A horrible nightmare - A.K.A. Why handling is a bad idea.

Let me preface this by stating for the record: This was a nasty nightmare I had last night. It didn't actually happen, but it was incredibly vivid and an all-too-real possibility for those who handle their Ts just for the novelty of doing so. That's why I wanted to share it here in case there are any beginners lurking about who have yet to accept the wisdom of NOT handling their tarantulas. Warning: Unpleasant imagery to follow.

I had a bunch of friends over at my place, one of them being a neighbor from across the road who has shown mild interest in my collection. In the real world she's an arachnophobe, but she still respects spiders for the beneficial creatures that they are. In the dream, she was ogling my recently acquired B. boehmei and I was eager to show off (mistake #1), so I took the enclosure off the shelf, set it down on the coffee table and took the top off. I then proceeded to stick my hand into the enclosure without bothering to test her mood (mistake #2), and she turned around and sunk her fangs into the fleshy spot between my thumb and index finger - for a dream, this felt very real. It felt like having a pair of hot nails driven into my skin followed by intense, throbbing pain. Pain reflexes kicked in, and I shook her off my hand without thinking (mistake #3). She plummeted to the floor, hit the enclosure lid sitting at the edge of the coffee table on the way down, and the lid slipped off the table. As she hit the floor the lid came down on top of her and crushed her to the point that she was nearly cut in half.

Needless to say, I woke up in quite the state. Had to run downstairs to check on everyone before I could go back to sleep. It was just a dream, but it makes for a good cautionary tale, eh?

I am always scared that if I do get bit (I have knee-jerk reactions), I will accidentally fling the tarantula across the room unintentionally. For example, my brother had a tennis ball, I had a basketball. He tossed the tennis ball at me, I, without thinking, CHUNKED the basketball at it to block it, I ended up knocking the tennis ball straight up and busting out a light. I have very bad reactions lol.

Biollantefan54 said:

I am always scared that if I do get bit (I have knee-jerk reactions), I will accidentally fling the tarantula across the room unintentionally. For example, my brother had a tennis ball, I had a basketball. He tossed the tennis ball at me, I, without thinking, CHUNKED the basketball at it to block it, I ended up knocking the tennis ball straight up and busting out a light. I have very bad reactions lol.

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I'm the same way - sometimes all it takes is an obnoxious noise to get me twitching. The best thing we can possibly do is minimize the risk. My S.O. has been more interested in the collection lately and he has hinted that he'd like to hold one of the Ts - I told him flat out that it's never going to happen. I'll let him feed them once in a while if we wants to, maybe get him to help me with rehousing somewhere down the line when some of my more spirited specimens need to move into bigger homes, but that's it. It's great fun nurturing someone's inner arachnophile, but it's not worth putting anyone in risky situations to do it.