posted
Articles like these make me mad because they continue to perpetuate the myth that spider bites cause a Lyme like rash. An entomologist told me that a brown recluse spider can cause a necrotic wound, but do not generally cause the red rash that looks similar to Lyme. My ex-doc thought my classic bulls-eye was from a spider bite. Grrr.
An e-mail with legs By ROBIN LORD STAFF WRITER The e-mail starts out harmlessly enough. But as you scroll down through the series of photographs of what are said to be the effects over time of a brown recluse spider bite on a man's thumb, a horrific gaping wound is revealed.
''Gardening season is starting, be careful,'' warns the sender.
Of all the natural perils lurking in our corner of the world, the possibility of a bite from the brown recluse should not give us pause, several entomologists and spider experts say.
The small long-legged spider with the distinctive fiddle-shaped pattern on its back is not native to the Northeast.
In fact, the closest the spiders are known to live is the southernmost tip of Ohio, said University of Kentucky professor and entomologist Michael Potter.
Their range is generally in the south-central part of the country from southern Ohio to northern Georgia and southwestward through parts of Texas. Its northwest range is Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska.
''It would have to be a perfect storm of unlikeliness'' for someone from outside the spider's range to be bitten, Potter said. ''If you want to worry about something up your way, I'd worry about Lyme (disease.)''
While it is possible for a brown recluse to ''hitchhike'' in a box from somewhere within its range to a location outside of it, the arachnid would never establish itself and start multiplying, he said. The environmental conditions are just not suitable.
Barnstable County entomologist David Simser said he has never seen a brown recluse spider in his travels around the Cape and Islands, although he knows of a Buzzards Bay man who suffered from a nasty leg wound diagnosed as a brown recluse spider bite last year.
''A lot of things are attributed to spiders, but did they actually see it?'' he said.
Crusader for the cause University of California at Riverside entomologist Richard Vetter has been studying brown recluse spiders for 14 years and describes his efforts as ''a crusade.''
Californians - and others around the country - have been trying to convince him for years that they have seen or been bitten by a brown recluse. Very few have ever produced one, he said.
He has received more than 60 spider specimens from New England in that time and none were brown recluses.
On the other hand, 59 specimens have been sent to him from Missouri, a state within the spider's range, and 58 of them were true brown recluses, he said.
He is most concerned with the misdiagnoses of brown recluse bites that are actually other medical conditions.
Bites from ticks, mites, bedbugs (which are becoming more common after nearly 50 years of absence in this country), a secondary staphylococcus or streptococcus bacterial infection and even cancer have all been mistaken for recluse spider bites, he said.
A brown recluse bite can develop a bull's-eye rash around it in the same way as a Lyme disease-infected tick bite, he said.
Vetter was contacted by a Rhode Island man last year whose doctor diagnosed a bite on his leg as a brown recluse bite.
At Vetter's urging, he pursued the idea of a tick bite and tested positive for Lyme.
A Martha's Vineyard woman also diagnosed as having a recluse spider bite turned out to have impetigo, he said.
Most doctors who diagnose a brown recluse bite treat with antibiotics, which have no effect on the problem, he said.
Most bites heal easily Ninety percent of actual brown recluse bites heal easily with rest, elevation and ice, Vetter said.
An emerging problem, especially in crowded conditions like prisons, military barracks, dormitories and athletic locker rooms, is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
The hard-to-treat and contagious malady can look like lots of insect bites on a person, Vetter said.
As for the disturbing e-mail going around, both Vetter and Potter said it has been circulating since 2003.
Vetter said he has received it from people in several countries, and each one attributes the bite to spiders indigenous to that country.
Few spiders in this country pose a real risk to humans, since they are simply not designed to bite through human skin, Simser said.
''Their usual MO is to just run away and hide,'' he said. ''Why would they attack us? There's nothing in it for them.''
Deep fear of spiders, or arachnophobia, is among the most common of animal phobias.
In one study of 261 adults, 32 percent of females and 18 percent of males reported that spiders made them feel anxious and nervous or very frightened.
The most feared spiders include:
Black widow spider
Found in Massachusetts southward; only the female is poisonous and is distinguished by a red hourglass shape on her abdomen. A bite may not always be felt at first and except for slight local swelling, there is usually little evidence of a lesion. Two tiny red spots can sometimes be seen in the center of the swollen area. Most of the time, however, pain at the site of the bite occurs immediately and becomes most intense after about three hours. In most cases symptoms disappear in two or three days. Calcium gluconate is used intravenously to relieve and relax muscle spasms produced by black widow venom.
Brown recluse spider Found in the south-central portion of the country; they are not native to New England, but one may occasionally "hitchhike" to another area in a box moved from within their range.
Other spiders found in Massachusetts include the black-and-yellow garden spider, the American house spider, the funnel-web grass spider and the goldenrod spider.
Sources: Cape Cod Times archives, National Audubon Society Field Guide to New England
-------------------- We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand... and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it before it is too late. Posts: 221 | From the hills | Registered: Mar 2006
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Ann-OH
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 2020
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Here is a good article on the Brown Recluse Spider from the Entomology people at Ohio State U. Excellent picture, a good map and all the info anyone could need.
trails
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1620
posted
I thought my em rash was a spider bite too. Lucky for me it became multiples all ove the body, and that was like....um...dont think this is normal.
Posts: 1950 | From New Mexico | Registered: Sep 2001
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Linda LD
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When ever we got a rash when I was little they always said it was from a spider in the bed...
L
Posts: 1171 | From Knoxville, TN US | Registered: Dec 2004
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mlkeen
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1260
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I was talking to a llmd in MD several weeks ago. She is convinced spiders carry and transmit lyme too. I will ask my llmd at my next visit.
posted
I started with a pinkish-purplish bite that looked like a mosquito bite. My PCP told me it was a spider bite. A friend with Lyme disease told me it was Lyme.
The next day the bite had a pink ring around it, and I came down with many Lyme symptoms. Went back to PCP and he was willing to start abx therapy. (I was undertreated, of course, and ended up going to a LLMD.)
This doctor's office is still telling people there is no Lyme disease in VT.
Posts: 449 | From Vermont | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Wow, I didn't know that! I went to a talk hosted by the VT Dept. of Health. The subjects were West Nile Virus (which nobody in VT has ever contracted if my memory serves correctly), and Lyme Disease. Which subject do you think took up 95% of the time? I talked to the speaker for a long time after the talk was done, hopefully I did some good. She didn't even know what co-infections were.
quote:Originally posted by imanurse:
quote:Originally posted by sweet pea: This doctor's office is still telling people there is no Lyme disease in VT.
Ahhh, that's because the Vermont epidemiologist was formerly in Iowa Centers for Acute Disease and Epidimiology and they have no Lyme in Iowa so therefore now that he is in Vermont he obviously got rid of it there too!!
kelmo
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8797
posted
I had a brown recluse spider bite 25 years ago. You don't normally feel it, but the next day there was mucho pain around the area and red circle with red streaks going down from it.
The next day, I was very emotional, in pain and the hole was getting larger.
My doc jammed a hypodermic into the bite wound and moved it around. I don't know what it was, he was not the talkative kind. But, it diluted the venom and several smaller lesions erupted around the original bite.
I still have a faded scar from that bite.
My LLMD thinks Lyme can be transferred via any parasitic insect..mosquitoes, lice, ticks, fleas, spiders.
Posts: 2903 | From AZ | Registered: Feb 2006
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