Hey Dr. I'm with ya! this is garbage...part of the media trying to scare the pants off of human beings and profit from fear. Man's only predator is Man. I've had a tarantula for almost 10 years and she is a complete sweetheart. I'm a 9th grade science teacher and I let my students and parents hold her. She is the class pet and the kids love her. Spiders of that size do not bite humans. If freaked in any way at worst you'll get a flurry of abdominal hairs in your face...which have a slight irritant on them. But they tend to get the fact that you are not food.

btw the same media crap is spread about sharks every year and If you look at the stats you'll find that sharks maybe kill one or two people a year world wide but that humans kill thousands of sharks. who should be afraid of whom???