A decade or so ago, that image would have freaked me out. Now she is absolutely beautiful - the kid looks OK as well. I was an arachnophobe who decided to learn about spiders to get rid of the irrational fear which was really interfering with my life. I over did the cure and am now obsessed by them. In fact, that obsession, and the adorable creatures with eight legs, is the topic of my latest book.
To prove that I had really overcome the fear, I held tarantulas in America. Nice docile safe pet tarantulas, like that in the image (known as ‘New World’), are not available here in Australia due to quarantine laws. Our own tarantulas (‘Old World’) are more likely to bite. I was overwhelmed by how delicate and gentle they were, and how carefully they moved over my hands.
As** Ianzin** says, the only danger there is to the spider. The owners of the spiders I held were very careful in placing them on my hands and in being very close by should I react and risk dropping their precious animals. That could be fatal to them. I’ll be back in the US in October, when the book is released there, and high on my list will be meeting and holding tarantulas.
Just to add a bit about the ‘distinct personalities’. Every tarantula owner will tell you that is the case. Even with my many ‘in the wild’ spiders who I name, watch and adore in their webs and burrows all around the house and garden, I can attest to distinct personalities within the same species. David Attenborough made a comment, in an interview with Michael Parkinson, to the same effect about making “Life in the Undergrowth” - he said it was one of the highlights of the whole series to discover that spiders have individual personalities.
Don’t just take my word for it. Start observing your own at home and you will discover the same thing. The best entertainment I know - and it costs nothing. [Steps off her bandwagon.]
The most respected authority on the “Biology of Spiders” is the book by that title by Rainer F. Foelix, according to the arachnologists I interviewed. He writes, on page 70:
“A more impressive example of how a spider can use its abdominal hairs is found in the New World “tarantulas.” When these animals feel threatened, they can quickly brush off clouds of abdnominal (urticating) hairs with their hind legs. Each hair is covered by hundreds of little hooks, which cause severe itching when in contact with the skin, especially in the nose and eye region. Experiments show that these urticating hairs can work themselves 2 mm deep into human skin. Sometimes this happens quite inadvertently when one works with dead “tarantulas” (preserved in alcohol or as dry exuvia) – as many museum curators can testify!”
That tends to imply that all of the New World tarantulas, which would include the one in the photograph and those kept as pets in America, Europe and Asia, are capable of this reaction. From the owners I spoke to, I gather the fact that this rarely happens is taken as an indication of the fact that the spiders are perfectly comfortable in their pet environment. Our Australian tarantulas (Old World), however, defend themselves with their fangs. Could be the reason they’re much more rarely kept as pets, and, even more rarely again, handled.
Foelix puts tarantulas in inverted commas because wolf spiders are better known as “tarantulas” in Europe.
I had a pet Chilean Rosehair tarantula for a while, her name was Elvira, she was, most equivocally, the most BORING pet I had ever had, she spent most of the time hiding under her bark log cave waiting for the errant cricket or two I dropped in to feed her (fed her once every other day) generally speaking, when a New World tarantula (South American species for example, like the one in the OP) is happy, it’s sitting still in it’s hidey-hole
'Vira definitely had a unique personality, Chilean Rosehairs have the reputation as one of the most docile species , and one of the best pet species, perfect for novice keepers…
Apparently, 'Vira never read her species description, she was grumpy and antisocial, she did not like to be touched and would quickly go into threat-display or kick hairs if I tried to touch her, so I respected her wishes to not be handled, and simply watched her
as stated upthread, the only lifeform at risk in the original photo is the spider
An interesting piece of trivia…
the “itching powder” that used to be sold in joke shops was mainly composed of tarantula Utricating hairs (basically tiny porcupine quills)
Ok, I have no issues with spiders, I don’t kill spiders in the house, I know how good they are for us, etc. But frankly, the bigger the spider, the more freaked out I get. If I were to run into a spider like that without being warned, I would screech like a little girl and hide behind my wife. Good Gravy, I’m getting the willies just THINKING about it!
My uncle used to have a tarantula named “Tyrone” It kept getting loose, he NEVER told his landlord about this…
Hmmmm… and the “label” on your post says you’re from Oz, where I’d think that arachnophobia and fear of other things that crawl and slither is a positive survival advantage (or am I just mistaken about the lethality of Australian fauna?).
Your book sounds fascinating. If it’s not considered a breach of etiquette here (I’m a newbie to the SDMB, so cut me some slack) can you PM me your name and title of the book, or ISBN or whatever information you feel comfortable disclosing which would permit me to get a copy when it’s released in the US (it sounds fascinating)?
I assume your October trip is a book promo tour; if it is and you have a website, blog, mailing list, or other means by which I can keep tabs on your stops I’d appreciate it; if you come anywhere near Memphis, TN on a day that’s convenient I’ll make every effort to come see if I can persuade you to inscribe my copy.
