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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Would you like to see our collection of spider bite photos?
I think I’ve been bitten by a hobo spider. I know there are lots around the area I live in as I’ve seen their webs on many occasions in many different places. I always thought that their funnel webs were ~so~ neat. Not Anymore!
These pictures were taken around day 6 of me noticing that my upper leg was swollen and it was extremely painful to walk. I didn’t go to the doctor til day 3 when I got my daughter to look at it. She said there was a black dot in a little hole in my leg so I decided to see my family doctor on friday. He put me on antibiotics and said to come back if it got worse and that it was just an abscess.
On sunday it was 3 times the size it was on friday and the antibiotics didn’t seem to be working. I went to the E.R. and had it looked at. The doctor pulled out some tissue (not sure if it was pus or fatty tissue) and is having it cultured. On his way out he casually mentioned it might be a spider bite. It’s now Monday midnight and after searching through brown recluse spider bite sites I found some information about the hobo spiders. I knew I’d seen them around but never knew they were venomous. Now I’m stuck with a hole in my leg wondering what kind of treatment there is and how bad it’s going to get before it gets better… And not finding a lot of positive outcomes in what I ~have~ found so far.
I wish everyone here a speedy healthy recovery!!
Jolynne
Hi,
I don’t know what bit me, but I was walking around the classroom reading a book to my students (2:00 p.m.). I felt a bite/sting on my right calf and rubbed it. I felt another bite right after that and then rubbed my calf again. The stinging pain stopped quickly and I even forgot all about it until I got home and saw a huge mark on my back, right calf (7:20 p.m.). By 10 p.m., I had a horrible headache and went to the ER. They gave me some antibiotics, steroid cream and pain pills. I did not have pain yesterday unless you touched the area. Today, the color has changed, I have a lot of burning pain, terrible headaches, and I could not stand up on my right leg by 2:00 p.m. My leg seems to be swollen slightly below the mark and the pain is growing. The bruising seems to be spreading some too. I did not see a spider, but I sure would like to know what it is.
Thank You!
Kim B.
Tomball, TX
i woke up this morning and about 30 mins later i noticed below my knee is a white head.. hurt like an ingrown hair,, and to touch it was warm. i popped it and just the white part was like pus. then it was just a red dot of blood so i left it alone.. all around the lil dot is red but not raised. being in an area with Brown Recluse of course i freaked out.
i just want to make sure.. its only been 3 or so hours since i noticed it but have no idea how long it has been there could of came last night or during sleep. i put baking soda and water paste on it as well iced it.. so far not the red has toned down but want to make sure since i usually react to spider bites bad.. where i swell up fast and have to ice and take meds for it.
thank you for your time
angela
I live in Onslow county, North Carolina, i have had the bit for about 2 weeks now, just last friday the area around the bite had gotten red and it has a fever in it. I have no symptoms and it does not itch. I felt the the bite happen and it was very painful. Everyday the red area grows larger, but i still feel nothing.
I got this bite on my back. For the first few days I thought it was a pinched nerve or a knot. It’s very painful. It turns out they’re are 11 small pink dots in a cluster. I love in San Diego and I’m not familiar with the bugs here. It still hurts 5 days later and it’s starting to itch. Any ideas?
I live in Florida. i really really need to know what is happening. OK here is what happened, yesterday i woke up and i look down at my leg and i see a BIG swelling welt type thingy i told my mom and she said, “u will be fine” so i went to school while i was at school it got worse it was, hot, red, hard, and the size of a base ball, but i just ignored it.but after a while my whole body started to get weaker and weaker so when i got home i told my mom again and again screaming at the top of my lungs TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL, THE HOSPITAL IS NOT EVEN A 4TH OF A MILE AWAY, but she still said no. so i just need to know what i got bit by and what the symptoms are cause i can barley walk right now!
my son (16 months old) fell down the stairs and i thought this was originally a bruise but as the day went on appears to be more of a bite mark than a bruise and is reddish… hes been sleeping more and is more irritable since this has appeared… should i seek immediate medical attention or are there any signs that i should watch out for?!
