I haven’t seen one of these critters in many years. Caught 3 in the Bryan/College Station area in the mid 80s. Gave them to friends as pets, one studying entomology at A&M as his major. He found out I had caught one and practically begged me for it...he didn’t have to twist my arm...
Although they are scary looking critters, the only Tarantula that is dangerous is the African Red Leg, which can be deadly but not always. Most of the time it will just make you so sick you wish you were dead...The rest are nothing worse than a bee sting, unless you are allergic. I never knew it, but the common Wood Spider is similar, as many times as I’ve handled those, one bit me one day...not even as bad as a bee sting but it did sting for a few minutes. I was just trying to shoo it back outside so the motel manager wouldn’t kill it...little bastard bit me...see what I get for being a nice guy?
Generally shy and secretive, tarantulas live underground and normally come out mostly at night, and can be handled without incident if you know a little about them.
If you do ever try to handle one, make sure to move slowly and make no sudden noises. They are alarmed by sudden noises or movements. I’ve held tarantulas in my hands a number of times, without incident. I let one walk up to near my shoulder, then put my finger in front of it and it turned around and went back down. If they ever raise those front two “pincers”, it means the spider is alarmed and may strike. (You can see 4 in the picture, the middle two raised is a sign it is alarmed, all 4 as in this picture means really alarmed. The outside two are the front 2 legs. This one is ready to strike, something has him really pissed...) You can see the fangs, they are the short hairy things between the 4 raised legs and pincers.
The Texas Cinnamon is the most common in the Central Texas area, and all 3 of those I caught were the Texas Cinnamon. The biggest had about a 3 inch leg span. I’m about 3 hours northeast of there now, and have never seen one here.
A friend had an African Red Leg, but nobody ever tried to handle it due to its being fairly dangerous. Interesting critter to watch. They were usually fed things like crickets and grasshoppers, any time a roach or fly got into the aquarium that was a bad idea...That’s possible if you cover it with plexiglas with holes drilled in it.
It’s fascinating though, most spiders usually move fairly slow, but when they see lunch, the strike is so fast you can barely follow the movement. Most spiders can jump a lot higher than you may think too. Don’t get the idea you’re going to keep one in a foot deep glass tank without a lid, it will jump that high and more. The first time I caught a tarantula, I happened to have a gallon jar in the truck, set that down on top of it. The spider jumped to the “bottom” with ease. That’s about 25 times it’s own height. Most humans in good physical shape are doing good to jump half their own height (standing jump). 4 feet with a running start if you are in good shape. I’ve seen tiny “jumping spiders” only a half inch across jump more than a foot.
The legs work on something similar to a hydraulic system. The hairs pick up vibrations in the air. Most spiders, however poisonous, use a type of venom that also contains enzymes that act as a digestive agent, so that everything inside the exoskeleton of their prey is liquefied before they “eat” by sucking it out. The poison is usually meant to immobilize a potential meal, then the digestive enzymes do their job.
Yes, I studied tarantulas before I ever tried to pick one up...always know your adversary...
I was running wire on my horse trailer and had to get underneath it so I went in on my back. Just as I got to tying the wires together I happen to look to my left. That big SOB was about 5 inches from my face and had his legs up and flared. I must have hit my head a dozen times trying to get out from under that trailer. I’ll handle rattlers for the round up, I’ve taken large feral hogs with a knife and can still flip and castrate a 400 lb calf. But spider surprising me will send me running like a 6 year old little girl. You should see what happens when I walk face first into a spider web, it’s a YouTube moment!
They should never be handled. They have barbed hairs that they throw off as a defense measure. When these hairs make their way into your eye, they can cause a severe and painful keratitis. It will require surgery to remove the barb and affected tissue. In the worst case, the eye will require a corneal graft to remove the source of pain and poor vision. Some dangerous caterpillars also throw off barbed hairs.