Does Anyone Have Insecticide Safety Tips?

Hello guys,

This time of the year I often volunteer to work with dogs that have had heavy flea treatments, specifically with Lamda-cyhalothrin sprays around their kennels and very rarely with Phenothrin-based shampoos. There may be other insecticides used occasionally, but I'm not too familiar with them.

I don't handle any of my tarantulas, but during feeding, watering, rehousing, and enclosure maintenance, I wash my hands or take a shower beforehand and use latex gloves. I'm wondering if this is effective enough to keep my tarantulas safe. I've been reading up on DKS, and now I'm very concerned that I'm putting my invertebrates at risk.

I would really appreciate any tips regarding tarantula safety after being around insecticides. Thank you so much!

Not much you can do, but avoid going into the part of the house where they're at before you've thoroughly showered and changed clothes, I guess? That's all you really 'can' do anyways...just don't forget that chemicals also stick to clothing, hence why I mentioned it. And yes, that might be a bit paranoid, but when it comes to our T's I'm of the "better safe than sorry" folk.

As long as they don't come into contact with the toxins they should be fine. Just make sure that you change your clothes.

Thank you guys. It didn't even cross my mind that pesticides were sticking to my clothes.

Oh definitely don't take the clothes into the T's area of the building. Some insecticides are designed to absorb into clothing, survive repeated washings and still kill inverts on contact.