Brown Recluce Spider

Tom-D

Tom-D

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Tom-D
This is NON aviation, and the pictures are very gross, but we should be aware these exist and are now in our country.

This Warning came in my Mil-E-Mail this morning.
 
NC19143 said:
This is NON aviation, and the pictures are very gross, but we should be aware these exist and are now in our country.

This Warning came in my Mil-E-Mail this morning.
Click to expand...



EEEEEWWWWWWWWW :eek:
 
While helping the family of a friend who had died sort through his belongings, he was quite the pack rat. I was apparently bitten by these things in two places. One on the left side of my waist and the other on my right leg at the shin bone. I was hospitalized and on IV antibiotics because the venom wasn't the only problem. Apparently these things can cause quite the infection as well.

At the time I thought my bite sites were the ugliest thing I had seen but thank God they didn't get as bad as this guys did.

By the way, it's my understanding these things have been around the US for some time now.

Gross is right. :hairraise:

Jeannie ~ I hate spiders :eek:
 
My mother (who has bad circulation) got bitten on the leg about three or four years ago by one of these nasties. Took 18 months and $20,000 worth of hyperbaric chamber treatments to induce the thing to heal. Can you say "big festering hole"?
 
NC19143 said:
This is NON aviation, and the pictures are very gross, but we should be aware these exist and are now in our country.

This Warning came in my Mil-E-Mail this morning.
Click to expand...

Are these a localized to the NW or are they everywhere?
 
My wife got nailed back in college in mid-state NY.

Don't reach in dark places. It's called a "recluse" for a reason

Jim G
 
Wish I could see the pics? Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately) I'm not getting attachments.

Friend of mine put on a shoe which one of these had crawled into. Didn't even notice for awhile. Then felt some discomfort. Thought it was just a bug bite for a day or so, then went to the doc. Same thing, wound up out of work for a couple of weeks and it was months before he was back to normal (what ever that is).

Best,

Dave
 
Arnold said:
Are these a localized to the NW or are they everywhere?
Click to expand...

Seems like every where, but not in big numbers like now.

(results of global warming?)
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

sierra said:
there's great promise in this treatment:

http://www.larve.com/
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That's one where the cure is as gross as the problem! John Anderson, a leading nutritionist, was bitten by a brown recluse, and developed a detox solution that he drank which produced very good results in dealing with his bite. As a side effect, he lost significant weight as well. The product is now marketed as part of a weight loss package called Isagenix.
 
I go out of my way to kill spiders. Always.


Usually among the species there is some visible indication of the lethality, but the Brown Recluse does not look very remarkable.
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

Steve said:
Updated 1/2005

http://spiders.ucr.edu/recluseid.html

[/indent]
Click to expand...


quote from the link

""A brown recluse has a dark brown violin shape on the cephalothorax (the portion of the body to which the legs attach). The neck of the violin points backward toward the abdomen. However, what you should look at instead is the eye pattern of 6 eyes in pairs with a space separating the pairs. Most spiders have 8 eyes in two rows of four.""

Yeah Right! buy the time I can look a spider in the eye, he's too squashed to count his eyes.
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

Steve said:
Updated 1/2005

Several important things:
Click to expand...
Steve,

Maybe it is just me but I'm not getting close enough to determine if a spider has 6 or 8 eyes...my theory is smack'em all with newspaper.

Arnold,

Where we are, deer ticks are the "bug" of concern.

I've found two wood ticks on Matthew and found one crawling around on my self, the school nurse removed one that was embeded on him as well.

Deer ticks are much harder to find...they are about the size of a pencil point. After removal look for a "bulls eye" type of marking and flu like symptoms within two weeks. No issues if you are bitten and get on antibiotics early enough.

Len
 
They've been in the US for a while. When I went through Army basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, MO in 1984, they were warning us about these nasty creepy crawlers.
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

Len Lanetti said:
Steve,

Maybe it is just me but I'm not getting close enough to determine if a spider has 6 or 8 eyes...my theory is smack'em all with newspaper.

