Help Identify Spiders and More
Arrakis dune spider.
If you are reading the comments and know what type of spider bite, a visitor has, please feel free to help.
Warning: Some of these pictures may show a scary spider or a bite that has become infected and could be considered disturbing to some, so if you don’t like the sight of rotted skin or exposed bone, this may not be for you. However, it does drive home the importance of seeking medical attention before it’s too late!
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I am not sure if I have gotten bit by a Spider or not its possible.I was in Iowa at the time at my brothers Mother and Father-in-Laws House.And my mom and I were walking on a trail behind their house.After we came back to Ohio from Iowa I noticed a redmark the size of a dime at the time on my leg and this was in June of last year.And I still have even more red marks on my legs on both legs it seemed to spread.I went from having one mark to seven marks all over my legs.They have healed all but three that are still visible on my legs so I dont know if its a bite or not could it be something else?
Today at around 9:30 my left elbow started to became itchy. I started scratching it without thinking, but it didn’t become any less itchy than before. I took off my sweater and saw that right above my elbow there was an area about the size of a dime that was raised and inflamed.
When I looked closely at the bite, I saw that there were two small red dots in the very middle of it. I felt around in the inside of the sweater I had been wearing, but there was nothing that could’ve made my skin that irritated. It stayed the same through the whole day, and it never even stopped itching.
Some people thought it might be a misquito bite, but none of the misquito bites I’ve had(and I’ve certainly had plenty) have ever been that big. I live in Southern California, and there are several insects that could’ve bit me.
I know that I either got bit when I was asleep or when I was out on a horse trail the day before it happened. Its only been a day since it happened, so I don’t know whether its going to start getting better or worse. Does anyone know what could’ve bit me?
It doesn’t seem very dangerous to me, but if anyone here has any advice for me, that would be great. Thanks!
My partner has been biten by a spider at work i have not seen the bite but he has been complaing of head spins, stomach ache, tired. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks
I was in Bangkok and received some kind of bite that most think is a spider bite, and an orthopedist on my trip said not to worry about it. I did not see the insect. It stung for a couple of hours after the bite, and now it just itches. It is a red circle a little larger than a silver dollar with no raised part of the skin. It has not changed size, shape or color since I received it. I have just gotten home from vacation and have had it for two weeks. Many thanks for any help!!!
Will send in photo. Have a bite of some kind on knee. The area looks to be 1/2 inch across and filled with pus. Itchy and sore. Some redness around it. In the photo note that the red line is an old scar, not related to this bite. What bit me? I live in north Georgia, US.
I’m not sure if what i have is a spider bite or not but here is the descripton. It started out looking like a weird mosquito bite, then it turned into a weird mosquito bite with a red ring around it the size of the bottom of a soda can, then a smaller darker red circle started to form around the bite and now the bite itself is turning black almost like a scab, but trust me i have not itched or touched it because its done nothing but burn and its so painful. So basically its a black mosquito sized bite surrounded by a quarter size dark red circle and a larger lighter bottom of a soda can circle size, the lager red area is also extremely swollen. I’ve put neosporin on it, taken ibuprofen and now am adding ice… any ideas what it might be?
I live in Ontario, Canada, in the City, and my partner has had an ongoing problem with being bitten in the night by what she assures me are spiders every spring and fall. I have mostly ignored her, (they looked just like mosquito bites to me), or joked about our bed being in the “migration path”.
This past fall, I too was finally bitten several times one night. The next morning when I woke, the bites were little red dots on my right knee, but over the course of several days, the itching increased and the “dots” linked up, forming thick, purple ‘scars” on my knees which itched like fire. I went to the doctor who agreed that I had been bitten by an insect, not a bedbug (thank goodness!) and that I was having an allergic reaction. After a couple of weeks and treatment, the itching went away, but it was several months before the “scabs” finally disappeared.
Given that spring is looming ahead of us, I’m wondering what, if anything we can do about the spider population in our house and what kind of spider is biting us.
We assume it’s a spider because we have a large spider population – despite our cleanliness. Tiny red ones in the basement – about a 10th of an inch including their legs, and white jumpers and grayish/beigey/brown web builders on the main and upper floors of the house.
Do you know what they are?
EDIT: I see they’re like “Kevin” in 581. Please help!
in July 2007, my 4 yr old son woke up with a bump on his leg containing clear pus inside with swelling around it. I squeezed the pus and cleaned the bump with peroxide and the pus reappeared again. I’ve repeated the same procedure. I looked in his bed to look for bugs and i spotted a small black spider (1cm) dead on his mattress.
