BEWARE OF THE FIDDLEBACK SPIDER

[Lynn]

Kind of a public service announcement.
If you live in the Southwest, there is a very good chance you have fiddleback spiders. Also known as the Brown Recluse. They love dark dry hot places.

Apparently, they are worse than usual this year.

They are not aggressive, and normally have no incentive to bite a human. But, if you leave your lounge clothes on the floor, then put them on in the morning after a fiddleback has settled in, you could get bit.

That is what we believe happened to Sherri almost four weeks ago. She discovered the bite within a couple hours one Sunday morning. I immediately took her to the ER, thinking there might be some kind of anit venom. There is not. Treatment: meds for pain and wait for the area to quit rotting, then cut it out.

In some cases, surgery isn't necessary. It will scab over and heal from the inside out. However, if you are bitten in an area where there isn't a lot of blood flow, the affected area gets pretty big.

Had to take Sherri to the hospital this morning to have the top scab like substance removed and the wound cleaned out. She may need one more surgery. The last pic I am posting is from 11 days ago. That large black area is about 7 inches long. Felt like a turtle shell, and kept getting harder and thicker. It cratered in about an inch and they were afraid there was a second round of necrosis.

Surgery went well. She is an angel and never complains.

First pic is of one of the little buggers known as Brown Recluse or Fiddleback.

Next pic is after just two days. That water blister covered the entire area by day 3. Doc lanced it.

Best way to eradicate the fiddleback is by scented glue traps. Traditional extermination is not very effective. Their natural predators are cats (not getting one of those) birds (not letting any of them in the house) and other spiders. Because they are so reclusive, most extermination efforts end up helping them out, as it wipes out the predators. Also, the wettable powder solution is virtually useless, as it relies on the spider to walk through it and ingest while cleaning themselves. Apparently the Brown Recluse doesn't routinely clean itself. Anyway, we have the traps out all over the house. In three weeks we have captured or killed close to 20.

We both used to throw lounge clothes on the floor before heading to bed. No more. Everything gets hung up.

[Bill Pritchard]

Holy crap, Lynn! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/shocked.gif[/img] Is that on her leg? Kinda hard to tell from the pics.

Thanks for the heads-up.

[2000ss]

Looks like it's on her side-waist area. Hope she gets better soon.

[Lynn]

I cropped the pics, so yes, it it hard to tell. It is BIGGER than it looks in the pics. It is actually high on her left hip, just below the waist line.

[Shevelle]

OMG that looks TERRIBLE! I hope she's doing better soon. For as bad as it is, thank goodness it's not on her face!

We have trouble with the fiddlebacks here too. I got bit on the neck last year and it made a nasty sore spot but nothing like what its done to Sherri. Glenn had the flu one night and I didn't want to sleep with him so I decided to sleep in one of the seldom used guestrooms. I woke up feeling something crawling on me, swatted it and then got up to see what it was. When I saw it was a fiddleback, needless to say I went back to sleep with the sick guy! I called the exterminator the next day and he came and put out several of the glue traps you mention. A few days later I checked on them and the ones under that bed were literally covered with them!! Must have been 30-40! I think they had been nesting in the box springs or something. We now keep glue traps all around the house, under the beds and sofas etc. I occasionally trap one but not very often any more so I think we have pretty much eradicated them from the inside of the house. The exterminator said spraying only chases them from one location to another, but the glue traps seem to have worked well.

[Lynn]

That is what I figured out after doing some research Jacquie.

I change the dressing this afternoon and just broke out in tears. Can't stand to see my angel suffer like this. She never complains and ended up consoling ME. I would 100 times rather it was me.

I took a pic today, but won't post it here. It is just too graphic. Muscle tissue and fatty tissue exposed. We go to the wound care specialist on Tues.

Then I come in from mowing and see she has been vacuuming the house. I have to watch her constantly to make sure she takes it easy.

[marxjunk]

heres mine, it happened april 15th last year. took 9 months to heal..made me really sick, screwed up my lungs because i was allergic to the medicine they gave me, and now im allergic to any venom, like bees etc, i have an epi pen in my truck...it was 3/4 wide 4 in long and 3/4 deep...

i asked my doctor to cut the scab off and she wouldnt she said let it heal on its own..if it didnt in the next 30 days i would need surgery

it wouldnt heal til i cut the dead skin off..it started smelling like dead meat in the sun..so i grabbed it with a pair of pliers, pulled it out til it hurt, took a side cutter and cut the &quot;scab&quot; thing off..healed up in 2 weeks..it was literally 3/4 of inch thick of dead skin and a weird white scab

it was in my jeans, i left on the floor, when i pulled my belt tight it bit me...and in an hour i couldnt stand up and thought i was going to die...it scared me...my skin was on fire,every inch on my body, if the wind blew,it hurt, if i started to sweat it hurt, my hair hurt too..lol


luckily it was in my hip/belly are and a little fat there stopped it from getting to muscle...im not really back to normal, but getting better all the time...got a wicked scar, looks like someone tried to GUT me with big knife

[Dave Rifkin]

This is scary as hell; are those spiders found in all areas of the US or just certain states? Where do I get the sticky traps that were mentioned earlier in the thread?

I pray for a speedy recovery for your wife.

[Lynn]

Not everywhere. Will try posting a map pic. If it doesn't show up, just do a search for brown recluse habitat.


Traps are available from Amazon and on ebay. I am sure there are other sources, but I bought 10 of the 5 packs, placing my order later that night, after our second trip to the ER. Sherri's temp shot up to 103, and the pain was getting unbearable. She wasn't complaining, but when I saw tears running down her face, took her back for some iv pain meds.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brown-Recluse-Sp...#ht_1230wt_1043

SUPPOSEDLY, there is a cure. The medical community has not embraced it. A retired doc down in Texas claims that if you are bitten, you can hit the bite area with a stun gun and it will effectively neutralize the venom. I am posting a link to an article. However, be warned that I have tried to contact Dr. Abrams and am convinced he is at the least retired. Tha link to &quot;his&quot; website that is provided in this article sends you to a generic minor emergency referral service. Take it with a grain of salt. Remember, the web isn't just the information superhighway, it is also the misinformation superhighway.

So, does the stun gun work? I have no idea. But.... I bought one. If I get bit, I am taking three hits with it at the bite mark rotating 120 degrees each time. It is worth going limp even if there is only a CHANCE I don't have to go through what Sherri is going through.

http://insects.about.com/b/2008/12/2...y-the-pain.htm

By the way, a cat is not an option for us, because Sherri is highly allergic. But if you are a cat person, I understand that cats will eat fiddlebacks and suffer no consequences.

[SS427]

Wow! We have loads of recluse around our area and I have never worried about them. Time for an attitude change! I am getting some glue traps immediately. We have three barn cats so that may explain why I seldom see them in the barn.