San Diego [CA] Family Finds Tarantula in Kitchen; 9-Year-Old Plans to Adopt It

ktla ^

[freedumb2003]

Why not?

Tarantulas are cool.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I've got some brown recluses you could have.

One time offer before they go to spider heaven.

You have to go and get them out of the shed yourself.

[Godzilla]

slow news day

[mtrott]

Yeah, how long will it be before the damn thing bites the kid and and she has to go the ER?

[lee martell]

My first impulse would be to spray it with Raid, until the spider lost it’s footing and slipped off the cabinet and down to the floor. Keep spraying until it was as still as death or wet enough to sweep out doors into the backyard.

A friend of mine says tarantulas ‘aren’t really dangerous’.
Not sure if he was just kidding.
Not planning to find out first hand.

[OneVike]

They are actually harmless. The movies gave them a bad reputation. I would be more worried about the black widows hiding out in the crawl spaces of everyone's home in California.

[rochester_veteran]

My brother in law had a pet tarantula. I’d look at it in its’ cage, but wouldn’t handle it myself.

[OneVike]

I've got some brown recluses you could have.

Now a brown recluse will kill you. Tarantellas cab actually make good pets. Like a turtle or lizard.

[knittnmom]

Tarantulas do not bite; they cover their prey and sting. The stinger is on their underside. We saw lots of them on our mission trips in the Dominican Republic. One of the teens on our team thought they were cool, so we did some research to find out what to do if she was bitten. Seems the sting is about comparable to a bee or wasp for toxicity. They kill small pests - such as mice, and small snakes. After we found that out, I was kind of glad to see them where we were staying.

[elcid1970]

IIRC, the larger the tarantula, the less venomous its bite.

[knittnmom]

If you’re interested, there’s more info here http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/tarantulas/ - and elsewhere on the ‘net.

[rochester_veteran]

I would be more worried about the black widows hiding out in the crawl spaces of everyone's home in California.

When I was stationed at Vandenberg, a guy in my unit and I rented half of a duplex in Lompoc that was kind of a dump, but it was cheap and we didn't want to live in the barracks anymore. The place was loaded with black widow spiders! Then a migrant family moved into the other half of the duplex and there was probably 15 people that were living there, including their kids and it was 7x24 noise coming from their place, so we found another place and moved out after 3 weeks.

[Kommodor]

See them occasionally on the road near my house, they make an ... interesting ... shadow near sunset.

Don’t care to see one in my house, but I suspect that the local gecko population discourages that sort of thing.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Which is why they are going to spider heaven in about an hour.

Normally I leave spiders alone or relocate them. They are allies in my battle with the fly and other flying buzzy things. But brown recluses, like you said, can put you in the hospital.

[freedumb2003]

Tarantulas just look mean but they are quite docile.

Those brown recluses are the meanest SOBs on the plant.

Send them off to spider hell :)

[RedStateRocker]

People who are scared of spiders or snakes are really rather pathetic.

[CondorFlight]

“But brown recluses, like you said, can put you in the hospital.”

Having been bitten by one, I can agree. Leg bite, 6 weeks with a big welt (larger than a silver dollar), which I had to change the dressing (MSM powder, to absorb the poison) on 3 times a day. And I was lucky I got off that light.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Some folks are extremely reactive to the bite of a brown recluse. Some are not.
I've been nailed by a brown several times and developed little more than a small sore.
The daughter of the guy who built our house suffered a bite and the wound almost took her arm off. They flew her up to Mayo's in Minnesota and saved her from a crippling disaster.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

They are going to be going in about an hour.

I was seriously considering just burning the shed down and that is still an option if the pest control guy thinks it's necessary.