BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?

Subject: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: GUEST,keinstein
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 04:27 AM

Curing fear in mice

..the researchers placed a beaker containing a fox-odor chemical in the mouse enclosure. Normal mice froze when they smelled the chemical and avoided the beaker. In contrast, mice lacking the ASIC1a protein showed a much-reduced freezing response and even climbed onto the beaker....
In a second set of experiments, the team also showed that chemically inhibiting the ASIC1a protein in normal mice (using a component of tarantula venom) similarly blunted the innate fear response.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Peace
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 04:46 AM

Here's the guy to ask.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: skipy
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:05 AM

Just guessing here but howabout:- a tarantula
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:05 AM

I find the idea of having no fear quite scary! I mean, the mice have good reason to avoid things that smell of foxes don't they?

:D

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Peace
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:09 AM

Absolutely. Or dogs, coyotes, wolf, snake, hammers, tires, bar bells or clocks. Mice have a crappy life.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:13 AM

It would be on a par with those few people physically unable to feel pain?

In the US, the regional poison control center should have the address(es) of sources for antitoxins, and the producers would certainly be knowledgeable about sources for the venom. In areas where there are significant numbers of the fuzzy little critters, even a local hospital might stock the sera, but wouldn't likely have the pure stuff on hand.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Grab
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 06:27 AM

That's "a component of", not the venom itself. Same way that digitalis is "a component of" foxgloves, but someone with angina would not be best advised to go out and eat foxgloves - they might get a bit too much! Or vice versa, some of the components of coffee which are discovered to be good for you but where you'd need dozens of cups a day for it to have any effect, at which point you'd be a whole lot worse off from caffeine poisoning.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: MG John
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 08:43 AM

I'll ask my mate to ask his mother-in-law!
John

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 08:54 AM

Grab has it right. And tarantulas don't really have much of a venom in their bite and they don't bite much, that I've heard of. They shed some little hairs or fibers that can be annoying in skin or mucus membranes.

Tarantula from North Texas

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:00 AM

So to get rid of my arachnophobia I've got to get bitten by a bloody TARANTULA? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.....................

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Peace
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:17 AM

Funny you should say that. President Bush has Iraqnophobia.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:29 AM

Yup. And it bit him in the ass, didn't it?

Trouble is, it doesn't seem to have cured him.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 11:55 AM

Trouble is, he actually likes it.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Peace
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 11:56 AM

Well, it bit for free. Usually I have to pay for that . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 01:36 PM

What do you mean, Peace, that "mice have a crappy life"?

I've observed many live mice in action. They seem like cheerful little creatures to me, always scurrying about busily, filled with energy and curiosity. I have almost never seen a depressed looking mouse. I think if you asked the average mouse about his life he would say, "Things are going great!"

Now, they may have short lives...yeah. But not crappy. Not while they last.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 01:43 PM

Well, they leave a lot of crap behind. Especially on and around the soap.

Those of us with camps know.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 01:51 PM

No question about that. There were a lot of mice coming into my place and they were making a hell of a mess and getting into things. I found a strategic place to position the mousetrap and over a period of about 3 months that one mousetrap disposed of about 15 mice! It usually got them between 11 pm and 3 AM, that seems to be when they're most active. The SNAP! would wake me up, and I would go and find the latest furry little victim...a sad sight...and flush him down the toilet. Eventually I discovered the small opening through which they were entering the residence and I plugged it. Got my fingers crossed that the problem is now solved...

Funny...for such mess-making, dirty little creatures they look quite clean and neat in themselves.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 01:57 PM

Some mice are smart.

And some aren't, as the linked video shows. I have a cousin like the second mouse. As a kid, I used to be good at late-night garden raiding... nip in, pull a few carrots, cukes, radishes, peas & beans, and nip out again. No damage, no noise, no evidence. If my noisy-ass cousin came with me, we had to leg it everytime to avoid the rock salt or guard dog.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Peace
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 02:00 PM

"I found a strategic place to position the mousetrap and over a period of about 3 months that one mousetrap disposed of about 15 mice!"

And you think that ain't crappy?

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Peace
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 02:03 PM

"to avoid the rock salt or guard dog."

'Well he threw a Reader's Digest at my head and I did run
I did a somersault as I seen him get his gun
And crashed through the window at a hundred miles an hour
And landed fully glassed in his garden flowers
Rita said, "Come back," and he started to load
The sun was coming up and I was running down the road'

Gospel of Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 02:21 PM

Weren't those great days when Bob was a scruffy little wandering adventurer? ;-)

Well, Peace, their lives were going great till that sudden SNAP!

