I saw my dog messing with something and when I looked closer I noticed a big brown spider and I am worried it could be a brown recluse....I was more worried about killing it and keeping it away from me and my dogs than anything so the only pictures I have are from it after I killed it but if any of you guys can tell me what kind of spider it is, specifically if it is a brown recluse or not, I would be very appreciative.

10/24/2009 2:15:55 PM

did you google brown recluse?

to me, that doesnt look like one

[Edited on October 24, 2009 at 2:20 PM. Reason : and its hard to tell since you smushed it]

10/24/2009 2:20:42 PM

DEAD NIGGA SPIDA'

10/24/2009 2:21:26 PM

^^ I googled it but there are a lot of different ways they look, some are darker than others and what not. It looked a little different when it was alive but maybe that was just me being scared like a little girl when I see a spider that big

10/24/2009 2:23:58 PM

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is not a brown recluse.

10/24/2009 2:24:32 PM

from what I found on google, brown recluse spiders have three sets of two eyes and it looks like this thing has all its eyes grouped in the middle so it is probably something else....just kind of freaks you out when something like this bites your dog haha

10/24/2009 2:27:33 PM

to me it look like a leprechaun to me

10/24/2009 2:30:08 PM

I'm pretty sure Brown recluses are NOT found in NC.

not primarily anyway. i mean its possible, but highly unlikely. unless you are in the very western part of the state.

and all sources I find say their normal habitat are in this area (the red):


not to say this isn't one, nor that you won't find one.

(my old boss at the genetics lab was a entomologist and said you hardly EVER find them in NC and one of my immunology teachers claims the bites in the NC area are rare; upon further investigation I think they are right)


[Edited on October 24, 2009 at 2:36 PM. Reason : fhghfgh]

10/24/2009 2:35:49 PM

i've seen and read that too, but i've found a couple in cardboard boxes in storage rooms at properties and have had a roommate get bitten by one

to the op, that is not a brown recluse

10/24/2009 2:41:40 PM

also aren't brown recluses small?

10/24/2009 2:43:11 PM

i totally believe you.
im not trying to say that they are NOT here by any means, i mean hell-they are common to the western part of the state according to studies.

i do hear the occasional the anecdotal story i hear here and there
even with that-i'm willing to bet they are not nearly as prevalent as people may think (but i dont know)



also my boss use to have people bring him "brown recluses" they found in their houses and he would tell them that it was not a brown recluse. a lot of the people refused to believe him and would tell everyone else that they found one still.

he said it made him so mad!





[Edited on October 24, 2009 at 2:48 PM. Reason : run os are bad]

10/24/2009 2:46:00 PM

That is not a brown recluse, but brown recluses are definitely in North Carolina. Maybe not as prevalent as in some other states but there are plenty. I've personally encountered both black widows (tons of them) and brown recluses, and gotten a brown recluse bite.

10/24/2009 2:50:26 PM

Thanks for the help everyone, any idea of what kind of spider it could be? I am thinking maybe a wolf spider.

When I noticed it the thing was reared back like it was ready to attack (probably because my dog was pawing at it) so it was a bit scary to realize it was fighting with my dog. I am not sure if it actually bit him or not because he didn't yelp but when he put his nose down towards it he kind of jumped back quickly.

10/24/2009 2:50:58 PM

10/24/2009 2:51:05 PM

im pretty skeptical of people who say theyve gotten brown recluse bites.
(once again please do not read this as "I don't believe you", I am fully aware that they do, in fact happen in "these parts" )
you can blame this on my old boss.

one case i'm aware of where my skepticism falls a bit, the man had a portion of his arm amputated

it seems like a LOT of people get bit and then they recover with no scaring or anything.

which leads me to the premise that either
A-a lot of brown recluse bites are not from brown recluses b/c they greatly lack in the severity department.
or B- Brown recluse bites may, in fact, be somewhat insignificant, unless there are some other factors present



now im NO entomologist so i don't know, but i was under the impression that brown recluse bite=necrosis, so unless you get it taken care of IMMEDIATELY (which if anyone knows what the methods are to prevent necrosis let me know-anti toxin?) i dont understand how you can heal with no scarring.
perhaps im thinking about it all wrong.


im not trying to argue with anyone. im just pretty skeptical of anecdotal stories unless they come from the mouth of an expert him or herself.

my mind could easily be swayed with the right info

also, correct me if i am wrong-unless you bring the spider in, you don;t really have a way of diagnosing is positively as a brown recluse bite do you?




and to the OP-sorry for swaying the topic a bit

[Edited on October 24, 2009 at 3:18 PM. Reason : dgtfgfd]

10/24/2009 3:16:05 PM

^
The symptoms of a brown recluse bite vary widely depending on the severity of the bite/amount of venom injected, the individual, and other factors. Many people have the misconception that all brown recluse bites result in losing alot of flesh from your body, based on no more than reading/seeing pictures from the most extreme cases.

http://spiders.ucr.edu/expert.html

Quote :

"Almost all brown recluse spider bites heal nicely in two to three months without medical treatment at all. Also the long-term medical outcome is excellent without treatment"

Quote :

"We estimate that we have seen or reviewed about 1,000 credible recluse spider bites, and we have seen about a dozen cases of impressive, sustained hemolysis"

Quote :

"t would be fair to estimate that systemic loxoscelism occurs in much less than 1% of cases of focal necrosis of the skin due to loxosotoxin."

