Has anyone been bitten by a Spider?

About two days ago I woke up and felt this annoying feeling on my right thigh, just where the belt or rubber in my pants usually goes.
First it was just a red bump, with a swelling in the center.
I put on my cure-all - Sudocrem - but it didn't help much.
Now its like a dark red smear, and this afternoon it quite shockingly looked like a little teat or nipple growing on my thigh!
I'm told by family it's just a boil or something, or an ingrown hair.
However, we do have small black widow spiders around the house, and I doubt it's an ingrown hair.
My first thought was that I was bitten by something.
It's getting cold now and the mosquitoes have all buggered off weeks ago, and there's no bees.
So it must be a spider!

I've recently scraped my knee, and it turned into a right bloody mess, and the doctor told me that because I'm HIV-poz these thing will become infected.
Now I'm getting quite worried.
Tomorrow is a public holiday in SA where we go voting for the municipal elections, so everything is likely to be closed.
At least most people say on the web the spider bite did them no harm, but I'm wondering...
Best to have more beer.

i got bitten once .... when i was 6 i thought i could be spider man .... but nothing happened

reply to post by halfoldman


You don't have to be HIV to get an infection from a poisonous spider and from what you describe, thats typical of a red back or similar species. Next time, hoping it does'nt happen again, get to the doctor pronto!

trust me buddy...if it was a black widow you would get really sick and would require medical attention probly...if it was a baby black widow...you'd be dead as the baby's have MUCH more potent venom

I wonder if Tea Tree Oil will help - but the stuff never stays on.

reply to post by here4awhile

I realize that different countries have different labels - I guess I mean a red back (well, I didn't see it, but here we call them a "knopie spinnekop" - a small back thing with a red dot on its butt). The only translation I find is a black widow, but I know there are deadlier species also called that.

If your truly worried go see a doctor, asking for help on the internet is not always a good thing.

Better safe than sorry.

reply to post by halfoldman


Because you mentioned that you were HIV+, I immediately thought of Karposi's Sarcoma.

It may not be but it would be a good idea to see a doctor even if it isn't.

Hope it's just an insect bite that goes away.

reply to post by halfoldman
please see a doctor,what I thought was a spider bite on my daughter ended up being mrsa,and was hospitalized for three days.Be careful and have it looked at.

Oh my hat!
This poor woman died of a Violin Spider bite.
And it started off looking like a mosquito bite!

www.news24.com...

Last place to look for help is here, since you did, I'll try. Here in Tampa I was bitten by a brown recluse 10-12 years ago. I wear the ankle high socks with my work boots and one day while checking a jobsite I felt like a fly had landed on my sock, I shook my foot without looking to see what it was and when I felt it on my skin I simply gave it a swat. After finishing my business with my clent, no more than 5 minutes, I looked down and my leg from the knee down looked like a water balloon. I took off my shoe and the damnedest thing, my foot instantly got to the size of a football. Got into the truck and went to my office( on the way to the clinic), showed the bosses wife/secretary, immediately grossed her out, went on my way to the clinic 1/4 mile away. The doc says any more delay I'd be in the hospital. gave me a few injections of God knows what, swelling went down the next day, and I was left with a 1.5 inch hole above my ankle that took 8 months to heal. Moral of the story: I would be getting that mutha checked, son, and not by some yahoo on a website.

reply to post by LAUGHING-CAT

Thank you.
I'm not looking for help by the way.
It's just on my mind, and I'm pretty stuck for now (the middle of the night), and I'm not yet dying in pain.
I know now I should see a doctor. But its never been an issue to me before, so I'm just interested in some experiences.
All I know is that it's not going away or harmless, although it first appeared that way.

Man up cowboy,I got bit by a spider before on my pinky.The only thing that happened was I got sick for a few weeks,the skin peeled off the finger,the poison came out,and i lost feeling in the nerve.Just pour some peroxide on that bad boy,the poison will die in a few weeks.

reply to post by halfoldman


Strip that bed and go through it with a fine tooth comb. Look under it, and all around it. See if you can find a spider.

I've been bitten, but it was nonpoisonous. I think poisonous spiders are by region somehow, so here we have Black Widows, and the dreaded Brown Recluse, both which are killers, and both which can be managed with anti-biotics. Non-poisonous bites get better quickly, not slowly worse. Not sure what poisonous spiders are indigenous to your neck of the woods.

See a doctor, just to be on the safe side, okay?

ETA: Oh, see you are already going...just can't today. By the way, I know a guy who was bitten on the neck seven times by the same Brown Recluse. It was under some leaves outside, he put them in a bag, threw the bag over his shoulder. Holy Smokes. Anyway, he didn't go to the doctor for three or four days. A few rounds of anti-biotics and he's fine. But man, I've never seen anybody turn so white! lol. Face like glowing white.

Sounds like you may have been bitten by a brown recluse spider. The bite will become very infected and painful if so. Take a look at this video and if it looks like what this guy has I would go to a doctor.

Pop that sucker with something sterile and pour some hydrogen peroxide on it,it will kill the poison.

If you catch the spider,give him a good punch in the fangs,that bastard.

Apples and Oranges since I dont live where you are,but yes,I was bitten by a Black Widow when I was a kid(9)....at deaths door when I got to the hospital,took the shot and went home fine 2 hrs later....

The only other one we have up here is the Brown Recluse("fiddleback"),which is necrotic and the Widow is neurotoxic....I see a Recluse sometimes but never got fanged by one...like someone else said,if a Widow got you,then you wouldnt be on ehre asking about it...JME

reply to post by brindle

Well the main spider that is poisonous, and that I've seen outside, is our "knopie spinnekop" (Afrikaans for button spider). See pics:
www.mieliestronk.com...
However, I'm starting to think we are getting a proliferation of various species, especially as our borders, harbors and airports are fairly lax. I mean, reading more on this lady above who passed away from the Violin Spider bite - that was completely out of its range.

In winter, and especially when it rains we have one or two rain spiders inside.
They are huge - one could put them on a leech and take them for a crawl.
But they are totally harmless.

We have a very clean home, and no cobwebs.
When I discussed this sore with my mum earlier she thinks it must have happened down at the local pub.
Well where-ever, I certainly didn't feel the bite and woke up with this sore.
Now I used the mirror and saw two disticnt bumps - typical of the button spider (black widow/red back?).
Some people say they hardly feel it, and others get major complications - I'm not sure which way I'm going.
Because it covers my right thigh (feels a bit like a slight cigarette burn right now) putting peroxide on it will ruin my clothes and it's cold.