arachnologus:
On the original post: as has already been pointed out, probably few if any of your “spider bites” are spider bites, or indeed the bite of anything. If you don’t see any biting organism, don’t be so quick to assume it’s a bite: some of the non-bite conditions can be serious, occasionally even life-threatening! See my page on the topic , also these:Causes of Necrotic Wounds other than BRS Bites | Spider Research http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/site/free/hlsa0805.htm It’s Not a Spider Bite, It’s Community-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus | American Board of Family Medicine That's No Spider Bite: Antibiotic Resistant Staph Infections Now Very Common - ABC News
The idea that spiders bite people who roll over them in their sleep is also a myth. Spiders’ fangs are on the underside of the spider. The reflex bite that occurs when the spider is being crushed to death by an enormous monster rolling onto it, will be delivered to the sheets, not to you, in the vast majority of cases.
The idea that you can recognize a spider bite by 2 punctures is also a myth (click link for my page on the topic).
If your friend didn’t live in the green area on this map , then what he got nailed by was medical malpractice. See some of the articles linked above, also this one and my page on the subject. This is one area about which 95% of physicians know almost literally nothing - because they get nothing significant on spiders in medical school. So they do what everyone else does, and blame all mysterious skin lesions on unseen spiders.
He was playing golf right smack in that area.
Kenyth
November 24, 2009, 1:39pm
22
arachnologus:
Certainly it is possible for a large spider (or one with large fangs, like the woodlouse spider ) to leave visible puncures, but even in the largest spiders it occurs no more than half the time. I myself have been bitten by a large tarantula (one of the 2 genuine spider bites I’ve ever had, after handling tens of thousands of live spiders) and the punctures were very hard to detect.
The idea that smaller spiders cannot penetrate the skin is yet another spider myth . It’s not that they can’t, but that they very rarely do because they have no reason to.
The idea that large spiders in the house must have entered from outside is still one more spider myth . And with rare exceptions like the brown recluse (found only in a limited area, despite all the foolish rumors claiming that it’s found everywhere), house spiders are not pests. They are beneficial - they EAT pests!
Very interesting that small spiders can bite as well. I realize that most spiders are shy and unagressive towards humans. The only one’s I’ve personally had problems with are the wolf spiders. I appreciate your respect for spiders, and I don’t personally believe them to be the worst of venomous pests. Far from it. Hornets, Yellow Jackets, Stinging Ants, and Paper Wasps hold that trophy IMO (nasty, agressive, things!). At the same time, neither my children or wife much like them, so we won’t be sharing the house knowingly with visible spiders anytime soon. Sorry.
The wound or the spider?
If it’s the latter, man, that’s one pissed off insect. Arachnid, whatever.
As I was reading this thread this morning I noticed a rather large spider on my wall. So I started a new thread to help identify it. Spider experts welcome: