The brown recluse spider looks innocent enough, with long thin legs like those of a daddy longlegs and a drab brown body.
It lacks the fierce appearance of the wolf spider, the size of the tarantula or the warning red hourglass of the black widow. Few people in the mountain states recognize it when they see it.Yet the brown recluse carries some of the most toxic poison of any spider in the United States - second only to the black widow. There are three members of the brown recluse family - called Loxoxceles. All of them are equally poisonous.
One of them exists in Utah - but few Utahns know that until they are bitten.
The brown recluse is a solitary spider that prefers dark, quiet places and comes in a variety of brown shades. It has a dark brown mark on its back the shape of a violin, earning it a variety of nicknames: violin spider, fiddleback spider, fiddler spider and brownie spider.
Because the spider hails from warm climates, local entomologists believe it can't take up residence and start breeding in Utah. But the Utah Department of Agriculture estimates the spider can remain active in temperatures from 40 degrees to 110 degrees fahrenheit. "Brown recluse spiders are very adaptable," the department said in a brochure on the spider.
Carried to Utah in cargo
Entomologists interviewed by the Deseret News believe the spider comes into Utah along with cargo from the warm climates of South America, the Caribbean, Africa and southern United States, said Rosemarie Roeloffs, an entomologist and research scientist with Natural Product Sciences, a private corporation.
"The spider may settle in people's homes and actually be living in Utah," she said. If the house is warm enough, the spider can live there for a couple of years, Roeloffs said. "They are not real short-lived spiders."
Bite victims can attest to that. Judging from the number of bites and the times of year they occurred, the brown recluse survives Utah's winters.
"The spiders are identified all over now. They find them everywhere," said Dr. Clifford Snyder, associate dean of the University of Utah Medical School and professor emeritus of surgery.
Snyder has had five brown recluse spiders brought to him by Utahns during his career at the medical school. He has treated six Utah bite victims. In addition, the Deseret News found half a dozen other people whose injuries were diagnosed by physicians as brown recluse spider bites. Those victims, in turn, each knew of other victims.
"The doctor at the Bountiful hospital who treated my bite said he had seen two other brown recluse bites the very week I was bitten. One was on a finger that he had to amputate," said Cindy Winegar.
"I had never heard of the spider, but as soon as my husband was bitten, so many people who saw his bite recognized it and said they had been bitten by the brown recluse, too," said LaDean Thueson, Bountiful.
Number of Utahns bitten is a mystery
However, Utah does not require doctors to report brown recluse spider bites, so no one can estimate the number of Utah bite victims.
Roeloffs believes some of the diagnoses are wrong. The spider is rare in Utah and not likely to breed here, she insists. "I think there is a lot of what amounts to almost hysteria tied up with spider bites," she said. "I don't think the brown recluse is something that people here have to be really concerned about. Be aware of the spider certainly. But it is not something to sit up at night and worry about."
The several bite victims interviewed by the Deseret News feel differently. Most waited several days before getting their bites treated because they hadn't heard of the spider and didn't know how serious the bite could be.
The brown recluse bite is vicious. "The spider's venom kills the tissues of the skin," said Lewis T. Nielsen, an entomologist and professor emeritus of biology at the University of Utah. "The poison can cause severe ulcers to spread on the skin, destroying large patches of skin and requiring cosmetic surgery to repair the damage. In some cases, the poison affects the victim's entire system. There have been records of people dying from the bite, although that's not too common."
If untreated, the poison causes kidney failure which leads to death, Snyder said. Sometimes the gangrenous effect of the bite is so severe doctors have to amputate the bitten limb.
Because the spider likes a dark, static environment, he often settles into basements, attics, old boxes and stored clothing. "People are generally bitten when they are rummaging through a clothes closet or a drawer or in boxes in the basement," Nielsen said. "When the spider is disturbed, it will bite."
Bite is usually painless
"The bite is usually painless," said Dr. Gary Hunter, a plastic surgeon with the Salt Lake Clinic who has treated several brown recluse bites. "Occasionally the victim will have seen the spider. But many of them will not. So what you end up doing is ruling a lot of other things out and then getting to the point where you suspect a brown recluse spider bite."
That process can take time _ something victims have very little of. "These bites should be treated early, within hours," Snyder warned. "The sooner you catch it and start treating it, the better results you get."
No brown recluse antivenom has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, though some antivenoms are being tested, Snyder said. Currently, doctors treat patients with antibiotics and cortisones, dealing with additional symptoms as they arise. Plastic surgery and skin grafts often are called for.
Bring the spider to the doctor
Snyder stresses that unless the spider is brought in by the victim, the diagnoses are only presumptive. "You cannot make a positive diagnosis without the spider," he said.
Diagnosis of the bite was delayed in the cases of most victims interviewed because doctors did not immediately recognize the symptoms.
"The scary thing about the bites is doctors often have no clue about what a brown recluse spider bite looks like or how to treat it," Winegar said. Since her bite three years ago, she has researched the spider extensively, discovering that the symptoms can cover a wide spectrum.
