Brown Recluse?

[Ether Imp]

Hey man,

You'll get plenty of spider INFORMATION here, it's one of the best places on the Internet to do so... but as far as diagnosing a very unremarkable wound from really bad pictures for a spider that isn't even supposed to exist where you live... well, I wouldn't count on that.

Seriously though, there are maybe 5 people here that are even qualified to give a medical diagnosis of dermatological or systemic symptoms, and none of them would even dream of doing it based on those pictures... if things get worse, get yourself to an emergency room, is all ANYONE should be telling you over the Internet. Best of luck!

+1

I find I agree a lot more with MrI OUTSIDE of political discussions!

 

[Noshownate]

Thank you all for help seriously? You guys helped me sleep alot better during the first 24.The wound has been diminishing ever since. Sorry if i angered some people somehow? Anyways all is good and well, and Thank you for all ya'll's spidey knowledge.

 

[mitchnast]

I get so sick of all these sudden experts on brown recluses. I live in interior BC and people are ALWAYS saying we have BRs. Like they learned the name and suddenly everyone KNOWS we have them, or had been bitten or knows someone who has, medically confimed and everything....
Of course I tell people the reality of it.
I actually had a guy at work tell me "well I guess you just don't know as much about spiders as you think you do" in rebuttal to me suggesting he had been misinformed by receiving a common misconception.
So I started slinging the latin. Citing the differences and simmilarities between loxoscelism and tegenarism, ranges, and finally, the difference between sceintifically verifiable information and anecdotal sensationalism.
I also suggested we call an Arachnologist.
He did not want to look into the possibility that he was wrong, but still was fine suggesting my frame of reference was lacking based solely on the fact it conflicted with his. And that was it, no logic, no facts to support, just the indirect proclaimation that sceintific fact is a matter of an uninformed individuals perceived public oppinion.

I get this all the time from so many people, It's at the point now that so many people follow this fallacy, It has become a matter of "Fact". Lore-based science.
everyone beleives it, without a shred of understanding, so it must be true.
People get mad when you suggest their friend or relitive was wrong about something that shaped their understanding of the world.

It all falls down to the simple Johnathan Swift adage:
“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into”.

 

[Webbly]

People read stories like this: http://archive.mailtribune.com/archive/2000/april/041400n2.htm
and tell everyone they know. It doesn't take long for the part about it being a single spider stowed away in a radioto be omitted and replaced with paranoia that they're moving farther north and taking over like killer bees.

Here is another article about identifying brown recluses and their bites: http://dermatology.cdlib.org/DOJvol5num2/special/recluse.html

P.S. That mark on your leg is definitely a scorpion sting.

 

[Noshownate]

People get mad when you suggest their friend or relitive was wrong about something that shaped their understanding of the world.

It all falls down to the simple Johnathan Swift adage:
“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into”.

true true

 

[loxoscelesfear]

I don't think it's funny, you laughing. You see my brown recluse gets the strange idea that you're laughing at him (her). Now, if you were to apologize ...

 

[Spider-Spazz]

I see 3 main problems with assuming this is a brown recluse bite.

Recluses are NOT known to be in SW Florida. It's outside of their natural range.
This is their reported range:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/33494

aw man!
newnan would be RIGHT on the inside edge of that range ):
my mom was bit by a recluse, and it wasn't pretty at all.

 

[Noshownate]

loxo you actually have a pet br recluse. tell him im sorry for assuming he did it. u didnt ship him to florida to get me did you. i woke up this morning with three little bites on my thigh. my brain went to oh sheet brown recluse then i remember no br recluses here. im assuming a flea bite or herpes but three right next to each other i was gonnapost it but i'd prob get death threats. I'm not seeing the violin shape on that recluse's back do they all have the violin shape or is that just just the brown ones?

 

[What]

i woke up this morning with three little bites on my thigh.... I'm not seeing the violin shape on that recluse's back do they all have the violin shape or is that just just the brown ones?

The bites are probably fly/mosquito bites and you moved while it was feeding so it had to reposition.

As for the "violin shape" the spider in the photo has it, just due to the angle it can be hard to discern. From what I know all the species of Loxosceles have that basic pattern, but on some species it is *very* faint.

 

[loxoscelesfear]

The spider in the pic is Loxosceles , not a pet in the standard sense, but will live out it's days in a jar eating crickets. I cannot say w/ confidence that it is reclusa because the building it came from has L. rufescens (an introduced species). The other place I collect Loxosceles is only a few miles down the road and that population is reclusa. How do I know this you may ask? Well, I sent a handful of spiders to an araneologist and it turned out I had 2 species. I have seen 3 species of recluse in hand- rufescens, reclusa, and devia- and other than minor details that require the microscope, all have the violin pattern and look virtually the same.