I brought all this to his physicians attention but no vaccines was given. A month later three bumps appear in the same area which look like mosquito bites but a little red around the bumps. I cleaned with alcohol and the bumps turned into scabs. Until this day my son repeatedly itches and scratches the same area where I’ve notice more scabs developed around the same area from the scratching. Can anyone tell me if this is caused by the spider bite and what should be done?
my mother has a spider bite and we popped it there is like a brown substance in it, what is that??
I got bitten by something (I think it was a spider) last month. At the time, it was only red and itchy. I had a little hole in the middle of each bump which were about a centimeter apart. I can still see where I was bitten and it looks like a scar. Any help?
My Mom lives in Texas and was working in her yard clearing brush and dead twigs. Hours later she noticed her thumb felt like she had sprained it but she just ignored it. Later that night she noticed a red dot and thought maybe she bitten by a spider. She complains that its very painful like a sprain, she has a really bad headache that woke her up at night. The red spot is on the heel of her hand and her entire thumb is swollen and red and the heel of her hand is swollen and red extending towards her wrist. No fever or chills just a headache and red swollen hand. It’s been 3 days since she noticed the bite and pain. Any idea what kind of spider may have bitten her?
I have a spider bite ashamed to say on my butt. I tried to get some of the pus out but the pus came out clear. I’m not sure what I was bitten by but , I have a lump that semms to br getting bigger, I dont know if this is the cause of the bite but my neck is really stiff I did some neck exercises but it didnt help!!!
I don’t have a photo but I will take a picture and send it. I have been trying to locate more information on spider bites. I think I may have been bitten 3 times. I have a large knot on my butt check that has a small center that looks like it has something white on the inside. It doesn’t itch but I am experiencing something similar to muscle spasm and some pain in the area. The spot is sore to the touch and it is really red. I am an African American and dark skinned at that but I can tell the lumps are red. The other 2 spots that I think may be bites aren’t giving me as much trouble as the one on my cheek. Any suggestions or sites I can go to other than the emergency room to find out what is going on?
I have a spider bite on my back side right at panty line. It is red and painful. More red toward the center. In the center there are about 10 very small blisters that are white. Total diameter of area is about 2 inches.
I am an infection control nurse at a hospital in New YorK. Literally 9 times out of 10 when a patient comes in complaining that they were bitten by a spider, the lesion turns out to have staph. Most often it also turns out to be resistant staph (MRSA).
If you are trying to figure out if what you have is a spider bite, please check out this great website about spiders and the myths that surround them, Biting spiders are NOT as common as you’d think; staph infections are much more common.
The best treatment for boils in general is not to pick or sqeeze them, but to use warm soaks to bring them to a head so that they drain. If you have large areas of skin affected or you have large areas of “bruising” or redness and swelling surrounding the lesion you MUST seek health care. If you don’t and it turns out to be MRSA, your life and/or limb can be at risk.
Good hygiene is a must, as is not sharing towels, razors, or other personal items that come in contact with bare skin or lesions. Keep the lesions covered. You may want to use an antibacterial soap on the affected area until it heals (this is the only time I’d recommend an antibacterial soap) and not shave in the area.
Most of the pictures posted here greatly resemble the lesions caused by MRSA. Check out the CDC’s website at www.cdc.gov for even more information.
I think i was bitten by a spider but im not sure…there are 3 bites on my right hip barely a centimeter away from each other. i dont think they are poisonous because nothing has happened and i try not to scratch even though it itches like mad. are they spider bites?
My daughter got bit by a spider (we think) the muscle (deltoid) is tender to touch and the actual site where she got bit looks like a “shot” site. Like if she would have gotten the flu shot. There is a tiny little dot, no swelling, no redness at site but muscle is very tender. Any ideas?
I got two bites on my hand and they swell like misquito bites but its winter and they itch worse than a misquito i have advice to stop the itching i made a paste with water and baking soda and put it on the bites with a band-aid then waited for the baking soda to dry.
I live in Summerville, South Carolina. I woke up on Jan. 9 (19 days ago) with an open wound and red line on my bicep. It looked like someone had taken a cigarette and held it on my arm to create a crater. The red line beside the hole was about 1/2 -3/4 inches long. It made a lovely “b” from my perspective. It scabbed up during the day, but was an unusual grey color. By the second day, it looked infected. The surrounding red ring was expanding. 3 doctors were unable to identify what had happened to my arm overnight. It hurt very badly. They tested me for staph, but that was negative. On day 15, the scab came off and revealed a very deep hole still. After 19 days, it is still somewhat painful to touch. Any ideas???? The picture is of my arm is included below:
I’ve been getting bites for about 4 months now. They are usually on by butt or thigh. I usually notice them when I wake up, but I never feel the actual bite. They start off as a small monsquito bite-like infection (a small itchy bump). Gradually, within 3 or 4 days it will turn hard, very red and swell up, usually about 2 centimeters diameter. After about a week, the surface extremely burns and underneathe the skin it is extremely painful – so painful that I can’t even sit down. The center is usually a dark purple or black and at this point it is about 4 centimeters diameter. A little after a week of the first symptom, it will rupture pus and blood for about 2 days, then slowly dissipate and it takes about another week for it to finally disappear, leaving a nasty scar. I’ve gotten about five of these within a 4 month span. Can you please let me know if this sounds familiar to any specific spider? I live in a high-rise apartment in Chicago. Thanks!
