Bamboo
Well-Known Member
Awwww!! He's adorable!! I think he deserves his own thread so you can put pictures of him up all the time...just sayin' :wink: :stickpoke:
It all sounds quite horrible but it doesn't happen often, once you know what you're doing. Also, it is recommended that you keep a pair of safety glasses around for when you handle your T but especially for when you are cleaning the enclosure (one of those masks that cover your nose and mouth are also recommended for tank cleanings, since they do shed the hairs naturally, and after a while there can be a lot of them in there lol)
New World type tarantulas have a special type of hair called urticating hairs. When stressed, they will kick these hairs in the general direction of whatever is distressing them. These hairs are specifically designed to become lodged in and irritate vital areas like eyes, nose and mouth etc. but they also leave annoying rashes on skin. (In the wild, this would likely have distracted the predator long enough to allow the T to escape) They're often more annoying then particularly dangerous (they're too small to remove manually, so you usually have to just wait a day or two for the body to dissolve them on it's own) but some people are pretty allergic to them and have been forced to rehome their NWs.hprats said:
It all sounds quite horrible but it doesn't happen often, once you know what you're doing. Also, it is recommended that you keep a pair of safety glasses around for when you handle your T but especially for when you are cleaning the enclosure (one of those masks that cover your nose and mouth are also recommended for tank cleanings, since they do shed the hairs naturally, and after a while there can be a lot of them in there lol)
