I would totally grab the P. Metallica molt!
They are so fucking beautiful, we had bunch of those but only one turned out to be female (they males die rather fast).
do the hairs still burn?
The urticating hair are only found on the top-rear of the abdomen, which is the area that usually cracks open during moulting, so that section usually doesn’t stay intact.
Usually
Well, I can only speak from my experience. I have handled quite a few exuviae from freshly moulted tarantulas and can’t remember every encountering any urticating hair on them. It is one of the thinnest part of the spiders skin and usually separates first, so I assume they just fall off during moulting.
Also they are really not that bad. I had my hands bombarded a few times and it just itches a bit. But you probably don’t want to get it in your eyes or breath them in.
Oh yeah… i was just pointing out that some species sometimes have hairs that remain very irritating. And if someone is allergic (probably shouldn’t be handling molts of any type at all) it can easily trigger the allergy
And if someone is allergic (probably shouldn’t be handling molts of any type at all) it can easily trigger the allergy
You’re probably right, but anecdotally, I disagree. I kept a bunch of tarantulas together with my brother and he’s allergic to everything (nuts, pollen (Grass + Trees), dust). He also has asthma an neurodermatitis. But spiders never caused any issues for him. He got bombarded way more than me and even got bitten twice by OBTs.
Tarantula owners he like “yeah he bombard and he bites, but it’s really no issue. Why are you crying?”
It comes with the territory. Can’t be a bee keeper without getting stung or a cat owner without getting scratches, either.
I personally never got bitten by a spider. Maybe once, but if so it was a dry bite. There was a bit of a sting when a tarantula ran up my arm under my shirt, but we couldn’t find any wound, not even a minor red bump, later.
Crunchy!
CHZZD
noope nope nope
