Question: Any Exterminators Here? Question About Brown Recluse Control

mulletover

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Dec 1, 2009
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Cullman Alabama
My father in law was bitten by a Brown Recluse three weeks ago while tearing down an old barn. Because of this he's almost lost his leg. The skin died all the way down to the tendon. The problem grew this bad due to being misdiagnost and treated for cellulitis. He ended up at St. Vincents in Birmingham where an infectious control Dr said "thats a Brown Recluse bite no doubt about it" It seems spider bites arent easily diagnosed.

Kill them suckers with fire! Twice for good measure!
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
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Oct 13, 1999
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Huntsville, AL,USA
My father in law was bitten by a Brown Recluse three weeks ago while tearing down an old barn. Because of this he's almost lost his leg. The skin died all the way down to the tendon. The problem grew this bad due to being misdiagnost and treated for cellulitis. He ended up at St. Vincents in Birmingham where an infectious control Dr said "thats a Brown Recluse bite no doubt about it" It seems spider bites arent easily diagnosed.

Kill them suckers with fire! Twice for good measure!
That, Lyme's (Auburn chief vet says it's not here, despite my doc's seeing several cases a year [sorry, Dub]), and flesh-eating bacteria are just about the worst missed diagnoses, other than a missed MI or stroke...
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
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Huntsville, AL,USA
That is an odd assertion for a vet.
Actually, it came from MY vet, who is an AU grad (naturally) and a good client/friend. The background is that I got a tick bitten about a month ago, from a deer tick. I was actually sitting, in shorts, on a deer trail on our property, working on my tractor. When I discovered the little SOB, he was about twice the head of a pinhead. When I tried to get it out, it burst, blood flying everywhere. (They're about the size of the POINT of a pin when juvenile. I put antibiotic on it and forgot about it. I've had many tick bites. After a couple of days, I looked down and there was the bull's eye, which had spread out to about 3" in diameter. I actually went to the nearest urgent care, where the doc looked at it and just said "Yep, you got it," and placed me on antibiotics. In the meantime, I placed a pic on FB. Despite that, the husband of my vet posted back that the head of the Veterinary Dept at Auburn had declared there was no Lyme in Alabama (despite many studies to the contrary). It happened that I had an annual OV with my rheumatologist about a week later and told him that. He just leaned back and laughed, something he doesn't do easily. He said that he saw about 3-5 cases of Lyme's arthritis a year, typical for the others here. Only about 10% of Lyme sufferers go on to develop arthritis (and it's bad when it hits). He said there are about ten of them, so he said multiply by ten, twice. That means 300-500 per year in this area alone - and that's before you even start looking at missed dxes. I called it out as irresponsible on the part of Auburn, and I meant it. Although she and I have discussed other matter, we haven't talked about this, but we shall...
 

NationalTitles18

TideFans Legend
May 25, 2003
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Mountainous Northern California
My father in law was bitten by a Brown Recluse three weeks ago while tearing down an old barn. Because of this he's almost lost his leg. The skin died all the way down to the tendon. The problem grew this bad due to being misdiagnost and treated for cellulitis. He ended up at St. Vincents in Birmingham where an infectious control Dr said "thats a Brown Recluse bite no doubt about it" It seems spider bites arent easily diagnosed.

Kill them suckers with fire! Twice for good measure!
Problem is so many people THINK they have a spider bite when they don't and it is just cellulitis. A true spider bite is difficult to nearly impossible to tell apart from cellulitis and prophylactic antibiotics would be part of the regimen anyway in a number of cases. Almost all cases improve with standard antibiotics and those that don't usually respond to a change in therapy. A number of infections will also result in necrosis, making that an unreliable criteria for determining whether there was a bite or not. In any case, there is no antivenom, so supportive care, antibiotics, antihistamines, and in less common cases dapsone or surgery are needed. Recluse bites are actually fairly rare. They would be zebras in a world full of horses.

Actually, it came from MY vet, who is an AU grad (naturally) and a good client/friend. The background is that I got a tick bitten about a month ago, from a deer tick. I was actually sitting, in shorts, on a deer trail on our property, working on my tractor. When I discovered the little SOB, he was about twice the head of a pinhead. When I tried to get it out, it burst, blood flying everywhere. (They're about the size of the POINT of a pin when juvenile. I put antibiotic on it and forgot about it. I've had many tick bites. After a couple of days, I looked down and there was the bull's eye, which had spread out to about 3" in diameter. I actually went to the nearest urgent care, where the doc looked at it and just said "Yep, you got it," and placed me on antibiotics. In the meantime, I placed a pic on FB. Despite that, the husband of my vet posted back that the head of the Veterinary Dept at Auburn had declared there was no Lyme in Alabama (despite many studies to the contrary). It happened that I had an annual OV with my rheumatologist about a week later and told him that. He just leaned back and laughed, something he doesn't do easily. He said that he saw about 3-5 cases of Lyme's arthritis a year, typical for the others here. Only about 10% of Lyme sufferers go on to develop arthritis (and it's bad when it hits). He said there are about ten of them, so he said multiply by ten, twice. That means 300-500 per year in this area alone - and that's before you even start looking at missed dxes. I called it out as irresponsible on the part of Auburn, and I meant it. Although she and I have discussed other matter, we haven't talked about this, but we shall...
Lyme is definitely in your neck of the woods. It's a relatively low risk, but the erythema migrans at the site means you should be tested for a baseline and repeat test(s) and given doxycycline or amoxicillin treatment.

