An itsy-bitsy spider

June 21, 2007

Dear Patty,

We're keeping an eye on our friend and next-door neighbor Robyn. We're watching for the appearance of superpowers.

Spider-Woman got hers through an injection of irradiated spider blood. Soon she could lift tons and stick to walls.

Robyn recently was bitten by a spider, but not just any spider. It was a brown recluse, the devil's handmaiden of spiders.

It happened while I was out of town. Robyn mentioned a spider bite to DC, who isn't one to soft-pedal a potential calamity. First she took Robyn to see a family friend who owns a pest control company. The friend said the bite and the crumpled body of the spider Robyn had rolled onto in bed had all the signs of a brown recluse.

She promised to examine the spider's corpse under a microscope the next day. Brown recluse spiders only have six eyes instead of the usual eight and are shaped like a long-legged violin.

Then DC and Robyn went to an emergency room, where the doctor thought the bite and the spider's body looked like they belonged to a brown recluse. She gave Robyn an anti-inflammatory drug and an antibiotic and told her the worst might be yet to come.

Everybody turned out to be right.

Brown recluses are not rare, but bites are. Usually the result is some nausea and discomfort. Once in a while the bite can necrotize and scar. So far Robyn's hasn't, but she has a big purple stain on her left hip.

DC and I feel awful because we sold Robyn her house. We knew brown recluses had been found in the house and said so before the sale. We still wish we could make it up to our own little Spider-Woman.

In one of the scariest movies of my childhood, armies of huge black ants overran a South American plantation. Dozing men awoke to discover they were being slowly devoured. Screams ensued.

Hollywood loves to make films about the power of the natural world to do us harm. But being alive means learning how to coexist with all kinds of deadly creatures, especially each other.

A pest control company has given the house a new dose of poison, but these days Robyn sleeps on her couch. Through her we have become more knowledgeable about the behavior of brown recluse spiders. For instance, they are fond of cardboard, sheds and woodpiles.

As the name indicates, they don't like being around us, but if we stick our hands into one of the dark places they inhabit they'll respond.

Cleaning is one way people get bit, so I avoid that dangerous practice as much as possible.

By now Robyn seems to have become fond of showing off her spider bite, as if it's become part of who she is. She has turned off her outdoor lights, she says, because they attract insects, the brown recluse's food source. She seems to like the dark more than she used to.

She warned us against putting a mattress on the floor because spiders have easier access to your body.

Our mattress is on the floor. Otherwise the bed would be too high for the dogs to jump up and down. Upon hearing about this danger DC emerged from the basement with an industrial-sized bug killer. Like a priestess performing a voodoo protection ritual she sprayed a circle around our bed.

We are watching Robyn for signs of unusual behavior as well.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.