Your best tarantula tales...and go!!

[Mariskay86]

What are some of your best tarantula stories? Do any of you t's have a great story attached to them or do you have any moments that are peticularly burned in your mind... and go!!

 

[Dave Jay]

Not much response so I'll open with my very first tarantula experience which was in February.
Being used to scorpions and centipedes I was all set. I set up lamps for good visibility. I had a tub with a lid to work in, catch cup ready, tongs, poker and my favourite implement, a long handled spoon all laid out.
I picked up the vial containing my very first tarantula and carefully unscrewed the lid over the work tub, I slowly removed the lid ready to set the tub down and the spider sprang out like a jack in a box onto my thumb! I instinctively threw the vial into the tub like it was a hot coal, I must have made a face and probably a sound as my wife cracked up laughing!
Luckily the spider was okay, it had still held on to the tissue in the vial with its back legs and pulled safely inside.
The tarantula was a 1" Selenotypus plumipes "Northern Territory", an old world species that later proved to have a nasty disposition, one night it tried to attack me through the "glass" three times just for looking at it!
So that was my introduction to tarantulas!

 

[Metalman2004]

In college I bought a pet store rosehair (I have no idea what it really was and no pictures from back then). When i graduated I moved in with my parents for 2 months while I trained for my job. Well, when I moved out of my college house Slash was in his/ her cage when we put it in the car. 6 hrs later when we got to our destination Slash was not in the cage. The lid to the enclosure didn’t have clasps and just sat on top. I’m not exactly sure how it managed to get out but I’m sure the lid had something to do with it. Slash was never seen again and it only took about 7 years to get back into the hobby.

 

[Mr. P]

Lets liven this thread up a bit so I'll repost another members experience. Sorry Shampain but it is sooooo darn funny.
(Must have sound on )

 

[Enn49]

My P. metallica, Trip, has had a most eventful life, bless her, and survived to tell the tale.

Her first escapade was at around 1.5-2" dls when she made a run for it, I almost tore the living room apart searching for her but couldn't find her. I went to sit down to calm myself and then I spotted her, tight in the corner where the glass met the frame of the sideboard in the classic Pokie pose so almost invisible.

Her next mishap was when one of the cats pulled her ExoTerra off the dresser onto the floor, smashing it. At this time she was a sub adult. I realised the cat was poised to dab at something a few feet away. It was Trip, again in a Pokie pose on the floor, tight against a record case. I pushed cat away and scooped Trip up not even considering what she could do to me. Luckily she was fine and quickly rehoused.

Her next mishap as an adult was entirely her own fault. She had made a hammock to moult in but made it at an angle and just before she had finished the moult she slid off the edge, dropping 6" onto the substrate. Trip lost 1 leg and damaged her spinnerets in the fall but was otherwise ok. She has since moulted again, on the ground this time and regrown the leg and can now use her spinnerets again but she does still have a bit of old exo stuck to her abdomen.

Hopefully Trip will now live a long and uneventful life, she's so beautiful and placid.

 

[Tortoise Tom]

Not much response so I'll open with my very first tarantula experience which was in February.
Being used to scorpions and centipedes I was all set. I set up lamps for good visibility. I had a tub with a lid to work in, catch cup ready, tongs, poker and my favourite implement, a long handled spoon all laid out.
I picked up the vial containing my very first tarantula and carefully unscrewed the lid over the work tub, I slowly removed the lid ready to set the tub down and the spider sprang out like a jack in a box onto my thumb! I instinctively threw the vial into the tub like it was a hot coal, I must have made a face and probably a sound as my wife cracked up laughing!
Luckily the spider was okay, it had still held on to the tissue in the vial with its back legs and pulled safely inside.
The tarantula was a 1" Selenotypus plumipes "Northern Territory", an old world species that later proved to have a nasty disposition, one night it tried to attack me through the "glass" three times just for looking at it!
So that was my introduction to tarantulas!

Dave! Haven't you heard about the "ladder" system you are supposed to go by???

 

[Tortoise Tom]

Lets liven this thread up a bit so I'll repost another members experience. Sorry Shampain but it is sooooo darn funny.
(Must have sound on )

Why? Why would anyone do such a thing?

 

[Tortoise Tom]

I pushed cat away and scooped Trip up not even considering what she could do to me.

Wait! With your hand???!!! That's crazy! Are you related to Shampain88?

 

[Enn49]

Dave! Haven't you heard about the "ladder" system you are supposed to go by???

My view is as long as you know what you're letting yourself into, get the T you really want. My first 2 were an OBT and the P. met.

Wait! With your hand???!!! That's crazy! Are you related to Shampain88?

Yes, with my bare hand. Where she was I couldn't get to her with a catch cup and I had to act fast to save her from the cat. It was only later after I'd sorted her and calmed myself down that it hit me what I'd done and what could have happened.

 

[Dave Jay]

Dave! Haven't you heard about the "ladder" system you are supposed to go by???

I'm in Australia so all our species are OW, people handle them much more than others handle NW though, not that I will!
My wife surely will though, she's always picked up spiders to put them outside regardless of species.

Another story people might find funny (I didn't!) is that one night not long after I moved in with her I sat down on the toilet, picked up my book which was old and fanned out and a 5"+ huntsman came out from between the pages while trying to find my place!!! Literally scared the S out of me!!! I threw the book over my head and out the window into the garden!
When I came out she was just about rolling on the floor laughing, she knew I didn't like spiders so she had saved this big huntsman in a jar all day and put it in the book on her way out of the toilet knowing I was waiting to go in after her.
I wasn't amused, the last thing you want in your lap with your pants down is a huge bloody spider!!!

 

[Enn49]

I'm in Australia so all our species are OW, people handle them much more than others handle NW though, not that I will!
My wife surely will though, she's always picked up spiders to put them outside regardless of species.

Another story people might find funny (I didn't!) is that one night not long after I moved in with her I sat down on the toilet, picked up my book which was old and fanned out and a 5"+ huntsman came out from between the pages while trying to find my place!!! Literally scared the S out of me!!! I threw the book over my head and out the window into the garden!
When I came out she was just about rolling on the floor laughing, she knew I didn't like spiders so she had saved this big huntsman in a jar all day and put it in the book on her way out of the toilet knowing I was waiting to go in after her.
I wasn't amused, the last thing you want in your lap with your pants down is a huge bloody spider!!!

That's priceless. I'm surprised you're still with her though

 

[MassExodus]

I think my funniest adventure was rehousing one of my obt's in the bathtub. It did what juvie obts do, it went ape****. once uncovered, it started doing laps around the bottom of the tub, getting faster and higher through centripital force. I watched, grinning, no doubt. When he stopped, I put a catchcup over him, at which point he went into full threat pose, slapping at the cup. Eventually he fell on his back in a frozen threat pose. I was laughing by then, and just slid him gently into his new enclosure, still on his back.. I kind of scooted him onto the substrate. Still frozen in a threat pose. He stayed that way for some time once back on his shelf. Gotta love those little spastic, gorgeous spiders.