Am I Just a Wuss About These Bristles?

[Moltar]

Just a few simple precautions can be taken to keep contact at a minimum.

1-Never stick your face down into a NW t's cage. It seems silly to even say that but you may want to smell the enclosure or get a closer look... don't. Your breath can disturb hairs and blow them up toward you. It can also spook the T and make her kick.

2-Wear latex/vinyl gloves, long sleeves and (perhaps) an air filtration mask when cleaning NW T's tanks. The substrate becomes full of urty hairs and will get your hands and arms worse that pretty much any hair flickery.

3-Any time you work with your T's, wash your hands gently and throughly as soon as you're done. If you think it has been contaminated then change your shirt too.

 

[BCscorp]

Itching is annoying but bearable in the long run. Respiratory problems are worse imo, but you should really take care of your eyes. Urt hairs in the eyes would be very bad imo. With the advice already presented it should not be an issue.

"In the patients with the pan-uveitis the hairs seemed to be migrating relentlessly through the media of the eye. This has led to multiple foci of inflammation at all levels within the globe, causing corneal granulomas, iritis, peripheral anterior synechiae, cataract, vitritis, and chorioretinitis. One patient developed reduced visual acuity (6/18 N10 corrected) and raised intraocular pressure (mid-20s). At 24 months since presentation this patient is currently being treated with systemic steroids and topical anti-glaucomatous drugs and is being considered for vitrectomy and extraction of a cataract."

http://www.bmj.com/content/314/7093/1524.full

 

[JimM]

Great...the Bat Girl "deadly tarantula" BS again.

 

[BCscorp]

Bs!!

The main threat from the hairs are if they get into your respratory system, then it can become deadly if you are old like me and recently had lung surgery (surgery was not for the hairs, but for a collapsed lung that happened when I was working as a fire marshal - still recovering three years later...) and the complications could cause much harm ~ for a normal person it wouldn't be as deadly but could make you very sick. :barf:

Secondary threat is the skin reactions which I understand can be very irritating. Personally, I've never had any reaction - either because I've kept myself from being flicked on (only had one flicker, my Mexican red knee Lara, but she's dead now, sniff, sniff), or perhaps I'm just 'tough skinned' or something. I did witness my Lara flick on a few occasions and immediately backed off without causing turbulence to the air, slowly closed her tank, and stayed away from the entire area for hours (did not want to breath in any of it). She was really bad at it, but once the rump was bare, she's still try to flick but nothing appeared to come off. Still, I did not take chances.

So, if you have a flicker, keep your FACE AWAY at all times (perhaps even wear one of those paper mouth covers painters wear when you're handling it). If it does flick, and you're handling it at the time (and assuming you avoided inhaling any), wash your hands/arms gently with cool water and liquid soap afterwards - and also if you tough anything in its cage do the same wash thing.

DEADLY?? bs...prove it to any degree

 

[JimM]

DEADLY?? bs...prove it to any degree

Careful...she'll put you in her amazing ignore list...then what ever will you do?

 

[brian abrams]

Wow!

I consider myself to be very lucky. I have well over 100 T's and they are all NW! Either I'm not as susceptible as the average person, or I'm keeping the right NW's. IOW, not the very very aggressive hair kickers with the real NASTY hairs like the Theraphosa and Xenethis Sp. But I haven's even COME CLOSE to breaking out with the hives, etc.