ok, I am at my wits end. I keep getting bitten by something, I have just moved to Washington State. It starts like an ant bite then gets worse, alot of pus comes out and it is painful like a bruise. my skin swells up so bad that it starts to peel. i now have one on my knee large red swollen area with a hole in the middle. I can stick a needle 1/2 inch into my knee yet this time no discharge. I am panicing because whatever this is leaves a scar. can someone tell me what this is… I am the only one in the house getting bit
Hello,
I was bit on my bellybutton back around October. I just woke up one morning and it was hurting so I checked it out and there was a brown ring around it. I thought it was weird so I cleaned it up. I checked it later on, and the ring was back, only this time it was kind of pusy looking as well and I could see two tiny bite marks. It lasted for almost a week and it itched terribley and I kept cleaning it though. I got sick during that time for about two days and had a fever. I didn’t go to a doctor and just waited for it to go away.
I would like to know if that really was a spider bite and ask you about after-causes because ever since then, I have kept getting sick. Mostly flu-like sickness but also achiness every once in awhile and lots of headaches.
Do you think you can help me? My doctor also wondered if maybe I could possibely have Lyme Disease? I’m just kind of confused on all this and I would really like to figure it out to see if there’s something I can do to start feeling better.
Thanks,
Im not sure if this is a spider bite yet I have never had this type of reaction to any insect bite before. Usually mosquito bites merely swell and then go down. This one swelled and then became hard. As the swelling went down, it left very hard bumps on my skin.
It looked like at first there was one bite except it turns out it seem to connect two bites. There are two hard places on my skin and were connecting to each other. It doesn’t itch yet its hot and a bit painful. I started getting tingly sensation around my right arm. The bites are located underneath arm about 3 inches to 4 from my arm pit and 2 from my elbow.
Hi, I just got what i’m pretty sure is a bite a couple of days ago on the upper left area of my back. Its slightly hard, red, and has raised up a bit. It itches a bit, and every now and then I feel a burning sensation in the area of the bite/bites but it fades away after a bit. The size of the irritated area is probably a bit smaller then a quarter.
Anyone have any idea what this could be?
Matt
Melbourne, FL
We live in Florida. My husband woke me up in the middle of the night 3 nights ago saying his shoulder was hurting and he thought something may have bitten him. We did not see any insects but he had a welt on his shoulder the size of a quarter, purplish red and hard, with fever. There was a tiny white spot in the center. I squeezed it but it only bled. Now it is an oblong shape and the reddish portion is larger than a silver dollar and the swollen area is about the size of the bottom of a dixie cup. There is still fever in it. He does not have a fever himself, other than at the site of the bite. And he says the pain is extremely bad. We were in Alabama a couple of days before and he was working in a garage (where there were a lot of webs). Hopefully, he will go to the doctor. Any ideas?
yesterday i’ve go bitten on my arm and today my arm itches like crazy and there’s a red line traveling up my arm. could anyone help me with this situation.
I live in peoria, il and i woke up one day and noticed i had something like a misquito bite, so of course i itched it. The next day it was blackish and red around the bite, also swollen. I have no idea what it is, i’m pretty sure it’s a spider bite, i would just like to clarify.
I ‘ve got a bite of some kind. A clear filled blister 1/4 the size of my pinky finger nail. It has a red “eclipse” ring around it. nothing else. The blister and ring are on rt wrist. My rt arm is sore. I’m panicking
Hello,
On a flight to Hawaii, my boy friend was bitten by something. He called home complaining of knee pain and a raised area on the knee. Upon the initial conversation I told him it sounded like a spider bite and He needed to get it checked out. He dismissed it and pop the bump. It came back in full force with him complaining of pain radiating down his leg and up his thigh. He’s in the ARMY so he went to medical where they sent him away the first day and on the second day he had to beg them to just look at it.