My son came over today and showed me 4 bites he has on him. Two on the right leg at the upper thigh and on the shin. One on his left shin, and one just below his breast. They look like the one on the page for infections and how the woman is sure its brown recluse.
He had begun taking antibiotics earlier today. Do they help?
After he went home he broke open one and all this greenish/yellowish stuff came out. He says they hurt badly especially the one on his shins. And they look like they are the worse ones.
Its only been 3 days since he was biten,
I want him to go to the hospial and he wont.
We live in Florida. He passed out in a bush over the weekend (so he thinks-party night), so, he is not sure what bit him at this point.
Any and all help you could provide would be a great benifit.
As I look through your site the more upset I get. Sorry. But, normall things like this dont bother me. When it comes to your kids… no matter how old they are…. its upsetting.
Thanks soooo much for you help.
Sharon
vickijohn has scabies.. most likely.. I had it and it’s just little bumps on ur skin tht itch. it’s caused by an allergic reaction to a certain type of dust
mites burrowing under the skin. it’s not deadly. but annoying and extremely contagious. go to the doctor. they will prescribe permethrin cream. use as instructed. wash everything. you will be fine.
I think I got a spider bite on my arm. maybe even just a few hours or minutes ago. it hurts when I touch it and looks like two small puncture wounds not far apart. it’s a little red. I’m worried because I live in an area where the brown recluse is pretty common.
Biten by a spider while sleeping on a FTX, in the lip three times(clustered together), severely itchy, mild burn and my upper lip is numb an swollen , with off clear fluid yellowish in the pimple holes.
army doc just blow it off as me wining ,any clues as to what has bitten me?
my daughter had gotten a bite on her right leg 4 days ago. it started out lookin like a pimple. i popped it just in case. then next day it was the size of a nickel. it was bright red, with a white middle. we popped it and about a tablespoon of yellowish stuff came out and the was red in it too. we squeezed it about 5 times and each time it was the same. now we squeezed it again the next two days and fewer stuff came out but its still red and there’s a hole in the middle. i don’t know whether to take her to the doctor or not because shes only two. shes been acting fine.
I got bit by something a week ago, I never felt it or saw it. About 7 bites appeared all at once on my left side above my waist line. The area had been feeling like muscle soreness the two days before. The bites looked like mosquito or ant bites when I first saw them. They did not itch. The bites had gotten worse.
They are now dark red and look like scabs. They are the size of a mosquito bite and have not gotten any larger. Another batch of bites appear a few days ago and they are beginning to get darker and look more like scabs. All the bites are itching a little now, some more than others. Does anyone have an idea of what bit me or if it is a bite at all?
luke 1176 you have bite from brown recluse. fast swelling and will fill with green pus. I got bite near thumb, within 8 hrs my hand grew twice the size. look like boil with head but head is all the way down below all layers of skin. green slim is flesh being disoveled. after trip to hospital, and got it drained, i pushed out green slime for days. make long story short it came back in another spot on arm. I have gotton staph infection from it. after many antibotics and a number of months. i finally was able to use arm again. I still have skin prob with hand from damaged skin. THIS IS NO JOKE>> GET MEDS. If staph gets in your lungs can kill you in 48 hrs. It colonized in my nose with nose turning beat red and sore. MRSA. BAD NEWS.
My daughter[9months] and I were sitting outside in the yard the other day.. I’d say about Wednesday.
I noticed a small red bump on her forearm. At first, I thought it was an ant bite. After all, there was an ant bed not too far from where we were.
I got to looking at it today, and it’s a tiny red bump, the size of a pea I’d say, with two little black dots in the middle. It hasn’t gotten worse, and it doesn’t seem to bother her any.
Also, I found what looks like a pimple on her index finger. I thought it was a blister because she’s teething and loves to chew on her finger, but my mom says otherwise. It’s red with a white pus-filled center. Again, it doesn’t seem to bother her any, and it doesn’t look like anything unusual to me.
