Treating Tarantula Bites

Video Transcript

"In this clip we are going to talk about being bitten. In case it happens there is a couple of things that you need to do. If you are bitten, venomously or nonvenomously, by your tarantula, immediately replace it into its enclosure, close the lid and then contact your medical physician immediately. Although your doctor or the emergency room might not have any anti venom available, you will still be able to seek the treatment that is necessary for pain reduction and anti infection. Remember that your tarantula has the ability to bite if it feels threatened. It's best to never hold your tarantula, or hold it as little as possible. Tarantulas will exhibit warning behaviors, like kicking hairs, threatening positions by making their bodies larger, showing their fangs and biting. When this happens leave your tarantula alone. If hairs are kicked onto your skin you will feel quite irritated. In the area that the skin has been affected, take some duck tape, roll that duck tape off, put it on the area of the skin, give it a nice rub, peel it off, hopefully that will have taken the majority of those irritating hairs off and then wash your hands with soap and water for quite awhile in order to make sure that you've gotten the rest of those irritating hairs off."