 

[buthus]

loxo you actually have a pet br recluse. tell him im sorry for assuming he did it. u didnt ship him to florida to get me did you. i woke up this morning with three little bites on my thigh. my brain went to oh sheet brown recluse then i remember no br recluses here. im assuming a flea bite or herpes but three right next to each other i was gonnapost it but i'd prob get death threats. I'm not seeing the violin shape on that recluse's back do they all have the violin shape or is that just just the brown ones?

bed bugs...er...or fleas

i was gonnapost it but i'd prob get death threats. grow up.

 

[spideyjg]

i woke up this morning with three little bites on my thigh. but three right next to each other i was gonnapost it but i'd prob get death threats.

I spend lots of time on a bedbug forum as a veteran BB warrior. Had them and over the course of 2 months won the war.

Many, many a BB victim describe a multibite pattern. BBs are getting to pandemic levels in some areas. It is estimated in the next 10 years every home will either have or will have had BBs.

The list of stuff that can cause skin reactions is insane and spiders are so far down the map it is not even a consideration. For example many folks react to the cast skins of carpet beetle larvae due to the hairs. Urticating hairs from caterpillars can still irritate even once the creature has died. Mosquitoes, biting flies, midges, and mites are way up on the actual biters list for the folks that turn out to not have BBs.

Here is a video from an entomologist and bed bug expert regarding "spider bites"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St7Y97IkFFM

Study up on BBs and how to hunt for them. You may have a far worse problem under your nose.

Jim

 

[Noshownate]

good call spideyjg i always thought bed bugs were kinda of a joke as far as parents saying dont let the bed bugs bites. Definately bit by these three bites right in a row. buthus get a sense of humor. thanx jim again will research this bb. wow i have learned alot about spiders just by this single thread and that having a spider bite me is very low compared to how many other things it could be appreciate all the help. thanx arachnoboard!
I am going to be keeping my eye out on some wild florida spiders if i'm succesfull i will post them here for identififcation and if anyone wants them i will send. thanx

 

[cacoseraph]

the only person i am *sure* has a sense of humor on this thread *is* buthus =P





i think cuz ppl can actually see spiders in their house they are easy to blame for strange marks. the irony is their is no pay off for randomly biting you, for spiders. *other* bugs *need* your blood and/or tissues for their life cycle... but does that influence popular culture thought? apparently not =P

 

[Noshownate]

was just putting away some laundry this afternoon was on the floor for the night before. Threw the clothes on the bed and a little spider came out from within the clothes. very small half the size of a grain of rice. I managed to contain the spider in a ziplock bag. was kinda in a hurry never tried to trap a wild spider before. I would like to send this to someone if they could identifiy it, I think it would be cool to know what is crawling in my clothes. I hope it doesnt have to be alive to correctly identifiy. To probabily properly identifiy this spider you might need a microscope of some sort. Or maybe till the spider gets bigger. Whats a good way to store a possibly harmful tiny spider? I wanted to catch a wild one but not this quick

 

[JPD]

LOL WOW who ever told you there are not recluse in washington seattle area is a complete moron. Dont try to insult me via these forums, i have seen plenty of recluse bites. This is the most active time for people to be bit, As they try and enter peoples houses/garages to get some warmth. One of the most retarded things i have ever heard some one say on these forums.

I had a best freind get bit last year, left a 2inch crater in his wrist, he almost lost his thumb.
But hey what the hell do i know.... gl with your bite. But the above guy is right that could be any from of bite/irratation.

So of the bites that you have seen, you have recovered and positively identified the spider as L.reclusa or that it was actually a spider bite? You seem very certain that there are L.reclusa here so my charge to you....prove it. Send me one, two, five, whatever you can get. PM me and I will give you my address. In their native haunts they are quite prolific so you should have no problem finding a dozen or so.
Sorry, you may think the aforementioned post about no recluses in Washington is "retarded" but it is spot-on.

 

[jsloan]

Whats a good way to store a possibly harmful tiny spider?

In an airtight vial, in 70% alcohol. I'd use isopropyl alcohol, also called isopropanol (rubbing alcohol), if I were you. You can get it at a drugstore. Ethanol is actually better, but the ethanol you buy in stores usually has added ingredients to make it undrinkable, and those ingredients can sometimes damage a specimen.

 

[spideyjg]

What color is it?

Get a digital camera, put a magnifying glass up to the lens of it, and get a pic of the creature.

If the pic is good I can tell you in a blink if it is a bed bug or not.

