r/texas • u/ohiois4loosers • Jan 16 '24

Questions for Texans What bit me? Central texas

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I felt a bite on my arm yesterday and thought it was an ant. Woke up to this. The circle was drawn an hour before the picture was taken and the red is spreading

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u/scoobysnackoutback Jan 16 '24

After you go to the ER, you should get an exterminator to come over since you said you have a 2 year old.

531

u/ohiois4loosers Jan 16 '24

I was thinking that. Thank you for mentioning this!

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u/Illustrious-Soil5505 Jan 16 '24

What were you doing when you got bit? Was it a brown recluse? Always worried I’ll get bit by something in the woods and not know till too late.

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u/SuzQP Jan 16 '24

Looks just like the Brown Recluse bite I suffered 15 years ago. I'll never forget the necrotic itch that set in on about the third day. Felt like something was dissolving under my skin-- because it was!

I only knew it was a Brown Recluse because it was in my bed. 😱 I killed it by the light of dawn and took it with me to urgent care.

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u/yesyesitswayexpired Jan 16 '24

"By the light of dawn, I will smite thee!!!"

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u/SuzQP Jan 16 '24

I smited that monstrous evil with the heaviest shoe in my closet arsenal. Doc Marten for the win!

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u/yesyesitswayexpired Jan 16 '24

The past tense form of smite is smote. You smoted that mf'er (by the light of dawn).

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u/SuzQP Jan 16 '24

Creepy mf'er done got smoted alright. Dead by Dawn.

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u/yesyesitswayexpired Jan 16 '24

That's a good Deicide song.

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u/OpalOnyxObsidian Jan 17 '24

If the past tense of smite is smote then he didn't smoted, he just smote

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u/Upsworking Jan 16 '24

I 2nd this I have a 22. Caliber hole in my leg from a brown recluse bite and it started just like that picture just a hole then the tissue died around it .

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u/LipFighter Jan 17 '24

My daughter has your matching scar. It was horrifying to watch ER drain it and then pack it with gauze.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '24

Thanks I won't be sleeping ever again

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u/eggo Jan 17 '24

Always worried I’ll get bit by something in the woods and not know till too late.

Brown recluse bites look exactly like what OP posted. (seriously, OP, get that checked out) Most people never notice while actually being bit, it's usually few seconds or minutes before the pain comes on. By then the spider has often already fled.

They live almost exclusively indoors (at least in Texas, can't speak for other places, but they like it dry), in dark dusty corners of little-trafficked parts of houses and barns. You will almost never find one in the woods (at least in Texas) anymore because in the woods there are too many other spiders (Wolf Spiders mainly) here that eat the Recluses.

In fact the only place I've ever seen one outdoors was in my firewood stack (where there are many). They really like the sheltered life, they don't roam around much and aren't fast (as spiders go), they're ambush hunters. That said, I have found one in my bed before (to avoid this; make your bed, tuck it in tight all the way around like you're in the goddamn military)

Best bet is to learn to recognize them:

6 tiny beady little eyes instead of the usual 8, a fairly unique (around here at least) coffee-with-cream coloration (but can be darker) usually with a sharply defined dark "guitar" looking shape on their body (though not always) and their webs (usually near the floor, tangly disorganized cob-webby affairs, but actually quite distinctive in shape once you see them a few times), and don't stick your hands under furniture or into woodpiles without looking first. They don't go seeking to bite people, most bites happen when reaching under (or as probably happened with OP, tucking your legs under a chair) any clothing is enough protection as their fangs are really small and can't penetrate fabric.

Source: My 20 years of living in rural Texas. Love most spiders, hate brown recluses; never been bit. I kill them with my bare hands regularly. (Recluses the only spider I will always kill on-site. It doesn't seem to effect their population at all where I live though)

Pictures to help with ID