L Reclusa fangs can't penetrate skin easily?

[Fergrim]

I heard that the fangs of an l reclusa spider are a bit small for penetrating human skin.. is that true? I figure it's an urban myth, but I need to approach another source for this person to believe me

 

[Elizabeth]

Link: the spider is shy and not likely to bite, except under extreme provocation. Your friend may be confusing this unwillingness to bite with an inability to bite. I haven't heard of the L recluse fangs not being able to penetrate the skin. (As for other spiders having fangs too small to penetrate the skin, I have seen that listed as myth and listed as fact by different sources, both of which I thought would be reputable and reliable, so...?)

http://bohart.ucdavis.edu/content/insects/RecluseSpiders.pdf

 

[Wade]

The fangs of Loxosceles (and to some extent Latrodectus as well) are quite small and it is indeed difficult for them to penetrate human skin in normal circumstnces. Usually bites occur when the spider's fangs are pressed into the skin. This can happen if the spider somehow ended up under an article of clothing and got trapped against the skin, or found it's way into a persons armpit or other area where flesh gets pressed together. In addition to the pressure being a factor, these areas of the body often have thinner skin than the extremities.

Annother way people get bit is they see or feel a spider on them and slap it, effectively forcing the fangs in.

Wade

 

[Spiderfoot]

Agreed

The chelicerae are fused so the fangs are unable to grab and inject, so they have to be pressed into the skin for the venom to work.

 

[Bean]

I need to approach another source for this person to believe me

Show the doubting person these pics.

 

[Lucretia]

Show the doubting person these pics.

You can't believe everything you hear on television... same goes for online.
http://spiders.ucr.edu/hyperbole2003.html

 

[Bean]

You can't believe everything you hear on television... same goes for online.
http://spiders.ucr.edu/hyperbole2003.html

Thanks for the link.

 

[JJJoshua]

When my friend went down to Ft. Jackson, SC for boot camp, he got bit on the back of the neck by a brown recluse. If I remember correctly he got bit at night and didn't feel it. But he got the venom and was put on anti-venin. He was telling me about how he had to lay on his stomach and the doctor would pull layers of dead flesh off the back of his neck. His scar is probably around the size of about a quarter though. He wasn't allowed out of drills though, so he had to continue with a Brown recluse bite... sounds like fun.

 

[xanadu1015]

I wonder if its the same for the desert loxosceles....looks like the cousin of the recluse.



I find hundreds around my house and right now I am trying to raise one...this is the one loxosceles species I know nothing about.


Laura