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 03:30 PM

There are many species of tarantulas, the venom differs from species to species. Several of the larger ones are sold as pets by pet shops.
I remember doing fieldwork in Limestone County, Texas, one year when they were at top of a cycle. They were everywhere. The worst problem with the bite, at least with most species, is the chance of infection.
There are many tales of particularly venomous types, but I haven't looked into the facts. Those in North America are not dangerous to most people. They seldom bite unless provoked.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Peace
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 03:49 PM

"Well, Peace, their lives were going great till that sudden SNAP!"

I'll give you that, man. I used to trap deer mice and it didn't bother me one bit.


Re the tarantula bite: People talking about bites they received.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: JennyO
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 01:39 AM

Funny...for such mess-making, dirty little creatures they look quite clean and neat in themselves.

I know some people like that - leave behind messes for other people to clean up, while always appearing squeaky-clean themselves. Certain politicians spring to mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 11:50 AM

I got bitten by one of them Aussie ones that live under the bog seat. When I got to hospital and saw where it had bit me I asked the doctor if he could take away the pain but leave the swelling...

:D

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: GUEST,ibo
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 09:06 AM

asda

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Cluin
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 02:17 PM

"Where can I get tarantula venom?"

From a tarantula.
Maybe take it out to a nice dinner and a movie first, though...

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 02:22 PM

Anyone ever tried to milk a tarantula?   What would you grab?

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Cluin
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 02:24 PM

The taranteats.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 07:29 AM

Somewhat related to this thread I suppose - My husband works in the film industry as many of you know. His Boss is also married to an actress who works frequently in Television. They have two very normal and adorable little boys who have quite normal and horrid little boy interests such as a series of creepy pets. My husband is often asked to drive the boss's car to some location where he or his wife will be working or, fly there and drive the car back to Los Angeles. A recent trip brought him eyeball to ebeyballs times 8 with a tarantula.

On the last trip, he flew to a city in Canada to drive the car back home and didn't work things out so he could meet his boss's wife and kids before they left. They left him with a signed statment to show the border guards assuring them that he had their permission to drive the car home. For some odd reason, the actress included in her note that he also had her permission to transport her son's live tarantula across the border as well! That was his first notice that there was a tarantula in the vehicle with him!

He called me a few times from the drive and I called him and each time I asked "What is the spider doing now?" My husband said he mostly seemed to sleep on the trip but that he got agitated a few times. I breathed a sigh of relief when he made it past the Border Ok because I don't think it's actually legal to do that - transport venomous animals across broders without permits.

I don't think that ever ocurred to the busy family when they packed the boys up for the trip and since the spider normally accompanies them - they must have just boxed him up for the ride! I however, was terrified my husband would be detained at the border as the "Tarantula Terrorist"! You'd have to see my husband to understand my fear. I think he's handsome but he is often cast in roles in his friends films as a bank robber, biker gang member, satanic high priest and such. He knows how to look evil on film.

Long story short - both he and the hairy spider made it home safe and sound and he has learned to ask more questions about what is in the car next time!

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 04:25 PM

Tarantulas are pretty interesting. The ones around here can live to be about 35 years old. They're quite stately members of the spider world. I haven't seen many this year with all of the rain we've had--I hope they're doing well. As it finally dries out this summer and the grass stops growing so fast I should be able to spot their spider holes and see if they're still in them.

A teenaged boy from up the block was walking past my house one evening with his baseball glove held in a strange way. I asked what he was carrying and he showed me a tarantula he'd caught down by the creek. I retrieved a plastic lidded container out of my recycling bin so he could carry it safely (despite their size they are actually quite delicate and very brittle, easily killed). I told him about tarantulas, their life history and diet information, but said it probably wouldn't be happy in captivity so maybe he should watch it for a couple of days, see if it ate any crickets or roaches or whatever he caught to feed it, and if not, let it go in the garden. I didn't want to say "you shouldn't catch that--let it go!" I wanted him to enjoy looking at it for a little while but to realize that it was an important part of our community here and maybe he will be starting a spider colony in his yard if he releases it there.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Cluin
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 04:30 PM

I used to bring home wild animals as short-term pets all the time when I was a kid. Drove my mom crazy. I bought home everything I could catch, from insects and crayfish to ducks and geese and even a skunk once.

After having a little copperbelly (snake) die on me because it wouldn't eat the insects I put in the jar with him, I learned quickly to let everything go after a couple days.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 11:18 AM

I don't know if tarantulas would take food from me, but we've had great sport all summer feeding some of the other large spiders with webs. (Tarantulas keep their web material underground, you won't see a web in the grass, but you'll see the sides of the spider hole lined with web material). Catch a June bug--don't kill it or it won't work nearly as well--and toss it with it's wiggling feet into the web. The spider lunges across the space immediately and does a quick tie-up with a chunk of web and spinneret action that is pretty interesting to watch. Fewer June bugs right now mean we have to choose which spider (we have three we've fed this way) or the toads will get them. They all do okay on their own, but it is interesting to intervene in this small way. The toads haven't been around much all summer because it was so wet that they didn't need to seek out a porch light to find more bugs, there were bugs everywhere. Now as the summer progresses they're headed to the easier pickings here in the yard.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 11 Aug 07 - 12:28 PM

SRS - what three webbing spiders do you have that you feed?