Arnold,

Where we are, deer ticks are the "bug" of concern.

I've found two wood ticks on Matthew and found one crawling around on my self, the school nurse removed one that was embeded on him as well.

Deer ticks are much harder to find...they are about the size of a pencil point. After removal look for a "bulls eye" type of marking and flu like symptoms within two weeks. No issues if you are bitten and get on antibiotics early enough.

Len
Click to expand...

Is this the Rocky Mountain spotted fever thing?
 
Yuuukkk! That's like watching "The Fly" with Jeff Goldblum.
 
BruceAir said:
Snopes.com, a great source for sorting through urban legends, photos of dubious origin, email petitions, and the like, has this information about the pictures that started this thread:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/brownrecluse.asp
Click to expand...

it gives me the impression Snoops don't know if these pictures ae true or not.

But to call it a dubious origin?
 
Misgiuded or not, I aim to make a spider-free zone around my home and shop. Of course, any 8 legged transgressors into the SFZ will be immediately squashed, smacked, or incinerated. Anyhow, it's me against 5 million or so, so it's not like they'll get out of balance.
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

Len Lanetti said:
Steve,

Maybe it is just me but I'm not getting close enough to determine if a spider has 6 or 8 eyes...my theory is smack'em all with newspaper.

Arnold,

Where we are, deer ticks are the "bug" of concern.

I've found two wood ticks on Matthew and found one crawling around on my self, the school nurse removed one that was embeded on him as well.

Deer ticks are much harder to find...they are about the size of a pencil point. After removal look for a "bulls eye" type of marking and flu like symptoms within two weeks. No issues if you are bitten and get on antibiotics early enough.

Len
Click to expand...

Kind of like the poisoinous snakes. The bad ones have cat pupils and heat pits on their snouts. Like I would ever get that close. Spiders don't bother me in the least, but snakes do.
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

Steve said:
Updated 1/2005

http://spiders.ucr.edu/recluseid.html
Click to expand...
Interesting, Steve. I've been "aware" of the brown recluse for at least 25 years, mostly from newspaper articles. The local papers have had in-depth writeups warning of how dangerous they are and saying they are pretty much everywhere. Of course, we all know that newspapers are 100% reliable, right?:rolleyes:

Liz
 
I've lived with Brown Recluses all my life in Michigan. Not a big deal, similar to scorpions and rattlers down here.

A few weeks ago, my dog and I stepped over a baby rattler late at night and didn't even realize it. My wife was following, thought it was a stick and jumped a flippin' mile when it moved. It was very chilly, on the asphalt, and the snake was too cold to move fast. Rumor is the babies are the worst since they can't control their venom reservoirs as well as an adult. I've never confirmed that, though.

My friend got his pistol with the snake shot and killed it. Too many of his dogs running around to risk leaving the snake out. It was the ninth or tenth one that week. He figures a nest hatched nearby.
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

gkainz said:
That's one where the cure is as gross as the problem!
Click to expand...

what's gross? the maggots only eat the necrotic tissue. maybe it tickles!

Gross is in the eye of the geek.
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

sierra said:
Gross is in the eye of the geek.
Click to expand...

Micro Soft once held meeting of geeks, 144 showed up, guess what they called the meeting?

A gross of geeks.
 
Maverick said:
By the way, it's my understanding these things have been around the US for some time now.

Gross is right. :hairraise:

Jeannie ~ I hate spiders :eek:
Click to expand...



These things live in most garages, tool sheds, storage buildings, barns, pump houses, or just about every dry, utility structure in this part of the country. You definitly want to give them some room.
 
Here in KY we have developed an infestation of seed ticks http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3630877&dopt=Abstract
. Twice in the past 6 years I've had as many as 200 bites at the same time. They show up 2-3 days after you've been in the woods and take 3-4 months to go away. When they first appeared, they were called "turkey mites", but the local game warden says they are seed ticks. I won;t go near the woods until after th first frost without bug spray on me.
 
