Fire ants - questions (houses, to relocate, yard)

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by stan4

Brown recluse bites do not send people to the ER "deathly sick."
I'm sure there some weird case out there, but for the most part, no.

Yes, but they can lead to necrosis, fever and chills, skin rash, nausea, and joint pain. The necrosis is ugly, I've seen it.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by TXNGL

Yes, but they can lead to necrosis, fever and chills, skin rash, nausea, and joint pain. The necrosis is ugly, I've seen it.

All pretty rare. Even the local necrosis is rare.

The only reason that a person really needs to consult a medical professional in this country for a spider bite is the fact that what they think is a spider bite may very well be something else. And usually is.

Pretty much every single patient who comes in with an MRSA abscess checks In with "spider bite." It's not a spider bite.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by Grainraiser

I'm glad I am not allergic to insects. I have been stung by wasp, bitten by fire ants, chiggers and scorpions. I experienced about 10 seconds of intense pain and was fine after that. I get ant piles all the time and treat them as they pop up. Their mounds are pretty pronounced so I seldom run into them by accident. Just watch were you walk and you should be fine. I'm dealing with a colony of bees who have set up shop in my sunroom. Their time is limited.

Please do not exterminate the bees, call a beekeeper who will relocate the colony (if it's possible to do so). We need to conserve all the bees we can.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by stan4

All pretty rare. Even the local necrosis is rare.

The only reason that a person really needs to consult a medical professional in this country for a spider bite is the fact that what they think is a spider bite may very well be something else. And usually is.

Pretty much every single patient who comes in with an MRSA abscess checks In with "spider bite." It's not a spider bite.

My brown recluse bite didn't go necrotic. It was painful and took a long time to heal, but no necrosis. Scar faded too.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

My brown recluse bite didn't go necrotic. It was painful and took a long time to heal, but no necrosis. Scar faded too.

I'm glad. The pain can be pretty bad.
Meanwhile, most people don't even feel the black widow bite.
I spent a summer on a cot in Mexico (in a little village) with three black widows on the ceiling/web above my head.
At first I was like, "Hell, no." Then I realized they had no plans of coming down from there.
Summer went on uneventfully. Nothing ever happened.

Then we had one in El Paso that lived near our ac unit pipes outside. You'd have to walk by her all the time and she lived there quite a while and never bothered anyone. The scorpions were the little effers causing all the trouble.

That's when I realized to just leave these things alone. Strangely never seen a BW myself in the Dallas area, but I know the recluses are about in woodpiles, garages, closets, etc.

People did get into rattlers and black widows in El Paso. I stopped using the old calcium and morphine iv for the worse painful BW bites and started hitting people with the antivenom - there was never really a threat to their lives (like the rattler bites), but it was just so amazing how their symptoms (body pains, abd pain, writhing, etc) would just disappear with that stuff.

Frankly, after having lived in Indonesia and traveled to places where there actually are aggressive, painful, dangerous bugs (and actual killer snakes - not just pansy copperheads), I think the Dallas area is just nice and fine.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by stan4

Frankly, after having lived in Indonesia and traveled to places where there actually are aggressive, painful, dangerous bugs (and actual killer snakes - not just pansy copperheads), I think the Dallas area is just nice and fine.

Yup...apart from the odd case here and there of someone dying of hymenoptera venom allergies or West Nile, our bugs & snakes are pretty tame.

[ZestyCharles]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

My brown recluse bite didn't go necrotic. It was painful and took a long time to heal, but no necrosis. Scar faded too.

Same with mine.

I had it looked at, and it was just treated topically. The doc said to come back if it worsened, but it never worsened. The scar faded after about a year, which was incredible since the hole in my hip from the bite I could have stuck my finger into!

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by ZestyCharles

Same with mine.

I had it looked at, and it was just treated topically. The doc said to come back if it worsened, but it never worsened. The scar faded after about a year, which was incredible since the hole in my hip from the bite I could have stuck my finger into!

But wasn't the hole from necrosis? I realize people think I'm being dramatic. The bite from a recluse is concerning. And yes, compared to spiders and snakes in places like Indonesia (as was mentioned) we have it easy. But I sure shake out my shoes and boots when I haven't worn them for a while.

[HP48G]

I've seen recluse spiders out in the open in kitchen and bathroom sinks looking for moisture. Very slow and timid spiders that are too easy to accidentally bump or squeeze.

[TwinbrookNine]

Originally Posted by ZestyCharles

Nope, it was brand new camping gear we had just purchased at the store two days before.

I was half asleep and felt something crawl over my hip. I swatted at it, and it bit me. I didn't get to ID it, but based on how the bite progressed, it had to have been a brown recluse. Basically dissolved a hole in my flesh and hurt like hell for a couple weeks, but overall wasn't too bad. Doc said it was probably a recluse bite as well. If it had been a bite on another area, it could have been bad. Recluse bites can do permanent damage depending on where they bite.

Before its purchase I presume it was in a store in Texas. Recluse spiders don't discriminate between homes and stores. And where was that stuff kept in the interim two days, and was it unboxed when you got it home?