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I recently got tagged by my Stromatopelma calceatum while pairing her. Now that I've been tagged by both a ornata and a calceatum I thought I'd weigh in on which was worse. Both bites occurred while or after pairing.
The 9" ornata bite happened quite some time ago. While attempting to remove the male after breeding I thought the female was in her corkbark but she was actually sitting on the backside of it. In a blink of a eye she came for him. He lept onto my catch cup and ran onto my arm. Somewhere between the cup and my hand she tried bitting him and got me. She immediately retreated back into her enclosure and started grooming her furrow. I instantly started shaking my hand towards the ground repeatedly like I was trying to put out a fire. The pain was intense running up my arm. The one fang went through the webbing between my fingers and the other went into my finger. I dislocated my finger also, probably when I was shaking it. I couldn't reset it myself so I had to go to the ER. I had nausea and vomiting on the way to the ER. They had to reset my finger twice numbing it both times. They gave me some benadryl for the bite and sent me home. For many weeks I still had pain and cramping in my hand and arm.
The 6" calceatum bite happened in a similar fashion. I saw her in her burrow/corkbark. I made the same banging noises on her enclosure door like normal before I open it. She is usually chill and skittish, never aggressive. I opened the door and grabbed my tongs to coax the male out of the enclosure to cup him on the outside. After nudging him a couple times to get him moving she bolted out of her burrow. Everything was a blur for the next couple of seconds. They fought between the door and my forearm. She ended up nearly ripping him in half and tagging me in the process. She ended up on the floor with him underneath my rack. I left the room and shut the door. At first I didn't feel anything but slowly the pain set in. It felt like fire traveling up my arm. I washed the wound immediately and took some benadryl. Had some nausea but no vomiting. My wife gave me Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen for the pain. The pain and cramping in my arm lasted for about a week.
The verdict...
Bite/mechanical - ornata
Venom/heat- calceatum
Overall pain- calceatum
Longevity/cramps- ornata
Which would I choose not to be tagged by again? Hands down the ornata. The bite force itself was night and day, I'd didn't really feel the calceatum bite. The venom pain was really close with a slight edge to the calceatum, maybe due to the ornata piercing my hand with one fang? The pain lasted much much longer with the ornata.
The lesson learned...play with spiders you will get bit.
The 9" ornata bite happened quite some time ago. While attempting to remove the male after breeding I thought the female was in her corkbark but she was actually sitting on the backside of it. In a blink of a eye she came for him. He lept onto my catch cup and ran onto my arm. Somewhere between the cup and my hand she tried bitting him and got me. She immediately retreated back into her enclosure and started grooming her furrow. I instantly started shaking my hand towards the ground repeatedly like I was trying to put out a fire. The pain was intense running up my arm. The one fang went through the webbing between my fingers and the other went into my finger. I dislocated my finger also, probably when I was shaking it. I couldn't reset it myself so I had to go to the ER. I had nausea and vomiting on the way to the ER. They had to reset my finger twice numbing it both times. They gave me some benadryl for the bite and sent me home. For many weeks I still had pain and cramping in my hand and arm.
The 6" calceatum bite happened in a similar fashion. I saw her in her burrow/corkbark. I made the same banging noises on her enclosure door like normal before I open it. She is usually chill and skittish, never aggressive. I opened the door and grabbed my tongs to coax the male out of the enclosure to cup him on the outside. After nudging him a couple times to get him moving she bolted out of her burrow. Everything was a blur for the next couple of seconds. They fought between the door and my forearm. She ended up nearly ripping him in half and tagging me in the process. She ended up on the floor with him underneath my rack. I left the room and shut the door. At first I didn't feel anything but slowly the pain set in. It felt like fire traveling up my arm. I washed the wound immediately and took some benadryl. Had some nausea but no vomiting. My wife gave me Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen for the pain. The pain and cramping in my arm lasted for about a week.
The verdict...
Bite/mechanical - ornata
Venom/heat- calceatum
Overall pain- calceatum
Longevity/cramps- ornata
Which would I choose not to be tagged by again? Hands down the ornata. The bite force itself was night and day, I'd didn't really feel the calceatum bite. The venom pain was really close with a slight edge to the calceatum, maybe due to the ornata piercing my hand with one fang? The pain lasted much much longer with the ornata.
The lesson learned...play with spiders you will get bit.
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