Caroline’s Booboo Update
Posted By Kathleen David on August 9, 2007
We saw her Doctor.
Looks like a spider bite (two puncture wounds) so we are giving her Benadryl to counteract the reaction and we’ll see where we are tomorrow. It hasn’t gotten any worse than it was this morning so that is a good sign.
Thanks for all your good thoughts. I appreciate them.
I am grateful that this is no more than it is.
First off, let me add our good wishes for her. Now, how is she holding up? Is she upset?
Two words that send the fear of God through my soul – “spider bite”. Thank Heavens that the bite is NOT likely to be a red back or funnel web. Do you have white tailed spiders over there?
Megan
I’m glad it wasn’t anything serious.
Anyone know a good way of spider-proofing a house (that doesn’t involve massive pesticide use)?
“Bill Mulligan at August 9, 2007 04:55 PM”
I don’t know. We have the pest bloke coming over in a couple of weeks for the annual inspection and treatment. The boys were in the garage the other day tidying up (I kid you not). They told me that they had come across some redbacks -which is understandable – Spring is just around the corner. Although we are still getting frosts over night, the day time temp is getting into the low to mid 20sC.
Bill? Where do you live?
Kathleen: I hope it’s only minor. Granddaughter Maggie managed to fall all the way down the stairs here the other month and barely even get bumped – not even bruised. She rolled rather then going end over end, thank goodness. Apparently she heard my voice from downstairs and was coming to see me.
Now she won’t even go *near* the stairs…
(She’ll be nineteen months old next week; i think remember my own experience, when i was not much older, when i managed to survive an encounter with a lamp socket. I was leery of lamps for months afterward, according to family legend…)
I think it’s Megan who is having night temmps in the 20s…I’m getting ready to drive home to North carolina where my wife informs me it was 109 degrees yesterday. 109!
She says it’s suppoed to get better. yeah, right, better than 109 could be 108. It could drop 20 degrees and “only” be 89! You know why spiders come in MY house? Because it’s 109 degrees outside! I hardly even have the heart to step on them.
Megan either lives in a much colder place than the continental USA or has been drinking heavily. Either way I envy her. 🙂
“mike weber at August 9, 2007 10:59 PM”
My late father in law taught all the grandchildren to crawl backwards down flights of stairs. Mum and Dad lived in a 2 storey house that also had many, many stairs around the gardens (it was on the top of a cliff).
None of the 11 grandkids came to grief on the stairs, Nanna, on the other hand! I was so glad when she sold the last place after Dad died(different house). She seemed to have taken so many tumbles down those wretched stairs I lived in fear of finding her at the bottom. The irony being that when she did break her arm, she had tripped over in the back yard on LEVEL ground.
No, our day time temps are getting into the early mid 20sC (20C is about 68F) – it is still Winter here. Night time temps are still apporaching 0C.
Megan
Here, once we get into Summer, daytime temps between 35C and 42C are common (95F – 107F).
Poor thing! I suspected as much, as spider bites don’t generally welt like a bee or mosquito, they’re much more generalized. The only spiders you really have to watch out for up this way are the Violin spiders, which can wreck havoc, but they’re not particularly common. If it’s not getting worse, it’s probably not a violin spider.
“Susan O. at August 10, 2007 06:52 AM ”
Oooouwww!! Yuck!!! What are the symptoms/effects of the “Violin”? I’ve not heard of them.
Glad to read that Caroline’s problem didn’t turn out to be too severe. Between the spiders and biters that are native and the ones getting imported and becoming native these days… It’s good to know it was just one of the (relatively) nuisance ones.
Megan,
The brown recluse spider is also called the violin or fiddlebacked spider depending on what state you live in. We like to confuse everyone (including ourselves) by giving everything at least five completely different and totally unrelated names. And speaking of unrelated… The American funnel-web spider is different then the Australian funnel-web spider. Ours is basically a grass spider and is relatively harmless (unless you’re allergic.) They got nothing on the toxicity of their Aussie and Kiwi cousins.
Bill,
The only non-chemical way that I’ve ever found to reduce (not eliminate, but merely reduce) the spider population around my house was by ordering Praying Mantis eggs from organic farmer’s catalogs every year. Not a 100% solution, but it was better then nothing. Now the wife has me shelling out to Dodson exterminators every month. I dislike spiders. She hates them. Now if I could just get rid of all the &^$#%@! snakes in my yard…
Don’t get rid of the snakes! They eat vermin and besides, they’re cute. Unless we’re talking rattlers and copperheads.
In NC we have green snakes by the ton (Lovely, harmless creatures), worm snakes, big black rat snakes (which become quite docile after a few days of handling), the wonderful hognose snake, and the slightly aggressive bloack racer. We also have water snakes but they’re best left alone, even the non-venemous ones. And the occasional rattler and much less occasional copperhead.
They are really very beautuful animals. Like any science teacher worth his salt I like to have a snake or two in the classroom although there is usually at least 1 kid who almost refuses to enter the room unloess the cage is covered. I wonder if there has ever been a study to see if the fear of snakes is entirely learned or if it is something some people are born with.
Some are copperheads. I won’t kill green snakes and rat snakes. As for vermin control… Two cats in the house and two indoor/outdoor dogs that kill anything and everything that comes into the yard (other then the snakes.
I think you mean “like any good LIFE science teacher”, Bill. We physics/astro types don’t tend to have snakes in the classroom. 🙂 (Lizards at home … that would be a yes.)
I think the fear of snakes (or reptiles in general) is absolutely learned. Katherine’s had snakes and lizards in the house for her entire life so far, and has no real fear of them at all. Some of my other relatives, of course, are still wary of our whole house due to its reptilian occupants.
And as to the main topic … while I think spiders tend to get a bad rap in terms of being blamed for any unexplained bite, the important thing is that Caroline is on the mend and almost back to normal. Yay for doctors!
TWL
Megan:
I’m still not used to poster names being at the bottom on Kathleen’s blog and top on Peter’s.
Australia?
“None of the 11 grandkids came to grief on the stairs, Nanna, on the other hand!”
Well, actually, while the L:ittle Bit’s tumble down ths stairs was scary, as i said, since she rolled, she was just scared; OTOH both of her parents, Kate and i have all managed to fall on the steps since we moved into this townhouse in December.
The treads are narrow and the carpet is not particularlyhigh traction, so if you put your foot too near the edge, it can slip right out from under you. I slid three strps on my butt…
” mike weber at August 10, 2007 09:20 PM ”
Yep, Ridgey Didge, Dinky Di.
Mum used to slip in the carpet. The real worry was the tiled foyer at the bottom of the stairs. It was a big relief when she moved into a single storey house with level gardens, front and back.
” Bill Mulligan at August 9, 2007 11:35 PM”
It’s 21:12 on Saturday night and for the record, I got home from work about an hour ago and have just finished half a bottle of EXCELLENT Australian merlot with a very slow cooked beef casserole.
Also it has been an absolutely glorious late Winter Saturday, 24.3C – about 7 C above above average for this time of year. Mate, Spring is just around the corner. The golden robinias (flowering trees) in our front garden have their first leaves already.
Megan, of course anything I said about snakes does not apply to Australia–run like hëll!
I kid. You have a beautiful country, albeit one with an awful lot of animals that can kill you.
Just thought I’d mention that Winter has not finished with us yet. It’s just after 7am on Tuesday, the temperature is 1.7C although it’s a beautiful clear morning. Rain predicted over the next couple of days. We’re expecting a maximum today of around 16C.