pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on tue 5 oct 04
I just tried a fast 'Google' search on the Brown
recluse...and...the Black Widow...and...
Anyway...
I do not think I have ever been bit by a Black Widow, but I
may have been bit by the Brown Recluses a few times, when
haveing been-the-day cleaning out old sheds or trash piles,
and, later, finding what I took to be a Spider's bite on an
ankle or on my stomach about where my belt had been on my
trousers, or high on my wrist.
Anyway, what I did, being it was some hours or more, or a
day almost after the bite ( a bite, as, respecting the Brown
Recluse, tends to be initially painless) was to excise the
( at that point,) 'small' necrotic tenacous gooey little
center, which tends to be under a low blister...just clean
it out...
I used to just round up a (preferably 'new') "exacto" knife
blade with a pointy way about it, and excised the little
area as held the nercrosis as was starting to get going. It
is easy to do. That and maybe sprinkle some Nitrofurizone or
Sulfa or something on there if one likes when your'e done
exciseing...and that's it...you are done...
I was reading now, about all the medical protocols as ensue
in an address of the Brown Recluse bite, and I wondered, why
don't they just excise the initially small necrotic locus as
soon as possible? instead of injecting the poor bite-victim
with anti-venom syrums and medicines and scareing them with
'proceedures' and long faces and so on and...while the bite
gets liesurely worse anyway or maybe, with the anti-venoms
and so on, gets 'better' ?
Just grab a sharp exacto and cut it out, scrape out a
surrounding little cavity...no big deal, life goes on...and
you are done with it...it heals in a few days or something,
and it is just like nothing had ever happened but a little
scar to show yer grandkids...
Whatever you do, if you are immuno-supressed, have the
Diabetes, or have liesured circulation or emphysema or are
delicate...if any of them or similiar, see a trusted G.P. or
old time Registered Nurse or Practical Nurse or Internist or
even a trusted Vetinarian soon as possible.
The sign is a little flattish blister, maybe some pain or
surrounding numbness after most of a day or so, a
greyish-white, initially small, necrotic center, and maybe
some redness or red lines spreading from the location of the
bite...and, or, if you have no other recourse, excise it
yourself or have someone handy with Tools do it for
you...but either way, do not neglect it...it can worsen to
truely nasty proportions and aspect if it was in fact from
the Brown Recluse.
Anyway...
Just that thought for your edification...bear it in mind...!
Any GPs out there? Any Toxicologists? Any old time Practical
Nurses or R. N.s?
Any G.P.s like Pat Hingle in that old film, "The Last Angry
Man"?
If so, I blow you a kiss...
Love,
Phil
el ve
Laurie Kneppel on tue 5 oct 04
Don't mess around with a brown recluse bite if you think one has maybe
chomped you.
I know of two people who have died as a result of complications from
suspected recluse spider bites.
One was a youngish man in my neighborhood who I believe had an allergic
reaction to it and died within a couple days.
The other was a distant elderly cousin, whose "care"giver neglected to
properly take care of him after a bite on his leg. So it got worse,
never healed and he finally died.
Myself, I live in the Black Widow Capital of California. I wear my raku
welders gloves when I go anywhere near a woodpile or start moving
things around in the garage or storage shed that haven't been moved for
awhile. There's always a shiny black spider hiding behind it. I tend to
leave the daddy long legs' alone though, since I have always heard they
eat black widows.
Laurie
Sacramento, CA
http://rockyraku.com
Potters Council, charter member
Sacramento Potters Group, member
Ivor and Olive Lewis on wed 6 oct 04
Dear Friends,
The spider is one of our best friends if treated with respect....
......But,.... it may pay to know that when you are impaled by a
spider of any form it is Injecting Its Digestive Enzymes Into Your
System with the intention of liquefying you and then syphoning you
from inside your skin into its own intestine.
Which explains why untreated injections of venom continue to cause
ulceration and necrosis until the venom is neutralised.
I like to see webs around. They trap Mosquitos responsible for such
delightful aillments as Ross River and other debilitating fevers.
Best regards.
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
S. Australia.
Carl Finch on wed 6 oct 04
At 10:28 AM 10/5/2004 -0700, Laurie Kneppel wrote:
>Myself, I live in the Black Widow Capital of California. I wear my raku
>welders gloves when I go anywhere near a woodpile or start moving
>things around in the garage or storage shed that haven't been moved for
>awhile. There's always a shiny black spider hiding behind it.
After living 30 years fairly near your "Capital" (rural Santa Cruz County)
I've become pretty familiar with black widow webs, how to identify them,
and how to dispatch those spiders.
Black widows make a hodge-podge web, no sort of pattern at all, just random
strands. They usually are low down and connect with objects on the ground,
usually on the warmer side of buildings, etc., and situated to allow the
spider's retreat from view. (Although once I was surprised to look up and
see one nesting inside my garage, at the very top of the peaked roof )
Other spiders make similar looking webs, but there is a significant
difference. Black widow web strands are surprisingly strong (as a boy I
was told that they were used as cross-hairs in the early bomb sights
because they were stronger than steel--for the same thickness, of
course). So merely swishing a stick through such a haphazard web will
quickly identify it--you can actually hear the strands snapping, and feel
the stretching and resistance as well.
I've rarely seen black widows out during the daylight hours. They seem to
hiding out of sight. So I just make note of the web locations and return
back after dark with flashlight and ant/roach spray. There she will be,
out on her web. Pssssht! Done.
--Carl
in Medford, Oregon
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