Handling pokies = bad idea?

[Oli Dodds]

Hello again everyone, just a quick question! Promise!
Ok, Ive just been trying to rehouse my new P. Pederseni from Newark. It kept trying to escape (damn they are fast) and I had to use some emergency free-handling to retrieve it once it went under my bed! Went for me and all, as expected lol.
Anyhow, my question is, does anyone handle pokies regularly and how do they do it safely?
I know its against BTS rules to handle, but as I have no tweezers or forceps, much of the time my chopstick isnt enough
Thanks a lot,
Oli

[Colin D Wilson]

Hi Oli
apparently i stood right next to you at Newark, was with James and his Toad. sorry i didn't introduce myself.

My opinion....
Pokies....handling.....not good idea.

Buy some forceps, long tweezers and a couple of long soft paintbrushes. i use a cricket tub (or an old clean persil liquid tabs clear plastic tub) to trap spiders in (just what i've gotten used to).

The BTS has a "no handling" policy and, as i interpret it, is in force at the shows mainly to stop people getting spiders out randomly to display. not all the people who go to the shows are enthusiasts like us and may be frightened or worse by free running spiders.
Of course there's the safety of the spider to consider as well which is just as, if not more, important.

[Oli Dodds]

Lol damn Colin, we could have had a good long chat dude!
I was the guy with a skinhead and white hoody on with 2 blonde girls with me, you cant have missed me lol.
OH YEAH that was my toad, but he needed better care and i thought James would look after him well so the transfer is now complete muwahahahhaa
I know i need to buy forceps etc but i keep thinking *hmm... £5 on forceps or £5 on a new sling....* hahahahaha
Oli

[Colin D Wilson]

you say you were with two blondes and you thought i would have seen YOU??

forceps are quite cheap on ebay, will still cost you around a fiver with postage but you will get a better set (if you look through the trash first)
then again.........a new sling??............hmmmm...maybe you're right.

[Louise~Nichols]

Oli...I can just picture you wielding those chopsticks, they may even rival my light sabre!

On the odd days when some of my *non-pokie* critters are being moody, I use half a soft drink bottle (the lidded end) to get them safely re-housed. They're usually keen to climb up inside the bottle then they can be easily placed into their home by removing the lid and gently prodding them backwards with a little paintbrush. No forceps required for that...although I've got 3 sets, I never seem to have them close to hand LOL.

[James Box]

you say you were with two blondes and you thought i would have seen YOU??

haha must say the blondes did draw the eye a bit more...no offense, Oli! haha

i have forceps...they came with my snake, for feeding (must remember i have mice on the heatmat for him!!! can't fall asleep and forget that!!!)

i've had my pokie slings run onto my hand and up my arm a ways...but they were more keen to escape then bite. plus they're still quite small compared to adults.

[Oli Dodds]

[quote=Colin D Wilson;19947] you say you were with two blondes and you thought i would have seen YOU??
[quote]

haha must say the blondes did draw the eye a bit more...no offense, Oli! haha

Haha and I thought you were both homosexuals?
Lol
All jokes aside though, James, did you see the size of my pokie?
Fully grown adult lol
I do enjoy handling my pets though, gives me a sort of bond with them I guess. I'll handle anything (except those damn israli gold's, learned my lesson from them already!)

[Colin D Wilson]

Israeli gold scorps is that Oli??

Little Scorpio maurus palmatus "i'm in a bad mood every day" type things...yup had them!!!!!!

[Oli Dodds]

Israeli gold scorps is that Oli??

Little Scorpio maurus palmatus "i'm in a bad mood every day" type things...yup had them!!!!!!

Yup those are the ones mate. Its very ill advised to try and handle them, and coming from me thats gotta mean something haha
Damn things gripped my hand and multiple stung me, how evil is that?
Thought my hand was gonna fall off it hurt so much lol
You ever been tagged by one Colin?
Oli

[Phil Rea]

If you get bitten by the P. pederseni, I can almost guarantee that you won't be handling it again

You can't bond with a spider, or rather the spider can't bond with you. The spider gets no enjoyment out of being handled, it won't remember it's been handled previously, and there is a possibility of injuring it whilst doing so.

I should imagine that most people who keep them have unintentionally handled spiders when they run out of their enclosure unexpectedly or such like. A subadult P. miranda ran up my arm once, and decided it would take up residence in my armpit, which was fun. Also an Avicularia sp. 'peru purple' female jumped on my arm, ran up it, and jumped off my shoulder and onto a chair whilst trying to mate her with my (now sadly deceased) male. I would never intentionally take them out of their tubs just to handle them though.

It's everyone's own personal choice I suppose.

[Colin D Wilson]

Yes mate once, single sting, bit stronger than a bee sting and lasted for hours.

The worst i've had was a p cavimanus surprisingly enough, my finger swelled up and blistered a little, then went septic over the next day, must have got a bit of dirt or something in there with the sting itself that i didn't clean out.

[Oli Dodds]

You can't bond with a spider, or rather the spider can't bond with you. The spider gets no enjoyment out of being handled, it won't remember it's been handled previously, and there is a possibility of injuring it whilst doing so.