Personally, I figure if a snake is stupid enough to not run away when i come near, then he deserves to be shot, stepped on, and cut into 1000 pieces. same with spiders.

i don't care if they're not venomous, they are still snakes and spiders.
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

Steve said:
Updated 1/2005

http://spiders.ucr.edu/recluseid.html

Several important things:


1- check the map at spiders.ucr.edu/images/colorloxmap.gif to see if you live in an area that is supposed to have recluse spiders. If you do not live in any of the colored areas in the map, then it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that you have a recluse spider. It is POSSIBLE but incredibly unlikely.


2- because so many people have mistaken markings on a spider as violins, this is NOT a reliable characteristic for a non-arachnologist. You need to look at the eye pattern.

3- even if you have a recluse, bites from them are extremely rare, despite all the stories. Many of the really graphic nasty wounds you see on the internet as recluse bites can also be other conditions like necrotizing bacteria and pyoderma gangrenosum. Ninety percent of brown recluse bites are not medically significant, heal very nicely often without medical. intervention and treatment for most brown recluse bites is simple first aid (RICE therapy – Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). Many conditions are misdiagnosed as recluse bites when their cause is something else like infection, bad reaction to medication, diabetic ulcers, Lyme disease, or other underlying medical conditions.


​
Click to expand...
Thnks Steve
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

Len Lanetti said:
Steve,

Maybe it is just me but I'm not getting close enough to determine if a spider has 6 or 8 eyes...my theory is smack'em all with newspaper.

Arnold,

Where we are, deer ticks are the "bug" of concern.

I've found two wood ticks on Matthew and found one crawling around on my self, the school nurse removed one that was embeded on him as well.

Deer ticks are much harder to find...they are about the size of a pencil point. After removal look for a "bulls eye" type of marking and flu like symptoms within two weeks. No issues if you are bitten and get on antibiotics early enough.

Len
Click to expand...

Thanks Len, the ticks I've been aware of for some years now. The brown recluse was news to me.
 
We've had them here and not too long ago a black widow killed a lady... we probably have a BW about every ten square feet here, I kill some every week. They even look mean! Snakes are out too; bad this year. The joys of living in the desert SW.
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

sierra said:
what's gross? the maggots only eat the necrotic tissue. maybe it tickles!

Gross is in the eye of the geek.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I have a HUGE gag reflex with maggots. When I was a kid, I once left a deer head lay around a little too long before cutting the antlers off...creepy crawly wiggly things when I lifted the skull just pretty much did me in.... :eek:
 
Every time I've come to Texas for training the air force tells us to watch out for those spiders as whatever it is they introduce into you skin continues to eat away at it for some time and can create large sores and serious infection. Now, one could claim the air force is just being a bit sensational but I've known people bitten by them that confirm that story so for my money I say squash the sucker and drive on:)
 
Re: Brown Recluse Spider

The bite of the brown recluse is incredibly painful, and leaves a saucer shaped surround of necrotic (dead) tissue that cannot heal. The solution is surgical excision and a fairly sophisticated skin flap graft to cover. We've got 'em in Illinois and I've see a lot of them. BUG SPRAY in the outdoors, please!

The Pics TD posted look TYPICAL.
 
I was hoping you chime in:
we get a lot of e-mail that very little credibility, but this one got my attention. No matter what this thing was that bit the guy, it appears to me a pair of garden gloves would have been the cheap way out.
 
I was bitten 13 years ago in a 3rd floor apartment in Seattle!! The spider can move super fast, and can outrun you or anything you swing at it. I was bitten in my sleep. The tissue in about a 3 inch diameter section of skin died over about 6 months time. Then it itched one day in the shower, and fell off as one huge clump of dead tissue. Pretty gross, huh?
 
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