allergic reactions

razor244

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 15, 2010
Messages
39
hello i am a new T owner. i havent thought of this until tonight. ive been stung by yellow jackets with no allergic reaction before and after my hornet sting. but 13 years ago i was stung by a hornet and broke out in hives. i dont really feel like finding out if im allergic to T venom. is there normally a correlation between bee / hornet stings /T bites . i just find it odd i have no reaction to yellow jackets but i do have a reaction to hornets.
 

Jaymz Bedell

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 19, 2009
Messages
186
I am allergic to wasps and hornets, but not bees, ants, spiders, venomous snakes, anemones, or jellyfish. I would venture to say i'm probably not allergic to lionfish either, but I've never been stung by one and hope to keep that trend. animal venoms are not all equal to each other by any means. some, such as tarantulas, are thought to be less able or not able to cause allergic reactions due to their structure. however some tarantulas have more potent venom and even if they don't cause an allergic reaction could leave you in quite a bit of pain. so to sum up, an allergy to one group of animals venom is not an automatic ticket to allergies to other animal venoms. there is A LOT of information on this subject on arachnoboards alone, a search for allergy alone should net you enough threads to fill a night. there is a very real possibility of being sensitive to urticating bristles possessed by quite a few new world species. I react horribly to Theraphosa...but fortunately it isn't a long term reaction. most others don't bother me at all. I'll stop my rambling now...
 

Sutekh

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
17
One thing to remember is that an individual can show no allergic reaction at one point in time, but a later exposure may cause allergic reaction. So the trouble is that you can never know when an allergic reaction can develop; they're just not fixed. Given that, if you are really concerned about it you could develop an "allergic kit": maybe with a venom extractor, oral Benedryl, or for the worst possible reactions, Epinephrine.
 

Spiral_Stairs

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 15, 2004
Messages
79
Seems like I read somewhere that tarantulas venom is made up of incomplete proteins making it impossible for a person to have an allergic reaction. I don't know if there is any truth to this at all. But I wouldn't worry too much about it. I can't think of a single instance where someone has reported any kind of allergic reaction requiring medical attention from a bite, at least not from any new worlders.
 

Londoner

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Messages
846
Seems like I read somewhere that tarantulas venom is made up of incomplete proteins making it impossible for a person to have an allergic reaction.
Yeah, every time there's a thread about this subject, that usually comes up and the words "peptides" and "proteins" get lobbed about, but I can't remember which applies to bee venom and which one is T venom. The answer is easily found with a quick search (which I'm ashamed to say, I'm too lazy to do right now :8o).
 
Top