Brown Recluse Spider: Wonder Why You Fear Spiders?

[Njaco]

Just as dangerous as a Black Widow. Can cause death sometimes. Nasty things. Similar to the liberals in the Northeast.

[ToughOmbre]

Originally Posted by Njaco

Just as dangerous as a Black Widow. Can cause death sometimes. Nasty things. Similar to the liberals in the Northeast.

As nasty as the 'Frisco libs? Probably

TO

[Njaco]

[parsifal]

Originally Posted by DerAdlerIstGelandet

I hate ****ing spiders!

Suggest you never visit Australia then...look up the Funnel web redback and trapdoor spiders.

These are all mortally venomous.

However, I am more scareed of the white tips and such. They dont kill you, they just give you a bite that virtually never heals. My brother almost lost his eye because one bit him whilst he was sleeping.

To be honest, the hype is much worse than the relaity. hardly anyone gets bitten

[SoD Stitch]

Originally Posted by R-2800

What the F is up with that one guys hand???? it's like split wide open!

The venom from the Brown Recluse has killed all of the tissue surrounding the area it bit. The flesh (and muscle) dies and, eventually, falls off, leaving the healthy tissue behind. Whoever that is, he's going to have a pretty nasty scar on his hand for the rest of his life.

Where I live, we pretty much just have Black Widows; not as deadly, but you can still get pretty sick if you get bitten by one. I usually find two or three of them around my house every year.

[Heinz]

Originally Posted by parsifal

Suggest you never visit Australia then...look up the Funnel web redback and trapdoor spiders.

These are all mortally venomous.

However, I am more scareed of the white tips and such. They dont kill you, they just give you a bite that virtually never heals. My brother almost lost his eye because one bit him whilst he was sleeping.

To be honest, the hype is much worse than the relaity. hardly anyone gets bitten

Yup. We get tonnes of white tails, found 9 one night in the kitchen!

Luckily the Funnel webs are generally found further up the coast ( female is more venemous than the black widow ) but again lots of Redbacks crusing around my house. Plus others and then theres the snakes..........

[Wildcat]

Yeah, I have tons of redbacks around my house, found my son playing with one once

[Screaming Eagle]

over a 3 day stretch at work we found a king brown snake, a huge red back spider and a decent sized scorpion!

[Njaco]

I've read about the friggin' freaks of nature you guys have Down Under. Thank god I'm in animal control here and not there!

[evangilder]

For those that understand medical terms:

Brown recluse venom, like many of the other brown spider venoms, is cytotoxic and hemolytic. It contains at least 8 components, including enzymes such as hyaluronidase, deoxyribonuclease, ribonuclease, alkaline phosphatase, and lipase. Sphingomyelinase D is thought to be the protein component responsible for most of the tissue destruction and hemolysis caused by brown recluse spider envenomation. The intense inflammatory response mediated by arachidonic acid, prostaglandins, and chemotactic infiltration of neutrophils is amplified further by an intrinsic vascular cascade involving the mediator C-reactive protein and complement activation. These and other factors contribute to the local and systemic reactions of necrotic arachnidism.

Although numerous cases of cutaneous and viscerocutaneous reactions have been attributed to spiders of the genus Loxosceles, confirming the identity of the envenomating arachnid is difficult and rarely accomplished.
eMedicine - Spider Envenomations, Brown Recluse : Article by Thomas Arnold

For those who aren't of the medical mind, cytotoxic is basically poison that kills tissue, like the above. Hemolytic refers to the blood, and a poisoning of in this case. So what you have in Brown Recluse venom is a poison cocktail that note only kills tissue cells, but also effect healthy red blood cells.

The bad new is that it can lead to some pretty bad discomfort and in rare cases, death. The good news is that cases like those pictured above are not common.

There are Brown Recluse Spiders in South America that have more potent venom kill a few people a year there.

[evangilder]

One more thing. Black Widow venom is not as potent as that found in the Recluse and no one has died from a Black Widow bite in over 10 years in the US. I still don't take chances with widows. See, kill. I wear work gloves while working in the garage and garden for a reason. I remember grabbing a box from my garage once, moving it to the other side. As I went to wipe my brow with the back of my hand, there was a good sized black widow. The glove came off like a goon at a hockey game!

[parsifal]

Aussies love to scare the euros with their stories of snakes spiders and scorpions. You can almost see their eyes go wide and the sweat beads on their foreheads

[mkloby]

Was that bite untreated?

[evangilder]

It sure looks that way. Not only left untreated, but untreated for a while.

[Heinz]

Originally Posted by Wildcat

Yeah, I have tons of redbacks around my house, found my son playing with one once

I hope it all ended well!

I had an affinity for bullants and decided to play a few nests when I was very young.