My encounter with the recluse.

[Mobile Mayor]

Just a little venting..  About eight weeks ago I encountered something in my bed.  I felt a sharp bite, jumped up and threw back the cover and saw a little brown, nickle sized spider running across the sheet.  I smashed his ass, found a small spot on my chest that indicated I'd been bit, and went back to sleep.  When I woke up, I found a small blister which had a burning sensation.  I let it go, and soon found that there was a spreading, red area around the bite site.  Keeping it as brief as possible,  this soon led to complications.  The bite became infected and necrotic degeneration began to occur.  Whatever enzyme these bastards put in you,  it ain't fun.    An infection got into my system, and I had fever, cramps etc., until the original wound began to heal.  But it wasn't done yet!  Since I had the crap in my system, I began to develop a secondary infection site in my right breast fatty tissue.  ( Yes, I had gotten doctors care during this.)  I've been on antibiotic but still developed a huge abscess.  There is apparently much that can be done about this type of bite except ride it out.   Finally,  the abscess has opened, and you would not believe the crap that is coming out.  Those little brown bastards are mean.
 
 

[Pappy!]

I too was nailed by one of these brown recluse spiders.
About 35 years ago now. Climbed into a sleeping bag up in Salt Springs while camping and went to sleep.
Drove home and was itching my left shin. On the 4th day I went to the Doctor and they took a sample of the wound site and sent it off to Univ. of Miami entomology dept to see if it was a recluse or a Black Widow bite......charming.
The next day I stayed home from work....pretty sick. My wife (at the time) came home from work, opened the door, saw me and dropped everything she was carrying with a pretty scared look on her face. Apparently I didn't look so good.
Went to the hospital. Checked in with a BP of 90/50 and falling. I remembering the staff was in a pretty big hurry to hook me up to IVs and then antibiotics after finding out I was bitten. The IV antibiotics do a pretty good job all in all.
The infection is a class 3 staph infection.....like gangrene. Once it gets into your bloodstream is has less than desirable effects.
The only good spider is a dead spider in my book.

[Valker]

Got bit several years ago, but I saw the tell tale red rings soon afterward. Called my Doc, he checked it and agreed it was a Recluse. He immediately started me on Leprosy meds (within two hours of getting bitten). Blistered then went back down. Disappeared completely within 72 hours (the bite, not me).

[art]

Back when I was working in socal machine shop we found a big black widow and put in a bucket full of white gas for about an hour. The damn thing crawled out and just kept on going. Just step on them.

[John Schmidt]

My dad got bit three times at one site on his lower leg. Nearly took him out, almost had to have his lower leg amputated and they thought he'd never walk again. In/out of the hospital for at least six months. After some unique reconstruction and an ankle brace, he was able to walk with a cane but it was a long time coming.

[HurstRob]

HAd a friend that was bitten and meds didnt help. He researched on web and found a guy in Ft Worth that researched and used an electrical shock. It instantly killed the pain and he was on his way to healing. Evidently a strong electrical current breaks down the poison enzyme. Not FDA approved but it saved his arm.

[Hook#3287]

Finally,  the abscess has opened, and you would not believe the crap that is coming out.  Those little brown bastards are mean.
 

Damn, that's some scary chit

Hope you recover soon.

[~ Timbrwolf]

...must be the area...over 20 years ago when I lived back in jersey, I woke one morning to find that I had been "bitten" sometime during the night by what I can only think was a spider...(he was long gone).
I had a spot on my thigh that had two what looked like tiny pin pricks, and it was slightly swollen. It discolored a bit, and got a slight yellowish brown ring around it, but slowly disappeared over time.


Years later a friend of mine (in jersey)....related a story to me about how he awoke one morning, and felt *something* moving around in his ear. He went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and there was a tiny spider right on his earlobe, but when he tried to scare it away...it disappeared into his ear. He said he could feel it crawling around in his ear canal and became highly alarmed. He went to the Hospital Emergency room, hoping they could get it out. They sat him down and warmed up some body oil and slowly dripped it in his ear. The spider quickly emerged. ..  

[old2soon]

A lady friend I knew in Texas USED to have really nice legs. One of the legs is still nice. The know from tests that it was a brown recluse that bit her. Got her on the back of a calf muscle. It literally digested the skin and a piece of the calf muscle. She has a hole/depression/scar/wound to this day. They ARE nasty little bastards and ALL of them should be wiped from the face of this planet. Mobile Mayor-here's hoping for a full and complete recovery. RIDE SAFE.

[wiggydotcom]

I knew these little buggers were bad news. Glad you're getting over it, Mobile Mayor!

[0leman]

Grew up in the Tulsa area.  Back in the early '60 a guy was giving a talk on spiders, especially the brown recluse.   He got to town and found that his sample of the spider had been miss placed.   He ask the guy who was sponsoring him to allow Him to go under his home.   He came out of the crawl space with three recluses. 

Just think how often we have gone under our homes and crawled around with these guys.

[Willow]

Grew up in the Tulsa area.  Back in the early '60 a guy was giving a talk on spiders, especially the brown recluse.   He got to town and found that his sample of the spider had been miss placed.   He ask the guy who was sponsoring him to allow Him to go under his home.   He came out of the crawl space with three recluses.  

Just think how often we have gone under our homes and crawled around with these guys.

There's no shortage of fiddlebacks.  In most parts of the country the experts would estimate the count per house in the hundreds.  Fortunately the majority of them don't have fang size adequate to inject their venom through the human skin.

The reason you don't see a lot of them is closely related to why they are called recluses.

[cookiedough]

speaking of bugs/spiders,  how many people have fumigated their houses and if so, how often?

My neighbor does the smoke bomb thing once every few years upstairs and downstairs, but I have never done it ever in my home since new in 1993.  I don't see a lot of bugs in my house even in the basement, just a few spider webs is all and an occasional spider or bug on the walls or crawling in the carpet or even downstairs, but even that is rare like once every 3-5 months is all. 

[Crackerborn]

Growing up in Gainesville, then Tallahassee and finally The Gold Coast of Florida, all of us kids knew what a Brown Recluse, Black Widow, Coral Snake, Cottonmouth, Pigmy Rattler, Red or Black Scorpion, Yellow Jacket, Hornet(s), Emperor Ant, Eastern Diamondback, and Fire Ants could do to you. I seem to remember that made catching them all the more fun. But only the Lord could help you if you messed with my mom's 2 favorite exterminators, a Gecko or a Housekeeper Spider, one of which always lived in the house.
The Brown Recluse has now moved into WI and now that I am older and (not much) wiser, I wish they had not.

Here is to a speedy recovery Mobile Mayor!

[Mobile Mayor]

First, many thanks to those who offered well wishes, advice.  I think I am past the worst of the ordeal.  After draining some of the nastiest stuff I have ever seen,  I am deflated and apparently well cleaned out.  I still have some healing to do but the worst of the swelling and pain is gone.  I will still have to stay on the antibiotic for another ten days or so, and plan to continue some of the witch doctoring I was also doing with beneficial herbs .  I hope I never have to deal with anything like this crap again.

[musclehead]

them suckers are here!

[WNGD]

them suckers are here!

I had never heard of them, please keep them south of the border!