Ask LJ: What kind of a spider is this?

Oct 25, 2011 20:27

More importantly, does it bite, and could it be the source of very infrequent mosquito-bite type things on our bodies? (The tissue where the bite is, isn't necrotic, so I'd ruled out spiders, but since I saw this one in my office tonight and captured it, I'm wondering if that's it...I am keeping it in the tupperware in case I have to bring it to a ( Read more... )

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awfief October 26 2011, 02:39:19 UTC
I have done a tad bit of research, and came to the same conclusion, however the brown recluse spider is more poisonous than just mosquito bite-type bites, and (more importantly) *extremely* rare in New England. The tissue isn't necrotic, either. I went to the poison control website, which said that the venom is necrotic.....(I've had necrotic spider bites before, a decade or so ago, when I scratched it the skin came right off and was very soft, this isn't like that at all)

Note: we've had perhaps 1 bite per week since about August, and with travel and whatnot we haven't quite killed the source, even though we've sprayed our bed with both bedbug & flea killer, and ant & roach killer, which is also supposed to kill spiders....We assume it's in our bed because I've had several bites on the right side of my stomach (I sleep on my back or right side), one on my hand and (the current one) one on the back of my left shoulder.

The spider is about 1/2 inch long (I've added more pics to the original post)...I honestly can't tell about the arrangement of eyes, even looking up close. I don't have a loupe or magnifying glass, and zooming in on the pics doesn't help either. I think it looks like there are 2 banks of eyes but I have no clue what that means :D

The bites have been extremely harmless, they itch and welt up like mosquito bites, and we assume they're happening at night because we don't feel them and we itch in the morning. There's only one bite, so we don't think it's bedbugs (usually bedbugs bite in a serial pattern of 3), and we've looked for the signs of spiders and fleas and haven't found any (other than this spider, which was on the opposite side of the house than our bedroom, tonight, but we haven't seen any cobwebs/spiderwebs).

Sadly it seems like lots of folks misdiagnose brown recluse spider bites, including doctors and exterminators. I figured someone I know must be an arachnologist (expert or amateur)....or know someone who is...

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