Ok Ray, maybe we should ask you to explain.... Tel us with the T on your face, what behavior will it have to warn you it's going to bite you? To my mind in the photo it's sitting on your eye, right ? If it's just walking on something it doesn't see as something other than say, a stick. Couldn't it come to the realization that your eye is soft and moist and suddenly decide to try and eat it? What would your reaction be? Will your first instinct not be to hit it away from your face? Would you then first look if the T is alright, or would you run screaming to find help or something to try and fix the excruciating pain you will be feeling where the bite wound is ?

If a tiger wants to attack, will it growl, or will you see it crouch down etc? what makes you think a tarantula is ok to handle?If you gently nudge it toward your hand and it get's up, is it ok to handle it? What does it do to make you decide that it might not be ready to be handled on the day ?

Please note, I am not being sarcastic or condescending, I would really like to know what the warning sign is to look out for.

@ Deon

first of all animals behavior indicates their demeanor and wether or not they gonna attack.If you have a few yeasr under your belt on working with a large variety of animals its called experience. just for interest sake how many years you been working with animals???

The Tarantula showed no signs of biting, but like i said before and will say again its always a risk and one can never know when they bite, but sometimes body languagecan give you tel tale signs . The risk I take on handling my tarantulas is my own and I know the risks involved and im not encourasging anyone to do what I do. I used to work with Dendroaspis polylepis on a daily basis and many other dangerous species and know the risks. Tigers dont growl they chuff bud and when they asttack it ears down and before you know it your a lamb chop on the ground. whistle2

I thought taki made it very clear if i wanna have a tarantula on my face,ass,head,legs wherever ill do so at my own risk and dunno why ppl keep asking the question??? if i put a bullet in a revolver and pass it around will u tell me the outcome who will get the hole in the head???

if your keen to lear watch my 45 minute youtube clip coming up later :deal

Deon I have a similar pic of an Aphonopelma on my kids face which he wanted to do. As I've said many times before, there is obviously some risk involved but myself and my kids have been handling all our T's for many years now, between the 4 of us we've never been bitten and we've never dropped or hurt any of the T's!
To me that points to some degree of control or knowledge right? I have had this argument with some of the most knowledgable tarantula people on BTS and Arachnoboards, where we argued that tarantulas cannot be 'tamed' as they are to basic organisms. I dispute that as I can 100% prove to you that a tarantula will get 'accustomed' to being handled!
As to your question to entomology as to why, my answer stems from my kids, they would have got bored of T's a long time ago if they didn't in a way 'bond' with them that extra bit by learning to understand their behaviour and body language much deeper than most. My kids get genuine enjoyment from handling them most of the time (and their have been times that T's gave warning signals that they might bite) and have converted literally hundreds of young kids at their school to learn to appreciate spiders as a whole!
I have had parents that were complete arachnophobes phone me at all weird hours asking for advice on what to do with a spider they have found in their house because their kids refused to let them kill it (as they used to always do) purely because they are friends with my boys and they've learnt that spiders are not evil/monsters/out to get you as the internet and media so often wrongly portrays them!
To me that is a pricelss outcome! Infact I would go as far as saying that's brilliant 'conservation'!
Over and above all of that, the simple fact is that T's are not dangerous in a life threatening sense. There isn't a recorded death in history from a tarantula envenomation, to my mind the dangers of getting urticating hairs in ones eye is the biggest concern!
I will be putting together and in depth and scientific thread regarding handling with links to all sorts of very interesting facts shortly and we will incorporate that into our forum rules as well.
Hope that has helped clear things up a little. :happy:

Ok, neither of you answered my question. I want to know, when you are handling the tarantula, what does it do to warn you it's going to bite ??? In a previous thread, Cascade I think, I read in "tagged by featherleg baboon" that the spider turned on his arm and "looked at him" then sank it's fangs into his hand. This happened while he was cleaning the enclosure and the T jumped on his arm. He was trying to get it to climb down onto the ground when this happened.

I keep reading of all the experience Ray has, so why not share with us what the warning signs are? I have worked with animals all my life. As a child I caught wild snakes and scorpions in the veld and kept them in terrariums at home (to my mothers horror). I have raised and bred wild boars, ostriches and I am a veld person and hunter and farmer. I also bred and showed bull terriers for 17 years ( life member of the SA Bullterrier club). I am just new to tarantulas, that's why I'm asking.

Deon I would say that it's their initial demeanor that's important. Obviously when you first approach them the risk of the seeing you as a threat is very high. My method is to first calm them by touching them in a very unintimidating manner with a long tweezers or something of the sort till they realise I mean them no harm. If they bolt out up your tweezers or arm like in cacsades case, then you're very much at their mercy, anything could happen at that point as they have not calmed down if you know what I mean. Other signs of course are more subtle, slight bearing or parting of the fangs, legs up in a threatening pose, twitchiness or other nervousness etc.
So basically it's the preparation that's key!

Deon

I have made a lengthy YouTube vid last night showing the warning signs tarantulas give before a bite or attempted bite and too see their demeanor which will indicate their intentions now whether you heed their warnings or not and have enough experience to see it you will find out the easy way or the hard way. Handling any animals comes with consequences and are unpredictable and "we" as humans that by removing the fear from them puts us in a more vulnerable position as they are more comfortable around us and move freely but at the same time they have instincts and react to them for example if you move too fast if you breath over them if you just do all the wrong things you will get bitten.What happened to Jake can happen to anyone and muse;lf included that's a risk we all take. if your scared of handling and your against it by all means don't discuss the issue further then as your point is made. some people prefer being bitten by little cute lion cubs but don't think that bite or scratch can turn pectic and result in a secondary infection and that's how it goes.