another petshop idiot story

[Lycanthrope]

Went out with the misses today, to get her kid a pet. We ended up at petco, where i stumbled upon a full grown rose hair. i asked them to take it out of the lock box so i could examine it, and the teenage attendant proceded to tell me "they make beautiful webs, but are very dangerous." LMAO. i said really beautiful webs huh.funny i have a bunch of T's at home including a rose hair, they dont web much aside from here and there on the ground, or to make a bed to molt on. oh and by the way, a T her size will have trouble eating all those pinheads you have in there with her." yes you heard right, in the cage with this beautiful 5" rosehair were a half dozen pinhead crix. if i hadnt promised my woman i wouldnt buy another T for at least a month, id have rescued the poor girl.

 

[JacenBeers]

Man that is silly. I like how everytime I go look at tarantulas at pet stores out of town they always tell such stupid stories to convince you to buy them. THey think you know nothing about them. I am a snotty person by nature and I always tell them that they are stupid and that I know more about spiders then all of them. Then they get all defensive and I tell them that the spider is over priced and I start to make a scene and then they sell it to me for half price. It works every time.

 

[Al Muoio]

I'm so Bad

Well, two days ago I went into a pet store and told them they have their latest shipment of T's mixed up. She said she will tell the owner. I went back today and it was the same so, I proceeded to buy a White Knee which is really a Mexican Red Leg for $39. It is about 1 1/4 inches and has nice color already. Maybe they are color blind but it did say Mexican Knee on the top and a B E on the side of the container and a Red Leg inside. I can't help but feel guilty.

 

[soopa1]

i bought a pinktoe last week and the guy told me they were very mean.

 

[Vayu Son]

><

How about at the next chat we make a list of information about T's that will be further commented on by those who do not attend, formatted into a single sheet, and distributed to offenders.

-V

 

[Jobe]

I have the opposite here soopa1,

Imagine the shops here only sell Cobalts and a Chylobrachys sp.

Then imagine them telling their custs that its fine to hold them, and they cover their asses by saying that the bites wont kill u.

The only part i dont quite like is the 'fine to hold em' part....and almost all customers here have NO experience with T's before....what some ppl would do to make a buck these days....sheesh...

 

[MrT]

Al, Dont feel guilty bro. you told them about the problem two days ago.

E.T

 

[Lantang]

New invert Man

Well, not at my petstore will you find bad info.I work at the petstore I use to hate when I was younger, because I hated the conditions the T's were in.But now I work there, the tarantulas are being kept in better condition, and manager might let me bring more exotic species to the shop.ANyone local in orlando, stop by Jack's Aquarium on West Colonial(50), im the asian kid...

 

[Valael]

It's just not fair. The local idiot-place here (aka Petco) has a Tarantula keeper there. So they never mix them up.


I guess they're in better condition than most places, but still nothing great.

 

[bness2]

Originally posted by Valael
It's just not fair. The local idiot-place here (aka Petco) has a Tarantula keeper there. So they never mix them up.

Ditto for my area. The woman who works with the Ts at my nearest Petco is no expert, but she does know a bit and she is willing to handle rosies and pinktoes. Imagine telling someone a pinktoe is dangerous. On the other hand, each individual T is unique, and I suppoose there are a few aggressive pinktoes out there. Getting bit in the store by one of those could make quite a scene.

I had a gopher snake for about a year that was very aggressive. I had to grab him by the "neck" to get him out of the cage. He usually settled down in about a minute and then would be fine. One day I had some students in my lab to show them there was nothing to fear with gopher snakes. I had it out and wiggled my finger in front of its face. Wham! It grabbed my finger and all the students jumped back! =D =D It didn't even break the skin, but I couldn't convince them after that that the snake was just fine.

Bryan

 

[JacenBeers]

You mean pinktoes are not dangerous? I always thought they were up there amongst the most aggressive species. I have three of them and I think my hand has about a million little scars from all of their bites. Those are evil and cute little beasts. I dont recommend them for beginners at all

 

[bness2]

Originally posted by JacenBeers
You mean pinktoes are not dangerous? I always thought they were up there amongst the most aggressive species. I have three of them and I think my hand has about a million little scars from all of their bites. Those are evil and cute little beasts. I dont recommend them for beginners at all

See what I mean. Some of them are aggressive. ;P ;P

I am certainly no expert, but the one at our local Petco is kind enough. Maybe it's just an exception.