I was hoping you’d show up, MacTech. I still remember your “ask the tarantula” thread.
I’m not saying that if I ran into one of those in the wild, even the hairs on the back of my neck wouldn’t rise. There’s something hard-wired into us, methinks, that is naturally afraid of bugs. People get over it to varying degrees; some not at all.
However, ignorance about it isn’t the best way to go. It’s one thing to hate mosquitoes or centipedes or something else that really doesn’t benefit us directly*. But spiders really clean house - they eat all of those other nasty little bugs. And a situation like the one in the OP seems like the best way to learn - you’re not even near the tarantula but you see that an 8 YO girl can get over her fear, so maye it will inspire people to learn more about them.
Yes, I love tarantulas. I would have one as a pet except it would be my tarantula or my SO, I choose my SO. For the moment, anyway.
MacTech, my Chilean rose hair must have been a relative of yours. Jezebel was the most vicious thing ever hatched. If anyone got near her tank, she would immediately go into hissy mode, and would flick hairs at anything that moved. I really had wanted one that would be more interactive for my class (high school, so no little kids), but she was horrible. I sold her.
I like hairy spiders. I don’t like the shiny chitinous kind.
About a year ago I was standing under the air vent in my bedroom and my girlfriend’s eyes just popped open to the size of dinnerplates. A spider big enough to cover my palm (and not a daddy-long-legs type) was crawling out through the vent.
I squished it out of fear that it was squish me if I didn’t. Seriously- this spider could have grabbed the shoe from me and beaten me about the head with it.
I finally looked at the picture. I did emit one “Eeee!” out of pure reflex (spider on human= me going, “Eeee!”) but it actually wasn’t that bad. I’m off to look up MacTech’s thread now.
Here’s the thread. I enjoyed reading it, although I wish it had been longer and less full of plans of spider murder. Alas, the link to Elvira’s picture was dead, but I looked up Chilean rosehair tarantulas on wikipedia and they are very pretty.
This makes it sound like what the girl is doing in the picture in the OP (letting a tarantula crawl over the eye region of her face) is not such a hot idea after all.
Does it make me weird that tarantulas and other very large spiders remind me more of fuzzy rodents than actual spiders? They always look so cuddly
I’ve considered getting one, but I think I’d be too afraid of hurting it. For one thing, one my cats would likely never leave the poor thing alone, and would probably end up hurting it. I’ve always wanted to hold one, but haven’t got the chance.
I did get to hold a millipede once, a handler at the St. Louis zoo had one out when we were there. It’s feet felt like hedgehog quills.
Potentially lethal and really lethal are quite different. Our spiders haven’t killed anyone in decades - the anti-venom is very effective and you have plenty of time. It isn’t quick death. In fact, a healthy adult is unlikely to die, even with no treatment. So they are grossly exaggerated fears. Our snakes are more deadly. We have four potentially deadly snakes and two spider species in the back yard (bush block), but no-one around here seems to be dying. We are careful, though, especially about the snakes.
Thank you! I too am respectful of the SDMB protocols, which I am not sure of. My website and contact details are in my profile, and all information is there. Don’t hesitate to email if you want more information.
Thank you again! The trip is threefold (it’s a long way to come!). I am addressing a conference on gifted education in CA, and doing research for my next book and doctorate (see this thread), as well as hopefully doing some promotion of Spiders, especially seeing you guys are so into spiders with Halloween! We don’t have that here and my one experience of it there was fantastic fun.
Thank you for your enthusiasm for the book. After years of work, books tend to disappear into the quagmire of new releases, and I think spiders are creatures who deserve more than that. But then again, I am biased!
I overturned a stone gardening and suddenly found a tarantula gripping my hand. I flicked it off and found two small puncture wounds. I think he nipped me! I was kind of disappointed that nothing more dramatic happened. Mosquitos are far more evil.
Now you mention it, I agree - it’s a really stupid thing to do. The tarantula owners on this thread can add more to this - I am quoting someone else’s experience. One owner told me that the spiders are very sensitive to certain chemicals. This isn’t surprising, all spiders have chemo-receptors through their hairs. She told me that she put one on the hands of someone who had just put on hand cream and the spider plonked its abdomen down and lifted all eight legs. The only explanation she could offer is that it really didn’t like that hand cream. Wish I could have seen that!
A face has a lot of moist spaces with different chemicals, as well as eyelashes and other variations, so walking across a face could lead to reactions which are more unpredicatable than across hands. This is just me making stuff up as I go. But that logic suggests this is a stupid thing to do, and that a reaction could lead to the urticating hairs being released into the area of her eyes, nose and mouth. I know that one of the pet tarantulas I met had some bald patch as a result of reacting unexpectedly to some sudden movement.
I have now resolved never to allow a tarantula on my face - not that I had considered it. The owners I met were very fussy about controlling the conditions in which the spiders were held - for the spiders’ sake, not mine.
