Immunity?

[dukegarda]

I've been studying on and off for my entomology final, and there's this huge section on bee that we covered. I started reading the sting section, and how some people develop partial or complete immunity to the stings and have no symptoms.

This made the gears turn faster, and I started wondering if it's possible to become immune (Partially or completely) to uriticating hairs.

From my experience, none of my G.roseas' hairs bother me. Maybe their just not good kickers? Haha... not soccer recruits, that's for sure.

Anyone's thoughts on this?

 

[Talkenlate04]

Nope not possible..... I am not able to site specifics but someone will be able to I am sure, but you will progressively have a worse reaction. Back about 10 years ago I never had a reaction to my smithi hairs.... now oh brother its a different story.

Like I said I cant specify why that is I just know you will react more and more over time. Now that you brought it up I am going to go snoop around and find out why that is. Or wait for replys, cause I am feeling lazy.

 

[Drachenjager]

well , the immunity to the bee venom is a lot differant than the ichy hair . you never get immune to somethign that sticks in you to cause the itch musch like fiberglass insulation does. thats pretty much the way i understand the hairs. Insulation dosent bother me at all and i have yet to have any kind of reaction to any of my T's hair kicking. Even my little T. blondi dosent bother me but then again shes only about 5" ls or so

 

[Skypainter]

Just within a year and a half of keeping T's I have noticed I'm more sensitive. Yesterday I vacuumed in my spare bedroom where I keep several hair kickers. I ended up with a good two dozen itchy bumps on my face, arms, and legs.

 

[orkimedies]

when i was a kid living in the tropics there was a game where you grab the stinger of a bee and see who can hold it the longest with out being stung, needless to say i have been stung so many times that even to date when i am stung by a bee which is often because there is alot living near me. i cannot even feel it, i have to see the bee sting me to know.

even though i have family members in my immediate family that are super allergic, i got my first T when i was 8 years old (it was a Rosea) i have never had a bad reaction to urticating hairs except one time a single hair from a T. blondi got infected because i digged at it too much with a knife.

so maybe some people have established reactions to these kind of things.

 

[TheDarkFinder]

Yes, you can.

The reaction to the urticating hairs is thought to be a allergic one, mine you no real research has been done on this. Your body is reacting to it, there is no venom in the hairs. And like a lot of allergies it gets better in some cases, worst in others. I have found over the years that I have been slowly getting immune to some hairs. Most Brachypelma or Grammostola no longer effect me. A. vesicolor's do surprising, but just a few bumps. It is your bodies reaction to the hairs though. If you want to keep NW tarantula then you might want to buy some lotion and some antihistamine.

 

[Talkenlate04]

I really dont think you can. Every where I am looking says "It seems likely the hairs cause an accumulative reaction in people."
Meaning your reaction gets worse over time not better.
Maybe certain peoples bodies will react less over time ( because there are exceptions to every rule) but the majority will continue to react worse over time. That's the sum of what I am getting from reading up on it at least.

I get lost reading this page but there is tons of good things to read. I ran into it while searching for other things on topic.

http://www.arachnology.org/ISA/meetings/2001abstracts.html

 

[dukegarda]

Awesome stuff guys. I was really wondering about this stuff for a couple of reasons. Because, I have no reaction now, and I'd like to keep it that way. two of my buddies suggested getting a condo together and being roommates. That made me wonder if there was anything I could tell them about the hairs (like they're going to get 'used' to it).