It was Winegar who alerted Thueson to the seriousness of his bite. He went to her home to service a built-in vacuum system. The side of his face was swollen and ulcerating. Thueson already had seen a doctor, but the doctor hadn't recognized the bite. Winegar recognized the necrotic effects of the brown recluse and urged Thueson to seek expert help.
"Not all doctors know about the spider or what to look for. That's what's so scary," said Thueson's wife, LaDean.
Nielsen recommended that people who suspect they have been bitten contact a dermatologist, who should be familiar with the symptoms. "I think most of the doctors who have handled these bites and who are most likely to recognize the symptoms are at the University Hospital, although dermatologists throughout the state have been warned about this and they have a little more knowledge about it."
"We're trying to educate our family practitioners," Snyder said. "He's the first one to see the bite. If we can just get him to recognize it and not consider it an infected splinter or a basal cell cancer."
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Description of a brown recluse spider
The mature borwn recluse spider has a body about 3/8-inch long and 3/16-inch wide. Its legspan is about the size of a half-dollar. The spider's color varies from gray brown to deep red brown. The most noticeable mark on the brown recluse is a dark, fiddle-shaped area on the front half of its back. This mark narrows to a thin center line near the abdomen. Unlike most spiders, the brown recluse has six eyes instead of eight.
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Spider: The bite of a tiny brown recluse can cause serious, long-term damage.
The terse medical reports of a spider-bite victim's injuries fail to mention the accompanying depression or long-term health problems some people battle.
More than 1 1/2 years after he was bitten by a brown recluse, Steve Hales has just returned to work full time and still is fighting to get his energy back.
"In my life I have had hundreds of stitches, broken 22 bones and been through 12 surgeries," said Hales, who has been an aggressive athlete most of his life. "But from an emotional standpoint, this spider bite is by far the worst thing I've been through."
The sharp sting Hales felt on his leg that November day in 1988 launched him on a medical nightmare that only now is beginning to dissipate. He has endured repeated infections and surgeries. His first three skin grafts failed because of the poison still in the wound. "The grafts would start to bleed through in the exact spot of the bite," he said.
In February 1990 - 16 months after the bite - Hales nearly died when blood clots broke loose from the wound and moved to his lungs. He was hospitalized for five weeks, and the lower third of his left lung was destroyed by the pulmonary embolisms.
Embolisms - the obstruction of blood vessels by blood clots - are one of the many side effects resulting from severe brown recluse bites, said Dr. Clifford Snyder, associate dean of the University of Utah Medical School.
Hales' hospital stays totaled 3 1/2 months and his medical bills approach $100,000. But it's not over. Hales' body will never be the same. He has a scar on his right calf that resembles the work of a shark, not a spider. He waers a plastic shield on his calf to protect the part of his leg that no longer has any muscle.
"Virtually the whole top and sides of my right thigh are stripped of skin used for the grafts," Hales said. He has extensive scars there, too.
A severe brown recluse bite can cripple victims' immune systems. Only two months ago, Hales contracted pneumonia and a massive infection following his pulmonary embolism. "The interns would come into my hospital room and conclude that I had AIDS," Hales said. "I had pneumonia and both strep and staph infections in my bloodstream. The antibiotics weren't working."
Seven years after his bite, Frank Collins still battles systemic infections. He has been hospitalized four times for massive cellulitis, a staph infection that can haunt victims of brown recluse bites.
Collins' last infection was four weeks ago. A variety of irritations from mosquito bites to some laundry soaps can trigger Collins' massive infections, said his daughter, Lois Collins.
Collins' family still is appalled at the impact one small spider had on Collins' life. Lois Collins remembers one particularly critical hospital stay, "I could not believe I was sitting in the hospital waiting for my father to die from a spider bite that happened two years before."
Medical setbacks are not unusual with the brown recluse bite, said Dr. Gary Hunter, a plastic surgeon with the Salt Lake Clinic. Hunter was Hales' physician. When he first treated Hales' bite, he warned Hales that recovery would be slow and chaotic.
Despite the warning, Hales was amazed at the series of crises. He battled depression as one skin graft after another sloughed off, requiring further surgery. "If you have a broken bone, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "You are on crutches for a while, you ahve phyusical therapy, then things are normal. But this was a roller coaster."
Laurel Davis was stunned at how sick whe was. "I was so sick I didn't care if I died. I wished I would. I just ached all over, my arm swelle dup and throbbed with every heartbeat. I was very nauseous the whole time."
It was five years after her bite before she could close her hand into a fist again.
Most patients were angry and amazed that such a tiny insec tcould make them so sick. "I was mad, mad, mad that such a small little spider could disrupt my life and take away my security, independence and even my modesty," said bit victim Joyce Christiansen.
"When you think than an eighth-of-an-inch bug can knock you down like an ant knocking down an elephant - it's very humbling," said victim Laurel Davis.
