Have you ever been bitten by a tarantula?

9 Comments

  • Jones R - 6 years ago

    No, I have not been bitten so far. I've kept Tarantulas for 6 years now, never even had a close call yet.
    That being said in this time I only accuired 7 animals.

  • Anne Baxter-Johnson - 7 years ago

    Not bitten, but pinched by my subadult female B. hamorii. I was concerned about her because she was very sluggish and seemed to be dragging her back legs. I started to pick her up to examine her and felt a sharp pinch. It did not particularly hurt nor did it break the skin. I have been raising and caring for multiple tarantulas since 2011 and this is the only dealings I've had with "the business end". It turned out that my girl was very premolty and after a successful shed she was fine.

  • Claire - 7 years ago

    I have handled many wild tarantulas - just to interact with them then let them go again - but I never handled my pet T - a B.Vagans & my first/only - because I couldn't read her as easily as the wild desert tarantulas (in AZ). My pet T always seemed so nervous whereas the wild Ts typically seemed calm & curious.

  • Gail - 7 years ago

    I have no interest in handling. I've only had tarantulas for a few months, but I doubt I'm any more likely to be bitten by them than by, say, my fish. I'm more concerned about the tarantula falling or attracting the attention of my cats and getting swatted at than I am being bit or flicked at. Everything is done at the end of my snake's tongs.

  • CJ - 7 years ago

    They're not pets; they don't come when you call them. Therefore, I do not handle them.

  • Craig - 7 years ago

    Not yet. I say yet because I don't think of myself as invincible, I know no matter how careful I am and despite the fact I don't handle that a bite could still happen in future.

  • Alicia - 7 years ago

    I don't handle my spiders. They are perfectly fine that way. I would handle them in a situation that required my intervention, like an injury.

  • Gemma - 7 years ago

    I don't handle my tarantulas unless forced to (randy MMs mistaking my hand for a lady, my H. lividum dashing up my arm and onto my back whilst rehousing, etc) and in my nearly four years of keeping tarantulas, I've barely even been threat posed, never mind bitten!

  • Howard Davies - 7 years ago

    I don't believe in handling spiders, it can stress them out and I don't think there is any need unless you absolutely have to.

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