- Joined
- Dec 28, 2008
- Messages
- 1,085
Brazilian wandering spiders are actually scary. They are chill alot of the time, but ive seen multiple videos and stories of them actively going after people. Comes to mind that old video of the teacher prodding one with a stick with a bunch of students around, at one point the spider grabs and runs up the stick and the video ends like right there lmaoView attachment 478740 View attachment 478738 View attachment 478739
I keep recleeses! They're very chill spiders, they're not teleportation level fast like Heteropoda are, and they are fairly docile. It usually takes quite a bit of annoying to get them to bolt, if I lightly brush one with a paint brush usually the only thing they'll do is lift up the leg that's being bothered. They are reclusive, but they come out more than most obligate burrowers would. They also don't climb plastic, which makes it way easier to prevent escapes than a lot of other spiders (again Heteropoda). Their care is also remarkably easy, they prefer drier habitats so only need minimal spraying and they're very good about scavenging food. I also have a Latrodectus, they're also pretty easy because they'll basically never leave their web. Brown recluse venom is a bit overblown, you aren't going to lose an arm or anything (most of those reports are from bacterial infections), but they are medically significant. As long as your friend understands that and knows how to deal with medically significant species there's a very small risk of being hurt. Obviously accidents can happen, and there is a higher risk of being bit if you have one in your house as opposed to not, but recluses are very reluctant to bite and their bites are unlikely to cause significant issues. I wouldn't do dumb stuff like put on on your face or handle it with your hands, but as long as you are treating them like a medically significant animal there's not that big of a risk. Again the not climbing plastic is a huge bonus, for the life of me I don't know how people keep Brazilian Wandering spiders.
Here's an excellent video on Brown Recluses that gives a very balanced and reasonable take on their venom, as well as talks about some other interesting information about them.