Has anyone gotten kicked hairs by C. Elegans?

[Mike Page]

IM thinking of getting one of these since its the size of a Jumping Spider. Should I be worried about them kicking urticating hairs? Has anyone ever gotten kicked by them?

 

[viper69]

Not me- any T will or can

 

[HooahArmy]

Hey there! What you have in mind is one of my first T-pals, Tiny Tiger ( a 2 inch adult), and I have indeed been haired. I'm also a guilty 4-year lurker just leaving my hide, so please also pardon my youthful account while posting.

I will offer as detailed a response as possible to help everyone as much as I can with Cyriocosmus Elegans hairs. I have records of this hair interaction from my T-journal:

The C. Elegans is one of those little guys who are skittish due to their size, as if they seem to know that they make for a snack. Their usual response is to dash for their hide, so you might not even get haired in the first place. However, in case that something does happen, such as when you're trying to rehouse them, hairing might be the T's defense when they feel as if they can't run away. During one of my first re-housings, beginner-ignorant me did not wear any protective equipment and was armed with only a cup and a spatula. This T is a fast one because of it's size, so do keep an eye out when you are rehousing! They need to be quick to bolt from big predators, such as my spatula, and I ended up stressing the poor little girl out,. My next resort was to catch her with the cup, which exposed me to her hair flicks.
This first flick hit the side of my fingers which were holding the cup and the thicker skin of the finger pads. At first, I did not notice I had been haired until a few minutes after.
After failing to catch the little rocket, I tried a combo of a sheet of paper and the cup again. This time, my girl ran up the sheet of paper and closer to my idiot naked arm. I tried to catch her with the cup and was haired a second time, this time on my inner forearm.
The second flick covered a patch of about 4 x 3 inches.
I managed to catch the poor lady and successfully rehoused her. The pain and itching from the second hairing was what I noticed first due to the thinner and more sensitive skin on my inner arm (I am a thin-skinned small female, so this might not happen for everyone). Tingling set in at about 5 minutes, and as a dumbo, I scratched before I tried to wash. I would compare this first feeling to having a mild contact allergy. It's itchy, but not bad.
Within 20 minutes, the itching then got intense, then feeling like a mosquito bite gone wrong. My scratching had further embedded the hairs, so don't ever scratch!
At around 30 minutes, hair from the 1st hairing then became extremely noticeable. I thought my hands were just feeling funny, when red swollen spots appeared on my fingers' sides where hairs had embedded. This time, it felt like fiberglass or a more intense allergic reaction, due to fingers being filled with nerves. I may also have embedded the hairs just in while washing my hands.
At around 24 hours, the itching was quite annoying and felt like a mild mosquito bite on both my fingers and my arm, or just a nasty brushup with fiberglass. My arm was covered in red speckles to show exactly where the hairs had embedded. Although my fingers also took some hairs, they didn't quite penetrate my thicker finger pads but did embed at the finger-sides. I counted 12 spots on 1 finger and just 2 on my thumb. Anti-itch medication, hydrocortisone cream, did help, as with a Benadryl I took since the hairs caused histamine reactions within me.
After 2-3 days, the itchy patches were significantly better. The hair of this T is nowhere as bad as the Salmon Pink Bird Eater, Lasiodora parahybana, and I would rank it as 3 on a scale of 1 being nothing, and 10 being my skin dipped in lava.
At around 1 week, most of the itching was gone. I was dosing myself daily with both anti-itch cream and Benadryl, and have discovered the miracles of drawing salve, something you can buy that's usually used to help remove splinters in the skin. Tiny Tiger had a little bald spot on her booty that vanished with her next molting.

Lessons learned: Gloves are your friend.
Hair intensity: 3 out of 10
Time for itching to stop: 1.5 weeks with treatment.
Essential Cyriocosmus Elegans Notes: This T is very unlikely to hair and prefers to bolt for cover. They tend to be skittish and are quite quick for a New World due to their size. They usually will only hair as a last resort. Thankfully, I have not been bitten.

 

[Mike Page]

Hey there! What you have in mind is one of my first T-pals, Tiny Tiger ( a 2 inch adult), and I have indeed been haired. I'm also a guilty 4-year lurker just leaving my hide, so please also pardon my youthful account while posting.