Of course, dangerous is all a matter of degree. No one will die from getting bit by a pinktoe. From a hundred mobbing you at once maybe, but not one little spider. =D

So, why do you keep handling them?

Bryan

 

[JacenBeers]

Please take half of the things I say on this board unseriously.

 

[skinheaddave]

Jacen,

Please make it painfuly clear through the use of emoticons (or whatever) what is to be taken seriously and what is not. These are the sort of flippant remarks that can land the hobby in a lot of trouble and/or just mess up newbies.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[bness2]

Originally posted by JacenBeers
Please take half of the things I say on this board unseriously.

I should trust myself better. All the pinktoes I've known (all 1 1/2 of them) were very non-aggressive.

I guess I have shown my own inexperience :8o and let my cynicism slip low enough to expose some vital parts.

Is there such a thing as a bad spider?

Bryan

 

[skinheaddave]

Originally posted by bness2
Is there such a thing as a bad spider?

Bad? No.
Evil? Most definitely.

That being said, there should be some degree of caution exercised when handling or dealing with any tarantula. A pink toe can and will bite if sufficiently provoked. While the venom is mild, some people can be hypersensitive. Thus, in theory, it is possible for someone to die from anaphalactic shock resulting from a bite from an Avicularia. That being said, I once had a housemate who could have died if exposed to poultry. You can't downplay the danger, but nor should you run around saying that chickens are dangerous animals.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Vys]

lol


That being said, is there any kind of correlation between allergia to wasp- and bee-stings and allergia to T-venom?

 

[skinheaddave]

Vys,

About a year ago I was having a discussion on this very topic. These are some exerpts of what I said at the time:

Two articles:

Lipps, B.V., Khan, A.A.(2000) Antigenic cross reactivity among the venoms and toxins from unrelated diverse sources. Toxicon, 38:7, 973-980.

Narayanan, P.(1994) Tertiary structural categories of leiurotoxin and some other scorpion venom toxins. Current science, 66:9 680-681.

would seem to suggest that bee venom and scorpion venom are closer than even I had suspected. The Lipps article states that:
"Surprisingly, venoms from bee, scorpion and toad showed antigenic cross reactivity to snake venoms."
While no tests were done directly on the cross-reactivity of scorpion to bee venom, the results of the experiments would clearly place all these animal-derived, low MW venoms into the same allergin class.

The Narayanan article illustrates the similarity in tertiary structures between the venoms and would seem to provide a biochemical basis for the observations made by the Lipps team.

Now, I might not state things as strongly as I did at the time. Experience in a research lab has taught me to be a bit more cautious in making assumptions based on logic alone. It is not a logical certainty that because toxin A has a cross-reacitivty with toxin B and toxin B has a cross-reactivity with toxin C, that toxin C will have a cross-reactivity with toxin A. It is possible that the deciding factors in the binding of IgG molecules will be too distant between A and C.

Furthermore, if I remember correctly, the article didn't even mention spiders, tarantulas or wasps.

In the end, however, it is a tiny bit of evidence that there may be some correlation between the venoms you listed. I am hoping that there is, since I have been stung by bees before with negligable results. I may do a bit more investigation into this topic tommorow, but my student card (which lets me access the journal databases) is in my flight jacket upstairs and I am too tired to go get it.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Vys]

Ahh, thanks for that at least . See, I keep almost talking my brother into getting a T, and since he's taken care of mine for a while, he now considers getting one. However I wouldn't really laugh if he got bitten and ended up in the hospital (allergic...or rather 'sensitive' to bees, wasps and mosquitos as he is)

 

[skinheaddave]

Vys,

Okay, in that case I will ammend my former statement. First of all, I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. Please take everything I say with a grain of salt, or potentialy an entire salt shaker.

If your brother is sensitive to a wide variety of similar alergins (bee and wasp venom, mosquito anticoagulant etc.) then it is possible that he has a generaly overactive immune system. It is thus probable that he would also overreact to T venom. Not guaranteed, but something to definitely keep in mind. Perhaps you should ask his doctor about the exact nature of his sensitivities and how general the triggering substances would be.

Also, just because he is sensitive, doesn't mean he can't keep Ts. It just means that he (or your parents, if he is under the age of majority) have to make an informed decision on risk vs. benefit. I keep scorpions that are potentialy hazardous to my health, alergies or not. That is my choice and I take every due precaution.

Cheers,
Dave