I have started a new page of home grown remedies for spider bites. Often these old time treatments have been passed down through the generations from before it was common to go to a doctor and often they worked well!! But we must also remember that sometimes they didn’t!! So while I am publishing them here, I take no responsibility for anyone who tries them and they don’t work!!
I am still and will always advocate going to your doctor for any bite that is not healing!! Furthermore if you can’t identify the spider that bit you, it’s a good idea to go to a doctor for evaluation. And you must head for the doctor’s office or emergency room if you see:* A deep blue to purple mottled area around the bite, surrounded by a whitish halo with a very large outer ring of redness–known as the ”red, white and blue” symptom. This is a good indication that your child has probably been bitten by a brown recluse spider. The brown recluse can also cause a body rash.* Muscle spasms, tightness and stiffness, which are signs of a black widow spider bite. The black widow can also cause intense abdominal pain that mimics appendicitis.
Other possible symptoms of poisonous spider bites include headache, fever, malaise, lack of appetite and joint pain. Also, go to the doctor if you see signs of infection around the bite (exaggerated swelling and redness) or if your child has pink-or red-coloured urine.
SPIDER BITE HOME REMEDIES
Due to its strong antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties, tea tree oil is highly beneficial water and put one or two drops of tea tree essential oil on it. Dab it on the site of the infection. Leave it on for a few hours before washing it off. Alternatively, you can mix a couple of drops of tea tree oil in one teaspoon of aloe vera gel or raw honey. Apply it on your skin and leave it on for a few hours before rinsing it off. Use either of these remedies once or twice daily until you are satisfied with the results. Amy
FRENCH GREEN CLAY
French green clay alone with oral antibiotics healed my spider bite! It Started out being a trouble experience but thanks to the french green clay ( Rainbow Brand bought at Fresh Brookshire ) saved me from all the discomfort of the pain and agony. Drs. Said I would have to have the bite lanced, but I did not have to because the clay due out the poisonous venom. For Real; I was in total craziness from acid feeling venom under my skin. After 6 days if meds I was still in trouble pain ( no pain meds were given ). After applying the first application I had instance relief! But I did not stop there I am still applying the green clay after weeks of being bitten. Only once a day now. Make paste use glass a wooden spoon to application, cover with cotton balls soaking in distilled water over the clay. Then place Saran Wrap over the area. Leave on as long as you want, but keep it wet at all times. Small openings will come up around the area. I think this is the removal of the venom. The area will be cool to the touch. And comfortable for a while when pain and fever resumes reapply. Keep doing this until you feel that it is no longer needed. It took weeks for me! Thank you Jesus for the relief and the clay!!!!! PS no scars, no lancing, no skin graph, just naturally healing!!!!! 😉
SMALL NECROTIC BITES
We have been dealing with some small spiders here in NW Nevada. They are small but they are making painful necrotic bites. Baking soda and oregano and then red raspberry tea to sooth and wash. But when it gets to the end of it where all the tissue is pussing clear poison redmond clay helps keep it away from the skin by soaking it out.
Here’s another reader’s email about treating a brown recluse bite. Once again this email is published with no responsibility taken as to its effectiveness.
