Many of us have a healthy fear of spiders, even though most of the eight-legged creatures are actually beneficial. But a few arachnids, such as the brown recluse, deserve our respect –or at least a good stomping with a flat-soled shoe.

Brown recluse spiders, Loxosceles reclusa, live in many southern and Midwestern states. These spiders are reclusive, as their name implies. They like dark, undisturbed areas in places such as garages, tool sheds, wood piles and unused areas of closets. They tend to hunt insects and other spiders at night.

An average brown recluse might be about one-quarter to one-half inch long with color varying from an orangey- yellow to dark brown. A violin-shaped mark on the back of the brown recluse distinguishes it from other spiders. The eyes at the base of the head form the base of the fiddle-shaped mark. The neck of the fiddle points towards the abdomen of the spider.

What makes people pay attention to this spider is its venomous bite.

Searching the ‘web’—signs and symptoms

The bite usually causes a slight sting followed by intense pain. Within 36 hours, the victim may react with chills, nausea, weakness and joint pain. A small blister forms at the bite and swelling begins. The venom kills the tissue at the bite. Healing may take up to eight weeks and leave scars that require plastic surgery.

Although the brown recluse is fairly common, the number of bite cases in the United States is not well documented, says physician and assistant professor of dermatology, Dr. Asra Ali M.D., of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

For doctors unfamiliar with the brown recluse spider bite, the symptoms are difficult to recognize, says Ali. “What forms is an ulceration of the skin, and a doctor will treat that area like an open wound, since so many other things, such as trauma or herpes infection can cause similar wounds. Sometimes it is hard to tell if the wound is due to a bite or possibly a bacterial infection that created the wound.”

One indicator of a spider bite is what Ali describes as the flag-like sign of red, white and blue. The area around the wound is inflamed or red, while the wound consists of white tissue surrounding a blue center, where there is no blood supply to the skin.

For first aid, Ali says, “Try and decrease that swelling. You can ice the area or elevate the limb if it is an arm or leg. If the pain is severe and it looks like the tissue is forming a scab or there appears to be a lot of tissue damage, you need to see a doctor. The sooner you go in, the better. You can get started on treatment and hopefully prevent some of that breakdown of the skin.”

Symptomatic care is usually all that needs to be done, Ali says. That means removing dead skin, elevating the effected limb, and using ice packs to reduce swelling. If the effects of the bite are fairly extensive and become secondarily infected with bacteria, then a doctor may treat the patient with antibiotics to help heal the lesions.

"Once bitten..."

“Oftentimes when they are initially bitten, people don’t even know it,” Ali says. “It is a few hours later that they develop pain. The victim doesn’t know if the pain was due to trauma or some other cause.”

That was the case with Eli Gukich, creative director of printer services for the University of Texas at Houston, who encountered a brown recluse while hiking along Buffalo Bayou in Houston last May. As he walked through tall grass, Gukich felt something lance his skin about mid-calf.

“I thought it was a fire ant,” he says. “When I get a fire ant bite, I get a big red blister. This started the same way. By that evening, I knew it wasn’t from a fire ant, because it had grown so much and it was so painful. It was turning purple.”

By the time Gukich went to bed the bite was inflamed, a half-inch in diameter, and rising above the surface of his skin a quarter of an inch.

The very next day, he met with his doctor who treated him with a strong antibiotic. But after taking antibiotics for four days, the area of the bite continued to fester and his leg was swollen below the knee.

“I was scared,” Gukich says. His doctor ordered him to see a surgeon.

The surgeon took one look at Gukich’s leg and declared it a brown recluse bite. For the next six weeks, he treated Gukich by lancing the wound numerous times and putting his patient on six weeks of strong antibiotics.

Though rare, it is possible for a small percentage of brown recluse victims to develop more widespread reactions called systemic loxoscelism that include rash, high fever, racking chills, renal failure, seizures and coma. If you suspect a bite and feel measurably worse as the hours wear on, (regardless of the state of the bite site) get medical attention immediately.

“I was very lucky, because I saw a doctor the day after I got bit, Gukich says. “I now have an area on my calf that looks like a birth defect. I would not recommend this to anybody.”

Last Updated: 08-08-2002

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