Hellish holiday leaves woman with 'dead' ear

A DUTCH woman will remember her Italian vacation for all the wrong reasons after a spider bite left her with a rotten ear.

The 22-year-old tourist woke up in pain and noticed that her ear and face were swollen but was unsure why.

She visited a local hospital where she was prescribed an antihistamine but it did little to fix the swelling.

By the time she retued to the Netherlands, part of her ear had tued black, meaning the skin was effectively dead.

Doctors discovered she had been bitten by a Mediterranean recluse, a spider whose venom destroys skin and fat.

Plastic surgeons removed the dead skin and used cartilage from the woman's ribs to recreate the ear.

Surgeon Dr. Marieke van Wijk told livescience.com that the spiders aren't usually dangerous, adding, \"I wouldn't take precautions, but if one develops a mysterious red, white and blue swollen lesion in summer, in an endemic region, keep the brown recluse in mind.\"