Shipping Containers - A Warning

[showcrop]

When they bite me I just put an activated charcoal poltuce on the bite to draw the venom out, works fine for me. Some times I have to take an antibiotic to kill the bacteria he left behind on my skin.

Sounds like a different species of spider.

 

[John M]

Those spiders absolutely thrive where I'm at, no telling how many times I've been bit but I know of two confirmed. I've studied these bastards, I know how they think, how they survive, where they hide, I hate every single one of them. Anyway, what prompted the emergency for EMS and then the ER? Was he having a panic attack or something unrelated, maybe a strange allergic reaction? How many days between the bite and amputation? I have two theories what happened, 1, Most of your body has thicker layers of skin, fat, and muscle, those layers provide an immune defense and barriers to deplete the toxins, maybe since it was on the thin layered hand, the toxins could quickly spread into tendons, ligaments and maybe even bone? 2. Several days into care, the open wound got infected, probably staph, early infection warning signs ignored.

The effects of a Brown Recluse bite is usually nothing to worry about, I bet most people never know they've been bitten. A low percentage of bites do produce those nasty necrotic wounds. Some of these wounds are probably better called an "Ulcer". Deep wounds (Ulcer) are very susceptible to infections and that's where most people have their problems, sadly they probably infected their own wound using poor wound care practices.

Mikey, the one who was bit, came in to my office early Monday morning. We all came in early, like 4am, so this Im guessing was about 6am. Im not 100% sure what happened, but he said all these little baby spiders were all over his hand, then he felt a bite and saw the big one. The guy who was helping him clean the trailer said Mike reached up near the vents on the can to grab what he said looked like a string, which apparently was the nest the spider had built. Within the hour, Mikey came in my office complaining about pain in his hand, and asked if someone could take him to the ER. Going down the steps, Mikey said to just call 911 since he was scared he might die and the guy taking him wouldnt be able to help. He did pass out a time or 2 but EMS, well first responders, was here in like 2 minutes. He actually came home that evening, and came to work the next day, but his hand was so swollen, and he was in a lot of pain so I sent him back home. His wife called me Friday afternoon and told ne it had gotten so bad she took him back to the ER, and the doctor had to call a surgeon and his regular doctor, and they thought t was best to take his hand off.

 

[Jim in NC]

Great to see you here John! They are nasty critters for sure. We try to be careful when working in areas that they can live. We especially have problems with black widows in the summer. It is very common to find them in the garden under watermelons and cantelopes. Our stacks of wood also are homes for both brown recluse and black widow spiders. Between Miss Joanne's dislike of spiders and being allergic bees we try to be careful.

 

[John M]

Great to see you here John! They are nasty critters for sure. We try to be careful when working in areas that they can live. We especially have problems with black widows in the summer. It is very common to find them in the garden under watermelons and cantelopes. Our stacks of wood also are homes for both brown recluse and black widow spiders. Between Miss Joanne's dislike of spiders and being allergic bees we try to be careful.

Hey Jim, yea, I dont post much anymore. Just tired of the, nah, not going there. Anywho, we have black widows all over. We use to get them real bad here at work, especially on the company trailers, and the trucks that sat more than a week or so. We never did figure out why they were so many of those at one time like that. It was like an infestation.

 

[tomtinker]

Sounds like a different species of spider.

You have got to start early, don't work if you wait too long.

 

[RBnSC]

Hey John, There is another thing that I have wondered about shipping containers. After years of carrying "who knows what" how safe is spending an extended amount of time inside one? The reason I ask is I have scrapped lots of containers and trailers and when we burn the wood out of the floor it always has strong chemical smell and I stay away from it. I dunno may be a dumb question.
Ron

 

[John M]

Hey John, There is another thing that I have wondered about shipping containers. After years of carrying "who knows what" how safe is spending an extended amount of time inside one? The reason I ask is I have scrapped lots of containers and trailers and when we burn the wood out of the floor it always has strong chemical smell and I stay away from it. I dunno may be a dumb question.
Ron

Ron, I guess it depends on whats been in it. We have to have an inspection sheet from when they are loaded and that tells us if they found any toxins inside, like mold and mildew or even formaldehyde and it suppose to show the percentages, but it doesnt always. Weve never had a problem with being inside them for the short amount of time we are in them, which is like 20 minutes unless theres a problem with the load. We do have one now, that is about 20ft - 30ft away from me and I can smell the chemicals in it, it will be rejected and the contents destroyed in the next hour or so. It must have a rebuilt floor, and it shouldnt have even been loaded. If I added up the amount of time I use to spend on them in a day, I guess it would be about 4 - 5 hours, and it never bothered me. Now I just sit behind a desk and sign paperwork and make out shipping docs, and get chewed out by the boss when someone else screws up.