I had a sort of pet black widow once. Here in Southern CA, it is not uncommon for people to have semi-outdoor laundry rooms. When I lived in the Hollywood Hills, we had a laundry room attached the garage that had 3 walls and aroof but was really just off our back balcony. One day I notcied a feamle black widow had spun a web next to the dryer. I thought it was neat and left her there can named her Matilida.

A few days later, a woman I knew at work was bit by a desert spider in Tehachapi and she developed a horrible necrotic wound notunlike that of a brown recluse. now, we aren't sdupposed to have any of those out here, not even in the desert but it got me thinking about Matilda so i called Poison control who advised me to kill her before she had thousands of babies. Their concern was how close she was to the house and that she was in an area I often walked into barefoot.

So, i go to smash Matilida and discover she was GONE! She must have felt her spidey sense tingling and beat it outta there fast. I worried she might hold against me and stalk me but she never came back. Ah well. She was very pretty.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Aug 07 - 05:23 PM

Many years ago when I was a about 12-14, we had a tremendous increase in black widow spider population in northern New Mexico. All of us kept one in a jar or box and we would try to feed it with tiny flies or the like. We knew its reputation, so were careful. No one I knew got bitten except for one.
Our 'manual training teacher' (do they still have them?) was bitten on the nose by one that was in a pile of scrap wood he was sorting- he went to Emergency, where they kept him under observation for a while, but all that happened was a red bump came up on his nose. He was a large and tall Dane, and later he insisted it was his Viking blood that protected him.

The brown recluse has spread, they are not uncommon in British Columbia, and there was a report of one in Alberta.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 01:09 PM

The black widow is an orb web web sort of spider. I've seen them around, and I had to kill one on the back porch a few years back. She was doing a favor of eating fire ants but I had toddlers. One of these large ones has a build like a black widow but not the web. They're all spanning large areas of spider real estate. Two are a lighter brown color spider with large abdomens, one is very dark, so I'll take a flashlight out tonight and take a closer look. The huge one out front is something else. I just pulled out my Texas Bug Book by Howard Garrett (thanks kids! It was a christmas gift last year) and see that she is an Argiope. And while I was at it I read a little about the black widow and the brown recluse. You may want to think twice next time you're killing off mud dauber wasps--they prey heavily on black widows. And I'll be careful as I clean the clutter out of my sun room. It's probably more dangerous in the house than out as far as brown recluses (where I've been weeding the grass from under shrubs. I'll go back to wearing gloves to do that).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 05:45 PM

"orb web web"

Proof reading is good. Oh, well.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 06:23 PM

Someone wants tarantula venom? There's several ounces of it here in a stiff that I been examinin' on my latest case, the unexplained death of a pet store owner who was insured for big bucks by his bimbo wife who has been goin' out with some local mobsters. Poor guy must've received hundreds of tarantual bites, which don't figure, cos there was only about 6 tarantulas in the store. Somethin' is definitely fishy here.

Now I am tryin' to track down where all them other tarantulas that bit the guy came from...and where they went after they bit him.

You find 'em hidin' in bunches of bananas sometimes. This bears more lookin' into, that's for sure.

- Chongo

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 06:41 PM

Well, now! That was certainly an interesting juxtaposition!

I just popped onto Mudcat a moment ago and wheeled down to the BS section to see if anything was going on, and encountered the following at the top of the BS section:

BS: Infrequently Asked Questions
BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?

Well . . . yeah, I guess so.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 10:02 PM

"track down where all them other tarantulas"

A beautiful bunch of ripe banana,
Daylight come and me wanna go home!
Hide the deadly black tarantula,
Daylight come and me wanna go home!

Day-o, day-o
Daylight come and me wanna go home!
Day-o, day-o

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 10:06 PM

See Chongo?

"Everything I needed to know in Life, I learnt from Folk Songs"

$19.95 Wanker Press, Canberra, Aust.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I get tarantula venom?
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 13 Aug 07 - 10:02 AM

tarantalas like bananas because they have no bones.

The drive-in my folks took us too used to play that song on the speakers during intermission when I was a kid in the 1970s.(I like Bananas because they have no bones) The drive-in was so small! it was in Amenia NY and could fit maybe 20 to 25 cars. They played very odd double bills. We once saw a double bill of Pinnochio and The Green Berets! They'd play a kids film first and then an R rated film for the parents after the kiddies went to sleep. I shouldn't have to tell you hoow traumatizing that often was. TOm Saywer followed by Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Follow Me Boys and then White Lightening. Fereeeeky