Tarantula Brachypelma emilia

I was refilling the water dish of Petra (the mature female in the cover image) by sticking a pipette through the feeding hatch. Petra grabbed onto the pipette and would not let go. I tried to dislodge her by gently withdrawing the pipette through the feeding hatch, but instead of letting go, she started crawling out through the hatch.

I didn’t have anything to block her within reach, and I had to act fast to prevent an escape. (I didn’t want her to crawl out and fall off the shelf.) Without thinking, I reflexively moved to block her with the palm of my hand. Petra was in feeding response mode and bit the web between the thumb and index finger.

The initial bite didn’t hurt much, and I was more concerned about not hurting Petra by reflexively jerking my hand back. I used the pipette to get her to release my hand.

The puncture wounds were shallow — not even drawing blood — but she must have given me some venom, because the area became inflamed. The pain peaked at about 15–20 minutes — I’d rate it as a 4 out of 10. After 30 minutes, most of the pain had subsided, but the inflamed area, which extended up to an inch or two away from the bite site, began to itch. The itching had subsided by the next morning.