Here’s a pic….Again, its on my arm between my elbow and the bend of my arm. I guess it could be some other kind of spider but it’s for sure nothing I’ve ever had before. It’s not painful right now. The outer perimeter of it where it boils out stuff when I pour peroxide on it….The peroxide seems to be reducing the redness if I keep constantly doing it.

Definitely not the first time I've been told that in life....I was picking up hay with my uncle and cousins when I was a young teenager. My uncle was driving the truck and pulling the trailer as me and my cousins slung it on and stacked it. I came in with a bale and caught my leg on something where the lights hook and gashed my leg open pretty good. I showed my uncle and he told me just to rub some dirt on it and it'd be ok. So I tied a shirt around it and we just kept picking up hay. My aunt about stroked out when we got back because it really did need to have some stitches in it or something,. Its still the worst scar I have on me today,

If it's indeed a Brown Recluse bite, in a week it will look like my buddy's arm did a few years ago. The black stuff and some of the other dark area rotted out and it took a few years and skin graft surgery to get back to somewhat normal. It ain't something I'd play around with.

Next door neighbor's wife got bit on the butt by one. Had to have about a 3" diameter 1" deep part removed. Its bad.

Actual brown recluse bites are pretty rare. Waaaaaaay more people think they have been bitten by one than actually have. Even in cases where a person had some kind of bite that became necrotic to some degree it is more commonly just a case of a bad staph infection. Staph infections can happen after anything that breaks the skin and can certainly happen after any type of insect bite as well. There is no antivenom for a recluse bite but a MD might put you on antibiotics as a precaution against the site becoming infected. It's a good course of action because the antibiotic would also treat a staph infection if that is what it turned out to be.

Spent 5 days in the hospital in '87 due to a spider bite. Dr said he couldn't confirm that it was a brown recluse, but was pretty sure it was. I woke up one Monday morning to get ready for school and had a red streak running from my calf up my leg. Showed my mom and she took me to the Dr. He told us to leave the office and go straight to the hospital and he'd be right behind us. Got to the hospital and they got an IV going pumping anitbiotics. Then they put some kind of medicine on the bite, wrapped gauze around my calf and poured an antiseptic liquid on it (may have been peroxide), then wrapped it with an ACE bandage and heating pad. They'd change the bandage 2x everyday. That Friday, the Dr came in and pulled the bandages off, then very lightly squeezed my calf. When he did, this orange colored junk oozed out and would have up solo cup full. He said that was the poison from the bite. I still have a small hole in the back of my calf some 33 years later.

Mrs. Irish has been bit several times, by what she thinks was a Brown Recluse. She's a pretty tough gal and doesn't let much phase her. Every time she has made a poultice of sorts out of damp baking soda and taped it over the bite. She changes it out everyday and in a matter of a few days it is better. Most of her bites look like a black spot in the middle and a rather large red area surrounding them. Even doing that they all usually leave a pretty nasty little black place on her skin that leaves a scar for a long time. I think spiders like her because she's so sweet.

Don’t know how

yup - my brother got bit by one, didn't do anything, & now had a crater/hole in his leg ... if you Google it, you'll see pics of the classic "volcano" bite area - they're nasty buggers

It may not be a brown recluse bite....when I googled it that's what it kind looked like to me. I'll keep a close watch on it and if it's stsrts getting any worse I guess I'll go see the doctor man.

1 month of every day shots. Painkillers by the handful for 60 days and a couple a day for another 30 (the area surrounding the bite hurt so bad it would send me into near convulsions from just a sheet touching it without them). 90 days of antibiotics, anti inflamatories and antihistamine with the first 30 days being administered by im shots daily and the last 60 days being oral. Unusual at the time but no debridement was performed. On day 95 after the bite, my stomach spit out a hard, black mass shaped like a 2 inch long and 1 inch wide thorn that was roughly round and tapered from 1 inch wide at the skin to 1/4 inch wide on the portion nearest my guts. I have a hole in my ab muscle accompanied by a scar on my skin that every one swears is a bullet wound until they learn it wasn't. It has slowly reduced in size to about 1/3 of an inch now (16 years later).

No pain at the time of bite, itched for 30 minutes, swollen and very bright red area a little larger than a basketball that turned into excruciating pain about three hours after the bite.

I was going to post this very thing.

I went to the doc in a box 2 times and was diagnosed with a "spider bite" and had it packed , drained , and meds given. When I went the 3rd time, I told him "hey , this is the 3rd "spider bite" in a year, think it might be MRSA ?"

I crap you not... he thought a second and said "yeah .. it might be" ... ran some labs and it was IN MY BLOOD. 5 nights in the hospital on an IV drip that would put a horse down, and it's gone.

LESSON... DO NOT PLAY WITH SPIDER BITES. AND DON'T ASSUME THEY ARE SPIDER BITES.

That sounds a bit extreme. I've had two brown recluse bites, both of em cut out by a doctor.
No drugs and no shots after the initial anesthesia.

That sounds a bit extreme. I've had two brown recluse bites, both of em cut out by a doctor.
No drugs and no shots after the initial anesthesia. [/quote]

Well yeah, but you’re the spawn of Chick Norris right?

Been bitten twice when I was a kid. Valvano is a good explanation of what it turns into.

I’m no EMT but have done a lot of medic work in my military and construction days. The reason the peroxide is sizzling is because it eats the healthy and healing tissue around the wound. Use soap and water instead. ER doctors also recommended not pouring peroxide on a sore/wound. If it appears to be infected then go see a doctor.

Thanks for the advice.....My wife dug out some kind of antibiotics cream that I've started putting on it

I know a dude that got bit by one on the arm just like CNC and they had to cut his penis off to remove the tampon... y'all be safe out there.

Now thats funny right there.

When I worked at the PD back in the 80's, I worked a wreck one night...vehicle left the road, rolled in mid-air, and landed upside down and nose first into a creek. Driver crawled out without a scratch on him! A passerby notified the PD, and an ambulance, along with me, was dispatched. When we got to the scene, the driver had already crawled up the bank...he sat down on the ground leaning back against the back tire of the ambulance, and died - dead as a hammer. It was determined that he was bitten by a spider on his way up the embankment, and had an anaphylactic reaction to it!

I've also read articles over the years that said there was no way to accurately quantify the number of Brown Recluse bites every year...MOST have symptoms as already described in this thread, but there have been other symptoms ranging from none at all to long-term flu-like symptoms. Can you imagine having flu symptoms...fever, achiness, chills, etc., for 15-20 years? Brown Recluse are close to the top of the list, but I loathe ALL spiders!!!