Urticating Setae Remedies

[EulersK]

So here's one for you. I'd like to hear what people have heard/tried in relation to treating urticating setae irritation. I'm putting something together, but I'm sure there are remedies that I have missed. This is broken up into two main categories: Immediate treatment and long term treatment. Here is what I've personally heard of.

Immediate Treatment:
-Do not scratch! Put strong tape over the area and peel off to get off setae
-Run area under water faucet
-Blow compressed air

Long Term Treatment:
-Lightly scrub with water and an SOS pad

I'm open to anything else! Personally, the tape method has worked best for me in the past. Let's see where this takes us.

 

[BobBarley]

Immediate Treatment:
-Benadryl Cream

I think I heard that from @Ran ? Also immediately putting tape on the area then taking it off, not sure where I heard that one and not sure whether that'd be considered immediate or long term.

 

[Thistles]

Tears. Curses. Tantrums.

Yeah, and what's already been said. Tape and anti-itch cream.

 

[DragonizedGlory]

What works for me is warm water and soap. Cold water doesn't seem to work so well. Some aloe cream helps soothe the irritation.

 

[JumpingSpiderLady]

@EulersK what's an SOS pad? I've never heard of that..

 

[Andrea82]

What works for me is warm water and soap. Cold water doesn't seem to work so well. Some aloe cream helps soothe the irritation.

That's strange, for me it actually starts to itch and burn more when i use warm water to rinse them off, and cold water helps soothe the irritation...

 

[EulersK]

@EulersK what's an SOS pad? I've never heard of that..

An SOS pad is sort of like steel wool, but it's much less abrasive. It's usually used for cleaning in the kitchen.

 

[Alana]

Does hydrocortisone cream work? We always have it on hand for nettle stings and insect bites. I don't have any flicky Ts at the moment so haven't been able to try it out myself.

 

[magicmed]

I would assume a nice light antiseptic would be nice, when I was into tattoos I used to use witch hazel, it was very calming and supposedly a light antiseptic

The ol duct tape trick I'm assuming works well.

This one's a total guess, but maybe heat? I wonder if you heated up your skin to expand the pores if it would help with removal?

 

[G. pulchra]

Tape, then cold water with soap, followed by an anti itch cream.

 

[EulersK]

Okay, so soap is being brought up quite a bit. Why soap, and what kind? Almost all soaps dry out the skin to varying degrees, which sounds like the opposite of what we would want.

Perhaps it's not the soap so much as it is the scrubbing that's needed?

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

i started a thread a while back that touched upon this matter. Palm-oil was one that sort of caught my interest. Here is the thread in case you are interested in seeing what folks said then.

http://arachnoboards.com/threads/neutralizing-urticating-hairs.270018/

 

[Ranitomeya]

Soap is suggested because both the surface of your skin and the hairs are hydrophobic and running water usually won't wash them away without some sort of emulsifier to get the hairs to stop sticking to your skin.

I would recommend against blowing any sort of air to dislodge them. In the event that you are successful dislodging them with that method, you've just made them airborne and risk having them go into tissues more sensitive than your skin.

 

[REEFSPIDER]

I've never really gotten itchy from any of my T's. Including Theraphosa stirmi, which is said to be one of the worst. I guess I'm just lucky.

 

[EulersK]

I've never really gotten itchy from any of my T's. Including Theraphosa stirmi, which is said to be one of the worst. I guess I'm just lucky.

Or you just haven't really gotten haired yet

 

[REEFSPIDER]

Or you just haven't really gotten haired yet

They've gotten me, my stirmi has kicked hairs one lone time and it was noticeable, just not anything i consider too irritating really. My brachypelma vagans has kicked a lot at me being it was my first and I was a newb with it and tried to handle it often. But it has never itched with the brachy. Not even noticeable. My most painful urticating tarantula experience has been with my Avicularia sps. But, I've done demolition jobs on old post war homes filled with fiberglass insulation(asbestos) & I was in legit agony for some of those job.

 

[DragonizedGlory]

I once made the mistake of mixing my T's soil with my hand. The itching was horrific to the extent that I had to use heavy duty hand cleaner. You know, the kind mechanics use for grease and oil. That helped a lot

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Mah

I don't get this. Hairs are an issue only for eyes and lungs or if you are over sensitive to those, a bit of itchy & red never killed anyone, I'm baffled by those remedies. Creams, etc? Just wash with water and you're done.

Btw I love Megaphobema robustum hairs in my hand, love that sensation but sadly last like water in the average mudbrick/crap metal roof African village :-/

 

[louise f]

Hairs are an issue only for eyes and lungs or if you are over sensitive to those, a bit of itchy & red never killed anyone

Haha, reminds me of when i got hairs in my throat from a B.boehmei. Man that felt like eating a brick of this itchy stuff It was not fun at the time, but thinking of it now makes me laugh

 

[louise f]

soap