10/24/2009 3:30:56 PM

^sweet. ok so they do not HAVE to be a severe as i always thought they were. cool.

now question number two-how do you identify the bite if they vary so much? (aside from bringing in an actual spider)

sorry, i would do the research myself but im trying my damnest to get through the rest of the biochem book

[Edited on October 24, 2009 at 3:38 PM. Reason : and thanks for not getting mad or offended ]

10/24/2009 3:37:04 PM

my mom got bitten by one when i was like 10 and she had to have a little surgery on it
it was pretty gross

10/24/2009 6:24:33 PM

The best way to identify it is catch the spider. There are also clues in the appearance of the actual bite, but a specimen is the only truly reliable way.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2061.html

10/24/2009 6:36:38 PM

i got bit by something while hiking in the mountains over the summer, never saw what it was. there was a little bit of tissue necrosis but not larger than a dime, and it healed within a few weeks. i still have a black mark where the bite is though.

10/24/2009 7:23:50 PM

A co-worker of mine was bitten by one in The Bronx, NYC. So...bitches can be anywhere

(he was in the hospital for almost a week and had a lot of flesh cut out of his hand)

10/25/2009 2:20:53 PM

brown recluses are small. When I worked up near Asheville for the summer we had our fair share of them. However, most people who saw any brown spider thought it was a brown recluse. That spider is big, I would probably be like wtf if I saw it.

10/25/2009 5:32:01 PM

Quote :

" now im NO entomologist so i don't know, but i was under the impression that brown recluse bite=necrosis, so unless you get it taken care of IMMEDIATELY (which if anyone knows what the methods are to prevent necrosis let me know-anti toxin?) i dont understand how you can heal with no scarring. perhaps im thinking about it all wrong. "

didn't you know scott about the time he got bitten? he just went to the doctor a couple times to have the dead stuff cut away, but other than some antibiotics and a mild steroid there was nothing too crazy.

10/25/2009 7:09:06 PM

so how big - diameter-wise - was this thing?

10/25/2009 8:39:21 PM

That might be one of the spiders that gives you powers when it bites you. Obviously it's dead now so it can't bite, so I don't know what to tell you. Sorry.

10/25/2009 8:46:49 PM

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/category/spiders/

10/25/2009 9:12:35 PM

hard to identify a smashed spider, asshat


not a brown recluse, this spider is much too stout, i hate to accuse everything of being a wolf spider but thats what it looks like to me.


its definitely a type of hunting spider, not a recluse which i believe largely stays to its web but does actively scavenge for dead insects

10/25/2009 10:11:08 PM

I knew a kid who was bit twice within a year by a brown recluse... I live 10 from the beach.

(he had them treated by a doctor and had necrosis starting to set in I think)

10/26/2009 1:44:33 PM

A brown recluse is usually identified by a fiddle shaped marking on it's thorax?

10/26/2009 1:49:04 PM

he's not completely crushed, asshat. those are good pics, close up, not blurry. isn't the purpose of this thread to identify the spider? how else are we supposed to do it w/o websites?

that thing is not a wolf spider. have you look at pics of them? the squished spider is red-brown, mostly solid colored. this is a wolf spider


[Edited on October 26, 2009 at 2:02 PM. Reason : ]

10/26/2009 1:57:43 PM

i can promise you that spider is NOT a brown recluse. color is all wrong.....no violin shaped marking and the legs are much too short.

10/26/2009 2:16:31 PM

10/26/2009 3:33:53 PM

with regard to the original post

I have come across 2 spiders, both black in color, but with the same physical shape - meaty legs, thorax, and same aggressive positioning when molested. they were about as big as a quarter full spread, and moved fairly slow.

10/26/2009 3:34:14 PM

time to find a new house

10/26/2009 3:36:44 PM

Quote :

"didn't you know scott about the time he got bitten? he just went to the doctor a couple times to have the dead stuff cut away, but other than some antibiotics and a mild steroid there was nothing too crazy."

haha that's right--he actually got bit at my beach house!!!
but honestly when it happened I didn't automatically assume brown recluse. i assumed it was a bite from a poisonous something. and if i remember correctly it wasnt that bad at all. when i think untreated brown recluse i think :


which markgoal has told me that they DO NOT have to be that bad.

10/26/2009 3:43:10 PM

Dude from back home had all kinds of trouble with his brown recluse bite. It bit him on the chest and the necrosis was terrible. He had to receive skin grafts over a very large portion of his chest actually.

10/26/2009 4:34:23 PM

to me it look like a Woodlouse to me

10/27/2009 11:08:38 AM

Brown Recluses are tiny spiders that rarely bite. Generally speaking, Black Widows are more prevalent spiders in NC and therefore pose more of a danger to the populace. I had a friend who was bitten by a brown recluse, and he didn't even know about it until the necrosis started. He had minor surgery and recovered completely. I don't know what type of spider that is, but if you want to be certain, you will find it here somewhere (assuming it's native to NC): http://www.carolinanature.com/spiders/

10/27/2009 11:23:49 AM

Quote :

"so how big - diameter-wise - was this thing?"

it was about as big as a half dollar when alive, maybe a little bigger

10/27/2009 7:36:44 PM

brown recluse bites are way over diagnosed. even in areas where brown recluse sightings have never been confirmed, an idiopathic necrosis is often misdiagnosed as a brown recluse bite. so say my wilderness medicine and parasitology profs, anyways.

10/28/2009 10:23:49 AM