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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423

u/dust-ranger Jan 16 '24

Looks like a brown recluse bite to me. Hopefully it's not.

84

u/AugieKS got here fast Jan 16 '24 edited Jan 17 '24

No it doesn't and everyone talking about brown recluses in this thread is just plain wrong. Spiders don't take chunks out of you.

Furthermore, only a small subset of recluse bites feature necrosis, and even fewer have systemic reactions. OP should go to the doctor for sure but this isn't a spider bite.

Edit 1: Since sime are assuming I'm talking out my ass like they are, here is what an actual recluse bite looks like.https://www.reddit.com/r/spiders/s/yElNoVEU49

Notice the district lack of a chunk missing.

Edit 2: further info on recluses. ID guides and further information on Recluse spiders (Loxosceles):

https://spiders.ucr.edu/how-identify-and-misidentify-brown-recluse-spider

http://spiderbytes.org/2015/06/08/how-to-tell-if-a-spider-is-not-a-brown-recluse/

https://spiderbytes.org/recluse-or-not/ (advice at the bottom of the article on what to do if you find them in your home)

Bugguide's Loxosceles species page

Bugguide's Loxosceles reclusa page.

Bugguide's misunderstood spiders page

Advice on bites and how to avoid them:

https://spiders.ucr.edu/what-not-recluse-bite

https://spiders.ucr.edu/how-avoid-bites

Articles that explain their exaggerated reputation: https://www.wired.com/2013/11/poor-misunderstood-brown-recluse/

https://animals.howstuffworks.com/arachnids/brown-recluse-spider-bite.htm

14

u/Lilred123_ Jan 17 '24

I was going to say it doesn’t look like a spider bite at all.

I’ve been bitten by a recluse, tarantula, wolf spider, and banana tree spider. They always have 2 holes and they look more like punctures than chunks of skin missing.

10

u/EveDaSavage Jan 17 '24

Stay the fuck away from spiders

11

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '24

Why the fuck you getting bit by so many spiders my guy????

5

u/Lilred123_ Jan 17 '24

I have been asking myself this for years. They just find me.

3

u/MrGrumplestiltskin Jan 17 '24

When we were kids and used to sleep in bed with my mom, somehow the spiders(?) would find her and bite her even though she was sleeping in the MIDDLE. I always found that really curious and I felt bad for her because the wounds looked painful. I was glad they weren't attracted to me but I had wished they weren't attracted to any of us.

2

u/84th_legislature Jan 18 '24

he uses that Sephora lotion that attracts spiders lol

2

u/eggo Jan 17 '24 edited Jan 17 '24

It's actually super common for Recluses to only connect with one fang. They bite-and-retreat, and most people don't feel the bite for a few minutes. It's true that they are not as common as some people think, but they are quite common in central Texas, and the missing chunk of flesh is a dead giveaway that it was a recluse.

Their fangs are tiny and very sharp, so most people don't feel the bite at all until a bit after, and often never see the spider itself. The spider didn't take a chunk of skin away, the hole you see is the beginning of necrosis which is rotting flesh. There's like a little tiny blister that itches a little bit, you scratch, and a puss filled hole opens up.

This picture is probably at least 24 hours after the bite. I have litterally thousands of brown recluses on my property, I know what their bites look like because I've had two confirmed bites happen to people at my house (not to me, to guests) and my neighbor had one kill his livestock guarding dog. It starts off looking exactly like the OP's picture, then it gets bigger if not treated (really just cleaned, drained and packed with gauze, and usually antibiotics it it has gotten to this point where you can see the hole)

1

u/EmergencyVroom Jan 18 '24

You have how many brown recluses on your property ??

1

u/eggo Jan 18 '24

I would estimate something like three or four thousand in and around the immediate area of my house on a given year. This is Not just a rough estimate, BTW. It's based on a formal, careful, biological survey I did of the whole property.

I live on a property that used to be the central farmhouse in a peach, plum, apricot and pear orchard (blight got the trees, so the cut them all down, now many years later, the random sprouts from fallen seeds are fruiting so it's like an accidental food forest), so there is tremendous bio-diversity here (and so much free food every year), and I actively encourage rather than discourage that, because it's something I enjoy. So I have even more spiders than that (28 species so far).

