a female one... who is ready to lay eggs - They are not that white or fat usually. Do a google image search for Brown Recluse Spider and you will see what they look like on average. Were I live they are every where and are easy to ID, except for young ones as the fiddle on their backs does not show up well when they are young.

My step-son was bitten years ago by a Copperhead Snake and a Copperhead Snake can cause LESS damage than a BRS bite.

Also folks have to understand that these spiders travel and will move with household items and families to new a location where BRS are not normally found. They will survive if they are in the right climate, like inside a box of packed goods inside a fairly warm and dry place.