Watch out for spiders!!

Soundguy · Apr 25, 2006

I got bit sometime friday morning or afternoon by a spider as far as i can tell.

Was a rough weekend. Finally got feeling better mid-yesterday.

Had a slight alergic reaction ( very slight I guess.. just hives and an itchy rash ) Muscle aches and pain, redness around bite and on extremety near bite. Slight nausia.. and just general 'bad' feeling.

I got bit last year on 2 occasions by black widows.. actually identified those spiders at the time of the bites. Didn't see what got me this time.. but had the exact same symptoms as last year... Would guess it was the same type of spider. I must say that around my farm, the B/W is the most common I see.. anyway... take this as a public safety message.. BE carefull... I had a miserable weekend..

Soundguy

Buckcreek · Apr 25, 2006

I have seen alot of black widows around my property , i try to keep gloves on . Yesterday i was cleaning up some scrap lumber around my barn and seen one. I try to warn my sis about watching for them and she just laughs at me but she will learn the hard way i quess. About two years ago somthing big me on the let never felt it , but it ate a hole about the size of a 50 cent piece in my leg and it turned black and blue. looked terrible and i still have a bad scar from it. The doctor said it looked like a spider bite but he didnt know what kind. I hate spiders......... /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Richard · Apr 25, 2006

Sorry to hear that & glad to hear you're on the mend side. Spiders are one form of life that I simply refuse to let live inside the house.

I am not necessarily scared of spiders, in fact, I'd rather say I'm greatly fascenated by them. I was once sitting in the bathroom as a child and noticed a wasp & spider going at it. Seems the wasp had landed in the spiders web. It was utterly mesmorizing watching the epic battle. The spider won in the end.

I'm otherwise petrified that I'm going to get bitten by a recluse. Every spider I see inside the house (prior to it's stompage), I try to look closely and see if I can find the fiddle on the back. Thus far, I've never clearly discerned the fiddle but that hasn't stoped me from introducing them to my shoe/boot/slipper/book or what ever else is handy /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

SailorBob · Apr 25, 2006

Soundguy,
Glad you are better. It definitely sounds like the symptons of a Black Widow bite. We have lots of them around my place too. They like to build nests under the eaves of the house and the upper window ledges. About once a month I take a broom and knock down the webs and kill the spiders. I worry about my grandchildren getting bit.

Richard,
A friend of mine got bit by a recluse and nearly died. He was bit on the leg and did not realize it until he started getting sick. His leg for lack of a better term nearly rotted off.

NewToy · Apr 25, 2006

I had a friend of mine that got bit by a "Brown Recluse" spider and he still has problems. That thing bit him on the brow right above his left eye and it still periodically becomes red and inflamed years later. His doctor told him they would have to get in there and scrape some of that bone away under the bite. I try to stay clear of the spider and snake population.

John

RollTideRam · Apr 25, 2006

Black widow poison attacks the nervous system. Deadly to young children and older people. Brown Recluse poison attacks tissue. I have seen pictures of person with a hole in their thigh the size of a softball from a brown recluse bite.
We have them in our house, they are very hard to get rid of. JC

NoMo · Apr 25, 2006

I got bit on the foot a couple of weeks ago. Don't know what kind of spider, but we have an abundance of brown recluse around here, so that's a likely suspect. Joints (ankle, etc) near the bite were quite painful and the bite itself was swollen & itchy.

Anyway, my wife works for a vet and she got me some "Nolvasan" ointment that they use on critters that have been bitten by other critters. Within a few hours, the pain susbsided and two days later all symptoms were gone.

A quick search on Google shows it's available just about everywhere. Although, I don't know if the pet supply store version is the same as the one vets have.

kozak · Apr 25, 2006

Soundguy,

Glad to hear you made out allright. This whole time I always thought a widow bite was fatal if not treated in time. Did a little research. Only young and old are in danger of dying from heart or lung failure due to paralysis of the diaphragm. Male black widows are harmless. The venom of a female black widow is 15 times as toxic as the prarie rattlesnack. The only reason there are not more deaths is because of the very small amount of poison injected.

Thanks for the Warning !

Vic

ToadHill · Apr 25, 2006

All these stories about spiders and snakes, hurricanes, tornados, I'm glad I live where the worst problem is snow. If you wait long enough it goes away by itself.
All I've ever seen around here is an occasional Timber Rattler, and I;ve only seen one in my 60+ years.