Around 48 hours ago I got bitten by something right here in my living room. I actually FELT the sting, I was kneeling on the floor but I thought I got poked by a rose thorn since a few hours earlier my dog came in from outside having some old rose clippings stuck to her fur.
Later on I noticed light itching but not to bad, the next morning there was a red spot. About 18 hours after being bitten I noticed the red area being bigger and now there was a small pustule in the middle.
Today after I came home from work I noticed that the area around the pustule is deep red, there seems to be two other tiny little pustules next to the big one, and the whole affected area grew even bigger, I’d say about 4 1/2 inches in diameter, the deep red area almost 2 inches.
The big pustule also has a really yellow thing in the middle.
That’s how it is now, I send two pictures (a full picture and a close up of the deep red area with the pustule).
One important thing to mention though is that it doesn’t hurt even a little bit. It is completely pain free, it is not even very swollen, only in the dark red area the tissue underneath feels hard. It only itches a tiny little bit.
I don’t know if I got bitten by a spider or bug or whatever, and physically I am not having any problems YET. But I just want to make sure since I never had something like this happen to me before.
I also have to mention that my skin in general is quite sensitive to external influences, I even get rashes from too much direct sun light and even mosquito bites – without scratching them – turn into 3 to 4 inch diameter itch-disasters. So maybe this too is just something harmless that just looks worse because >I< got it.
I am also living in South Carolina, if this helps determining what bit me
I live in Arizona and recently I got a small wound on the back of my ankle. It started out very small, now huge with a small scab in the middle of it. The wound is really red and has swollen my entire ankle and part of my foot. It looks very similar to the picture with the nickle next to it, near the search box, but much more of a deep red. Thank you for your help.
-taylor
Hi! My 19 month old son got bit by something – I think. Yesterday he came home with 4 red marks on his chest area. They looked like he had been pinched – they looked like broken blood vessels and were completely flat – not raised at all. This morning all 4 have gotten a little bit bigger, were raised, and were similar looking to blisters. There are two “big” bites with only one blister, and two smaller ones that are right next to eachother (like a bat)…if anyone can help identify, I’d love it! I called my dr. and he told me to wait a couple of days and see what they do (its flu season so I don’t want to take him to the dr. or hospital unless he HAS to go)…they don’t seem to be bothering him at all. I’ll try to send photos later.
Thanks!
What type of bug bites you and then the bite has like a black circle like thing in the middle.
i got bit by a very aggressive spider while working in my horse barn Delaware today. it had a brown body and legs with a grey abdomen, it was maybe a centimeter in size. after it bit me i tried to get it off my shirt with a brush and it went after that too.
Strange question – I was bitten on my butt by a spider (I think) several years ago in Jacksonville, FL. Since that time, I’ve been bitten in the same place in several different states. A friend recently told me that spider bites go away and then flare up again. This would explain why I keep getting the bite in the same place repeatedly. Is this true? I’ve never had it “treated.” Instead, I apply topical ointment and wait several days and it goes away. Help.
Im pretty sure it’s a spider its dark in the center and its 2.5 inches of redness and slight swelling. It hurts really bad when I touch it.
I have been bitten in the waste area and hurts like hell. It burns very badly at times. It has a very large area and in the middle it has a bit of a swollen hard spot. Didn’t see the spider but I live in MO and there are a LOT of bugs here. Should I be worried? Should I go to the doc’s?
I was bitten 5 days ago. The bite swelled to the size of a big marble. There was also bruising. The swelling has gone down, but my respiratory system is constricted. Is this a symptom of a spider bite? I have trouble getting food down sometimes. My throat is starting to hurt a little.
i live in pittsburgh pa and got bit by a little brown and greenish dark color spider on my neck and now have red dots along my neck and upper chest does anyone know what this is
Originally this looked like a zit or ingrown hair that had a whitehead. It is a bite on my knee and it is very sore and hurts to walk , and is super sensitive to even the lightest touch. Not sure what bit me , any ideas? here is a link to a picture of it
I think, Ive been bit by a spider. Its like little red peas under my skins. There red and sore to touch everyday they seem to get bigger. Its on my left hand and when i tightening my hand it hurts. Should you go to the doctors for a spider bite?
