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07 January 2010
ARGH tarantula story That's all I'm saying. Story has a big-ass spider picture right up front if you don't like that sorta thing. (via middleclasstool offsite)
I think we can come away from this with three lessons: 1) Nature is scary! 2) Always wear eye protection when dealing with giant hairy spiders. 3) Giant spider hair projectiles = equivalent of a bolt gun?
I would think the real lesson is:
It sounds real cool to say you have a tarantula as a pet, but there's not much reason otherwise to keep one around and lots of reasons not to.
My cats tried this but the hairs they released just stuck to clothes and sofas instead of embedding themselves invisibly in my eyes. Stupid cats. I'm getting a spider instead.
I don't understand wanting this creature for a pet, and apparently, the creature feels the same way. And, what everybody else said. Y'all are smart and funny. Doesn't one of you have a smart, funny, nice, single brother, dad, uncle, etc. in my area?
They're not really pets, more like mobile house plants. Our tarantula, Arana, mostly just sits still in her fish tank full of dirt and rocks and ignores the cats. We keep her water bowl full and throw in a couple dozen live crickets once a month and other than that ignore her.
Argh, between this and some twitter people going on about a mouse in their office that ran up someone's legs, I'm going to be squicked out all afternoon. And I like spiders!
I know someone who worked at a zoo, and a co-worker complained to her that handling a new tarantula made him itchy because of the hairs it shot out. We all laughed at the thought of hairs being shot by a spider. Now I owe the guy an apology. (Also: I know to not pet the tarantulas I see while hiking or driving around here.)
I used to handle tarantulas all the time for a class I was teaching. I never pissed them off though. Except maybe a dozen times. They make my hands and arms itchy for hours but that's it.
I might add that while I've lived in the same house as Arana for nine years, I've never touched her. I have picked up her discarded exoskeletons after she molts though and I've never had a reaction to the hairs on those.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