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Profiles of six bite victims
- Dennis Thueson, Bountiful, was bitten on the eyebrow January 1990 while working in a crawl space above a Nevada home. He felt something brush across his face but never saw the spider. Considerable facial tissue died and had to be surgically cut away. He has had plastic surgery to improve the appearance of the bite area bu tthe area is discolored again and he is going back for more treatment, said his wife, LaDean.
- Steve Hales, Bountiful, was bitten on the calf in October 1988 while working under his car in his garage. He underwent four skin grafts, suffered repeated massive infections and penumonia, was hospitalized for a total of 3 1/2 months and was out of work for five months. He still is fighting to get his energy back.
- Cindy Winegar, Bountiful, Bountiful, was bitten on the wrist in November 1986 while she cleaned a room in the basement of her home. Surgeons cut a hole four inches long in her arm to remove all of the dead tissue and dug down into the tendons of her wrist in an attempt to get all the venom out. Her arm swelled to the shoulder, her veins collapsed, she was extremely nauseated and hospitalized for five days.
- Laurel Davis, Bountiful, was bitten on the hand in April 1985 while working in her garden. Within a few days her entire hand turned dark red. She was hospitalized for a week, so nauseated that she had to be fed intravenously. the swelling moved from the hand to the arm. Her veins collapsed from the intravenous needles and her arm was not improving.
She underwent major surgery to have the dead and dying tissue cut away from her hand. She was hospitalized for another two weeks, in a cast and out of work for two months.
She had no use of her hand for eight months after the bite and only recently - five years after the bite - has she regained full use of the hand.
- Joyce Christiansen, Rose Park, was bitten on the buttock in September 1984 while sleeping in bed. She theorizes that she rolled over on the spider.
Christiansen become immediately ill with nausea, dizziness, headaches, chills and joint pain. For three weeks after teh bite, Christiansen went into the doctor's office repeatedly to have an ever-widening swath of dying tissue cut away.
When the minor surgeries failed to stop the tissue decay, she underwent major surgery to cut away severla inches of poisoned skin. She was hospitalized for ifve days afterward. But she fought dizziness and nausea for months after the bite, losing 50 pounds in three months.
- Frank Collins, Idaho Falls, was bitten on the hand in 1982 while runing a piano that had not been opened for several decades. As recently as three weeks ago, Collins suffered from one of many massive infections that has frequently hospitalized him during the seven years since his bite.
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BROWN RECLUSE
SIZE: 3/8-inch long, 3/16-inch wide.
LEGSPAN: size of half-dollar
COLOR: varies from gray brown to deep red brown
Dark fiddle-shaped area on front half of back. This mark narrows to a thin center line near the abdomen. Unlike most spiders, the brown recluse has six eyes instead of eight.
Symptoms of a brown recluse spider bite
Intense pain at the time of the bit or within a few hours. A small white blister develops at the bite site within a few hours. Sometimes it resembles a boil or turns red from blood accumulating under the skin. The blister enlarges, becomes inflamed and ruptures. An ulcer forms with a sunken center and raised sides, resembling a minature volcano. The wound is often red, white and blue - a combination of colors unique to the brown recluse bit. The center of the ulcer is white, the rim is red and a bluish black ring often is around the outside of the ulcer. The ulcerated sore continues to enlarge, weeping profusely as the poison eats through skin and muscle. Skin begins to decay and slough off. Generalized symptoms such as rash, chills, fever, nausea, headaches, aching joints and weakness can develop in the victim within a few hours or days of the bit. "People think they have the flu."
What to do in case of a bite:
- If possible, find the spider that bit you. Positive identification of the spider by an expert can be helpful in treatment.
- Get immediate medical attention.l "In the case of the brown recluse spider, prompt medical treatment is needed to prevent severe reactions," the USDA warns.
- Apply antiseptic solution to the fang punctures to help preven tinfection. Apply ice packs to the area surrounding the bite.
- Do not treat the borwn recluse wound as you would a snake bite. Do not cut the fang punctures.
- Do not apply suction. Do not use a tourniquet.
How to avoid being bitten by the spider:
If you are certain the spider is in your home, use sprays or dusts containing lindane to kill it, the USDA advises. Spray along baseboards, behind furniture and pictures, beneath boxes and other objects that serve as hiding places.
"Limit the amount of lindane you use. Do not spray large surfaces such as walls, floors or ceilings. Do no apply lindane or other insecticide unless you have good reason to believe your property is infested."
Be aware that the spider will seek dark, warm, quiet places in the home as well as barns, garages, old outhouses, woodpiles and feed-storage buildings.
To keep premises free of brown recluse spiders, dispose of unneeded clothing, papers and other litter; sweep sheds and storage closets; clean the area around the water heater.
Clothing that has been stored for several months should be checked for spiders before being worn. A favorite hiding place fo rthe spider is a jacket or other garment left hanging in a barn, outbuilding or similar structure.
For protection, shake these garments before wearing them.
People working in areas where the spiders might be - basements, attics, etc. - should wear gloves.