I have a bite on my forearm that is not as big as it was last night but is red in the middle and a purplish color around it. I did see the spider but i didn’t feel it bit me. I was big and brown and black and very fuzzy. In its web it has a big brown egg sack. I live in the woods of northern NC so bug bites are very common but this one looks different. I was hoping if I could find out what bit me then I should know what to do. I tried to look for types of bites online but i can’t find any for day two.
Saturday while walking by an apple orchard I saw what I at first thought was a bee on my thumb. So I reacted by flinging it off, I thought, until it bit me on the fatty tissue of my hand. Since we were going to the orchards store, we asked if they had bee sting ointment and that is how I treated it, until it kept on hurting and burning way after it had happened. No real swelling or big marks, but I do have two fang marks on my hand.
In retrospect I realize it had to be a spider as it looked like a piece of cloth/fur, square in shape with black and yellow/gold horizontal stripes. After over a full day the area is very sensitive to cold—tender nerve endings?, and it tingles up into my little finger.
I did not see anything like it on the site, so would like to have someone help me identify what it was and how to best and quickly treat it should there be another encounter. Also, to know if I have done enough. I used peroxide on it once home, and have taken some Benadryl, but nothing other than that and the initial bee sting ointment. Thank you, Paula from Ohio
Here is my story:
I was at my friends house and then, out of nowhere, I felt an itch on my arm. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I itched it and thought that it was a mosquito bite. I asked people about it and then noticed that there was a red circle(shaded in red) about 1 inch both ways. It has two bites barely less than a half of a centimeter apart, one with a VERY small scab… Please help?
on Wed evening about 8pm I was bit by something on the top of my big toe while I was driving… I couldn’t see what it was because it was dark. I was wearing flip flops at the time. It was bothersome right away with some localized redness and minimal swelling but within an hour very intense pain set in around that area.. The pain felt very “nervey” as if the bite hit a nerve and the pain was radiating throughout the toe and across my foot. Even with constant icing the pain became so intense that I was having trouble even talking without crying. I was encouraged by a telephone nurse to go to the ER which I did and had to wait for 4 hours to be seen.
During that time the pain just intensified and began to spread to past the ankle. I could describe it as intense nerve like pain that felt like shooting fire through my foot that never let up. I can honestly say it was the worst pain I had ever felt, possible worse than labor. The doctor wasn’t sure what it was so he numbed my foot with lildocaine and gave an injection of “Bicarb” ?? he said that would neutralize the venom therefore stopping the symptoms. within the hour the lidocaine wore off and the pain was still there as strong as ever.
The swelling was very bad as well however I could not see a definite bite spot, no fang marks or dark spots. the intense pain faded after about 24 hours and the swelling has slowly reduced but it is the 4th day now and I still feel some swelling and fullness in that toe, pain and tenderness when touched or I try to bend it and the surface of my toe is somewhat numb. Like if I scratch it, I can feel the pressure of the scratch but not the sensation.
We found what we thought was a baby wolf spider in my car in the driver seat area the next day, but my symptoms don’t seem to match those described of a wolf spider. Anyone have any idea of what this could be??? Because whatever it is I want to make sure I am never bit by one again!!!
my dad has a red mark in his stomach and it has three little black dots on it it also looks purple. it hurts him inside his stomach but not outside but outside is hard. and where trying to figure what it is so if you can help me out cuz it is bothering him alot
I live in TX, I had gone outside with my dog and he went into a bush. So I moved some branches away to get him, he’s little, and something bit me on my pinky. It then turned pink and started to hurt, still slightly swollen. I’m pretty sure its a spider bite…any guesses of what spider bite me?
Hi im from Wallingford, connecticut.My name is Michaela.I have 5 spider bites on my chest in a couple different areas going up my chest there very swollen and there’s a rash all around it.Its the most itchy’est thing i have ever felt.I really dont know what to do about this whole thing its very embarrassing to walk around with this on my chest.CAN ANYONE HELPP MEE!!!
