Should T's be handled ?

There's a long and a short answer to this one:

 

The short answer is 'No'.

 

Personally, I believe that when a spider detects that it is moving, and not of its own accord, it can only believe that it is falling, or in the mouth of a predator, or on a potentially dangerous and unstable surface. What it then chooses to do about that will be down to the particular circumstances prevailing, the type, personality, and even mood of the spider on that day, and a thousand other factors that I couldn't begin to explain here. It may sit still. It may run. It may bite, or flick hairs. It equally may do nothing, or walk around, treating your body as nothing more than just another surface to walk on and explore...

 

The truth is that we just don't know what they'll do. And therefore, for the spider's safety, I don't think handling is a good idea, unless absolutely necessary to save the T's life, or examine it if it is unwell. Having said that, despite all precautions, I look after spiderlings that are so fast that they can be up my arm and all over me before I have registered that they are not in the tank anymore. Flash is so named for just that reason. She is the only spider that has ever walked on me with no encouragement, and she was completely fine with it, as was I. I simply made sure I was at ground level so that she could not injure herself from a fall if she chose to bolt, and we enjoyed 10 minutes of her running around without a problem.

 

However, this is a 1 cm sling that is not in a position to do me any harm even if it wanted to, so this hardly counts as 'handling', and when it comes down to it, I have still seen nothing that convinces me that handling for fun is a good idea.