Brachypelma vagans

[Nemesis]

I was bitten by my 4.5" (F) vagans last night. It was my own stupid fault, as I became careless and was not paying as much attention as I should have been.

While switching her to new digs, she bolted up my arm. When I grabbed her with my other hand, attempting to cup her, she nailed me 2X on the median aspect of my left thumb. The first time, it didn't hurt that bad, but I didn't want to drop her, so I didn't let go. She sunk them in deep for extra emphasis before I could return her to the enclosure.

I bled and the mechanical bite felt similar to being bitten by a cat. I washed it and put OH and betadine on it immediately. Followed up with some ice. The bite is itchy and a little red, but nothing near what I expected. My thumb is sore...feels like arthritis. Again, the best way to describe it, is it feels like being bitten by a cat. The reaction seems totally localized, no systemic symptoms.

I love her, she is still my favorite spider. It's funny, she was my Valentines Day gift last year. Happy anniversary, Valentina!

Kelly Olsen

 

[Penney W.]

Hi Kelley

The same with me, I been bitten twice by my vagans, my ones were an inch to 2 inches, I hate to get bite by them now as they are 3 to 4 1/2 inches now.
My hand hurt and swelled up for a few days but all was fine,
I have one on her eggsac now so I have to be careful with her.
Penney
california

 

[pwilfort]

I was bitten again by a 2 inch vagan, it hurt for a couple of hours but is fine now.

 

[Mendi]

My adult female bit me 12/08/06 in my 1st thumb joint... At first I just felt I was bitten and saw her do it as well. She was very quick and did no bulldogging. At first didn't really feel anything, it bled some and I encouraged that as well. Then maybe after ½hr I started feeling as if stung by a sweat bee for maybe about 20 minutes. Then all pain subsided... About 8hrs afterwards I started noticing some pain in moving my thumb. The next day the pain was more extensive and was also in my index finger. Very arthritic feeling, ibuprofen helps. Pain was quite noticable for at least 3 days, and now a week later I still feel the arthritic pains, though the intensity isn't quite qs bad. I suppose it will last a few more days, not too sure though...

Over all, it turned out being a bit more than I had expected and has had lasting effects. Maybe because I have osteoarthritis anyways, and it aggrivated it. I have a feeling though there needs to be some research done with the venom though, as if it seems to exaccerbate the condition, it well could have some benificial effects in managing the symptoms and/or pain.

 

[skinheaddave]

A couple weeks ago the day after feeding my tarantulas, I noticed the lid was off one of our B.vagans deli cups. My best guess is that the change in temperature caused the lid, which didn't actually belong to the base, to pop off. It wasn't just pried up on one side -- it was completely off but resting on the top. Anyhow, no spider. These are our captive born specimens from '06 -- about 2 to 2.5 inches at the moment.

Fast forward to today. I'm off work for the day so I decide I'm going to work on our outbuilding. I throw on my coat and boots, drive to the hardware store, pick up some tubes of caulking, pick up a gift basket I won in a draw and return home. Come inside, pick through the contents of the gift basket (manly stuff like fishing lures, bug repellant, screwdrivers etc.), play with the dog a bit, rummage around to find a tape measure and my mp3 player and then go to the car to get caulking. Just as I'm picking up the caulking from the back seat, I experience a piercing pain in the big toe of my right foot. I figure it is a rock or something so shift my foot but feel whatever it is in my foot adjust, pierce in harder, and then release and move.

First thing I think is that it might be a wolf spider. Then I remember the vagans. Pull off my boot and sure enough, the vagans emerges. She is missing legs and not in great shape but still alive and drinking as we speak. Keep in mind that I'd been wearing my boots for about half an hour before she bit.

To me, the bite initially felt exactly as you would expect -- like something poking hard into my toe. I can't feel two individual puncture sites, but it does feel slightly different than something like a single pin poking in. Other than that, it feels like a bee sting -- but the mildest bee sting I've ever experienced. A little pain, no tingling. Much more mild than the Centruroides limbatus sting I got in Costa Rica or any bee/wasp sting I've received. If I had to compare the pain to something, I'd say it is closest to maybe the lingering pain after you poke yourself with a staple or something of similar size.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Draiman]

An(other) intentionally induced bite; this time, I let my 1" Brachypelma vagans bite me on the top of my left index finger, near the knuckle.

Immediate onset of redness and minor swelling. Puncture sites (multiple) rapidly turn into white raised areas. Venom pain virtually non-existent. Edit: it's been about an hour post-bite and I'm now experiencing distinct, but very mild, tingling around my wrist. This may not actually be the effect of the B. vagans venom; instead it could be a combination of P. rufilata and B. vagans venom, the former "re-activated" by some common component in both venoms.

That's about it, I guess. If you compare this with the P. rufilata bite, you will notice identical symptoms, apart from the fact that this spider gave me virtually no pain apart from the mechanical pain from the fangs puncturing my skin.

EDIT: I made a mistake earlier when I said my P. rufilata bit me at this very same place - it was actually my middle finger on the same hand. And I have just made a very interesting observation - the puncture holes from the rufilata bite on my neighboring middle finger (which, prior to this, had already healed), have SWOLLEN UP as a result of this bite from the vagans!

So it seems, remnants of the P. rufilata venom within dermal tissue on my middle finger somehow "acted up" when B. vagans venom was pumped into my system. New World and Old World venoms may actually have much more in common than we thought. But of course, this could very well be nonsense coming from an idiot; or it could just as easily be established fact which I previously was not aware of.

 

[FireGuyX]

I was bitten by my 3.5" male B. Vagans two months ago. It did hurt, but it just felt like a knife cut, pain went away after I put a band-aid on it.

 

[RyanW]

While packing a 5" B. vagans I was bitten twice. The first bite was on the tip of my right ring finger, the second was on my left index finger at the knuckle. Neither bite was quick and each time it took some prying to get her to remove her fangs. It was obvious almost immediately that the first bite was a dry bite while the second was not. I have only been nailed on two other occasions and they were both new world T's, Avicularia urticans and Thrixopelma ockerti. Neither of the previous bites caused any symptoms so I popped some benadryl and waited to see what was going to happen.

Day 1: Within 30 minutes my index finger had swelled up noticeably and was was tender to the touch. Within two hours the swelling had moved across the back of my hand and stopped at my wrist. The swelling stopped at this point but my hand became extremely tender/sore. Moving my fingers causes my joints to ache. I don't know if this is a symptom of the bite or just coincidental but around 2:00 am some of the smaller muscles in my back and muscles in my leg started to cramp. I was restless for the rest of the evening and the cramping was off and on until 7:45 am.

Day 2: All afternoon my legs have been like rubber. The same feeling I have had after a long run or workout. I have been extremely drowsy but this is almost certainly from the benadryl and lack of sleep. My knuckles are still sore and the swelling has not gone down.

I will update the post if any of my symptoms progress or change.

Edit* I am fairly confident that the cramps were no doubt a reaction of some sort. It took 4 days for the cramps to go away all together.

I regularly freedive and spearfish. This bite has not kept me out of the water but cramping has definitely hindered my dives for the past two weekends.

Vagans, who would have thought??