Free Republic

We just buried a 58 year old very healthy Amish man who died from a spider bite. I need some Freeper help as I am just an entomologisit. The question is: would any spider bite result in a large blood clot?

By Indrani Sen STAFF WRITER July 4, 2002 Another brown recluse spider bite was diagnosed Tuesday in the John T. Mather Memorial Hospital emergency room, a spokeswoman said yesterday. This is the sixth patient diagnosed with recluse spider bites at Mather since mid-May. Entomologists have questioned whether the wounds are brown recluse spider bites, saying the species does not live on Long Island.

As concerned Long Islanders called the Suffolk County Health Department yesterday to report possible brown recluse spider bites and offer specimens of eight-legged critters trapped in Tupperware, officials asked Mather Memorial Hospital to help them eliminate an even more worrying possibility - anthrax.