Bite Mystery Frustrates Local Woman
A spider that technically isn’t a spider is blamed for biting Peggy Schmeckpeper of Colorado Springs last summer and causing a serious infection. However, the consensus from two experts is that something else is the culprit.
Schmeckpeper, 52, said she was bitten in mid-July, two months after her nephew suffered a similar bite. She said her doctor told her the bite came from a camel spider native to the Middle East and believed to have been brought to Colorado by returning troops.
“I was sleeping and I went to brush something off me,” she said. “When I brushed it, it bit me. I screamed and found it in the bed. So I killed it.”
Schmeckpeper said she continues to suffer from an infection that is spreading and not responding to antibiotics.
“It’s coming up around my heart,” she said. “I can’t keep anything down. I’m sleeping all the time. I’m really sick.”
Eric Eaton, an entomologist and writer, said the camel spider isn’t a spider but actually is a solifugae from the same family of arachnids that includes scorpions. He said Colorado has 10 species of solifugae. Some are known as wind scorpions or sun spiders and aren’t considered dangerous.
Schmeckpeper described the solifugae as “a scorpion without the tail.”
Eaton said solifugae are non-poisonous and rarely bite humans, preferring instead to eat insect pests. He said he doubts a solifugae is to blame.
“Any kind of bite that causes injury is likely to produce an infection,” he said. “They’re ugly, but they’re beneficial. The masked hunter is a bug that often invades homes to eat pests, and can produce a very excruciating bite in self-defense.”
Dr. Davis Steinbruner of Memorial Hospital, who deployed to the Middle East as a member of the National Guard, said a solifugae could have bitten Schmeckpeper but is skeptical.
“It might bite in defense, but it has no poison,” he said. “It has a very large pincher, and that can cause a fairly large wound that can get infected. She just had really bad luck.”
Myths have exaggerated the solifugae’s size, abilities and danger to humans. A Fort Carson spokeswoman disputed some claims that soldiers are intentionally bringing the arachnids back home.
“Overcoming myths and superstitions with facts is very difficult,” said Eaton. “Solifugae aren’t something that you encounter every day.”
Schmeckpeper said she has no health insurance and has paid about $7,000 for treatment. Her nephew, however, apparently recovered from his bite, she said.
Steinbruner said you can minimize injury from any bite or infection by having it treated immediately and by having an updated tetanus shot.