When the doctor did look at it it was swollen 3 times its original size, the pus like pocket was back and know his whole leg is swollen . The only treatment given so far is that they lanced it and washed it out real good. He is now on day three and every day they are pulling out dead tissue and pus and packing the wound. No antibiotics and nothing for pain. I have told him to seek a second opinion because i think this guy is a nut. He is due to ship to Irac on Friday.
I think he should be admitted with IV antibiotics and a I and D are some type of laproscopic procedure to make sure it is not in the bone. It’s getting worse instead of better.
The hole is getting deeper and deeper. He’s military so his resources are limited to just seeing them. I feel a civilian doc would have done more by now.
I was bit the other evening while picking up hay off the floor to feed the animals. I felt the sharp jab in my thumb and then quickly after in my middle finger. At first I thought it was a thorn or sticker. Within a short while my thumb was swollen and ached all the way to my elbow. At each spot of ‘bite’ it was swollen and hard. At the point I realized this was not a thorn, but a bite, I used a snake bite kit to open and extract as much venom as possible (within an hour of the bite?).
Within hours I felt disoriented, weak and by the next day, ached all over. It felt a bit like, what I described as ‘raw nerves’ when I would touch my body, the pain through my body was intense and ‘raw’ feeling. The symptoms continued for the next few days, gradually lessening by 72 hours. Still a bit weak and occasionally disoriented/ dizzy.
I never saw a spider, but I know it had to have been a bite. The ‘bite’ sites looked a bit like a tiny puncture wound.
I live in California, I don’t know what bit me, but I felt a itch threw my pants near my knee, later about 2 hours later I went to the rest room and noticed a bruise in that same area with a tiny bite on it, see the picture below.
I thought it was a coincedence that they were together until I touched it. It hurt and it itched and felt thick like liquid inside. it has been 3 days now and it has not gone away, it feels and looks the same.
I live in Sacramento, CA and I have what I think are three spider bites on my left ring finger. In September I got a silver ring and about a month later I got what looked like four fang marks underneath where my ring is. The “fang marks” are about 3 cm away from eachother and the skin around and in between the marks is wrinkly [I am quite young so the wrinkles are natural]. They soon rose taller on my finger. It was painful for a while because the ring rubbed on them. So obviously I took it off. A couple days later, I put it back on and now it just iches. The “fang marks” pused, bled, and are now pealing. I woke up this morning to find I now have another one. The new one is about 5 or 6 cm away from the other two marks. It is pusing and bleeding just as the others had. Keep in mind that they are all along the line that my ring makes.
Any Ideas?
[[PS I don’t have money to go to the doctors for this so that isn’t really an option unless this is serious.]]
Thanks
[[PPS The marks are too small to see in pictures so I see no point in posting one…]]
I have included three photos of my wife’s top of her feet and shoulder. She observed the redness on her left foot on Wednesday evening, 1/9/08 and the redness and blister on her right foot and shoulder on Thursday morning 1/10/07. They areas itch and burn. Pictures were taken the evening of 1/11/07.
We’ll be checking with the doctor tomorrow.
1/13/08 Update:
Spouse actually felt a bite on Wednesday night in bed and observed a small red spot on the right foot. On Thursday morning there were two more red spots: shoulder and left foot.
Visit to the physician did not help to identify the insect, but did provide antibiotics and appropriate care for the area. Also an admonition to see him again should the areas change significantly or she experience other symptoms.
On Sunday all three areas had receded some, though they were more red. Pictures will be forwarded.
Best guess is that a spider bite her in the bed. Hotel was notified at the time we left, but we’ll be following up with pictures and a hope that they check the bed carefully.
I don’t have a photo. Yesterday at work I felt something stinging on my left thigh and then it started to ich really bad. Well when I looked at the spot there were two little red spots next to each other then its cover by a big red area and around the red area is a really bad bruse. What kind of spider/bug can do something like this.
Patrick,
Yours looks like a staph infection.
Staphs are red bumps that are very painful and become filled with pus. It is also highly contagious. They start off small like a little red pimple and can grow quite large.
Alot of what ya’ll are describing as spider bites sound alot like staph infections. Go to the doctor and get it checked as spider bites and staph can be very dangerous.
I felt a sharp pain on my inner thigh as I started walking. I brushed it and knocked something off that was small but large enough for me to feel (medium sized spider size?), but the spider had ran off by the time I thought to look for it. I looked at the bite, obviously a spider (with the 2 little indentations) but very small.
6 hours later, the bite is 4″ by 4″ circular pink, with a lighter pink small circle (slightly more elevated) where the original bite was. The whole area of the bite hurts really bad and is quite swollen. It hurt worse for the first 20 minutes, but No other noticable symptoms. (Though I am pregnant, so if any of them overlap I wouldn’t know) It does not itch, and only has slightly at any point since getting it..
