First time handling B. smithi & A. geniculata!

Well, I’m not the biggest tarantula handler…I only really handle my spiders once in a while, I guess I’m a fearful handler…always paranoid about getting bitten, so for me to handle a spider it takes a certain amount of trust in that spider to not bite me, or jump off my hand & commit suicide. I saw a bunch of videos of people handling their A. geniculatas, and I figured since I’ve NEVER handled mine before, ever…I should probably give it a try just to see how it goes, maybe they’ve calmed down since they were jumpy little paranoid slings…

So I gently nudged the A. geniculata out of its container with a paintbrush, and it came out & stood on my hand with just half of its body & decided it didn’t like that…so as much as I tried to nicely convince it to get all the way on my hand…he wasn’t having it, and kicked urticating hairs at me, not once…but TWICE (this is how spiders say “screw you” in spider language!)…then casually walked back into its container. Thaaaaat was enough for me too, I put the lid back on & washed my hands IMMEDIATELY & luckily nothing itches at all. I consider it a mild success…I didn’t get bitten, and also didn’t get destroyed from the hair kicking…I feel like I won the Superbowl.

Then I was still feeling brave & decided to take the B. smithi out. Now, I haven’t handled this little one since I first got it…over a year ago. It was darting around all over & was totally scary & out of control…and I wondered if they eventually calm down as they get bigger, or did I just get a dud? These are supposed to be extremely gentle, docile & calm…I don’t think I’ve ever read a bite report involving a B. smithi either…I figured it was a safe bet. But the scary sling behavior seriously freaked me out, so I decided to wait a few molts & then try again after it grew some.

So, I opened the B. smithi container, armed with my trusty paint brush, all while doing this whole procedure over my dog’s giant fluffy bed (so if it fell, it wouldn’t be injured & all the fuzz would hopefully slow it down if it tried to make a break for it!), I gently nudged him out with the paintbrush onto my hand..and it was really weird, because once it was on my hand, he seemed very cautious…he didn’t move much at all for the first 2-3min. Then I started to stroke the tiny hairs on his rear legs with the paintbrush, and he started walking at a SLOW, comfortable, NON-SCARY pace, when he stopped, I’d just let him sit still…then I’d move my hand slightly& he’d start walking around again…I think the little guy was on my hand for about 20 min total, after quite a while he did start to walk faster & had a slight “freak out”…so I let him walk into his container right away for some safety…but he walked right back out again into my hand..he seemed to really enjoy being held. After he came back out of his container, he was walking much slower at his usual pace…no longer in “freak out” mode. He also liked walking on the back side of my hands more than my cold, clammy, sweaty palms…

Overall, it was a good experience for myself & the B. smithi…I now see why the B. smithi is in almost every collection, and it such a highly desirable & prized tarantula. It just took a few molts to see it, but the slow growth is well worth the wait!