Spiders and scorpions have become increasingly popular pets in Europe, Northern America and Asia, with the global number of arachnid enthusiasts estimated at least in the tens of thousands. As most spiders and all scorpions are venomous and due to their negative public image, several governments have considered introducing legislations for regulating the possession of “dangerous” pet arachnids. However, the actual danger they pose to humans has not yet been examined. Thus, we collected 354 self-reported bites and stings from captive spiders and scorpions and analysed the circumstances and effects of exposure to pet arachnids [1]. Despite their popularity as pets, the average annual number of reported cases in the last two decades was less than 20, with a presumably large unreported fraction of cases causing only insignificant effects. We categorized all cases according to the severity of symptoms with 5.4% being "asymptomatic", 60.7% "local" and 32.8% "minor". Interestingly, only 1.1% of all cases were rated "severe" and zero fatalities were recorded. Moreover, >90% of all cases happened during active interactions by the respective pet owners and are accordingly considered to be preventable by due care. Using the collected data, we then performed a risk assessment and concluded that arachnids make safe pets and pose a lower risk than many other recreational activities. One symptom that was absent after any scorpion stings but frequently observed after bites from particular theraphosid spiders was skeletal muscle cramps. Analysis of 363 theraphosid bite reports (incl. cases from our dataset and other published cases) revealed that muscles cramps occurred after bites from theraphosids spread across nearly all continents and subfamilies [2]. The highest incidence rates were caused by Poecilotheriinae, Harpactirinae and Stromatopelminae subfamilies and we discuss potential correlations between their venom yields and respective muscle cramp prevalence.