Ask LJ: What kind of a spider is this?

[awfief]

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

Comments

[awfief]

By the way, I know it's a spider without all its legs. sadly in getting it into the container I accidentally chopped off some legs. Sorry Mr. Spider. (or Mrs. Spider as the case may be)

[hakamadare]

so, the legs look a bit short, but the markings on the thorax and abdomen look somewhat similar to a brown recluse.

perhaps compare its size to a penny, as per the reference photo? also, can you flip it over and look at the arrangement of the eyes? that should help with identification.

for questions like this, a good resource is the poison control hotline, 800-222-1222.

-steve

[awfief]

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

[awfief]

Exactly. We wouldn't be around to ask about it if one had been biting us for 8 weeks or so.

[marius23]

One note is that if it is spider bites you're getting, you should be able to see two puncture wounds.

[marius23]

So the jumping spider is probably the most common biting spider in the United States. Bites from a jumping spider are usually painful, itchy and cause redness and significant swelling.

However, what you have there does not look like a a jumping spider but more like a common house spider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasteatoda_tepidariorum) aka american house spider. They can bite, but it's rare. The venom is a neurotoxin similar to black widow but much less potent.

[awfief]

After thinking even more about it, I have no clue. It's possible the bites are completely unrelated, it's just that we haven't seen *any* bugs at all in our place, much less biting ones. No ants, no flies, nothing.

I wonder if we just have nocturnal mosquitoes or something. I had Tony look at the most recent bite and he didn't see 2 pricks in it, just 1, like a mosquito bite.

[gorgo]

Have you considered bedbugs as a possibility? Mosquito-bite sized marks seem larger than what I've heard they do, but ...

[awfief]

Indeed, they were the first thing we considered. If we have bedbugs, though, we have like 1 bedbug, and in 8 weeks s/he hasn't breeded. Usually bedbugs will bite a few times in a row on your flesh, not just once. We also have light-colored sheets and I check them a few times a week for blood spots (if you roll over a bedbug).

Basically I'm assuming we're getting bitten in bed, because of the odd places I've gotten bitten (on my stomach, in addition to my hand and shoulder) and the fact that we don't feel any biting during waking hours.

The odd part is we have not seen a sign of *any* type of bug -- not a fruit fly, bee, ant, roach, spider web/cobweb, whatever -- until I saw the spider the other day, and that was on the opposite side of the apartment than the bedroom. We'd already ruled out spider bite because the tissue isn't necrotic.

At this point I'm wondering if we just have a mosquito or 2 that's nocturnal.

[dossy]

"We'd already ruled out spider bite because the tissue isn't necrotic."

Some spider venoms aren't cytotoxic, and thus won't trigger necrosis. It could still be a spider bite ...