Weird bug bite? – Wisconsin Geocaching Association

This topic has 13 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 4 months ago by Trekkin and Birdin.

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09/07/2008 at 7:20 pm #1727065
Trekkin and Birdin
I’m not posting a photo, though I guess if I had a swimsuit on, you’d see it. Anyway, a couple days ago, I had a bug bite on my leg that looked and felt like a mosquito bite. Yesterday morning, a very faint C-shaped pink ring had formed around the bite site. This morning, that ring looks like a serious, angry bruise. The itching is gone.

No other symptoms so far. We know what Lyme rash looks like in this house. 😉 It’s not that. Any thoughts? I figured I’d get a photo at this point, in case it progresses to something else and I need to go in.
Too often, the medical personnel seem unfamiliar with these kinds of things around here.
09/07/2008 at 11:18 pm #1895706
GrouseTales
Sounds like a spider bite. You are probably incubating a sack of millions of little spiders under your skin. In a few days, they will probably break out and your skin should return to normal.

On a more serious notes, I’ve had similar reactions to horse fly and deer fly bites, minus the “pink ring”.

The pink circle sounds like symptoms of a lyme infected tick bite, but I don’t know how soon that would typically appear.
09/08/2008 at 12:05 am #1895707
greyhounder
Ring worm?

Bec
09/08/2008 at 12:26 am #1895708
jthorson
If the ring looked looked this it will fade quickly, especially in fall.
09/08/2008 at 12:26 am #1895709
Trekkin and Birdin
No, it’s not that, Bec. I can now see two side by side punctures at the center. I’m not kidding when I say it looks like a really bad bruising, really dark purple, not raised, but it’s not completely circular. Looks kind of like a question mark. You know, the ring DOES look a bit like the above, LOL.

As long as it’s not an earwig eating through my brain! 😯 Honestly, I don’t think they’d find much to eat up there these days, anyway!
09/08/2008 at 1:10 am #1895710
Buy_The_Tie
Key the following into Google Image Search…

brown recluse bite

Or go here
09/08/2008 at 1:11 am #1895711
Trekkin and Birdin
That’s what I was afraid of. I have no idea where it might have been encountered.
09/08/2008 at 1:49 am #1895712
furfool
@Buy_The_Tie wrote:

Key the following into Google Image Search…

brown recluse bite

Or go here

That is what I was thinking. I hope that’s not it. A neighbor of mine was bitten by one a few years back when he was clearing some brush in Florida. I know that bites from those spiders dropped off quite a bit after people started getting indoor plumbing. Use any outhouses lately?
09/08/2008 at 1:57 am #1895713
Trekkin and Birdin
I’m looking at the info and I don’t think this is the bite. (Thank goodness). It’s progressed far too slowly and the severe pain mentioned has not been an issue. Basically, the skin is okay, just looks like a halo-shaped bruising. No raised stuff, no blister like sore in the middle.

I’m just glad it’s not swimsuit season anymore.
09/08/2008 at 2:49 am #1895714
greyhounder
So I’m still researching this. I see that sharks leave a crescent shaped bite. By any chance, were you….oh never mind. I’m just being stupid.

Hope this gets figured out!! I’m intrigued!

Be
09/08/2008 at 4:15 am #1895715
elfdoctors
I am guessing spider bite (but not brown recluse).

There are lots of different species of spiders in Wisconsin. ALL of them are poisonous (but most of them have such soft mouth parts that they can’t penetrate human skin or don’t have enough venom to hurt a human).

There continues to be a big misconception about the frequency of brown recluses in Wisconsin. I’ve heard of lots of people who’ve been told they have had a brown recluse bite. However, this is the only bite that routinely has the center die off. Even though I’ve seen lots of bad spider bites, NONE of them have had the center die. I’ve read that the brown recluse spiders cannot survive the winters up here. Some of them do get imported in and reproduce through the summer months but the odds of running into one are slim.
09/08/2008 at 3:22 pm #1895716
MosquitoMagnets
I got a bite earlier this summer that sounds similar to that. I got it while up at the cabin in Mercer. I was thinking it was some kind of fly bite. (I always have reactions to the fly bites up north. Whether it’s deer flies or black flies….etc…) It was on my thigh and at first it itched, then formed a big bruise around it. Looked like I got nailed with a baseball.
I was pretty sure it was a fly, cuz I vaguely remembered swatting something away that had bit me when we were ATVing that day.
09/08/2008 at 11:13 pm #1895717
Barry Butrymowicz
If you are swatting flies and get bruises, quit using a ball peen hammer for a flyswatter. lol just kidding

Barry of sweetlife
09/09/2008 at 12:30 am #1895718
Trekkin and Birdin
Barry,

You mean there’s another way to whack them? LOL

I’m thinking it’s some other bug. It hasn’t changed a whole lot since yesterday, and in fact, like someone said, it’s a bit like the Cubbies, fading with the cooler weather of fall. Does feel tender to touch, but otherwise no pain. Weird.
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