Kyle Rittenhouse has been bitten by a spider. The acquitted Kenosha, Wisconsin, shooter shared the update from the hospital, along with photos of the injury.
“The communists couldn’t take me out and i’ll be damned if I let a brown recluse take me out,” he wrote. “Disappointed I’m not Spider-Man now…,” Rittenhouse added. In a follow-up post, Rittenhouse clarified that the spider had been killed.
“The spider, like the commies, also thought it was a good idea to come after me while I was armed. He did not survive,” he wrote.
Rittenhouse, 23, posted photos which showed a reddish mark on his leg after the spider bite.
What is Brown recluse, is its bite dangerous?
Rittenhouse, who is popular in right wing circles, noted that a Brown recluse had bitten him. The Brown recluse is one of the two venomous spiders found in North America.
It is also known as the Loxosceles reclusa and is found in the south, west, and midwest areas. As per the National Center for Biotechnology Information these spiders can be found in dark places like under rocks, in the bark of dead trees, attics, basements, cupboards, drawers, boxes, bedsheets, or similar locations.
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“Dermonecrotic arachnidism is the local tissue injury that results from brown recluse spider envenomation,” it notes. “Brown recluse spider venom is cytotoxic and hemolytic,” it adds. In layperson’s terms, the Brown recluse’s bite can cause an ‘urticarial rash’, NCBI notes.
However, if the bite is more severe then the following is likely to play out. Initially, the matter is painless but over the next two to eight hours, it becomes increasingly painful. Symptoms include malaise, nausea, headache, and myalgias. The site of the bite will have two small puncture wounds with surrounding erythema, as per NCBI. From there “center of the bite will become paler as the outer edge becomes red and edematous,” NCBI notes. They add “this relates to vasospasm which will cause the pain to become more severe.”
A blister is expected to form over the next few days and the center of the ulcer is expected to turn a ‘blue/violet color with a hard, stellate, sunken center’. Then, skin sloughing can occur, and the wound will eventually heal but it can take several weeks, as per NCBI.
Treatment for the Brown recluse spider bite includes elevating the ‘extremity above the heart or at least in a neutral position.’ Then, an ice pack to the area should help halt the process of necrosis, as per NCBI. The wound has to be cleaned with soap and water. Pain management may be needed and in some cases, patients might need opioids. Antibiotics are only necessary if there is associated cellulitis, as per NCBI.
