this post was submitted on 28 May 2025
288 points (96.5% liked)
solarpunk memes
4250 readers
72 users here now
For when you need a laugh!
The definition of a "meme" here is intentionally pretty loose. Images, screenshots, and the like are welcome!
But, keep it lighthearted and/or within our server's ideals.
Posts and comments that are hateful, trolling, inciting, and/or overly negative will be removed at the moderators' discretion.
Please follow all slrpnk.net rules and community guidelines
Have fun!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
All spiders are cool just because they're spiders. Brown recluses are scary ones though. Had a friend almost lose her pinky finger after one bit her. I just leave them alone if I see them. Thankfully, I've never encountered one inside my home.
Disclaimer: I'm not trying to undermine your or your friend's story or imply anything, if you don't want to engage further, I totally understand.
But: As a hobby arachnologist, I've heard these kinds of stories soooo many times. However when you look the scientific literature, there a bunch of studies that show a systematic pattern of misdiagnosed spider bites ... and and astonishing lack of studies covering actual, confirmed spider bites and their medical impacts.
I'm not sure what exactly you mean by "almost lose her pinky", but she probably didn't? A local doctor probably gave her some antibiotika (which is for bacteria and does fuck all against venom) and that was it.
I know 2 people that received recluse bites. One almost died and the other ended up with a big chunk of flesh taken out of their leg.
Those sound like serious medical cases. I hope the spiders involvment was well documented, because that's extremly rare.
Nope, doctors usually say "teehee, brown recluse never bite anybody!"
That is actually good to hear.
My friend had some kind of necrosis on her pinky that left it super disfigured. I have no idea what they gave her for it, but she told me she got bit by a brown recluse. We were also 14, so she could have been lying to seem cool? I do know that her finger was gross as hell.
Yeah, this is usually how these stories go. It was a long time ago, the spider wasn't collected, word of mouth can change the story overtime. Maybe a spider was involved and is just to be remembered as part of the story now. Who knows.
🤷♀️