Bubbabob wrote:
> >
> Over the years, three friends of mine have been bitten by Brown Recluse
> spiders here in Albuquerque, where the experts all swear they don't exist.
> All three required necrotic excisions. The worst had to have a lump of
> rotted flesh the size of a fist excised from her right buttock. I've seen
> them in my house. They get killed on sight. I'm a little more generous to
> the Black Widows (Albuquerque being the Black Widow capital of the world)
> because the variety that lives here is very slow to anger and almost never
> bites.
>
> Brown Recluses CAN kill you if you don't get medical treatment The abcess
> will keep spreading and become a great site for opportunistic staph
> infections. Since it isn't the toxin that kills you directly, they aren't
> considered to be officially deadly but that's a moot point if you're bitten
> by one out in the boonies and can't get to a hospital.

But that can be said of any compromise to the skin. Any
inscision/puncture/cut can become infected. The venom will cause
*some* tissue to die, but it isn't the venom that causes
infections/abscesses like what is shown in the photo - THAT is caused
by secondary infection, or cellulitis, etc. The spider bite
in-and-of-itself isn't that damaging. There simply isn't enough venom
to cause much damage.

-L.