Brown recluse spider is one of the poisonous spiders found largely in the United States. Having tiny structure measuring just 1-1.5 inches this spider has long legs and the entire body is brown in color. It has a dark pigment on its head and often lives on wood, leaves and rocks. They like to spend most of the time outdoors but when they get inside your house it will hide in the best places like dark closets, basements or attics. Generally these spiders do not harm us but when they are disturbed it would bite us.
Brown recluse spiders can be easily recognized by the presence of violin shaped pattern on cephalothoracic region. The neck portion of the violin pattern will be on the rear side of the insect. Most of these spiders will have 6-8 eyes. Often it is not possible to detect these spiders by naked eye since they are too small.
Venom :
Brown recluse spider carries venom on its sting. They are highly poisonous and contain more potent poison than a snake. But the effects of spider bite are less because it injects only meager amount of poison when they bite. This venom causes toxicity on the cells and tissues of the affected person.
The venom of the spider contains many enzymes and they will destroy the local cell membrane of the person once it bites him. This venom is capable of breaking up of tissues of skin and fat and even blood vessels. Finally the venom causes tissue death in the bitten area. Once the spider bites a person, the immune system will automatically release antihistamines and cytokines for fighting the tissue death. In severe cases this process of producing inflammatory agents by the immune system will cause injury to the cells producing side effects more than that of spider bite.
Initial symptoms :
The person will not notice any sign for few hours except a little sting on the area in which the spider has bitten. But after 4-6 hours, the place will start hurting more and more. The area looks like a bruise or blister and it becomes purple or bluish color which will gradually turn brown and becomes crusty within few days.