Worst Spider Bite!

This spider bite's venom can literally make your skin melt. This is the deadly brown recluse spider, and here's what you need to know to survive.

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What is it?
The brown recluse is a spider ranging from 6-20 mm in length--or slightly larger than a US penny. They come in a variety of colors, from cream-colored to dark brown or blackish gray. Its bite is known to have a necrotic effect on the skin. You do not want a brown recluse and black widow on your hand at the same time.

Where is it located?
The brown recluse, or Loxosceles reclusa, can be found in the southeastern part of the United States. They can be found hiding in places that may not often be used such as shelves, cupboards, dark basements, and garages. Although this spider is generally unaggressive, bites occur when a person puts on clothes that have been left on the floor for some time that a brown recluse has made into its new home. In 2001, there was a brown recluse infestation in a Kansas home with more than 2,000 spiders present.

How will it kill you?
Although the majority of bites from a brown recluse spider attack are minor, the venom from a bite can spread throughout the body within minutes and can cause skin necrosis about 37% of the time. These toxic bites cause a condition called loxoscelism, where the damaged tissue becomes gangrenous and begins to slough away due to the gangrene. They can also cause hemolysis, or a bursting of red blood cells. In both conditions, the dead tissue can become an infectious threat and must be removed. Most fatalities occur in children under the age of seven or to those with weak immune systems, such as the elderly or the debilitatingly ill.

How to survive:
Most bites can heal without the need for medical intervention. But for more severe bites, antivenoms have proven to be the most promising therapy. And in cases where a large dermonecrotic lesion has developed, the most effective method of treatment is to surgically remove the dead tissue.

So what is another common name for the brown recluse?
The brown recluse is also known as the fiddleback spider because of its markings on the dorsal side of its body that has a black line coming from it that looks like a violin.

So would you rather…be bit by a brown recluse? Or be infected with the norovirus?