Interestingly, I've seen several folks who seemed fairly ill but tested negative for all tick borne illnesses. There was a recent discovery of a virus that has shown up several times in people with history of tick bite and similar signs and symptoms with 1 reported death. This was the Bourbon virus. The heartland virus was discovered a few years prior. I have to think some of these folks had one of these or some as yet undiscovered virus. It also makes me think that perhaps one of these viruses could explain why some people who are treated appropriately for lyme go one to continue to have arthritis and other problems while 80-90% recover fully without lingering effects. I would expect some studies on this issue within the next few years.
 

MOAN

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Aug 30, 2010
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I am very familiar with them pesky fiddleback spiders, been bitten a few times and lived in a house and a mobile home that were infested. The first time bitten I went to the doctor because I knew the house was infested and figured it was a spider bite which he confirmed. He didn't think it looked like a recluse bite but the antibiotics he prescribed fixed it up pretty quick. Then after that when I suspected a bite I just went and got some antibiotics asap and never let it get bad enough to cause scarring or anything serious. How strong your immune system also has a lot to do with how bad it gets as well as how allergic to the venom you may be, not everyone reacts the same. Apparently I am not very allergic to the venom and my body fights it off good so antibiotics takes care of it quick.

I have used "Martin's Viper Insecticide Concentrate" http://www.martinsbrand.com/products/24/ with a great deal of success fighting them as well as roaches over the years. I buy it at the local farmers coop in Guntersville. I always get it in the 4 ounce bottles and mix 1 ounce to a gallon of water and use either a spray bottle or pump sprayer, spraying all crevices around doors, cabinets, just about anywhere you might think they will hide out at. It is pretty strong stuff so if you have asthma it may not be good for you. My wife pretty much has to leave the house for a few hours, as she has asthma and COPD.

The mobile home I rented years ago that I found to be infested before we moved in I sprayed one day with the Viper, went back 3 days later and bombed with those raid can bombers, three days later sprayed with the viper, three days later bombed again. Took me about 2 weeks of that routine but each time I would sweep up fewer and fewer fiddlebacks and finally I was just getting a few very small ones. I then went outside and started the routine under the home and that is where I found their nest!! People before me or maybe even before the ones before them had stacked some plywood under the home. My son and I decided to drag them out and on the bottom side of the plywood, it looked like millions of them all matted in a white thick web. It was cold weather and they pretty much were dormant but we went to stomping them with our feet and I burned all the plywood. We lived there for 5 or 6 years after that and never seen another or got bit. :)
 

AUDub

Hall of Fame
Dec 4, 2013
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Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
Thanks for the suggestions, y'all. I hadn't seen any for a week since cleaning and poisoning, but today my wife decided to go on a cleaning bend upstairs in my older two's rooms. She called me up when she spotted one. Killed 6 in total, including 3 big ones in the crawl spaces. Came back downstairs and spotted this one...



...in the kids' bathtub. Ugh. Hope that delta dust gets here soon.
 

crimsonaudio

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We had them for a while but got into the habit of fogging the attic and spraying the interior / exterior of the house, both twice per year. Zero spiders now.
 

AUDub

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Dec 4, 2013
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Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
OK, so an update. Haven't seen any in a few months. Sticky traps have stopped snagging them. They seem to be under control. As a bonus, there seems to have been a nice resurgence of these little guys:



I like them. Harmless, compete for food with and have been known to eat my most recent mortal enemy. This is a wittle guy I caught chilling in my man cave. Got a few enormous ones living in the garage. They can hang.

Hold a flashlight up by your head and go digging in the dark through your garage some time. They put on quite a lightshow.
 

92tide

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May 9, 2000
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East Point, Ga, USA
OK, so an update. Haven't seen any in a few months. Sticky traps have stopped snagging them. They seem to be under control. As a bonus, there seems to have been a nice resurgence of these little guys:



I like them. Harmless, compete for food with and have been known to eat my most recent mortal enemy. This is a wittle guy I caught chilling in my man cave. Got a few enormous ones living in the garage. They can hang.

Hold a flashlight up by your head and go digging in the dark through your garage some time. They put on quite a lightshow.
i see these guys (or something similar) when i am running at night in the woods. the headlamp reflects off of them and sometimes the forest floor looks like a disco party.
 

CrimsonNagus

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Jun 6, 2007
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Montgomery, Alabama, United States
OK, so an update. Haven't seen any in a few months. Sticky traps have stopped snagging them. They seem to be under control. As a bonus, there seems to have been a nice resurgence of these little guys:



I like them. Harmless, compete for food with and have been known to eat my most recent mortal enemy. This is a wittle guy I caught chilling in my man cave. Got a few enormous ones living in the garage. They can hang.

Hold a flashlight up by your head and go digging in the dark through your garage some time. They put on quite a lightshow.
How big is that, a little bigger then a quarter?That looks like ones I kill in our house every so often, I always thought they were recluses.
 

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