I will offer as detailed a response as possible to help everyone as much as I can with Cyriocosmus Elegans hairs. I have records of this hair interaction from my T-journal:

The C. Elegans is one of those little guys who are skittish due to their size, as if they seem to know that they make for a snack. Their usual response is to dash for their hide, so you might not even get haired in the first place. However, in case that something does happen, such as when you're trying to rehouse them, hairing might be the T's defense when they feel as if they can't run away. During one of my first re-housings, beginner-ignorant me did not wear any protective equipment and was armed with only a cup and a spatula. This T is a fast one because of it's size, so do keep an eye out when you are rehousing! They need to be quick to bolt from big predators, such as my spatula, and I ended up stressing the poor little girl out,. My next resort was to catch her with the cup, which exposed me to her hair flicks.
This first flick hit the side of my fingers which were holding the cup and the thicker skin of the finger pads. At first, I did not notice I had been haired until a few minutes after.
After failing to catch the little rocket, I tried a combo of a sheet of paper and the cup again. This time, my girl ran up the sheet of paper and closer to my idiot naked arm. I tried to catch her with the cup and was haired a second time, this time on my inner forearm.
The second flick covered a patch of about 4 x 3 inches.
I managed to catch the poor lady and successfully rehoused her. The pain and itching from the second hairing was what I noticed first due to the thinner and more sensitive skin on my inner arm (I am a thin-skinned small female, so this might not happen for everyone). Tingling set in at about 5 minutes, and as a dumbo, I scratched before I tried to wash. I would compare this first feeling to having a mild contact allergy. It's itchy, but not bad.
Within 20 minutes, the itching then got intense, then feeling like a mosquito bite gone wrong. My scratching had further embedded the hairs, so don't ever scratch!
At around 30 minutes, hair from the 1st hairing then became extremely noticeable. I thought my hands were just feeling funny, when red swollen spots appeared on my fingers' sides where hairs had embedded. This time, it felt like fiberglass or a more intense allergic reaction, due to fingers being filled with nerves. I may also have embedded the hairs just in while washing my hands.
At around 24 hours, the itching was quite annoying and felt like a mild mosquito bite on both my fingers and my arm, or just a nasty brushup with fiberglass. My arm was covered in red speckles to show exactly where the hairs had embedded. Although my fingers also took some hairs, they didn't quite penetrate my thicker finger pads but did embed at the finger-sides. I counted 12 spots on 1 finger and just 2 on my thumb. Anti-itch medication, hydrocortisone cream, did help, as with a Benadryl I took since the hairs caused histamine reactions within me.
After 2-3 days, the itchy patches were significantly better. The hair of this T is nowhere as bad as the Salmon Pink Bird Eater, Lasiodora parahybana, and I would rank it as 3 on a scale of 1 being nothing, and 10 being my skin dipped in lava.
At around 1 week, most of the itching was gone. I was dosing myself daily with both anti-itch cream and Benadryl, and have discovered the miracles of drawing salve, something you can buy that's usually used to help remove splinters in the skin. Tiny Tiger had a little bald spot on her booty that vanished with her next molting.

Lessons learned: Gloves are your friend.
Hair intensity: 3 out of 10
Time for itching to stop: 1.5 weeks with treatment.
Essential Cyriocosmus Elegans Notes: This T is very unlikely to hair and prefers to bolt for cover. They tend to be skittish and are quite quick for a New World due to their size. They usually will only hair as a last resort. Thankfully, I have not been bitten.

Wow. They are so small yet their hairs pack a decent punch. But thanks. This gives a good insight.

 

[HooahArmy]

Wow. They are so small yet their hairs pack a decent punch. But thanks. This gives a good insight.

They indeed do! T hairs have microscopic barbs no matter how big or small the T is, since they're made to particularly target squishy mammals like us. The smaller the hair, the better it seems to be at embedding, though hairs of larger Ts and larger hair types tend to be more itchy. On the next few occasions I rehoused Tiny Tiger, I wore thick kitchen gloves, a face mask, and goggles just to be safe. She kicked, she did, but I had no hairs on my body!

 

[kingshockey]

yep when mine was a dinky sling still during a rehouse and it escaped i vacumed the area once i caught the rotten lil guy so pretty sure i wasnt nailed by the hairs much as it flicked em off

 

[The Grym Reaper]

They're pet holes, you probably won't even see it let alone get haired by it.

In any case, everyone reacts differently to the urticating setae of different species. For example, just because someone breaks out in hives from Brachypelma hairs doesn't mean you will, in over 6 years of keeping mostly NW species I've found maybe half a dozen genera that I even have reactions to.

 

[viper69]

seem to know that they make for a snack

I’ve noticed this as well.

The only small species I’ve owned that behaves this way.