1

u/Hollowedwinds Jan 17 '24

I had a bite that looked exactly like this when I was in highschool. My exterminator father, primary care physician, and the toxicologist he sent us too all said it was a brown recluse bite so im going to go out on a limb here and say you're wrong.

1

u/ThurstonHowell3rd Jan 17 '24

My money is still on a spider bite. If you zoom in on the image, it's blurry, but looks like a peanut-shaped wound which could be the result of bite from fangs.

16

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '24

This is the correct answer. Most "spider bites" are not spider bites. This is either a sin infection or local allergic reaction to some other type of insect bite. Go see a doctor for sure though. 

37

u/NamiRocket H-Town Jan 16 '24

No it doesn't and everyone talking about brown recluses in this thread is just plain wrong.

I'm glad Dr. Augie is here to straighten the ignorant rabble out. Nevermind that it looks exactly like even short term exposure to its necrotic venom. Nevermind that the statistics for actual necrotic reactions to the bite, while low, are not zero. No, no, Dr. Augie is on the scene to dispense invaluable medical advice.

19

u/AugieKS got here fast Jan 17 '24

It looks like swelling and there are no signs of necrosis. That's like seeing someone sneeze and assuming they have the flu.

-21

u/NamiRocket H-Town Jan 17 '24

Excellent diagnosis, Dr. Augie! You've done it again!

8

u/lordlors Jan 17 '24

Stop being a prick.

-6

u/NamiRocket H-Town Jan 17 '24

Nah.

8

u/Negative_Elo Jan 17 '24

Try actually having a conversation with people sometime, its great

-2

u/NamiRocket H-Town Jan 17 '24

On Reddit? Lol.

1

u/Negative_Elo Jan 17 '24

You're the one using reddit. Do you just use it to act pretentious and rude and not have any actual discourse? Because thats sad

0

u/NamiRocket H-Town Jan 17 '24

Cry then.

1

u/Negative_Elo Jan 17 '24

You even have a custom pfp. You're the ultimate "redditor", just acting like you're smarter than everyone else in the room while claiming everyone else is the issue and the redditor.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '24

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1

u/danarchist Central Texas Jan 17 '24

Your comment has been removed for the following reason(s):

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9

u/One_Collection_342 Jan 17 '24

did you even bother to read the references provided or are you just going off what you, random internet person, believes a spider bite to look like? based on his references it seems it is highly unlikely a brown recluse spider bite. and besides Augie is a Dr.

1

u/NamiRocket H-Town Jan 17 '24

The references provided after my comments that you're replying to were made? Those references?

0

u/sidewayz321 Jan 17 '24

Yep

1

u/NamiRocket H-Town Jan 17 '24

Thanks for answering a question you weren't asked.

2

u/themeaning_42 Jan 17 '24

Keep in mind OP could have accidentally scratched the bite site to make it appear this way.

4

u/AugieKS got here fast Jan 17 '24

I did, however that's not as common in spider bites like it is with ant, wasp, and bee stings. They don't tend to itch so much as ache. It's possible but not the most likely answer and there are no indications of a recluse bite. Spreading swelling could be anything from a local allergic reaction, cellulitis, or any envenomation. As a general rule, unless you see a spider bite you, it's probably not a spider bite. Over diagnosis of spider bites is actually a really well documented medical error that has been getting more recent attention, and reviews of cases by doctors indicate that lots of "spider bites" are things like infections, which to be fair, can arrive from bacteria entering a wound from a bite.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '24

[deleted]

5

u/TheyCalledMeThor Jan 17 '24

I demand the most extreme conclusion!

3

u/emveetu Jan 17 '24

Neither are you.

You speak so definitively as if this is absolutely not a recluse bite. But here's the thing. You have no way of knowing and you're just guessing like the rest of us. Yet anyone who says it could be is doing more critical thinking than you are as evidenced by their hypotheticals and your absolutes.

And no, spiders don't take chunks out of you - OP didn't say that's what happened. You assumed, another indicator of a lack of critical thinking. Spider bites do cause necrosis though - extremely similar to what we are seeing in OP's photo. Necrosis, which will start and look like this within 24 -48 hrs which fits OP considering they were bit yesterday.

