Friday, May 9, 2008

The Definition Of A Brown Recluse...


Brown Recluse Spider n. A venomous spider (Loxosceles reclusa) having an hourglass-shaped mark on the cephalothorax, introduced into the southern United States from South America. (I could swear my brown recluse has an hour glass shape too. Hmmmmm.....)


Recluse spiders build irregular webs that frequently include a shelter consisting of disorderly threads (AKA a dysfunctional home). These spiders frequently build their webs in woodpiles and sheds, closets, garages, cellars (Yup, lived in places like these) and other places that are dry and generally undisturbed. They seem to favor cardboard when dwelling in human residences, possibly because it mimics the rotting tree bark which they naturally inhabit. (Does this mean that my mother will eventually become a Bark Bag Lady?) Highly doubtful & probable all at once. Somewhat of a paradox.


They also go into shoes, inside dressers, in bed sheets of infrequently used beds, in stacks of clothes, behind baseboards, behind pictures and near furnaces. (Sounds like my mother to me.) The common source of human-recluse contact is during the cleaning of these spaces, when their isolated spaces suddenly are disturbed and the spider feels threatened. Unlike most web weavers, they leave these webs at night to hunt. Males will move around more when hunting while females don't usually stray far from their web.




Most bites are minor with no necrosis. However, a small number of bites produce severe dermonecrotic lesions, and, sometimes, severe systemic symptoms, including organ damage. Rarely, the bite may also produce a systemic condition with occasional fatalities. (This fits my mother to a T. She hurts you then proceeds to kill you... bit by little bit)

14 comments:

Mental P Mama said...

You know, I used to have a phobia about the brown recluse...not any other spiders, just that one. Maybe she was my mother, too, in another life;)

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid!

scargosun said...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I AM PHOBIC ABOUT THESE. I WILL BE BACK WHEN THE ATIVAN KICKS IN. TOO SCARY.

But I wanna read the post!

QueenofPlanetHotflash said...

I was bitten by a brown recluse on my left leg, it was about 3 years ago. NO FUN, it was in the weeds beside the softball field where my daughter was playing. I felt something crawl on my leg, when I went to brush it off it bit me, the bite mark ended up to be a little bigger than a fifty cent piece, it was red and itched horribly. It progressed to make a hole in my leg.My hubby forced me to the Dr. who then lectured me about what could have happened within the next week...anyways I have a scar that is discolored and a reminder of a brown recluse's evil intentions.I send many huggins to you and a good thought for you: the brown reclused can be stomped to death :) :) :)

Daryl said...

I would laugh but neither YOUR Brown Recluse nor the 8-legged one are funny. I suspected as I read your posts that you were making the comparison of the 2-legged one to the 8-legged one ... one of those 8-legged ones bit a friend of mine .. what a mess .. thankfully the bite was correctly diagnosed and treated .. nasty buggers BOTH the 2 AND 8 leggers

:-Daryl

scargosun said...

Ok...I got thru it by covering up the pics with my hand and reading the text.

I know this thing and it is my enemy. I am still shuddering.

Anonymous said...

You know, these are the tough things to say.
There's a lot of people that got great childhoods and there's a lot of folks like you that got the messed up version. I wish both versions were equally discuss-able, but we feel bad if we didn't get the good version and unfortunately we spend too much time wondering if it was our fault.
I'm really glad that you deal with it, spider pics and all.
You're amazingly strong and I'm so glad that you're talking about it openly.

Now, I have never met a brown recluse... I'm not even sure if we have them here. But I am the spider killer in my house and it would be my pleasure to kill them with the Old Goat's shoe! Cuz that's how I roll!

elizasmom said...

Gahhhhh. I am not arachnophobic, but that close-up gives me the willies.

krysta said...

My family and yours are both from that family.

abb said...

There are just too many neuroses to address here....and they're all mine!

Snooty Primadona said...

Okay, I've had The Day From Hell today, so I need to vent, but I will tell you that I am deathly afraid of spiders and I unfortunately passed on this freakish phobia to my son & my daughter. Mr. Snooty does not have this phobia, so they clearly did not get this from anyone but *moi*. Then, Mr. Snooty heard a little jewel of wisdom from a friend one day, which he chose to share with me. Now, I feel compelled to share it with you, my dear readers (because misery does love company). You are never more than 3 feet away from a spider. No matter where you live. No matter where you are. 3 Feet. Thanks Dear, I will never sleep well again (until I've nuerotically eliminated every little spidey from my personal space.) It keeps me up some nights, but most of the time I'm perfectly fine as long as I don't think about them. Gaaaah!

I am so exhausted & disoriented tonight. The tournament is going perfectly according to plan. We are definite contenders for DAL (Dead Ass Last), as usual. I also showed my ass in a big way. You know, because I'm such a mature 55 year old woman and all. Gaaaahhhhh!

Mamahut said...

I wish I was there with you I could make you look good, my ass is bigger and I sure do show it a LOT! Usually in times when I really should have kept it hid. I wasn't going to tell you this story because you might think less of me but in order to make you feel better I will share. Long story short~My husband took me to a tourny and I drank..... I drank alot. I was driving the golf cart and I was doing fine until my girlfriend said something about needing the ball that was in the pond~lake thingy. (I am that childish, a double dog dare is a sure thing with me) I was in the water up to my knees giggling like and idiot and bent down to get the ball...well nothing got wet except my rather large boobs. I stand up laughing my ass off and look around...all of my husbands co-workers and their bitchy wives were staring at me...I haven't been to any golf tourny's since. So you see my friend it could be worse...I could have been driving your buggy!

imbeingheldhostage said...

ahhh, something else about a recluse bite is:
when it has eaten away at half of your limb but you've finally beaten it, every time that area is injured (hit, scratched, bumped etc) it can trigger the poison all over again... maybe that is like the scars left behind for you as well?

Desiree Eaglin said...

yuck yuck yuck!

 

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