Itchy bum?

This girl does.....and its why even 'docile' big hairy spiders deserve respect. Take a normally docile and handleable species like the Chile Rose Grammostola rosea....



Even they can have 'off days'


As well as posturing they can, literally, kick off. And when they do, this is why they can make your skin itch


Urticating hairs x100


Urticating hairs x1000

It makes my skin itchy just looking at them!

karl thats really interesting :O i knew they shot hairs at you but i didnt actually know what the hairs look like

Nice Micro-pics of the urticating hairs Karl. How goes the T collection these days, still growing?

I've got most of what I wanted (mainly Brachys and Grammostolas) so happy with it as it is for now. Hows your T collection coming along?

Like yourself I kind of put a cap on buying T's for now; plenty of species I would like to get still, but as the ones I have now are growing, I have to be realistic about what I get now.

Latest T was an OBT from Herpalist, originally from Jack & Tony's batch. Unbelievable growth rate so far, and my favourite to have kept so far! Really liking the RCF Grammostolas lately tho!!

I'm an OBT fan too, cracking T's with unbelievable colours....pity they are generally all bonkers! The Red Phase Chiles are one of my favs of all time. Mine is a nutcase whereas my normal colour phase Chile is much calmer. The nicest looking animals always have a tendency to be bonkers!

My attitude on the OBT's in my limited experience with them: put it in it's final enclosure as early as possible!! I had mine from L2 till L6 in a jar with deep substrate, rehoused it into an Exo cube earlier in the week. Burrowing already, I think this one prefers to burrow. So far so good, I'll throw up a few viv pics soon.

Top tip, if you're working with lots of new world flickers, get yourself some surgical gloves or similar and wear long sleeves...as Karl's images suggest, these urticating hairs can be an issue for days...similarly if you're going to collect T's and rehouse them for transit take a little protection to avoid this problem...

Great tip Tony, and one I'll be following from now on. For the first 8 months or so of working with New World T's the hairs didn't affect me at all, but since then I'm affected more with each exposure each any itching lasts up to a week now. I've been told its one allergic reaction that will get more severe in time and this has certainly been true for me.

Surgical gloves and salad tongs at the ready!

Here's another some may have a giggle at, if you notice a T flicking or you're cleaning / transferring these guys for whatever reason, grab the nearest hoover and vacuum the air in the general area - this will suck up the majority of urticating hairs that are floating around - I have a dedicated vacuum for the herp room so this is easy for me...oh, and don't forget to throw old moults out...

Some folk have literally stopped keeping new world T's because of irritation issues in favour of old worlds...simple preventative measures do help cut down this problem significantly...

I'd be afraid of hoovering up the T! I suppose that ultimately would sort the problem of urticating hairs though I've heard of some American collectors having the vacuum mounted sideways in a clamp while they have the T enclosure on the bench next to it for cleaning-out, sounds like an idea I might try out.

I like a lot of Old Worlds too but a T collection without Grammys and Brachys just wouldn't be the same so need to trial different methods for working around the hairs and stick with what works the best.