Tarantulas in Costa Rica

Yes there are Tarantulas in Costa Rica!  But are they dangerous?  I have  always been told, when inquiring, that  Tarantulas found in Costa Rica are not deadly but if they happen to bite you, “0uch!”  The experience results in a great deal of pain.  Also if they urinate on you, it will cause extreme irritatioin of the skin.

Tarantulas of different sizes live in Costa Rica, some live in banana plants, others live in holes in the earth.  I saw one in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve  which was around 3 inches in diameter, and it lived in a large black hole in the earth.  And you can bet I did not get close to it!

I lived in Cariari neighborhood near the international airport in Costa Rica and a tarantula, about one  inches in diameter,  lived in a hole in the grasses in my backyard.  The Tarantula crept into my kitchen around 8 pm to munch of the crumbs I had dropped on the floor.  I scooped him up and returned him to the grass but he kept coming back each night.  My young son was visiting and offered advice as to how to remedy the Tarantula visits such as keeping the kitchen floor spotless.  But this did not stop the visits.  Finally I put him in my dust pan, then  walked two blocks from my house and put him in the grasses there.  No more Tarantula visits.

I am very afraid of spiders, especially Tarantulas.  Guess it’s because they are big and hairy.  As a child I had nightmares about spiders.  So living in the land of Tarantulas was to say the least a little frightening.

I read a story in the NY Times Travel section about a guy who had a pet Tarantula, which he thought was fun and not the least bit aggressive.  Well, he was cleaning the spider’s cage one day and I suppose the Tarantula had rather been left to rest.  The Tarantula scratched his stomach and hundreds of tiny hairs sprayed all around, some going into the owners eye.  And to the hospital he went, requiring surgery to cleanse the eye of these tiny hairs.

I have never heard of a cobalt  blue Tarantula in Costa Rica, but that does not mean that there is not one in Costa Rica!!  After all isn’t everything in the tropics is very colorful?

Tarantula!!