Tarantulas 5/1/10

Tarantula lovers be warned: if you are going to get up close and personal with your hairy eight-legged friend, do it from the other side of an aquarium pane or wearing a pair of glasses. That's a lesson that a 29-year-old man from Leeds in Britain learned the hard way, the British medical journal The Lancet has reported. In February of 2009, the man turned up at St James's University Hospital in Leeds after three weeks of stinging pain in one eye, which had become red, watery and light-sensitive. Doctors prescribed antibiotics, assuming he was afflicted with a particularly stubborn case of conjunctivitis, but the treatment did not relieve the symptoms. When they re-examined the patient with high-magnification lenses, doctors spotted ultra-thin, hair-like projections sticking into the cornea. They were so small that even microforceps could not remove them.

That's when the man recalled a close encounter with his pet spider shortly before his eye first became irritated. While cleaning a stubborn stain on the glass tank that was home to his chilean rose tarantula, he turned his head to find the fist-sized arachnid very nearby. The spider released a "mist of hairs" which hit his eye and face, according the journal. Treatment with topical steroids largely cleared his symptoms, but as late as August he continued to complain of mild discomfort. "As a defence mechanism against potential predators, the tarantula will rub its hind legs against its abdomen to dislodge" special hairs from the back of its body, the study explained. "Multiple barbs allow the hairs to migrate through ocular tissue as well as other surfaces." Moral of the story? "We suggest that tarantula keepers be advised to routinely wear eye protection when handling these animals," it concluded. *AFP

Spiders on the Move 5/1/10

They are heavily armed and efficient predators _ and they're on the move. Weeks of hot, dry weather followed by recent rain has brought creepy crawlies out to invade backyards, laundries and pools in Sydney and regional centres. The conditions, and factors such as urban development and lots of pollen, has snakes, spiders, stinging caterdhpillars, bees, paper wasps and other bities looking for food or a mate. The Australian Reptile Park collection of funnel web spiders, which until a few weeks ago was down to a handful, is now teeming with specimens brought in by the public. The park at Somersby on the state's Central Coast is the only zoo in the world to milk funnel webs and is sole supplier of snake venom to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories.

While snakes are bred on site or come from other zoos, the park's funnel web milking program relies on spiders caught in backyard pools, behind sheds or in other crannies. Since its inception 60 years ago, antivenene produced from the park's snakes and spiders has saved an estimated 30,000 lives in Australia and in Papua New Guinea. ``We had a really cold October, comparatively, and now we've had a long spell of very warm weather combined with rain,'' park manager Mary Rayner said. `So this is a crucial time for parents with young kids especially with the school holidays to watch out. People should always shake their shoes, never leave washing on the ground or out overnight and really be careful around laundries and other dark, damp places.'' Funnel webs are most active in the breeding season, typically February and late summer but if conditions are right _ like those in Sydney and regional centres right now _ males will be on the prowl for a mate.

And that can be very bad news for people who are also drawn out into their gardens by the summer weather. Reptile experts also believe hot weather and earthworks for housing estates and development across Sydney's sprawling north and southwest has also contributed to snakes showing up in people's backyards. Ms Rayner said several species such as red-bellied black snakes and brown snakes had adapted well to suburban environments where landscaped rockeries, wood piles and other ``human influence'' provided excellent habitat. *Daily telegraph