Once lesions form, the wound can take up to six months to heal completely, according to the Clinician Reviews report. If the area around the bite site stays red, that's actually a good sign it means that the capillary network is not completely destroyed, Vetter said. "That's the byproduct of the immune response around the bite site - the body will simply cut off blood flow." "It's not uncommon for these venoms to cause lesions," she said.
Brown recluse spider bite skin#
The bite site may show some swelling, but the skin surface is usually flat or even slightly concave it may appear bluish or purple, and a white ring develops around the site as the blood supply is cut off, Binford explained. Brown recluse venom targets and destroys tiny blood vessels, or capillaries, around the site of the puncture. In rare instances, the venom can lead to kidney failure, but those cases are highly unusual, according to Binford.Īfter a bite, pain in the region can be "stabbing and penetrating" or may develop into "a burning sensation," according to a paper published in December 2010 in the journal Clinician Reviews. Reactions to the venom vary widely among individuals - many people who are bitten develop no symptoms at all, while others experience localized necrosis, or tissue death. But there are only four spider families with bites that are harmful to people - one of which is the recluse family, Greta Binford, an associate professor of biology at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, told Live Science.Īnd brown recluse venom is special it includes a tissue-destroying toxin produced by no other spider group, Binford said. There are more than 47,000 spider species, nearly all of which produce venom. If you think you got a brown recluse bite, you tell everybody." Unique venom "If you think you have a bacterial infection, do you tell anyone about it? No. It becomes a badge of courage: I survived a brown recluse bite!" Vetter said.
So, why would a person jump to the conclusion that they've been bitten by a brown recluse? While 738 bites were described that year, only 44 brown recluse spiders had been identified in the state, suggesting that most of the bites blamed on brown recluses likely had a different source, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. A study conducted in 2004 found that reports of brown recluse bites in South Carolina vastly exceeded the number of known spiders. But reports of brown recluses often surface in places where no brown recluses are found, such as Alaska, California and Canada, arachnologist Richard Vetter, a retired research associate from the Department of Entomology at the University California, Riverside, told Live Science.Įven in areas where recluses are known to live, claims of bites can be greatly exaggerated.
In the U.S., brown recluses are widespread in Midwestern states - including Arkansas, where Boulton was bitten - and in parts of the South.
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