I dont know what a "blink spider" is.

Just a dumb D&D-ish joke. It's like a blink dog. Only, you know ... with spiders.

Looks a lot like a brown recluse, but I cannot see markings on the cephalothorax because the photo is so blurry.

Does it look like this?




This website should be infinitely helpful: http://spiders.ucr.edu/recluseid.html


PS---I love spiders.

Do you live west of the Rockies? If so, it's definitely not a recluse.

Ah, I should have been more specific. There are other kinds of recluses throughout the southern US, for varying values of "recluse". Brown recluses are exclusive to the southeastern states. The desert recluse in the southwest isn't really a recluse, technically. Are those similarly venomous as a brown recluse? I didn't think they were, but I see here that they're in the Loxosceles family with L. Reclusa (brown recluse), so ... maybe?

A brown recluse bite will do more than make you sick, their venom cause all kinds of tissue and muscle damage around the bite area. If not treated properly and quickly you could lose a a limb to it.
Brown Recluses are alive and well In Arizona.

Yes, he was extra-ordinarily lucky. He was bitten twice on his right cheek in his sleep. He became incredibly ill, and was hospitalized for 2 or 3 days. He made a complete recovery with no lasting damage of any sort.

As suggested by its specific epithet reclusa ("recluse"), the brown recluse spider is rarely aggressive, and actual bites from the species are uncommon. In 2001, more than 2,000 brown recluse spiders were removed from a heavily infested home in Kansas, yet the four residents who had lived there for years were never harmed by the spiders, despite many encounters with them.[11] The spider usually bites only when pressed against the skin, such as when tangled up within clothes, towels, bedding, inside work gloves, etc. Many human victims of brown recluse bites report having been bitten after putting on clothes that had not recently been worn or had been left for many days undisturbed on the floor.

The initial brown recluse bite frequently is not felt and may not be immediately painful, yet such a bite can be serious. However, the fangs of the brown recluse are so tiny they are unable to penetrate most fabric, including socks.[12]

The brown recluse bears a potentially deadly hemotoxic venom. Most bites are minor with no necrosis. However, a small number of clinically-diagnosed brown recluse bites do produce severe dermonecrotic lesions (i.e., necrosis); an even smaller number of clinically-diagnosed brown recluse bites produce severe cutaneous (skin) or viscerocutaneous (systemic) symptoms. In one study of clinically-diagnosed brown recluse bites, the incidence of skin necrosis was 37% and the incidence of systemic illness was 14%.[13] In these instances the bites produced a range of symptoms common to many members of the Loxosceles genus known as loxoscelism, which may be cutaneous (skin) and viscerocutaneous (systemic). In very rare cases, bites can even cause hemolysis (causes Red blood cells to burst).[14]

Most brown recluse spiders' bites do not result in necrosis, let alone systemic effects. When both types of loxoscelism do result, systemic effects may occur before necrosis, as the venom spreads throughout the body in minutes. Debilitated patients, the elderly, and children may be more susceptible to systemic loxoscelism. The systemic symptoms that are most commonly experienced as the result of a brown recluse bite include nausea, vomiting, fever, rashes, and muscle and joint pain. Rarely, such bites can result in hemolysis, thrombocytopenia, disseminated intravascular coagulation, organ damage, and even death.[15] Most fatalities are children under the age of seven[16] or those with a weaker-than-normal immune system.

While it is important to note that the majority of brown recluse spider bites do not result in any symptoms, cutaneous symptoms occur as a result of such bites more frequently than systemic symptoms. In such instances, the bite forms a necrotizing ulcer that destroys soft tissue and may take months to heal, leaving deep scars. These bites usually become painful and itchy within 2 to 8 hours, pain and other local effects worsen 12 to 36 hours after the bite, and the necrosis develops over the next few days.[17] Over time, the wound may grow to as large as 25 cm (10 inches) in extreme cases. The damaged tissue becomes gangrenous and eventually sloughs away.

Brown recluse aren't known to inhibit that part of the country, or anywhere close. And bites from brown recluse cause necrosis of the tissue and skin surrounding the bite. They leave nasty craters as the skin literally rots.