Brown Recluses! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!

[bwframe]

Wonder how much difference your immune system might matter in the case of a BR bite?

 

[Papa]

At one time my sister and I had the dime side rotting flesh puss filled soars back when we were in high school. Doctors said spider bites. Later it was found out that the school had an unofficial outbreak of staff infection....

 

[shibumiseeker]

At one time my sister and I had the dime side rotting flesh puss filled soars back when we were in high school. Doctors said spider bites. Later it was found out that the school had an unofficial outbreak of staff infection....

Most schools have a staff infection, but staph is worse :-)

(sorry)

Hence my previous comment about necrotizing wounds. Any insect bite can cause them. Most won’t. BR bites make the staph infection more likely because the damage to the skin the enzymes they inject can cause it to more readily take hold, but it’s still a crapshoot.

 

[fullmetaljesus]

Little miss muffet sat on her tuffet.
Eating her curds and whey,

miss muffet. Her tuffet. Eating cheese and cream of wheat like stuff?

The brown recluses bite is mean. Good friend south of lint on Indiana has what looks to be a very large ring size cigar burn on his chest as a scar. Put on hunting clothes from a garage locker that must have had one hiding in the clothes. Was bitten an hour or so later. Went into bee string like shock had to go to hospital for a epi pen shot. Scar looks like a very large cigar burn to this day

But what does the scar look like?

 

[Pepi]

"Daddy-Longlegs are one of the most poisonous spiders, but their fangs are too short to bite humans"

 

[Mongo59]

Then BR venom isn't really "toxic", it is a sensitizer. It lets the body know something foreign is in the mix. The body responds by mobilizing white blood cells to the area and basically it is like someone taking a shotgun inside a green house to try and shoot a bat. A lot of destruction of the structure but no success with the problem. This is the same way leprosy works and an old leprosy med called Dapsone will prevent the aggregation of WBC's and in time the situation will resolve.

Today more wounds that present looking like BR bites are actually Staph Aureus infections. You can imagine the negative effect of taking a med that prevents the WBC's from going to work in the infected area. So most MD's as well as Poison Centers are very hesitant to recommend Dapsone without a strong history of actual exposure.

Meanwhile, most patients get the inevitable referral to a surgeon. (If all you have is a hammer) Once they go to the surgeon of course everything has a surgical answer! They cut and remove and cut and remove and, oh yeah, cut and remove. Most of the real hideous scars you see are from a surgical answer to a non-surgical problem.


The other problem spider around these parts is the Black Widow. There is no way to get these spider bites confused. While the BR bite usually starts as a wheal or bump that turns to a target lesion which opens exposing a bark ulcerative area, the BW bite is like a shot of electricity and possibly a blanched area at the bite site. Over time the muscles at the site will cramp and become painful. Eventually, the large muscles like the abdominal wall will contract trying to fold you like a pocket knife. There is an antivenin for the BW and I have not personally seen a person who receives it get serum sickness like you get with the Crotalid antivenin. They also give muscle relaxers to help with the symptoms.

Neither are considered a 'fatal' bite, the problem is unpredictable allergic responses. So, in the same way a peanut is potentially fatal to a sensitive individual, the peanut (in itself) is not considered "Harmful or Fatal if Swallowed".

I worked as a Poison Information Specialist (aka Specialist in Poison Information) for 15 years. Every center has developed their own particular plans for treatment and 'your mileage may vary'.

PS: The number one cause of BW spider bites was from outhouses, and yes, on the genitalia. Most men brought to the ER for treatment would be heard screaming, "Oh Lord, take the pain but leave the swelling!"

 

[Willie]

A friend of mine had posted on FB a copy and paste (had to be true the) about a doctor dying of a BR bite. I had never heard of such a thing so I pulled this up..

Squashing Urban Legends About the Brown Recluse Spider (thoughtco.com)

 

[BigRed]

I've not experienced a brown bite, but the chiggers certainly ate me up this past weekend.

 

[femurphy77]

Lived in Oklahoma and down south a sizable portion of my life and never heard of a brown recluse spider until I moved to Indiana. One day at work someone showed me one and I responded "OH. . . . YOU MEAN A FIDDLEBACK".


Frickin' yankees.

 

[BigMoose]

Yeah the glue boards catch all sorts of nasty bugs

I see one in the house every few years, those old fashioned coke bottles are perfect for dispatching them. Or at least I always seem to have one near when I see one of those spiders around.

 

[Nazgul]

I have been fortunate in never having much reaction to insect/bee/mosquito bites. Got a wasp in my shirt while riding the bike last year. Hit me 6 times before he left. Other than the embarrassment of being fat guy beside the rode swinging his shirt around, had some swelling, gone in 2 hours. Even been tangled up with a jellyfish, some redness, gone in an hour. Never had poison ivy/oak or anything like that.

Having said that, a week ago was bitten on my left side belly. Have a dime size area of necrosis and it still itches. Was in our living room, so a clean area without piled up debris. Figure it was some type spider though we have never seen one in the house. Just keeping it clean and riding it out.

Don

 

[Hatin Since 87]

Lived in Oklahoma and down south a sizable portion of my life

this answers so many questions

 

[femurphy77]

this answers so many questions

PROUDLY

 

[Leadeye]

To keep critters out of the house, it gets regular treatment with permethrin. Good stuff, we use it everywhere.

 

[Gibsmedat]

When I got bit by one, my friends dad prescribed me Claritin and prednisone. It was back to normal within a week. That night before I got meds, my trap where it had bitten was swollen to twice it’s size, and was hot to the touch and very painful.

There is a guy who got bit on his thumb and let it go untreated to see what happened. Half of his thumb rotted off. I’ve read that the recluse venom destroys the red blood cells, but not the white. So you never get an infection, you just get less flesh. A google search will quickly pull up that guy i mentioned. It was pretty horrific.

 

[getem2011]

Shake your hunting boots up before you put them on the season.

 

[spencer rifle]

Umm. no. She is far out of range of BR. Once again, lazy diagnosis is wrong diagnosis.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/virginia-woman-left-hospitalised-hallucinating-130917111.html