I live in North Carolina and my husband was bitten by a spider. We are just trying to figure out if it is poisonous or not. Top part of spider is reddish/black with legs of reddish/black striped.It’s bottom part is light brown with a I shape on it.
I have about 17 bites on my stomach right’s side and a little on the lower right side of my waist line. They look like mosquito bites but I know it must have been a spider for there to me so many and close together. They are red bumps the side of a dime or smaller and they itch so much. I can’t take it.
Not sure if anyone knows what kind of spider it could be or at least what to do to soothe the itchiness. It’s driving me insane!
hi my names Whitney I just currently got a spider bite but I don’t know what kind my finger is swollen, my veins are turning red and my hand is getting swollen is this a bad thing
Is this possibly a brown widow bite? I squeezed it a bit and it let some oil like fluid out, and then later on it got a bit redder then it already is.
I have been bitten by a black widow before, and that was a bad, bad thing. I had flu like symptoms and one night I was starting to dial 911 as I began to have trouble breathing, like an elephant was sitting on my chest, and SEVERE abdominal pains. The breathing issues subsided quickly, and I never went to a doctor. This was two years ago. I was told if I had another Widow bite within the year that the complications would be worse the second time around since the Venom takes a long time to filter out of your body(is this true?).
This bite in the photo is not near as severe looking as the widow bite, and I have no idea what spider may have done this, but the flu-like symptoms are there, and unexplained joint pain, blurred vision (yesterday), severe anxiety(norepinepherine release?), twitching muscles, and localized pain. This photo is on day 3 or 4. I remember thinking I had gotten into some poison ivy around the bite area due to hives in the area the day I noticed the bite, and it had the classic pimple look to it. Since I think I am on day 4, I will probably have plenty more symptoms. I just took a Benadryl and it seems to have helped. The bite is now a nicely healed crater in my leg, with a total redness area the size of a penny, but the venom is in my blood, I can feel it messin with me! Currently, I feel kind-of confused and dizzy, with a burning sensation in the bite area. Chances are the light-headedness is from the Benadryl ;)
I know this is ridiculous, but let me know what you think the spider might be, or at least the type of Venom, if you have any thoughts from the symptoms I described. I live in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, USA, about 1 hr west of Washington DC. I was thinking maybe a male widow, or something similar…obviously I didn’t see what did it…
Thanks!
Brandon Shaffer
I have 2 welts on my torso, each the size and shape of a pencil eraser, they were not there in the morning, I was fully dressed and outside all day, when I went to take a shower I saw them.they do not itch, no pus or anything, just 2 perfectly round red welts.
I have what looks like a bite mark on the inside of my right thigh,the bite area rubs skin on skin. Ive notice it now for 2 days and today it started hurting really bad can barely walk. So tinder , not quite to red yet but getting there.I put clear finger-nail polish to dry and draw it out which helped a little. Now when it popped and I oozed it out it was like a really bad snot day,greean stick and then blood and some plasma. I resealed it with the polish and since then its bubbling back up tender and the knot under the skin is feeling harder and bigger. Should I go to the ER?
well I’m keeping an eye on it. It’s 4am and I was awaken this morning with the feeling of that of a razor blade cut or pin prick on my middle finger, I looked at it and there were two little pin pricks . Deep too because I had two blood spots. first I though something cut me. Now I know better. I’m waiting on symptoms and ink marked around the site so I can see swelling progression. I live in Arkansas So I wouldn’t pass venomous BR or BW but I have killed wolf spiders in my house. I was wondering if anyone has been bitten by a wolf spider? How did it feel when you were bitten and what were the side affects?
I was bitten by a spider in my sleep on my stomach.
It has been about two weeks and a medium sized blister with red swollen area around it persists.
Today I decided to open it up,and to my dismay,I have discovered a 4mm deep HOLE in my stomach.It is about 4mm wide and pus is in there.
Please,if you have ANY at all information on this,please do contact me.
