Heterothele villosella venom

ninthdegreeburn · Aug 3, 2014

Hi there, I am looking for someone who knows about Heterothele villosella venom. I can't find any specific information about it elsewhere.

Baboon spiders like Pterinochilus are known for their potent venom, is this the same for Heterothele?

Poec54 · Aug 3, 2014

While OW venom is typically stronger than NW, all OW's certainly don't have 'significant' venoms. With Heterothele being so small, and not particularly defensive, I doubt you'd be bit, and that the effects are likely to be minimal. I've had that species in the past and bred them, and don't see them as a candidate for bites.

ninthdegreeburn · Aug 3, 2014

Thank you Poec54. It's not me I'm worried about, it's my cat. We have a H. villosella communal and we believe there was a brief moment their enclosure was opened by accident. A few could have gotten away. We do have a separate spider room where the cats are not allowed, but still... if my cat catches one, it'll probably bite.

Poec54 · Aug 3, 2014

ninthdegreeburn said:
Thank you Poec54. It's not me I'm worried about, it's my cat. We have a H. villosella communal and we believe there was a brief moment their enclosure was opened by accident. A few could have gotten away. We do have a separate spider room where the cats are not allowed, but still... if my cat catches one, it'll probably bite.

Most likely house spiders will catch and eat any loose slings. Tarantulas are no match for webs. Being in Florida I get an assortment of native spiders in my house, and the cats invariably kill them, even fairly large wolf spiders. I think their fur is too thick for small fangs to penetrate.

ninthdegreeburn · Aug 4, 2014

In fact one of our house spiders did catch a H. villosella spiderling! But it's not just spiderlings that got away. We also found three juveniles on the wall. Still all in the same room though.

One of my cats caught a bat once. The bat was tested for rabies and the vet told me my cat could have been bitten in the mouth/lips/cheeks. Since then I am well aware of that. A small tarantula might not penetrate her fur, but what if it's between her jaws?

It's hard to find anything on H. villosella venom...

sr20det510 · Aug 4, 2014

ninthdegreeburn said:
Thank you Poec54. It's not me I'm worried about, it's my cat. We have a H. villosella communal and we believe there was a brief moment their enclosure was opened by accident. A few could have gotten away. We do have a separate spider room where the cats are not allowed, but still... if my cat catches one, it'll probably bite.

Do you happen to have any pics of your communal?

korg · Aug 4, 2014

There's definitely scientific evidence suggesting OW tarantula venom has serious consequences for dogs... not sure about cats, but my baseline assumption would be that an envenomating bite from H. villosella, small though they are, could have potential to seriously harm a cat. Can't give you a concrete answer, but I'm sure you're going to do your best to round up the escaped spiders regardless, yes? Good luck.

Heterothele villosella venom

ninthdegreeburn

Arachnopeon

Poec54

Arachnoemperor

ninthdegreeburn

Arachnopeon

Poec54

Arachnoemperor

ninthdegreeburn

Arachnopeon

sr20det510

Arachnoknight

korg

Arachnobaron