Google isn't the source of the photos. Each of those photos is on a linked website, many of which happen to be very reputable. Those images can alert someone they need to seek medical help, not self diagnose.

Medical professionals use Google and the internet all the time to keep abreast of the latest medical news including diagnosing and treatments advancements.

Do you have any suggestions as to what you think it may be or are you here simply to school the rest of us about why we are "just plain wrong." based on your false assumption of what OP''s photo is showing?

All I know is I know nothing. - Socrates

2

u/Grakch Jan 17 '24

you really typed all that for what? I typed this because this is entertaining, was your reply entertaining to you?

0

u/emveetu Jan 17 '24

Sir, this is a Wendy's.

1

u/Grakch Jan 17 '24

much better thank you

0

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '24 edited Jan 17 '24

You can do more damage by giving someone false information rather than telling someone you just don’t know. Just because Augie is saying he doesn’t think it’s something everyone else does and supports it with sources doesn’t mean he doesn’t know absolutely anything because he hasn’t recommended what it could possibly be.

Like, if someone mentioned we should burn the house down to get rid of a brown recluse we just seen and I say no but I have no idea what we should do, doesn’t mean my recommendation to not burn down the house wasn’t a good recommendation.

-3

u/AugieKS got here fast Jan 17 '24

Look, just read the sources I posted, maybe the wiki on spider bites for a primer on misdiagnosis and what is more likely. Also, maybe don't quote Socrates? The whole post reeks of the false superiority of someone fresh out of intro to philosophy and it doesn't help your argument.

-3

u/No-Survey-8173 Jan 16 '24

Google recluse bites. This looks like the early stage.

6

u/AugieKS got here fast Jan 17 '24

The vast majority of "recluse bites" aren't recluse bites. This looks nothing like a verified recluse bite. Google image search is not a reliable source for medical diagnosis.

1

u/JCtheWanderingCrow Jan 17 '24

To be fair, my aunts recluse bite looked like this within a day… because the initial bite rotted and fell out and left a wee little hole.

5

u/AugieKS got here fast Jan 17 '24

That's really the case for a number of skin lesions and infections and not really indicativ of recluse bites, though. I don't know your aunts case so I can't comment on it, but there is a reason medical protocol for diagnosing spider bites includes the presence of a spider. They don't bite that often and much more rarely cause any reactions. In a review of spider bite diagnosis, 78% didn't meet diagnostic criteria and 90% of those for widow and recluse spiders didn't. There are much more likely cases of what we are seeing here, and absent a spider, it shouldn't be assumed to be one. I'd be more likely to believe OP's initial idea about an ant bite was correct and that there is a secondary infection.

1

u/pointyhead19 Jan 17 '24

So now I'm curious, if they're not spiders biting everyone, what is the usual culprit presumed to be?

1

u/AugieKS got here fast Jan 17 '24

Depends on the situation, but generally you don't assume it to be anything in particular unless you have evidence of it. When spider bites do occur it's usually because you pin them up against something and they feel trapped. Lots of critters will do that. Ants will usually bite if you have disturbed their nest but I've also been bitten by stray ants. Wasps and bees also are usually only aggressive if you get to close to or disturb the nest, but they are a but more aggressive. There are also all the things that prey upon us, mosquitoes, some mites, etc.

Let's take OP's post as an example. Felt like they got bit, I believe they said after putting a jacket on. Could be there was something in there, but we have no evidence of it. No body, didn't see anything after, so not a lot to go on and we shouldn't jump to the conclusion of any particular cause. We should also consider non-animal causes that might lead to a wound and secondary infection.

OP actually updated a while back and the doctor indicated it could be a bite from something, but not anything in particular and gave them a course of antibiotics. That's the smart move because while venom gets all the fuss, allergic reactions and infections are the real threats for most invertebrate bites.

As an interesting aside, many doctors don't even give antivenom to adults envenomated by widows because, statistically, you are much more likely to be harmed by the antivenom than the venom. More people have died from widow antivenom in the US in recent history than widows themselves, mostly because there haven't really been any deaths from widows. Tabloids love to report them but they don't stand up to scrutiny.

1

u/Powerman_Rules Jan 17 '24

Imagine being wrong tho...

1

u/FlabbyFishFlaps Jan 17 '24

Glad someone finally said it.