What does a spider bite look like? A spider bite may take on different forms, but it always appears as a puncture wound at first.
Brown Recluse Spider Bite
A serious brown recluse spider bite in its early stage can cause swelling, which may turn blue and dark red within the evening of the first day of the bite. The change in color may happen outside the circle drawn and is a representation of the initial swelling.
The brown recluse spider bite may also result into blisters and cause necrosis or tissue death in its early stages. The affected skin of the bite will continue to die and will require surgery for the removal of the dead tissue. A skin grafting process is required and the wound is totally healed only after several months. However, scarring will be evident.
A more serious brown recluse spider bite can result into severe necrotic lesions with deep and wide borders. A very severe bite of the brown recluse spider in its eight day can result in a widely opened wound by which the toxin of the spider may drain but this will require the patient to take intravenous antibiotics and pain killers.
A closer look of a not so serious brown recluse spider bite will reveal fang marks which will turn slightly red. The bite area will heal only after a number of days to weeks and with minimal scarring. This is not so alarming as compared with the more severe appearances whose swelling can reach up to quarter size within an hour, turning blue and then progressing to dark red.
Black Widow Spider Bite
The bite of a black widow spider appears as double fang marks and it is evident right after a feeling of pinprick from a black widow spider. The skin affected by the bite will swell after a few hours and will develop redness. When bitten on the upper portion of the arm, the redness may progress pass the elbow and down to the forearm after two days. The swelling will only subside usually after 7 days when the bite opens but the infection nearly gone.
A person bitten by either the brown recluse spider or the black widow spider requires caution since the bites are painful and may be deadly. Medical attention must be immediately sought to lessen the effects of the bites of these venomous spiders.