I don't know where you live, but you should be aware that many people who think they got a spider bite
actually didn't get bitten by a spider at all
Thanks, Sue. I am beginning to sound like a broken record. It is one of the most misdiagnosed maladies. Doctors assume brown recluse because of all the media when it most likely is not a brown recluse bite. My father-in-law was also misdiagnosed as a brown recluse bite when it was a staph infection.
One of the most noted specialist on brown recluse bites debunks the myths here:
http://spiders.ucr.edu/expert.html
More myths:
http://spiders.ucr.edu/necrotic.html " Medical personnel will diagnoses “brown recluse bite” because that is the most common and, unfortunately, most dynamic cause of necrotic wound that they have read about."
http://spiders.ucr.edu/avoidbites.html
"Other things you should know about brown recluses:
Most households with brown recluses never experience a bite
90% of all brown recluse bites heal without severe scarring.
Many brown recluse bites cause just a little red mark that heals without event.
Despite all the hoopla surrounding the brown recluse, there is still not one PROVEN death due to brown recluse bite. (No, wait, don't write me about someone who died and 'the doctor said' it from brown recluse! This information originates from two separate publications in medical journals written by two recluse venom experts who are medical doctors, who have been studying the medical implications of recluse bites for decades in Missouri and Tennessee where brown recluses occur frequently, and who know much more about the effects of recluse venom than your local doctor. If you want to argue this point with somebody, go argue with them, not me. And unless you have a confirmed spider identification associated with your "alleged" bite (i.e., removed from the skin of the victim after the bite), you don't have a PROVEN envenomation.)"
