Psalmopoeus irminia

Hi

I have got bitten by my Irminia.

Not handling or anything, ( I don't handle my T's ), it was when I took out waterdish for cleaning.

My setup is like this: I have a nice U shaped piece of driftwood leaning against the back cage wall and the Irminia has built a nest close to the ground, it's not on the ground, but hovering some half inch above it and looking like a swallow birdnest.

To the right side of the piece of wood I have the waterdish and I was going to pick it out and there was some distance between waterdish and the wood/nest, ( well at least, I thought )

Before I knew it some kind of black "lightning" bolted out and was on my middlefingertip (not index finger like I said before, my own confusing of the English name for the fingers ) and I could feel like very fast back pulling feeling from the T trying probably to take my finger with it ( my finger was nothing else than a "cricket" in the eyes of the Irminia ), it released very fast and I also pulled finger out fast.
The Irminia has also molted very recently.
It's about 3 inches in size. A real beauty.

First I felt exactly the same feeling as being bit by bumble bees, the reason why I do this comparision is that I have been stung some times by bumble bees.
A sharp burning feeling, no swelling of fingertip though only red.
The site of the bite was barely visible, just 2 tiny, tiny, marks.

The burning feeling was gone within an hour and was just itching after that, the itch was more irritating than the burning feeling.
So I suppose that a small amount of venom must have been injected.

The day after: Nothing at all with the finger, no swelling, no redness.

( I should add that I have been bitten by 11 mud wasps on my shoulder once and I had no allergic reaction although my shoulder felt like it was completly numb and they counted the stings on my shoulder and it was 11 small bleeding holes. This was many years ago when I was an exchange student down in Florida. )

Kenny

I, personally, was never bit by a irminia, but my boyfriend recieved a nasty bite a few weeks ago...She is about 4 in.

The bite happened when he was trying to clean her enclosure. She ran off the top of the cage and onto his hand. He tried not to make any sudden movements but she struck him anyway. She bit him on the top of his left hand and he said it was VERY painful...he said it felt as if she was lifting his skin up and pulling as she bit him. A few hours later, he began to vomit and felt a sharp pain going up his wrist. The site of the bite was swollen and itchy. He felt dizzy and took some Benadryl to counteract any possible allergic reactions. The next day, he wasn't vomitting, but he was having muscle spasms in his arm and hand. He said it felt as if he couldn't bend his arm fully. Within 3 days all symptoms cleared up, but he said he still felt weak and achy for a few days...

Fortunately, the spider was not harmed but my poor boyfriend was a wreck!

P irminia bite

I was doing a small bit of tank cleaning today and i guess i ticked off the wife's irminia sling. Little bugger ran up the tongs and tagged me on my right hand ring finger. Initial pain felt like i had been poked by a thumb tack and slowly built up to the feeling of having my finger slammed in a door frame. about 20 minutes later i felt slightly sick to my stomach and a little light headed.

it's been about 8 hours since the bite and my finger is swollen and hurt when i move it, but i don't feel sick anymore. other than the localized pain i have a slight head ache and a slight metallic taste in my mouth.

BTW the P irminia is approximately a 2 inch sling and was not harmed.

update: well it's 12 hours after i posted this so like 20 hrs after the bite. my hand still hurts, but the swelling has gone down. i still have a head ache but those are the only two symptoms remaining from the incident

heh, i can't believe i forgot to file a bite report!

i am almost positive i got bit by a ~1.25"/3cm dls unsexed spiderlings. the spiderling made a break for freedom that entailed running around my naked arms... at one point i cupped the spider against my upper arm and felt a little pin prick. i thought it might have bitten me but as the spider was still lose i didn't take time to make observations

about 15 minutes later i had a definite itch and small raised bump (<1cm radius). within a few hours all symptoms disappeared and never reappeared.

saucy little bug


p.s. this is the ONLY time i have been bit by a tarantula out of thousands of times playing with all kinds of species

My first bite report, hopefully it's a long while before I file another. Granted, this one isn't bad at all. I was removing some cricket balls from my Irminia sling's enclosure when she (I hope) decided to go for a little run. She's only about an inch and a half, but she's already lightning fast. Anyway, she bolted out of her deli cup and made a jump for my chest. She landed there without incident and I gently guided her onto my hand so that I could get her down to her house. She made her way onto my thumb and was just about to go into her enclosure when she stopped, reared up, and sank her little midget fangs right into the meaty part of my thumb. Once she was done she just continued on her way into the enclosure without further incident. As for the effects, the joint at the base of my thumb is a little achy, but not bad. My thumb itself is numb and has been for about 12 hours. Other than that, no ill effects were felt, and no real complaints. If anything changes drastically, I'll re-post, but I'm pretty sure that i've already felt the "worst" of the bite... all in all I suppose I'm lucky that it wasn't the OBT or the H. Mac. Really I'm just glad that lil sunny bono didn't get hurt.

I fell asleep with the male in the female's enclosure. I don't think she would have killed him, but I decided to put him back in his own enclosure. The second I opened the cage, he bolted. I put my hand in front of him to catch him and when I did, I guess I spooked him cuz he bit me. No real pain. He's pretty small. It's actually the first time I've been bitten by a T. I'm not gonna lie though, it scared the crap out of me. Haha. Nowhere near as bad as I though it would be, but I'll definitely be more responsible. ; )

I forgot about this

I had a very similar experience than Cacoseraph bite.

This little beauty was a freebie.
She was about an inch and a half at the most.
Well I just wanted to take a picture, so I took her of her Vial and sat down to take the pic. She was running around my hand when suddenly I felt a tinny tinny pinch, like a very small electric shock.
I thought...Did she bite me??? Well, I took the pics and put it back in her vial.

I looked at my hand and I saw 2 tinny tinny dots in my finger.

No feelings after that whatsoever besides that small electro shock feeling .
No itchying, no redness...nothing.