Fla. Man Dies From Brown Recluse Spider Bite

[admin]

gma.yahoo.com/fla-man-dies-brown-recluse-spider-bite-193521235.html

[nomad]

Should have gone straight to hospital.

[anthony]

Yes, i think his resistance to seek treatment played a role in his death.

[prillbug4]

These spiders are down in Southern Illinois. Most of the time they inhabit old buildings and various garbage cans. I had to be very careful down there.
Jeff Prill

[admin]

There's a big urban myth going around here in California that the brown recluse lives here also. But they are wrong...at least I hope so...

[Deleted]

My mother in law was bit by a brown recluse 3 days ago. This photo was taken 2 days after the bite. Its shows considerable tissue damage for just 48 hours.

Attachments:

[Chris Grinter]

jtaylor - did you see the spider that bit her/do you have the specimen? How are you sure it was a recluse?

Clark - The desert recluse is native to California, L. deserta. I don't think it has the same venom components as L. reclusa, but they would be similar.


There is also an introduced species from South America, L. laeta, which does have venom that is possibly more potent than L. reclusa. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_recluse_spider

[ckswank]

We had an infestation of them at our high school in central Illinois when I was attending. There was a termite infestation under the stage in the auditorium & they surmised that is what attracted them. Here is a link containing the story. www.natureatcloserange.com/2008/10/brown-recluse.html

[Deleted]

Chris Grinter,

That is a excellent question. First of all. A week before she was bitten she sent me a cell phone photo of a spider that she found on the wall in her bedroom. It was a recluse. Then a couple days later she found another in her bathroom. So she has been exposed to them if you will. No, she did not see what bit her. Most people don't.  As I'm quite sure that you are aware of most recluse bites are completely painless. The person has no idea that they have been envenomated until the symptoms start showing up. Lastly the guy she went to see yesterday with the "MD" after his name felt so strongly that it was a recluse bite that her prescribed some very strong antibiotics and a round of steroids. Ironically less than two years ago my brother in law (her oldest son) was bit by one that was inside a jacket he put on and the damage it did to his arm was horrific. He came real close to having surgery to repair the damage.

Joe

[Chris Grinter]

Joe-

Well, that still leaves me a bit skeptical. Recluse spiders do not bite a lot of people, they are after all reclusive haha. And a spider bite is not completely painless. Mosquitos and other parasites have evolved painless-ish bites for a reason, spiders on the other hand have not. You can feel a spider bite, even a very tiny one- trust me! And you can not identify a recluse by looking at a spider on a wall, you have to count the eyes. Pholcidae, Pisauridae, and Lycosidae are OFTEN mistaken for the recluse. 6 eyes is the one and only way to ensure you have a recluse. Even seasoned arachnologists have to confirm the ID by looking closely because variation amongst similar species makes telling them apart difficult.

Medical professionals are not arachnologists. They don't take invertebrate zoology courses, they don't know how to identify a spider, and they very often default to "spider bite" over anything else because all they do is throw antibiotics at it. And if it was a spider bite then heavy antibiotics would do nothing... would be better for treating a staff infection which is much more likely to have been the real cause of the lesion.

It's just tricky - it could have been a spider, but it's more damaging to assume that it WAS a spider instead of having doctors require a specimen for verification. When you're bitten by a snake the FIRST thing a doctor asks is 1) do you have the snake or 2) show me a picture. When you walk in and say you have a spider bite the doctor shrugs and gives antibiotics.

[Deleted]

Chris Grinter,

To me all of those species are easly distinguished from a recluse. If you would like the next time I find a spider that I think is a brown recluse I will mail it to you (dead of course) and then you can tell me if I am wrong about the species being a recluse. Oh and btw I really like your website/blog.

Joe

[Chris Grinter]

Joe- Actually I would be happy to take a look at spiders. I'm OK at identifications, but I work for Paula Cushing who is a real arachnologist. And we always welcome spider donations (or any insects really) at the Denver Museum! If you'd want vials I'd be happy to send some out.

I've gotten very used to people coming in and telling horror stories of recluse bites here in Denver. Most are probably random skin lesions that are infected and usually look identical to real recluse bites, but to top it off the recluse doesn't even occur in the state (except far SE corner). So real encounters with the spider here are mostly non-existent!

[Deleted]

Chris,

I sent u a pm.

[wingedwishes]

3 years ago my father was bitten on the forehead by a recluse while in the garden. He felt it bite and captured it. It was confirmed to be a recluse. He was fortunate because he was already taking antibiotics and the damage was not very bad. It is possible that the spider had exhausted its venom previously or did not inject much before being interrupted. This was in Kansas.

I see many widows in Florida and they (also being dangerous) have taken down some larger creatures. I have found fiddler crabs in widow webs.

[Chris Grinter]

Glad he was OK! Just to clarify, antibiotics would only help with a secondary infection (would help fight off flesh-eating bacteria or staff infection). But, it would do nothing against venom.