Insect Bite

[kevinb]

My wife while laying on the grass by our communal pool got an extremely painful bite on her bottom, big puncture wound and a red rash about two inches around it, she hasn't  suffered any ongoing problems though, has anyone any idea what insect could be the culprit ?

[lesandtony]

Sounds like a spider bite. The little buggers have lethal teeth

[John H]

Keep a close eye on it Kevin.
A few years ago I received a spider bite on my leg when crossing a field in Portugal.
Some months after when sat at home watching the TV the Mrs said look at your leg.....the blood was spurting out of the location of the bite.
A compression bandage stopped the flow.
A few months later we awoke one morning to find the same had happened again, it was that bad we had to replace the mattress.
I visited our GP who referred me to a Tropical Disease unit in Liverpool.
Apparently some spiders when biting you can inject an anti coagulant that can remain active for years!!
They advised me to keep an eye on it, hard not to and to keep pads and bandages "in stock" to stop any future bleeds.
I'm pleased to say I've had no more.

Regards all

John

[gaveteran]

Sounds horrible. It does remind me a similar sounding bite I suffered years ago here from a scolopendra (very large orange and black centipede). I was worried about the effects, since it bloody hurt and went red, and apparently their venom is similar to a scorpion (well, a low level one!). No long term effects, but I don't like looking at pictures of the revolting things! Likewise this (very maybe) could have been an actual scorpion, since we have small ones here.

[kevinb]

Thank you John and Gavetran, I've been inspecting it regularly, it seems to be subsiding, the puncture hole was quite big, will monitor the situation, many thanks all.

[Tony Gillam]

A few anti-social critters about. Some years back I had a run-in with a weaver fish on Carabassi beach. Quite painful for a few hours but no enduring issue like poor old John.

[kevinb]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, I've been inspecting the wound site daily and the redness has gone, the puncture mark is still visible and judging by its diameter I don't think it's a sting, more of a bite so perhaps a spider.

[kevinb]

https://euroweeklynews.com/2022/07/19/scorpions-discovered-in-costa-blancas-lagunas-in-la-mata-national-park/

These things are closer than we think.

[Tony Gillam]

Possibly endemic in Med countries, I suspect. I came across one, albeit a quite small one, on a Greek island some years ago.

[kevinb]

Evil looking things scorpions, years ago as a child we had the village stores next to our house, we used to get the odd scorpion in our garden, we reckon they came from the boxes of bananas delivered to the shop.

[gaveteran]

There are plenty of scorpions in GA. I've seen several over the years. In a brick wall, under a rock in the garden, and half a dozen on land near Barrancas del Sal. Only small, yellowish, and I am sure not the most poisonous in the world....but still prefer them at arm's length (or a bit further haha)

[kevinb]

That's quite a revelation Gaveteran, I didn't know we had them in GA, I'm going to be a bit more watchful when I poke about in my GA house garden. Thanks for the info.