It’s called L. reclusa: It lives in dark, hidden places, is often active at night (especially this time of year) and its bite is particularly dangerous to children.

Eleven-year-old Josh Haynes came face to face with the tiny brown spider when he felt a sting on his hip as he exited the shower two days ago.

At the emergency room, Josh tells Dr. Carden Johnston that his “neck and back” hurt.

“And your stomach hurts?” Dr. Johnston asks as Josh nods “Yes.”

Aside from Josh’s discomfort, the spider’s venom could cause kidney damage and anemia.

Dr. Johnston: “If his red blood cells get torn up, they go to bilirubin, which turns yellow … his eyes turn yellow, and then the hemoglobin will come out his urine and his urine will turn dark, almost coca-cola colored, so we’re looking for that in Josh. We’re hoping it doesn’t occur because it’s rare but he’s already shown us that he has rare reactions.”

The culprit of Josh’s pain is the Brown Recluse spider, a small, non-aggressive arachnid that likes to hide in attics, closets and old shoes and under beds. As its name suggests, it is reclusive and tries to avoid people. Some call a “Fiddleback,” because of the fiddle shape on the spider’s thorax.

The Brown Recluse’s bite is serious but very seldom fatal. Symptoms include a low fever, nausea, possible joint pain and at first, a red area surrounding the bite.

“And then the center turns black, and the little hole falls out and then it starts healing … and over a period of two weeks it’ll heal,” Dr. Johnston says.

Treatment for the bite includes a cold compress, painkillers, plenty of liquids and parents watching out for eyes that turn yellow and urine that turns dark. So far, Josh seems to be doing well.

His lab results reveal that his “urine sample, your pee, is normal … so that’s good, so I think that everything is going to be fine with this for now and we’re going to let you go home and bring you back to be rechecked tomorrow,” says Dr. Ann Klasner, an emergency room pediatrician.

Tips for Parents:
- Brown Recluse Bite Rare but Dangerous
- While nearly 100,000 different kinds of spiders exist in the world, only two in the United States are considered poisonous – the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse. The Brown Recluse, also known as the “Fiddleback,” rarely bothers humans unless provoked: In 1994, a total of 9,418 spider bites in the United States were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. - Only 1,385 of those bites were attributed to the Brown Recluse.
- The Brown Recluse is found mainly in the Southern and Midwestern states, especially in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, eastern Texas and Oklahoma. This spider is yellowish-tan to dark brown in color and is about .25-.5 of an inch in length. It is most often identified by the violin-shaped marking on its back.
- According to the Ohio State University Extension, the Brown Recluse prefers dark, sheltered areas, such as under porches and in woodpiles. The spider is most active at night when it searches for food. During the day, it often hides in undisturbed places like bathrooms, bedrooms, closets and basements. Though fatalities from a Brown Recluse bite are rare, a bite poses the most danger for children, the elderly and those in poor condition.

To determine if your child has been bitten by a Brown Recluse, the National Institutes of Health recommends looking for the following symptoms:
Body as a whole:
- No immediate pain or an initial sharp sting
- Pain developing within the first several hours after being bitten
- Pain becoming severe
- General feeling of discomfort
- Formation of an ulcer (black spot or indentation) in the area of the bite within the first 24 hours
- Chills
- Fever
- Sweating

Skin:
- Reddish to purplish color to skin in area around bite
- Itching
- Red or purplish blister

In rare cases:
- Nausea and/or vomiting
- Blood in urine
- Jaundice
- Kidney failure
- Seizures
- Coma
If your child exhibits any of the following symptoms, remain calm and contact your pediatrician, hospital and/or poison control center immediately. Apply antiseptic solution to prevent infection and ice packs to relieve local swelling and pain directly to the bite area. Also, collect the spider if possible for positive identification.

- According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, treatment for a Brown Recluse bite may include wound care, antibiotics, oxygen and steroids. Currently, no antidote exists, but an experimental anti-venom is being studied. If damage to the skin is severe, the Nemours Foundation says that a skin graft may be necessary. Healing of lesions from the bite can take weeks or months, depending on the severity of the wound. With proper medical attention and prompt treatment, survival past 48 hours usually indicates that recovery will follow.

To prevent your child from being bitten by a Brown Recluse or any other spider, the Ohio State University Extension offers the following tips for parents:
- Shake out clothing and shoes before dressing, and inspect bedding and towels before using them. People are most often bitten when putting on clothing that has hung undisturbed or shoes seldom worn, into which a spider has moved.
- Dust and vacuum thoroughly and more frequently around windows, corners in rooms, under furniture, in storage areas and normally undisturbed places to eliminate spiders, webs and egg sacs.
- Do not go barefoot or handle firewood without gloves.
- Remove trash, old boxes, piles of lumber, old clothing and other unwanted items. Eliminate cluttered areas in basements, closets, attics and other outbuildings.
- Install screens on doors and windows to prevent entry. Seal or caulk cracks and crevices where spiders can enter the house. Wash off the outside of the house and roof eves.
- Use insecticides. Thorough applications of fine particles of insecticides, such as ultra-low volume aerosols or fogs, contact spiders in their webs and cause quicker population reduction indoors. Outdoors, spray around the perimeter of buildings using formulations that will not damage plants. Baygon, Diazinon and permethrin are frequently used.

References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
National Institutes of Health
Nemours Foundation
Ohio State University Extension

My dad was bitten by one of these it is nasty. Iowa gets them frequently too.

My ex's sister got bite on the arse while in the shower, she had a quarter-size wound that was very deep.