As the weather gets colder, spiders begin moving inside to find a warm place to hide. It’s that time of year again and the creepy crawlers are on the move. I don’t mind the cooler weather, but I do mind the spiders it tends to bring inside. For the most part many of the species of spiders will not try to purposely bite you or harm you in anyway. Spiders normally only bite as a defense mechanism. There are very few species of spiders that purposely bite. The two most dangerous spiders are the brown recluse and the black widow. I unfortunately had the experience of being bitten by a brown recluse. I was bitten on my upper left thigh. At first I didn’t really think much of the red spot that had appeared. It wasn’t until the red spot began to grow and turned into what looked almost like a blister, but a little harder and filled with some kind of liquid. As the spot on my leg continued to grow I decided it would be best for me to go to the emergency room. When my doctor examined the spot on my leg I explained to her that it hurt when I touched it and when I did touch the spot it was warm as if there was heat in it. Both the doctor and nurse explained that it was infected and said that they would be cutting the dead skin off and sending it in for testing. My doctor iodized the spot and then she began to cut the dead skin off, and after that she put it in a tube so it could be tested. After she cut the dead skin she then squeezed the liquid out of the blister. She said she was going to try to get as much out of it as she could, but the rest should eventually drain. After that the nurse drew a circle around the bite. She explained that if the redness were to go outside of the circle then I would need to get back to the hospital immediately. The doctor said that other than keeping it clean, I would not need to mess with the bite. The doctor explained that the tests generally take two to three business days and if it was something that the antibiotic she prescribed would not heal then they would call me and have me go back. A few days after my visit to the emergency room I was concerned because the redness began to go outside the circle and welting. I was going to go back to the emergency room, but decided to call instead and ask what I needed to do. They told me that since it had been a couple days to take my antibiotic for a few more and if anything progressed or didn’t get any better then I would need to go back in. I took the antibiotic for a few more days and within the few days the redness and whelping went back down. Then a day or so passed and I was getting ready for class when I noticed that a piece of the blister had fallen out. I didn’t realize at the time it was trying to drain, but after I got it cleaned up it kept draining so I put a band-aid on it and went on with my day. I’m still currently taking the antibiotics, but the bite seems to be healing. Being aware that spiders are coming inside due to the change in weather is very important. If you do suspect or know you have a spider bite I strongly suggest going to the doctor to get it taken care of and not take a chance of the bite getting infected. And call a good exterminator.