If you have a hunting cabin in the Midwest and it is remote enough that you are not there every day, it may occur to you when you are there that you are not alone.
I am not talking about the mice and wasps; I am talking about the brown recluse spider, a shy spider that, like it or not, seems to inhabit those dark, quiet spots in our cabins when we are not around.
Like me, maybe you figure you can co-exist with the mice and wasps but the brown recluse spider could pose a more serious problem if they bite you.
So, let’s talk about the brown recluse spider for a few minutes; it may save you some grief (and some necrotic skin) if you understand some things about the brown recluse.
The brown recluse spider, technically referred to as the “loxosceles reclusa,” is a small, shy spider that has a nasty reputation simply because it is venomous.
It tends to be non-aggressive and prefers to live in quiet, dark corners of many homes (and hunting cabins) in the Midwest, including the Ozarks.
The venom is cytotoxic, meaning that it attacks and destroys living cells; by the way, there is no anti-venom for this bite.
In roughly 10 percent of the brown recluse bites, the wound can become necrotic but generally, it will resolve itself in a few weeks without treatment.
If necrosis does develop, medical intervention will become necessary.
More often than not, an alleged brown recluse bite is actually something other than a brown recluse bite such as a staphylococcus, herpes or fungal infection.
That is why it is important to be able to distinguish the difference so that proper treatment can be rendered.
That is why it is also important, if you were bitten by a spider, to properly identify the spider that bit you.
The brown recluse spider is generally identifiable by a so-called violin marking on its upper body, with the bottom of the “violin” located directly above the head of the spider and the stem of the “violin” pointing toward the rear of the spider.
The adult brown recluse is a light brown or tan color, generally about a inch long, with six instead of eight eyes. Now, if bitten, I doubt you will be getting out the magnifying glass to see if there are six instead of eight tiny eyes.
Actually, the web of the brown recluse is an easier way to identify them; these webs have an off-white color with a messy, irregular appearance instead of the orderly web of most spiders.
Most human victims of a brown recluse bite say they did not feel the bite when it first occurred. Instead, they noticed a red, discolored area about an hour after the bite had occurred and that bite eventually develops a bulls-eye appearance, with a white, blue or black center and a red, circular area around the bite.
There will often be two visible fang marks in the center but the bite area will remain flat rather than in a raised position, as would be the case with a pimple or boil.
The white, blue or black coloration in the center of the bite is the result of the venom destroying blood vessels and causing them to constrict, thereby cutting off a supply of fluid to the bite and causing the bite site to remain flat rather than raised.
If necrosis does develop, surgery will probably be required to remove the dead tissue before it spreads.
Young children and older adults are most vulnerable to brown recluse bites so we don’t mean to minimize the potential seriousness of a brown recluse bite.
It is surprising how many homes and garages in the Midwest have brown recluse spiders living with us, yet the frequency of brown recluse bites are relatively rare.
As reported by Rick Vetter, an arachnologist and recognized expert on the brown recluse spider, he knows of a house in Kansas that had 2,055 live brown recuse spiders on the premises yet no one in the house had ever been bitten — an interesting fact but one that probably won’t be emphasized when the house is put on the market.
So, if after reading this, you are inclined to check under the bed in your hunting cabin with a flashlight for that tell-tale web, you are not alone.
I do it, too.
(Bill Hoagland can be reached at billhoagland70@gmail.com.)
