Urticating hairs

[fartkowski]

Eh
New world T's have urticating hairs on their abdomens. When they feel threatened they will kick them off. From my experiance, B albopilosum hairs are not too bad. Everybody reacts differently to them. None of my B albos are big hair kickers anyway.

 

[Scorpionqueen20]

My fiance and I got our T. Blondi from a local store in town. My fiance told her that she should wear gloves and she said "No I don't need to. I have this down to a science.". As she was chasing the T. all over the cage with the deli cup of course the Blondi was kicking hairs like crazy! Poor T. was almost bald by the time she was done. Needless to say her hands were beet red by the time we left. We went back on several occasions to see how she was doing over the next few weeks. She was no where to be found until about a month later, when she finally returned to work. She said the pain was agonizing and that nothing helped with the itching and burning. One last note - her hands were still beet red.

 

[codykrr]

Yup, T. blondi can blister you. but my Male Brachypemla smithi is worse for me that my T. blondi.

i really dont even mess with my B. smithi's much because of my reactions to the U hair.

once it was so bad, i had hive/ blister like things all over my arms, neck and hands for a week after just retrieving a molt from the males enclosure. the only thing i can think of was he must have piled the U hairs up when he shed, because it tore me up. I would get rid of the pair i have if they wernt so dear to me.

 

[jcrow209]

My B. boehmei kicks hairs alot if I get to close during maintance. I never see the hairs on me, but my hand or arm will itch directly after.

 

[Falk]

My B. boehmei kicks hairs alot if I get to close during maintance. I never see the hairs on me, but my hand or arm will itch directly after.

Those hairs are microscopic.

 

[BrynWilliams]

Quite a good article on wikipedia worth a read for interest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urticating_hair

 

[Scorpionking20]

My fiance and I got our T. Blondi from a local store in town. My fiance told her that she should wear gloves and she said "No I don't need to. I have this down to a science.". As she was chasing the T. all over the cage with the deli cup of course the Blondi was kicking hairs like crazy! Poor T. was almost bald by the time she was done. Needless to say her hands were beet red by the time we left. We went back on several occasions to see how she was doing over the next few weeks. She was no where to be found until about a month later, when she finally returned to work. She said the pain was agonizing and that nothing helped with the itching and burning. One last note - her hands were still beet red.

I can attest to this story! I was there. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Not so much for her pain, for as much as she didn't heed my warning of not going in there without protection. The redness on her hands as we left the store was pretty hard to look at.

 

[Kathy]

Those hairs are starting to freak me out too much, from now on I am only getting OW t's.

 

[PhobeToPhile]

You COULD always get a Pslam (forget the full name) species, or H. incei for NWers without hairs. And as a bonus, H. incei can be kept communally, so you can have many times the fun all in one enclosure, all without U-hairs!