This is very frightening.
sometime last night some kind of bug bit my face, right under my left eye on my cheek bone. It woke me up and hurt extremely bad. it felt almost like someone stabbed me with a piece of glass and drug it from my nose over to the side of my face. At first i was sure that i had somehow been cut. When i woke up i had a greyish blister under my eye about 5cm long and the area was really swollen, it looked almost like a burn. since then some of the swelling has went down, but its still pretty noticable, and the blister has turned a little darker, it also is kind of red around the outside which makes it look almost like a scab, but its not. i only have a little bit of off and on pain now and that part of my face was pretty stiff earlier.. does anyone have any idea what it was that could have bitten me? if you want to see a picture of it just say so.
Two nights ago I looked at my chest in a mirror and noticed a white raised circle smack in the center of my chest. It looked like there was a worm or something under my skin. The circle was about an inch and a half in diameter and a quarter of an inch thick. At first, I suspected ringworm, but then I looked up pictures of ringworm and all the photos I could see showed flat red circles. I put neosporin on it and covered it with band aids and went to bed. The next morning, I looked at it and the circle was no longer raised and was barely noticeable. It is the same today. I don’t think it’s ringworm or anything like that, but a few people think that it is some sort of bite. I was wondering if anyone has heard of or seen anything like this. It looks like it has mostly gone away, but not knowing what it was is driving me nuts. Thanks for any info!!!
Okay so me and my friend and i were talking but then i felt a little pinch and looked down and i saw a spider that was with a black body and furry legs next morning i have a spider bite but its small maybe about less than an inch what kind of spider was it and is it poisonous?
OK well here we go i hope some one can help.
i live in Jacksonville Florida,
to day i was in my truck and girlfriend saw small bright green spider on me of course my really not liking spiders freaks out like a girl
and spider starts jumping around the car until she killed it
so seven hours have gone by now and i just relived the area the spider was on my wrist almost resembles a bruise about the size of a quarter the inner area is a lighter cooler as opposed to the outside being redder and i have noticed a a small pin sized hole that is bumped up ever so slightly -being a few centimeters above the red area i am experiencing a slight amount of pain in the area
now i’m not quite sure that i got bit but i don’t remember hitting my wrist on anything so it brings question
if anyone may be able to enlighten me on the situation it would be much appreciated
i live in south Carolina and i have noticed a bump at the bottom of my nose and i thought it was a zit. but today when i tried to pop it i saw two lil holes i am pretty sure its a spider bite and i don’t know what to do. in my yard there are a lot of spider mostly there are crab spiders and those ones with the really big butts.
its like a zit but it hurts a lot and if u try to pop it a lil bit of yellow stuff comes out and that is all i don’t know how to explain it please help if u can thanks
I was bitten by something 36 hours ago on my finger. Last night at exactly 24 hours 1 AM it became a huge red blister, not looking it at there is just a red mark. Now I awoke at 1 AM because I had put ointment on it, it burnt when I was bitten. It went through my whole body. The next day I had joint pains and nausea, some disorientation and there was ring around two fang marks. I went to the ER but was there all day and had to go get my daughter. I had to leave and when I put the ointment on (it was clay) it hurt, I kept it on and then woke up at 1 AM like I mentioned with a huge red and yellow blister that hurt really bad. I left the bit without anything on it when I went back to sleep. I woke up and it was barely there, now I have a red bump that huts and there is some discoloration of the skin. My hand is swollen, I now am getting a fever and feeling even more sick.
Live in the north east, got bitten by an unidentified spider 12 days ago. The bite was by my throuht. At first a larger area of my chest area swelled up, then little by little it has became this hard, red crate thing with black marks in the middle.
After prodding by friends ( no insurance) I went to a doc yesterday, got antibiotics and some cream to take the dead cells out. He wants to also get pus out, though the area seems all hard.
Is that a good idea? Seems like there are different opinions out there about the treatment. Do not want to get a scar.
Thanks for any input.
My wife complained about her leg hurting four days ago. After the first day, we noticed, what appeared to be, a spider bite. Unsure what type of spider, if any, has bitten her, we wonder if we need to seek medical attention.