Wear glasses when cleaning your tarantula cage

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Seems the young man who owned the tarantula was cleaning his pet's cage when the spider decided he wasn't happy with the cleaning service. The tarantula then rubbed his hind legs against his abdomen, which released a cloud of the hairs. The hairs are tiny hairs which are barbed at the end and are apparently used as a defense.

Three weeks later, the gentleman went to the Ophthalmology Clinic because of persistent redness, watering and poor vision in his eye. When examined, the conjunctiva (white of the eye) was red, and the cornea (clear part of the eye) had "scattered white spots".

Though the examination initially looked like a viral infection of the eye, when they looked at the eye with a magnifying instrument, they found "fine, hairlike projections" in the cornea. The hairs were too small to be removed from his eyes.

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