What is the Brown Recluse Spider
Most people on the planet know about the violin and love the music that it can render. Remember the graveyard scene in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly with Ennio Morricone's memorable violin composition?
Not many folks, though, know the spider that goes under the name of violin spider - most commonly found in South Carolina. Few folks in South Carolina realize the dangers of being bitten by the violin spider. Harking back to the graveyard scene, the violin spider - a.k.a. the Brown Recluse Spider - is The Bad and The Ugly meshed into one soul that's between one quarter and three quarters of an inch. This six-eyed creature can kill, although deaths from brown recluse spider bites are extremely rare.
So nicknamed for the violin-shaped markings at the top of its cephalothorax (fused head and thorax), the brown recluse spider presents some unique challenges to its victims. Many victims don't even realize that they have been bitten by the brown recluse spider. Most of those who do realize the fact will heal by themselves without any medical treatment. Thus arises the case for complacency - which may ultimately be deadly. As per Encyclopedia Britannica, the brown recluse spider ranks among the ten deadliest spiders globally.
Habitat and nature of the Brown Recluse Spider
Brown recluse spiders live in warm, dry and dark environments - attics, closets, basements, crawl spaces, barns, wood piles. They have a knack for hitchhiking, often landing amongst bedding and clothing. These spiders are native to the US Midwest and Southeast.
Interestingly, the brown recluse spider is not aggressive: it will usually bite only if it feels threatened. Because the spider's bite releases a low amount of poison into its victims, its bite causes much less damage than a poisonous snake's bite. That's the good part. The bad part: its venom is more potent than that of a rattlesnake, and is seriously toxic to cells and tissues with the ability to create lesion and necrosis in the affected skin.
Symptoms of a Brown Recluse bite
The violin spider's large fangs cause physical trauma, pain and itchiness at the site of the bite. Bite victims are known to panic from the experience. Other known symptoms of a brown recluse spider bite include nausea, vomiting, fever and muscle pain.
While the majority of brown recluse spider bites do not result in any symptoms at all, cutaneous symptoms are frequently reported. The necrotizing ulcer of a violin spider bite may result in serious and significant soft tissue destruction. The damaged tissue becomes gangrenous and subsequently sloughs away.
Initial symptoms of a violin spider bite usually develop 2-8 hours after the incident. At first, the bite site turns reddish. The redness then degenerates into a lesion that seems like a bull's-eye with a red ring. During the 12-48 hours timeline, the central spot of the lesion will then often blister, showing up as a necrosis that first turns blue and then black as tissue in the affected area dies. According to an Ohio State University study, in severe reactions the site may develop a "volcano lesion". In such cases, this leaves an open wound at times as large as a human hand - up to 10 inches in size. It can take eight weeks or longer for full recovery, and scars may result.
Less frequent aftereffects
For those with highly sensitive skin, a small white blister appears at the bite site soon after the bite, along with hardening of the tissue at the site. Such lesions are dry, blue-gray or blue-white patches with ragged edges surrounded by redness. This color pattern is sometimes dubbed "red, white and blue".
In rare cases, bites can cause hemolysis - the bursting of red blood cells. In still more rare cases, the bite can be tragic. On 23 November 2014, Jessica Carlisle, 23, of Albertville, Alabama watched her five-year old son Branson decline after being bitten by a brown recluse. 14 hours later, Branson died despite rescue efforts at Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children.
NIH guidelines to deal with a Brown Recluse bite
As per the National Institutes of Health (NIH), there is no effective commercial antivenin to a brown recluse spider bite. NIH further recommends that anyone bitten by the brown recluse should seek immediate emergency medical help. In its detailed advisory, the NIH says the victim should undertake the following steps:
1) Wash the area of the bite with soap and water.
2) Wrap ice in a washcloth and place it on the bite area for 10 minutes.
3) Remove the washcloth for 10 minutes, and repeat the process.
4) Go immediately to the emergency room of a clinic or hospital.
5) If possible, bring the spider for identification purposes.