Mork says:

Those pictures are pretty extreme… but I remember reading somewhere that extreme necrotizing only happens if you happen to be extra-sensitive to it…

Not like I want to try my luck.

Andrew says:

Yeah, me either. And I don’t know what (if any) medical attention those people had. For all I know, they said, “I’ll let my body heal itself.” :)

And the worst thing is, they didn’t engage in any risky activity. It’s not like, say, poison ivy or lightning strikes that you can avoid. There’s nothing you can do. You either get bit or you don’t.

[shiver]

Passerby says:

Well, there is the whole set of pictures and more description at http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/brownrecluse.asp

Leland says:

Seen that. It gets real bad if you don’t seek help for the bite. That’s when they come walking into the emergency many days after the bite starts bothering them.

JoDel Wallenberg says:

In 1980 my daughter was bitten by one, a neighbor, reconized the bite, He heated up end of a coke bottle, put the open end over the bite, (YUCK!) it sucked out her dead skin 2 inches long. she has a indentation from that bite. amazing how fast it eat’s & kill’s your skin cells!

Thomas J says:

A Lady a short way down the road from us was bitten by a Brown Recluse Spider while cleaning house several years ago..I do not remember all the details as related by her Husband but to this day remmains tot this day mostly paralyzed & unable to walk..Best advice if bitten is to capture & save it in a suitable container and take it with you to the Hospital for identification for best treatment..

Kay says:

We live in Tennessee and have had a problem with brown recluse spiders for the past month. We’ve had regular pest control, but continue to catch spiders in glue traps. My problem is the spiders don’t behave the way they’re “supposed” to. The first one I found crawling ON OUR BED in broad daylight! They’re not in closets or in any storage boxes. Somehow they’re getting in the house and cruising along the baseboards. I even found 2 in my kitchen sink, another 2 in a bathroom sink, both during the day. Otherwise I usually do not see them coming or going, just when they show up in the traps. I want to MOVE.

phaleesha says:

they ae seriously scary! me and my cousin found one in her bed we have read about the many deaths and we are very much confused….

jessica says:

yeah….that photo is a pretty extreme case. the extent of the tissue damage depends on how much venom is introduced into the victim, and apparently how sensitive they are to the venom and how strong their immune system is. i was bit 5 days ago on my hand and have suffered no necrosis. i don’t know if this is luck, or if my immune system is off the charts - it is quite strong as i’m vegan, consume incredible amounts of antioxidants, don’t smoke, rarely drink, never use prescription antibiotics, etc…..i’ve just been keeping it very clean with natural antimicrobials (goldenseal, echinacea, tea tree oil, comfrey) and making sure my immune system is as strong as possible. also arnica helps for the discomfort, and charcoal capsules help as they absorb toxins. based on the research i’ve done, a secondary bacterial infection is usually what causes the most damage, so if you can keep it from getting infected you should be ok. but i’m not going to lie, it does really effing hurt.

mike says:

you are a bitch

Leland says:

Wow! Mike really settled that one.

jessica says:

i know, right? he’s so eloquent

kaitlyn says:

thats gross

Anonymous says:

it is so scary

Ashley says:

I looked at the flikr collection when you mentioned it. I wish i hadn’t. I’m not a stranger to gore but that was some of the most disgusting stuff i’ve ever seen. How do you just let something like that get that far?

alyssia says:

how do you live like that

Anonymous says:

omg im all itchin and shit now.

francisco says:

Dat shits crazy

Anonymous says:

That’s gross because I did not thank a brown recluse could do that.

Tom says:

I’m going for what thomas J. said, take it a bucket or a container with a lid preferably and brig to the hospital for tests.

Jodi says:

that is nasty

dick merkin says:

What is REALLY sad is that researches at Duke developed an antivenin for brown recluse bites. However, it is too expensive to produce, so it is an orphan drug.

Anyway, there really isn’t much to do from brown recluse bites except to watch it turn necrotic, try to prevent infection, treat the pain and fix it later. The last guy I saw with this was a machinist and he got a bite on his hand. it was devastating.

Daniel says:

WOW if a brown recluse bites is it very painfull or like a sting

Anonymous says:

this sis so scary i hate spiders

Anonymous says:

that realy scary he needs to be more careful

Anonymous says:

I was bitten by a Brown Recluse when I was about 7. It didn’t hurt at all, and I don’t think it looked anything like that. Then again, when I see pictures from that time period, I have a gauze bandage wrapped around my head like a headband (I was bitten right in front of my ear- I was sleeping and rolled over on it) so I don’t know what it exactly looked like.

It took about nine months to heal, but I didn’t care. I was 7- it didn’t really hurt, so I didn’t take notice.

Even so, avoid being bitten by them, it’s not a good thing.

Anonymous says:

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I had three surgeries for the bite, but one was before they diagnosed it. They just had to drain it ’cause it would fill with puss (apparently it was really icky).

But it got better, so it’s not actually that bad.

I think I had medicine for pain though…

Anonymous says:

i got bit by one and threw it at my sister and she ended up dieing

Heather says:

My friend got bitten by one of those spiders, it was in her car. She woke up the next morning and her ankle was swollen. She went to the hospital and turns out it had laid eggs inside her leg. They had to remove them, she almost lost her leg. It was really bad.