The eyes have it’. Toronto Zoo’s Tom Mason, says this particular specimen, believed to be the spider that bit Ken Rosche is not a Brown Recluse as it features eight eyes, instead of the required six. Photo courtesy Ministry of Natural Resources

Local resident Ken Rosche believes he sustained this serious bite and subsequent infection on the top of his wrist from a spider in his home. Photo submitted

A few weeks ago, retired bush pilot and aircraft mechanic Ken Rosche had a run-in with a particularly nasty eight-legged adversary in Bedworth Rd. home.

While Rosche eventually got the best of the arachnid, the bite it administered has been an uncommonly terrible experience. For a time he required a daily treatment of intravenous antibiotics for fears of tissue necrosis. Weeks later, doctors are still keeping a close eye on the wound, having it redressed every second day.

The episode has led to a bit of a hunt to pin down the identity of the spider which he believes was later stepped on and killed by his wife on the bathroom rug.

Rosche thinks he brought the spider into his bedroom on his clothes after working in his shop at his woodpile.

He says the spider gave him a first nip on the ear, sending him to emergency with unexplained pain and inflammation for which he was prescribed antibiotic ear drops.

“Several days later I woke up in the morning and I noticed a small mosquito bite on my wrist,” said Rosche. “I was just about to go to Thunder Bay with a friend, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. By the time I got back from Thunder Bay my arm was badly swollen.”

At emergency doctors and nurse practitioners noticed red lines radiating from the wound — sign of a serious and spreading infection.”

It left a question to be answered, what could produce a bite of this magnitude, complete with tissue necrosis?

Ambulance attendant and spider enthusiast Ernie Kobelka suggested that a venomous spider, such as a Brown Recluse are one of the few insects capable of producing a wound to that effect.

The only problem with that theory is that the natural range of the spider does not extend beyond a handful of States in the Southern U.S.

At home Rosche said he found what he believed to be the offending spider and submitted it to Ministry of Natural Resources biologists for analysis, convinced he had uncovered evidence of a venomous spider which has never been found east of Alberta. He says comparisons to Internet images of the Brown Recluse were compelling.

The stowaway theory appeals to Rosche who says he lives within a stone’s throw of the former U-Haul dealer as well as transport weigh scales.

The Dryden Observer submitted photos of the bite and the specimen to Thunder Bay-based entomologist Ken Deacon, who says the stowaway theory, which is commonly invoked in sightings of Brown Recluse spiders far outside their natural range, is highly unlikely.

“Sure it can be transported here, but it’s extremely unlikely that they would be found around here,” said Deacon. “But there are a whole bunch of [native] spiders who belong to the same family that look a lot like it. Funnel-web spiders, which normally don’t bite but will bite — depending on the individual you could have a really awful reaction to them.”

After viewing photos of Rosche’s swollen wrist, Deacon passed the specimen photos onto Tom Mason, Curator of Invertebrates and Birds at the Toronto Zoo, for a second opinion.

As Brown Recluse have six eyes and Rosche’s specimen counted eight eyes, Mason concludes that it was not a Brown Recluse.

“By looking at the pattern, leg structure and the amount of spines on the legs and “hair” on the body, I would say the spider was a skinny garden spider in the family Araneidae,” said Mason via email.  “Past that, I wouldn’t guess.  This family has large chelicera and can cause a painful bite, but normally that is about as far as it goes.  Individuals do have different reactions to bites but it is not common to hear of necrosis occurring unless some sort of infection has set in.”

Rick Vetter of the University of California, Riverside says Brown Recluse spiders are often blamed in the medical setting for unexplained necrotic wounds, ignoring a whole host of possibilities, including bites from ticks, staphylococcus infections and shingles among many others. He says verifiable cases of Brown Recluse bites are rare, even within areas of the highest density for the spider.

“In the case of necrotic wounds, “brown recluse spider bite” is a very common conclusion of medical personnel throughout North America including such ludicrously inhospitable places as Canada and Alaska where no brown recluses have ever been found,” writes Vetter. “…people just want to blame spiders when there are lots of more probable things that cause necrotic injuries.”

By Chris Marchand