In some parts of the country, your outdoor camping, hiking or backpacking trip can be affected by this spider's bite.
If you've spent any amount of time in the outdoors hiking, backpacking or camping, you know it's not unusual to be bitten or stung by various insects, plants or animal life. It goes with the territory.
But in certain parts of the United States, particularly the south central and midwestern areas, the Brown Recluse Spider is a part of the ecosystem you will want to avoid.
While living in Oklahoma I had a friend who returned from a camping trip with what she thought was a mosquito bite on her leg, just to the left of her shin bone. At first it presented as just a raised red area that itched, but over the course of a few days she developed a dime-sized hole that extended approximately a quarter-inch into her leg. It turned out that she had been bitten by a Brown Recluse Spider. The bite eventually healed under a doctor's care, but she was left with an indentation in her leg where the bite was located.
The Brown Recluse prefers to stay in dark areas, so in the outdoors they live under rocks, logs, woodpiles and debris. But if they get indoors or in sheltered areas (like your tent) they can be found in sleeping bags, boots, caps or items of clothing. That's another reason why it's always a good idea to get in the practice of shaking out those items before climbing into them or placing them on your body. The Brown Recluse is not an aggressive arachnid, but when finding itself between, say the inside of your boot and your skin, it will bite in self-defense.
While not poisonous (the venom is meant to paralyze its smaller prey), the bite's result on a human is necrosis or tissue death as the venom kills the affected flesh. In most cases, humans will not even feel the bite when it happens, but within 3 to 8 hours the affected area will itch, swell, redden and become pus-filled as the body's defense mechanism seek to fight off the effects of the venom. Though rarely fatal, the bite is painful and can possibly cause a systemic reaction in your body within 24-36 hours that may cause chills, fever, nausea, muscle weakness and joint pain.
Stay safe in the outdoors and avoid the Brown Recluse Spider.
