Tarantula Venom Potency

[bscheidt1020]

Poec himself has been keeping for decades without bites. Also, you can't judge spiders based on slings only. You say OW are "fine" for you but earlier claim all yours are tiny. You really need experience raising and dealing with adult OW's before you can make experienced comments about OW behavior. That's not condesencion - it's just fact.

I said they seem fine to me cause so far their behavior is not too unruly. That is not an "experienced comment about OW behavior." I also clearly stated I am trying to tap into the experience of those with more of it than me.I guess if I want an objective answer about the manageability of OW species I should be PMing people. Nobody wants to publicly state that an OW species is fairly manageable…don't want inexperienced people to think they should get one.

---------- Post added 04-03-2014 at 09:09 AM ----------

Absolutely. I love the big NW tropical terrestrials: Acanthoscurria, Lasiodora, Pamphobeteus, Phormictopus, Sericopelma, Theraphosa, Xenesthis, & some of the Grammostola. Ther's some beautiful Brachypelma and Aphonopelma. Chromatopelma, Megaphobema, and Nhandu have exceptional colors. I'm fascinated with the unique traits of Avics. You can have an incredible collection with just these.

---------- Post added 04-03-2014 at 06:32 AM ----------



We typically don't include Psalmopoeus when we refer to NW's, as they have more in common with OW's (and were even put in an OW subfamily for a while). No, we're not basing basing our advice on the most irresponsible keepers; it's based on day-to-day real life. Sometimes things happen beyond your control. Even if you're always careful, there can be escapes and bites. Sometimes they can be like a jack-in-the-box and you can't react fast enough. It happens. It takes some skill, experience, and steady nerves to recapture some of them. During cage transfers I've had OW's run out and on me, and up my shirt sleeves and pantlegs, on the inside, and had to quickly disrobe standing in the middle of the room to get them. Once you open that lid, you never know for certain what will happen with fast species.

The difference between firearms and spiders is that: firearms don't spend hours trying to get out of theirs holsters, or unexpectedly jump out of their holsters, and dash under heavy furniture and appliances, and then roam the house at night.

Haha, dang it you have had some experiences! Well here is to hoping I never have a tarantula climb up my pant leg or roam my house at night! I did not know that Psalmos were once grouped with OW. I heard they are considered a bridge species between NW and OW but I always hear them grouped with the other NWs. Either way, they have been on my most wanted list since before I started this journey and they have remained on that list through about a million different additions and subtractions. It's cause of that dang P. Irminia, looks like a black panther with tiger markings…or a hornet or something…been fascinated since the first time I saw a picture of one. And you are right, I never had a 12 gauge get skittish and throw up a threat pose when I open the safe!

 

[Pociemon]

I have had the oppurtunity to work with king cobras in Thailand, very exciting, but very different than working with T´s. Atm i also work with some tree vipers. This is good fun and have been a good learning experience, i learnt to respect the animals, because if not, there could be a price to pay for being sloppy around the animals. There is also a price to be payed if being sloppy with T´s, just not that big of a price ;-). When i work with T´s i dont think of venom potency, but how to safely remove/transfer them and take into account how fast the can be. I have severe allergi to urticating hairs, so i cant keep nw T´s anymore, very dissapointing because there are some species i would love to have. But i think people who are nervous with being bitten needs to stay with nw T´s, it is by far the better choice, atleast until you are ready for the more fast and potent ones.

But i have also been in nature and collect haplopelma longipes, and i talked to many of the locals, and they all tell me they dont take prisoners, people get pretty sick when bitten by them. They collect them as a food source, and they sometimes get tagged whenm collecting them.