Most spider bites heal on their own within a few days to three weeks with basic wound care: cleaning, icing, and keeping the area elevated. The vast majority of spiders produce bites no worse than a bee sting, and home treatment is all you need. The two exceptions in the U.S. are black widow and brown recluse bites, which can cause serious symptoms and require medical attention.
First Aid for a Spider Bite
Start by washing the bite with mild soap and water. Apply antibiotic ointment three times a day to help prevent infection. Then place a cool, damp cloth or a cloth filled with ice over the bite for 15 minutes each hour to bring down swelling and ease pain. If the bite is on your arm or leg, keep that limb elevated when you can.
Over-the-counter pain relievers can help with soreness. For itching and localized swelling, hydrocortisone cream applied once or twice a day works well, but don’t use it for more than seven days without medical guidance. These simple steps are enough for the vast majority of spider bites, which come from harmless species.
How to Tell if a Bite Is Serious
One of the biggest challenges with spider bites is that many skin infections, including MRSA and cellulitis, look almost identical to a bite. Unless you actually saw a spider bite you, that red, swollen bump on your skin may not be a bite at all. If the area keeps growing, feels warm, or develops pus, you’re more likely dealing with an infection than a spider bite.
Seek emergency care if you experience any of these symptoms after a suspected bite:
- Severe abdominal cramping or rigidity (sometimes mistaken for appendicitis)
- Difficulty breathing or swallowing
- A growing wound at the bite site
- Nausea, vomiting, tremors, or heavy sweating
Black Widow Bites
A black widow bite feels like a sharp pinprick, followed by a dull numbness around the area. The venom attacks nerve endings, and within hours it can trigger intense muscle pain and stiffness that spreads well beyond the bite. Your abdomen, shoulders, chest, and back may cramp severely. Some people also develop headaches, swollen or droopy eyes, and trouble breathing.
Black widow bites always warrant immediate medical attention. A doctor may prescribe pain medication and muscle relaxants to control symptoms. In severe cases, antivenom can be given intravenously, and symptoms typically ease within about 30 minutes of receiving it. You may also need a tetanus booster, particularly if your last shot was five or more years ago and the wound is dirty or punctured.
Brown Recluse Bites
Brown recluse bites follow a slower timeline. In the first three to five days, a bite with only a small amount of venom may cause mild discomfort that fades on its own. But if more venom was injected, the discomfort continues and an ulcer forms at the bite site.
In severe cases, the skin around that ulcer starts breaking down between seven and 14 days after the bite, creating an open wound. These necrotic wounds can take several months to heal completely. The good news: the majority of brown recluse bites heal within three weeks without developing into anything serious. If you notice a wound that’s growing or deepening, get medical care rather than trying to manage it at home.
Home Remedies That Don’t Work
You’ll find plenty of advice online about using baking soda paste, lemon juice, salt, or activated charcoal on spider bites. None of these are effective. The idea behind most of them is that you can somehow draw venom out of the skin, but as Cleveland Clinic dermatologist Dr. Bazzoli explains, venom gets picked up by tiny capillary veins below the skin surface so quickly that it’s gone before anything could pull it back out. There’s no proven evidence that any topical substance can neutralize or extract venom once it’s been injected.
You should also never cut into a bite to try to remove venom or make the skin bleed. This only creates a larger wound and increases your risk of infection.
Two things that do offer some mild relief: aloe vera and peppermint oil. Both provide a cooling sensation on the skin that can ease discomfort, though neither treats the bite itself. Think of them as comfort measures alongside proper first aid, not replacements for it.
Healing Timeline
A typical bite from a harmless spider resolves in a few days. Redness and swelling peak in the first 24 to 48 hours and gradually fade. Brown recluse bites that develop ulcers take longer, with most healing within three weeks and severe cases needing several months. Black widow bites produce the most dramatic short-term symptoms, but with medical treatment, the worst pain and muscle cramping usually resolve within days.
During healing, keep the area clean and watch for signs of secondary infection: increasing redness, warmth, pus, or red streaks spreading from the bite. Reapply antibiotic ointment regularly and avoid scratching, which can break the skin and introduce bacteria. If a bite isn’t improving after a few days, or is clearly getting worse, that’s your signal to get it evaluated.