Spider Bites: Recognizing and Addressing, Medical Interventions
In the United States, two species of spiders pose a significant health risk due to their venom: the black widow and the brown recluse. Both can cause more severe symptoms than typical spider bites.
Black Widow Spider Bites
A bite from a black widow spider is usually painful immediately, even if there is little visible skin reaction. Severe muscle pain and cramping, often radiating from the bite site, can follow. Generalized pain throughout the body, headache, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes fever may also occur. In severe cases, neurological symptoms such as sweating, hypertension, chest tightness, shortness of breath, seizures, or trouble breathing may be experienced. The spider is shiny black with a red hourglass on its belly.
Brown Recluse Spider Bites
Brown recluse spider bites can be more insidious. Initially, the bite may be painless or mildly irritating. However, within hours to days, the bite site can become painful, red, and swollen. The development of a blister or open sore, often surrounded by discolored skin (red, brown, or black), is common. In severe cases, the tissue around the bite may die, creating a deep ulcer or wound that takes weeks to heal. Systemic reactions such as fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, joint pain, and, in rare instances, more serious symptoms like seizures can occur.
When to Seek Medical Care
Seek immediate medical attention if you suspect a bite from either spider, especially if you develop severe pain, muscle cramps, or muscle pain (black widow), a rapidly changing or enlarging wound (brown recluse), signs of systemic illness (fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, trouble breathing, seizures, or chest tightness), or if the person bitten is very young, elderly, or has weakened immunity, as they may be more severely affected.
Precautions and Treatment
To avoid bites, people should take precautions such as zipping up tents when camping, wearing pants when hiking in spider-infested areas, turning shoes upside down before wearing them, checking before reaching into undisturbed areas, keeping basements and yards free of clutter, wearing gloves when gardening or getting wood from the woodpile, and learning more about the brown recluse spider.
Treatment options for a brown recluse spider bite may include antibiotics to prevent infection or surgery to remove dead tissue. For a black widow spider bite, treatment options may include pain relief medication, muscle relaxants, antihistamines, steroids, time in the hospital, a tetanus shot, and an antivenin in rare cases.
Misdiagnosis and Allergic Reactions
Doctors often misdiagnose a spider bite, and other causes of skin symptoms can resemble a spider bite, such as infected bites from insects like ticks, mites, and fleas, hives, poison ivy and poison oak, and Lyme disease. Anaphylactic shock can occur in people with an allergy to spider venom, causing symptoms such as severe itching, swelling, or change in skin color, rash or hives, difficulty breathing or a wheezing cough, stomach cramps, rapid swelling of the tongue, lips, eyes, or throat, loss of consciousness.
In case of a severe reaction to a black widow spider bite, poison control should be contacted at 1-800-222-1222 or using the Poison Control reporting tool.
Prevention and Recognition
To prevent a bite from a black widow spider, people should shake out gloves, boots, and other items before using them, wear gloves when working in the yard, wear a hat when working in a shed or under an outside porch, and other precautions.
Black widow spiders are around the size of a half-dollar piece and have a large rounded abdomen, appear black, shiny, and hard, and may carry an hourglass mark or spots or dots that can be red, orange, tan, or white. The brown recluse can only bite under physical pressure and will cause a bite that may initially be painless but will become increasingly painful over the next 2-8 hours, with two small puncture marks, swelling, a red ring, a white blister, and potential ulceration and tissue death.
In people with light skin, the blisters from a spider bite will turn reddish purple. In people with dark skin tones, they may appear as a lumpy or bumpy cluster of lesions that is darker than the surrounding skin.
If possible, catch the spider or take a photo of it for identification. If a person knows or suspects a venomous spider has bitten them, they should contact a doctor immediately if they experience severe pain, abdominal cramping, or breathing problems.
- The black widow spider, identifiable by its shiny black body with a red hourglass, can cause severe health issues, including muscle pain, cramping, and general body pain.
- A black widow spider bite may also lead to headache, nausea, vomiting, fever, neurological symptoms like sweating, hypertension, chest tightness, shortness of breath, seizures, or trouble breathing.
- On the other hand, brown recluse spider bites can be less noticeable initially, causing only mild irritation or painlessness.
- However, within hours to days, a brown recluse bite can become painful, red, and swollen, with blisters or open sores frequently developing.
- Severe brown recluse bites can lead to tissue death around the bite site, creating deep ulcers or wounds that take weeks to heal.
- Systemic reactions such as fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, joint pain, and, rarely, more serious symptoms like seizures can occur from brown recluse spider bites.
- For both species, seek immediate medical attention if you suspect a bite, especially if severe pain, muscle cramps, or signs of systemic illness appear.
- To prevent bites, people should take precautions like wearing pants when hiking, turning shoes upside down, checking undisturbed areas, keeping homes clutter-free, and wearing gloves while gardening.
- Treatment for brown recluse spider bites may involve antibiotics or surgery, while black widow spider bite treatment can include pain relief medication, antihistamines, steroids, and, in rare cases, antivenin.
- Misdiagnosis is common, as other conditions like insect bites, hives, poison ivy, poison oak, Lyme disease, and allergic reactions can resemble spider bites.
- Anaphylactic shock can occur in people with a spider venom allergy, causing symptoms like severe itching, swelling, skin changes, difficulty breathing, stomach cramps, and loss of consciousness.
- To identify the spider, catch it or take a photo for identification if possible, and contact a doctor immediately if severe pain, abdominal cramping, or breathing problems are experienced.
- In the realm of health-and-wellness, science and medical-conditions, recognizing and preventing spider bites, especially from black widows and brown recluses, is vital for maintaining mental health and practicing effective skin care, particularly for those with skin-conditions like atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, or ulcerative colitis. It's also beneficial for managing chronic diseases like diabetes, HIV, NSCLC, obesity, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and migraine.