Phil your alive!
I know the spider wont remember a thing, but I get personal enjoyment of a big fat happy spider walking around on me (maybe its some wierd sexual thing? lol).
I always sit on the floor or on my bed when im handling though, to minimise the injury factor. Although, James Box and I were talking in the car about this topic, and we have agreed that spiders are much hardier then most people think. Aboreals for instance must frequently jump onto hard object in the wild for instance without damage?
Anyway Phil, I know your just thinking of the spiders welfare, and I respect that.
Good to talk to you again too buddy, thought you had disappeared, didnt see you at Newark either
Oli

[James Box]

i guess the possibility of hurting the spider is enough to reduce handling though...especially with those that jump!
and of course getting bitten doesn't sound like fun...

[Phil Rea]

Phil your alive!
I know the spider wont remember a thing, but I get personal enjoyment of a big fat happy spider walking around on me (maybe its some wierd sexual thing? lol).
I always sit on the floor or on my bed when im handling though, to minimise the injury factor. Although, James Box and I were talking in the car about this topic, and we have agreed that spiders are much hardier then most people think. Aboreals for instance must frequently jump onto hard object in the wild for instance without damage?
Anyway Phil, I know your just thinking of the spiders welfare, and I respect that.
Good to talk to you again too buddy, thought you had disappeared, didnt see you at Newark either
Oli

Just barely alive Oli

Too much information there

Spiders abdomens aren't as tough as you may think. There are frequently posts on various forums about abdominal ruptures and spider deaths. Arboreals do jump, you're right, but they're not indestructible. If they land on anything sharp or hard, then the same can happen. There is a fair amount of fluid pressure in there, so any rupture is bad news and can result in a speedy death.

I'm not criticising anyone for handling spiders, don't get me wrong, just explaining why I don't do it.

I wasn't at Newark mate. Some of us have to work

[Stanley A. Schultz]

... Ok, Ive just been trying to rehouse my new P. Pederseni from Newark. It kept trying to escape (damn they are fast) and I had to use some emergency free-handling to retrieve it once it went under my bed! Went for me and all, as expected lol.
Anyhow, my question is, does anyone handle pokies regularly and how do they do it safely? ...

First of all, there are different flavors of "handling," and failure to understand that fact has started some unbelievably heated flame wars!

If you mean actually picking one up and fondling it, I'd strongly recommend against it. The chances of being bitten are pretty good and the results are pretty scary.

"Spider Bob" Breene (formerly of the ATS) has a P. regalis that he handles readily. But, he's had her for years, she knows all about what's happening and apparently enjoys the exercise. Some would say that he's stark, raving mad, too!

He trained his female by stroking her with a small artist's paint brush to get her accustomed to being touched. This took a few weeks, but she eventually settled down to the point where she'd not react at the touch of the brush. I was never told what else he did to tame her down, but I've seen him handle her and it IS impressive.

If you mean merely the act of manipulating a pokie from one cage to another, it's a whole different ball park.

First perform the entire operation in the bathroom NOT IN YOUR BEDROOM!

Remove as many furnishings as you can (e.g., clothes hamper, bathroom scale, trash can, etc.) so as to limit the number of places it can run into and hide. Roll up a bath towel and place it on the floor in front of the door so the tarantula can't escape through the crack under the door. (You think she's too big? Have I got a surprise for you!) PLUG BOTH THE SINK AND BATHTUB DRAINS! Make sure the window is closed and that any opening to a ventilating fan is covered securely. Take a final look around to make sure you've reduced the number of hiding places and avenues of escape to a controllable minimum.

But, you may want to leave various towels hanging around the place to act as easy places for the tarantula to hide in. If you know it's hiding in one of them, you've won half the battle of getting it back under control!

Move all the equipment that you think you might need into the bathroom, such as paper toweling, medium tropical fish net (you do have one of these for catching escaped pokies, don't you?), forceps, a couple of artist's brushes for prodding, light leather gloves, the new cage, all the new ornaments and cage fixtures (don't forget the water dish with the obligatory rock), and lastly, the current cage containing the tarantula.

Close the door, put the towel in place, and get to work. DO NOT INCLUDE ANYONE ELSE AS A HELPER! DO NOT ALLOW SPECTATORS! You don't need the distraction. They don't need to get in your way. You don't need them accidentally stomping on your expensive tarantula. They don't need to be put at risk, possibly resulting in a law suit.

Do most of your work in the bathtub or shower. It'll present an additional level of security before the tarantula finds the rest of the bathroom. Be sure to wear the gloves once you've got the cage open as protection against a bite.

First, bump or handle the cage a little to let it know that you're there. An important point is not to surprise her when you have the cover off.

Use a transparent plastic drinking glass of appropriate size and a piece of light cardboard or a file card. (You don't want to use a glass drinking glass because you don't want broken glass all over if you get too excited and drop it. And you don't want to stop in the middle of moving the tarantula and opening the bathroom door to run after a replacement glass. You want a transparent one so you can see what's going on inside.) Carefully place the glass in front of the tarantula so that it can move directly up into the glass rather than across the room. Probably the best way to do this is to place it right in front of the tarantula at about a 30° to 45° angle.

If necessary, prod the tarantula VERY gently with a brush. If it bolts into the wild blue yonder... Well, that's what you have the net for! Or, try again with the glass.

After you've lived through this ordeal once or twice you will have developed a technique and won't need all that paraphernalia. The first time around it's nice to have it handy just in case you need it.

Oh, did I mention that it's a good idea to relieve your bladder before you try this?

Enjoy Houdini, the escape artist tarantula!