Brown Recluse

“Has anyone had a run in with a Brown Recluse Spider? They are extremely rare in the Northern US but I had killed one that looked almost dead on to one in my house. The one I killed was about the size of a quarter?

Anyone ever seen one?”

“we have thousands here. they are litterally thick. black widows too.


i have seen thousands, dood. saw one yesterday....his guts are prolly still on my boot, lol...”

“Are they larger than a quarter?”

“usually not, but the one yesterday was. that's about the upper limit, i'd say....the fiddle should be recognizable, even if it's dried up. it will be darker than the rest of the body.”

“I have never seen one that large. The only brown recluse spiders I have seen are small.”

“Had a run in,...but never seen one.

Looked like a mosquito bite on my leg, but with a little blister in the center. Couple of days later had a red ring around it, "Oh drat" looks like I may have Lymes. I day later severe joint pain, make an appointment to see doctor (a Lyme test taken early frequently shows negative) then hallucinations, oops not Lymes.

Doc took 2 seconds to diagnose a Recluse bite, by now red ring was starting to turn blusih/black,..necrosis.

Of course I then had a systemic reaction to the medication, break out in hot red blotches all over, so dump the meds and go on a course of Tetracycline for the next 10 days.”

“Did it look like this ?

It does appear from the web site that they can have a leg span the size of a half dollar, but I have never seen one any larger than a dime.”

“I have a few brown recluses and hundreds of widows around the yard.”

“No. It did not. The body on the one I got was much more circular and had black lines on its back.”

“Sounds more like what my dad used to call a "garden spider" when I was growing up. They had a good sized body and long legs, but they never bothered us.”

“Ok, Mr. PackMan, I am going to ask you to look through these mug shots . If you see an arachnid that resembles the subject in question, please point him out.”

“That female wolf spider reminds of one I saw as a child at camp.
This thing was about the size of a small tarantula, and it was right in the middle of the road. Every time we'd try to go around it, it would turn and face us, and raise its two front legs, almost in some kind of fighting stance. We were scared to death!


Then we crushed it with a big rock.”

“Common funnel spider.
Cousin of Red House Spider which is dangerous, distant cousin of Black Widow.”

“Link broken

http://www.geocities.com/brisbane_weavers/images/wpe26.jpg”

“we call those tunnel web spiders and they are said to have a nasty bite too...”

“I see mostly wolf and jumper spiders,, in and around the house but I'm always on the look for Bl.Widows and Br. Recluse.

Had a buddy in H.S. that got bitten by something. It was one nasty wound,,,drain tube and all. The bite put a good size permanent dent in his calf muscle.”

“Great article with photos showing progression of bite over 10 days: http://www.picarelli.com.br/fotolegendas/fotolegenda062003h.htm”

“whoa, that's harsh...”

“uh...i wish I hadnt seen that...im trying to eat my soup!!!”

“Oh yeah… NOT for the squeamish…”

“woah...I just showed this to my kid, he won't touch anymore spiders that will look remotely like the brown recluse”

“I still plan on touching spiders. Hey didnt that guy go to the doctor?”

“spiders are the reason why I tent camp and not tarp tent. well spiders and snakes.”

“gem we have over 30 pet tarantulas and a ball python :D”

“I like tarantulas. it's the small ones that give me the creeps.

We had a ball python for years, but it died 2 weeks ago. Not sure what was wrong with her. We didnt' think she was sick. I like reptiles and tarantula spiders a lot...I like everythign exotic I guess.

well...to make this clear. i am still not too nuts about the tarantulas, but they are bigger, so they don't scare me as much as those little #&%!$ heads.... I like snakes and lizards more.
last edited: 5/16/05 5:44:53 PM”

“gem some of ours would scare the #&%!$ outta ya...they are so mean..while others are like pet rocks and do nothing when you hold them. a few months ago our most poisonous and mean one escaped....I found it a week later crawling in my hair :D”

“I know we have those spiders here in WA. I think we have every kind of spider here since no two I've seen look alike.

You see spiders as decorations at halloween and there is a reason for that. Those suckers come out in October like crazy.

My sister-in-law stayed with us and she had 3 red bumps that became real ugly looking. I thought they were spider bites, but when she went back home to PA, she never had them checked out. I know I would have. It made me not want to sleep in my bed, because we gave my husband's mom and his sister our bedroom when they visited.”

“Lipstick, no need to worry, they dont live in your area, they are south central dwellers. Nasty buggers, we had to lookout for em while I lived in Ga...

good info...http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2061.html”

“I was bitten by one on the back of my right leg about 10 years ago. Nothing bad as those pics, but I went to the doc in time to prevent such as the pics illustrate.”

“Another reason not to move south....”

“SICK!!!”

“GEEZS H X!!!!!!

Didn't that guy get treatment?”

“I thought a brown recluse is a poo in the woods. Thanks for clearin' that up!”

““Another reason not to move south....”
Sassafras
7:10:12 AM
5/17/05

You got that right, sister!!

I would rather move further north anyway.
Northern New England is nice.”

“I could've sworn we have them here in South Carolina. I guess not. Less to worry about I guess.”

“Brutal, thanks for the link.

The map shows common concentrations but they do exist outside of that area. I have seen them in South Carolina, Southern Georgia and Florida.”

“Oh yeah, snopes says undetermined
http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/brownrecluse.asp”

“ya know, that makes me harken back to the good old days of your diseased left foot, Violin! too bad you didn't find these pics earlier, they're even grosser.
;-)”

“Those pictures do look very much like the flesh-eating disease that's around.”

“I killed a brown recluse in my bathroom yesterday. A guy I work with has a quarter sized scar on his neck from getting bit, but I've never seen one that big.

FLORIDA IS CRAWLING WITH BROWN RECLUSE SPIDERS. DON'T MOVE HERE!”

“Weve got a ton here in TN. On one of my first backpacking trips when I was about 12 or 13 I got bitten by one in Savage Gulf. The skin around the bite literally rotted out and my whole leg swelled up and became numb. After a doctor's visit I was ok, but even 15 years later I still have a pitted scar.”

“Oh, and its not just the south that has bad spiders...I got bit by one in the Rocky Mountains and my back broke out in huge pus-sy blisters and I had to leave camp and go to the emergency room. I'm not sure what kind of spider it was.
last edited: 5/17/05 8:32:30 PM”

“I want a black widow for a pet :D”

“Embear that was a marmot bite. Those marmots are sneaky little guys, bloodthirsty too!”

“I liked the article (Latin and French make simple Portuguese and Spanish 80% readable), but SpiritCoyote sworta scares me.”

“Grrrr!!!! :D My bite is worse then my bark!”

“With 90% of bites it's the secondary infection from dirty fangs that gets you, Embear. Sounds like you got a dermatologic staph infection, which is pretty common.”

“Nasty little boogers are the brown recluse. My understanding is you're more likely to be bitten by one in your home than in the woods. I was bitten about ten years ago, at home. Nasty, nasty. Steroids and antibiotics for 6 weeks. Didn't get nearly as bad as that website shows but it wasn't a cake walk either. Found the nest between my bookcase headboard and the wall. My bedroom was freakin crawling with them. They like dark dry places to build their webs.”

“Uh, Sass - isnt a marmot a kind of squirrel?”