Whatever it may be, if the cause of your problem, an exterminator will need it to treat your house. Don't mail it off until we see a picture.

BTW, pointing out the obvious here, count the legs, arachnids, spiders ticks, or mites, have 8 and insects have 6.

Jim

 

[Miami Cracker]

I see 3 main problems with assuming this is a brown recluse bite.

Recluses are NOT known to be in SW Florida. It's outside of their natural range.
This is their reported range:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/33494

I have heard that there are isolated populations in central Florida, near Orlando, however, but I have not seen that verified.

Recluses are shy and don't go around biting people. I do know of a case where a family pulled close to 2,000 recluses in their home in one day that they have been living with for years, and no one in the family has ever been bitten. I personally know of someone who finds them in his house by the hundreds in late summer and has never been bitten either. He gave me one of them and they are certainly brown recluses. Even if you did have one recluse brought into your home from cargo, it is highly unlikely to bite you.

Just going from that picture, that could be an infected mosquito bite, a staph infection, a fungus infection, lyme disease, an ulcer, herpes, a chemical burn, a form of skin cancer, a simple bruise, and/or many other fun diseases or infections that leave skin damage. If you didn't catch the culprit in the act, don't assume it is a spider bite.

Sorry to be blunt or rude, but I see many, many people assume that strange marks on them are spider bites when it really doesn't make sense.

First things FIRST-------

YOU NEED TO STOP SPEAKING ABOUT THINGS YOU HAVE NO CLUE OF.

I live in SW florida (Lehigh)and i work in a Prison (in Immokalee) and I HAVE SEEN FIRST HAND
alot of Brown Recluse spiders in my prison and i have had to take a few inmates to the hospital because of Brown Recluse bites (catching the spider for identification purposes) My best friend was bitten by one on the base of his penis and stayed in the ICU for a week and had a shunt placed in his chest for antibiotics for the next month. how do we know that was a Brown Recluse you say???? we were living in Miami and we have this thing called VENOM ONE. they are the Paramedics and Doctors that are called when anybody in the state is envenomated by almost anything venomous. and when the doctors seen the flesh rotting away from the envenomation site they ordered tests and found out that it was a BROWN RECLUSE SPIDER.
he didnt "catch the culprit in the act" but they do have tests...in a hospital
so dont tell people lies or things you dont know anything about if you lived here you would know. (just because you read something on the internet does not make it TRUE)

I want to see proof of this so called case of 2000 spiders taken from a home. wheres the link for that????

next ? ...are you a doctor? if not dont tell people what you think a hole in thier leg is, because you dont know or have a clue(obviously).

as for the OP.....if it doesnt get better GO TO THE DR.

 

[JPD]

First things FIRST-------

YOU NEED TO STOP SPEAKING ABOUT THINGS YOU HAVE NO CLUE OF.

I live in SW florida (Lehigh)and i work in a Prison (in Immokalee) and I HAVE SEEN FIRST HAND
alot of Brown Recluse spiders in my prison and i have had to take a few inmates to the hospital because of Brown Recluse bites (catching the spider for identification purposes) My best friend was bitten by one on the base of his penis and stayed in the ICU for a week and had a shunt placed in his chest for antibiotics for the next month. how do we know that was a Brown Recluse you say???? we were living in Miami and we have this thing called VENOM ONE. they are the Paramedics and Doctors that are called when anybody in the state is envenomated by almost anything venomous. and when the doctors seen the flesh rotting away from the envenomation site they ordered tests and found out that it was a BROWN RECLUSE SPIDER.
he didnt "catch the culprit in the act" but they do have tests...in a hospital
so dont tell people lies or things you dont know anything about if you lived here you would know. (just because you read something on the internet does not make it TRUE)

I want to see proof of this so called case of 2000 spiders taken from a home. wheres the link for that????

next ? ...are you a doctor? if not dont tell people what you think a hole in thier leg is, because you dont know or have a clue(obviously).

as for the OP.....if it doesnt get better GO TO THE DR.

Sorry, I have to argue a few points here. I think that traxfish offers a sound argument and I tend to agree.
Here is the link to the article he/she refers to: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/518429_2
You mention that one should not believe everything they read on the internet. I agree, however, you then ask for the link to the aforementioned article. Should I draw from this that if you personally read the article and concur with its findings then we can accept it as fact?

I would like to know what laboratory test can be done to confirm a Brown Recluse bite? I have worked in Laboratory Medicine for the better part of 15 years and you have me scratching my head. So, just as you requested proof of the article, I am requesting the name of the lab test.

I would bet money that no one on "Venom One" would give a definite I.D. based on a bite alone with no culprit in sight.