Spider bites don’t normally get big for me with two past exceptions. 1. When I was a kid I was bit by a black widow on my thigh (they caught the spider and identified it.) The bite swelled to the size of my thigh, but symptoms didn’t go any further. Bite went away on its own without problems. 2. a couple years ago I was bit by an unidentified spider, the bite swelled to 6″ x 6″ (a huge percentage of the area it was on) – Painful but not as painful as this, but started going down in a few days before I went to the dr and just went away.
I live in the north side of GA on the groundfloor of an apartment building with woods behind me, so all kinds of spiders and bugs get in.
I live in concord CA and i woke up one morning with a white dot in my stomach. i thought it was a pimple because i’ve had a similar thing on my neck last week, but it wasn’t as big as this on my stomach. See the picture below.
After four days i decide to pop it. pus and blood came out. then i decided to use a little pin to get rid of pus since it was really deep. i took most of pus out and realized it was really really deep and realized it was two holes instead of one. The bite is really sore, white in middle and red around the sides. It looks like a little mound. Is it deadly or should i just wait it out till my body does it magic? I mean its already been four days?!
Please Help?!
I woke up with what i thought was a heat blister on my right but cheek shocked only to find about five bites that in a 1″to2″ circle pattern i squeezed the one thinking it was a heat bump causing some swelling no pain other than the one i squeezed but shocked to have this many places and not know where they came from,no fever no anything just scared the heck from me i have that has some black in the middle most likely from scratching,others are red it looks like i set on a fork that was round or a large coke cap with prongs.am watching closely.
a perfectly round, size of a nickel, raised off skin, red with a clear skin center, itches and hurts. these are the symptoms
I have been bitten quite a few times by spiders within the last month. 10 to be exact but this one really hurts. It is on my pinky fingertip. It has turned purple. I have been squeezing it and now my hand feels a little numb.but now sure it it is because of the bite. How much venom can be in my system before I should get worried… Been quite a numerous times. My finger looks a little bruised and I can actually see the 2 fang marks… what to do?
Hi Jim.
As of 30 minutes ago I found a bite on my lower front right leg that looks like it may be a spider bite. I have the slightest clue how I got this. I have been bitten a couple of months ago on my right upper thigh and lower left leg which was excruciating pain because it became infected.
I thought it was just a mosquito bite and blew it off but it got bigger and very painful. I went to the doctors and sure enough it was a spider bite. The doctor told me if I had waited one more day I would have been in the hospital.
This looks like the same thing and I am going to the doctors tomorrow after work to take care of it. Lord knows I never want to go through the pain I went through the last time. My entire left leg was swollen and I was unable to walk on it. Please review this photo and tell me if you can identify what exactly it is and if you happen to know what kind of spider it was.
It is a little hard to tell but if you look directly in the middle you will see a very small red dot almost like an ant bite and some redness around it. Although the area is very large, the bite itself is not that big.
It had a white head to it on top of the bump.
I got bit by a garden spider and wonder if they are toxic?
a friend of mine has a rash on her hand that won’t go away. someone suggested to her that it is a spider bite. how can we be sure and how do we get rid of the rash.
I woke up in the middle of the night with a feeling that I had just cut my finger on something. I turned on the light because I knew there was nothing in the bad that could have done cut me, and looked at my finger. I have one very small line that looks like it cut a blood vessel and another that is alittle up on my knuckle that broke the skin but did not bleed. Both the lines are parrallel to each other. I could not find a spider in my bed, but I also could not find anything in the bed that could make these marks. The cuts are maybe about a centameter long and my finger is just slightly swollen but it itches.
I think this might be a bite on the outside of my ankle. ‘got bright red about 5 days ago. Using sponge, soaked in hot epsom salts a couple days ago. Worse this AM. Do you know what this is, and what to do about it?
i was at work and felt a burning sensation twice above my knee, i thought i must have splashed oil on myself. I developed a terrible prickly rash from my knee to my thigh this lasted ten days, now i am left with shortness of breath and a very scaley funny leg
i went up in my attic a day ago and noticed a bite on my arm that burned. it has only been 24 hours since i found the bite and it has a small red circular area. it has no rings but it burns to the lightest touch and now my arm is really sore. i dont what bite me. plz help!
I woke in the night with a burning pain sensation on my lower leg. I have a quarter sized raised area that has a red ring around it with 2 bite marks in the center and another area very similar to it just above it that’s smaller than a dime. The burning, stinging hasn’t stopped since. I found no creature to blame it on. Should I have this looked at or will it run its course and be okay? Thanks for any help! Lisa