Posted on 01/01/2010 4:36:44 AM PST by decimon
The owner of a tarantula spider has suffered severe eye inflammation from cleaning out his pet's cage, doctors have reported.
They say the man had no idea his pet was the problem when he came to their clinic for treatment.
When they told him they could see tiny hairs sticking out of his eyeball he remembered his pet spider sending out a mist of hairs which hit his face.
The doctors say anyone working with spiders should wear eye protection.
Dr Zia Carrim, of St James's University Hospital in Leeds, writing in the Lancet, says the man came to his clinic in February, having had a red, watery and light sensitive eye for three weeks.
It was when he was examined under a high magnification lens, that hair-like projections were spotted at various depths within the cornea.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
I dont have a problem so much with the Tarantula but having lil hairs embedded withen depths of my cornea sends a creepy chill down my spine.
Doesn’t PETA complain about caging tarantulas? Free-range tarantulas are the healthiest, I’ve heard.
They would pose a risk to my boot. I am guessing there would be all kinds of tiny lil hairs in the bottom of my boot if I were to find one in my home.
Yup. And this is something I didn't know about spiders. Or some spiders. Hard to tell from the article.
Anyone who has a tarantula as a “pet” deserves what he gets.
I guess its just me, but why would people keep such ridiculous creatures as ‘pets’. All they’ll see them do is eat things, and I outgrew that as a kid watching smaller versions do the same thing.
Ah c'mon, you wouldn't want to pet that thing and cuddle it?
We had a beautiful rose hair tarantula for years. We never suffered any eye problems or any other negative symptoms.
The poor critter died when my then 6 year-old daughter took it out of its terrarium to show the other kids and dropped it to the pavement in our driveway. We were heartbroken.
When they told him they could see tiny hairs sticking out of his eyeball he remembered his pet spider sending out a mist of hairs which hit his face.
I think that would have been a clue for me...
Well, I guess those tiny hairs all over the spider's body that gives it that neat "furry" appearance is a defense mechanism too. Who could have guessed...
agreed...yet (here it comes) I respect their right to be goofy....
Here in the Texas Hill Country, one can collect the following "pets":
Scorpions
Rattle snakes
Texas Brown Leg Tarantulas
Southern Black Widow
Texas Brown Recluse damage
Little Miss Muffet. I had to read it to know.
EWWWWW TARANTULA COOTIES!
As for me, I HATE SPIDERS & SNAKES !!!!
barbra ann
Minor point, but Tarantulas are not bugs (i.e, insects), they are arachnids. We have lots of the little critters around our home in New Mexico.
And that's the difference between people and creepy crawlies. Creepy crawlies don't hate. They kill you just cuz.
In the US Virgin Islands, kids start playing with tarantulas at 5 or 6 years old.
By the time the kids are 9 or 10, they start catching tarantulas, playing with them, then having them as a bbq snack.
Riki Tiki is pretty good eating, too.
Yeah I’ve been in the Texas hill country and I’ve seen hundreds of large scorpions at a time. I’ve been in NE Texas/SW Arkansas and have seen the really large black widows (large as a 1 dollar coin size) like the one in your picture there.
I’ve seen what those lil mo’fo’s can do, and I would rather attract waps, birds, frogs, lizards, anything that will gobble those little bastards up.
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