Hello, I would just like to share this information with anyone concerned about very poisonous spider bites. One treatment that I found very effective for the brown recluse bite is simple cheap and as far as I know not spoken of or well known. It SHOULD be! I have had personal experience as well as curing other people. This cure is medicinal French green clay. It works by continually moving fresh blood to the site of the bite while at the same time sucking the poison out of the body tissues. Pain and swelling disappear rapidly and the site soon has healthy tissue in place of rotten tissue and leaves very little scar if any at all. I learned this from an old “home remedy” book and used it for a friend of mine that called me from another state terrified because her doctor said he would have to cut out a large area on her neck to stop the gangrene. I came with my $8.00 bag of green clay and made a thick paste to cover the wound site about 1/2″ thick over the bite placing the clay directly on the bite. No ointments or wraps between clay and skin. Then I placed cotton gauze around the neck and over the clay to keep it on the site. The clay is to be left in place until it dries enough to naturally separate from the skin. I repeated this process only three times as the wound was cleared of all poison and showed healing. She was left with a tiny white scar smaller than a match head instead of a deep hole and possible vascular reconstruction planned by her doctor. The clay has 0 toxicity and actually leaves a sterile wound site somehow destroying bacteria as it pulls out poison and dead tissue. It is so safe that another use is a sure fire way to stop even the most virulent bowel trouble. I have not personally needed this but have administered it to others with complete and rapid sucsses . This treatment consists of mixing a table spoonful of the powdered clay in a glass of water and drinking the cloudy water. Once is usually enough. I can’t say whether any kind of clay would work as well since I have not tried others but I imagine it probably would. I have had the same $8.00 bag of clay since 1979 and have not run out yet. I hope this saves someone else the pain and disfigurement that it spared me. Julia B
EPSOM SALT COMPRESS:
Thanks for having such a great site for information. It’s sorely needed out there. I wish every school, business and first aide station had up to date info on bites.
I recieved an unidentified bite a year ago – several “test bites” (what the heck was THAT?) followed by what felt like a red hot pin.
Location: inguinal (left side crotch 1/2 way between bikini line and middle of pubic hair – ouch)
One hour later, very little irritation.
Next morning, “ingrown hair” looking spot
24 hrs. fried egg looking swelling and tenderness – area the size of my hand raised and tender, area the size of an egg yolk hard, hot and really painful, small blister in the middle.
I tried applying a hot compress to bring it to a head – BIG mistake
3 days – red streaks radiating across my abdomen, hot, swollen, tender, purple
The nice people at the emergency room lanced the swelling (which didn’t produce nuthin’ even after a great deal of fishing about) and put a bandage on it. I was advised that if it healed over too soon they would put in a drain. Sent home with antibiotics.
Over the next couple of days I couldn’t lift my left leg – not painful, just wasn’t going to happen. After that pain in joints, numbness in my fingers and worst of all was the headache. Like a migraine but worse. It stayed open for a couple of weeks.
After dealing with the pus and a hole the size of 1/2 a golf ball, the site has healed and now itches sometimes but no pain.
One year later: happened again.
This time I put an ice pack on immediately for a half hour followed by a epsom salt compress. My great grandmother would use them for all kinds of bug bites.
Wrap up a handfull of epsom salts in gauze or tee-shirt (dry) and bandage over bite, moisten it thoroughly but not drippy. Wrap with a damp cloth and cover with an ace bandage. Be careful not to wrap too tight and keep it damp. Apply ice pack over this off and on. I left this on for 24 hours. When I removed the bandages, you could see the outline of the swelling with the salt pack “un”swelled in the middle. The bite site underwent the blister phase then I was left with a small hole the size of a pea which healed up very nicely. I still had the joint pain, numbness, headache (yowzer!) and fuzzy brain issues, but did not have the massive infection and subsequent necrotic tissue.
I’ve spoken to some “old folks” and medical people about this and everyone agreed in their own language that the “pizen got drawed out”. I’m trying to find any contraindications beside the obvious (child, elderly, poor circulation, immune deficient, diabetes..)
The hardest part is having friends and neighbours scoff at my advice and ignore the bite until 7-10 days later. Eeeewww. See a doctore or be prepared to suffer for a long time – maybe lifelong. thanks for listening. sf
WASHING WITH SOAP AND COLD WATER:
Keep the area clean. For any insect or spider bite, wash the area with soap and water, says Gary Wasserman, D.O., a pediatric emergency medicine specialist, chief of the section of clinical toxicology and director of the Poison Control Center at The Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. ”Continue to wash with soap and water two or three times a day until the skin is healed,” he says. And make sure little fingers and hands get washed as well, to help keep germs at bay.
NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN TREATMENT:
The Navajo Indians made a tea from Fendler Bladderpod and used it to treat spider bites.