Blueberry Widow
New Member
- Messages
- 5
- Location
- UK
Hi all, another newbie here,
I wanted to give a bit of background, its a long story , so please bare with me. I think you'll find it interesting.
Until today all I had was a 9 month old Curly Hair Tarantula that I grew from a sling. Now I have a Greenbottle Blue Sling. Guess its time to admit I'm in the hobby. Will post that story another time. I refer to all spiders as her, as I do not have the knowledge to sex them & I just think of spiders as female.
Like many 2 years ago I was a staunch arachnophobe. With a particular fear of the False Widow Spiders that are found here in the UK. A member of staff at my daughters primary school actually managed to get bitten by one on the playing field & nearly wound up having to have a skin graft. She showed me photos of the bite. Nasty doesn't get near to describing it.
I am also the animal care assistant at the same school. When I had to dismantle & move the Eglu chicken enclosure teachers & pupils nearby stopped & stared as I let out various shrieks & yells, occasionally jumping back, whilst doing so. I didn't care. Apparently the inside of the clips I was taking apart were ideal spider homes & seemed to be in every one I had to open. They also liked to fall on me as I moved the mesh. Only my duty to the chickens got me through it.
Then one day I found a False widow in my children's bedroom, that was very clearly visible. So I caught it in a cup. Now I had a dilemma. I didn't want to just chuck it out the window, in case it returned. Being an animals lover I couldn't just kill it.
So being the crazy person that I am, I thoroughly cleaned & dried a pasta jar, then punched tiny holes in the lid, placed in some damp kitchen paper, a couple of twigs, tipped the spider in, secured the lid & left her to it. That way I knew where it was, & I didn't have to kill it.
A few days later when I checked, it had spun a web....So I decided it was Feeding Time. But what? Luckily I had a colony of mealworms on the go ( great chicken treats) & I selected tiny one & dropped it on her web. She fled into the fold of the now dry kitchen paper. When I saw her out a couple of days later I taught her that meal worm was food, by basically using tongs to hold it & annoy her until she bit in defense. Having got a taste, she quickly returned to eat it, & attacked the next one I put in her web a few days later straight away. Over the coming days, I upgraded her enclosure to a plastic ****tail bowl, covered with a fabric mesh to hold it in place. I observed that she really liked hiding in crumpled kitchen paper, over anything else.
To make her diet more varied & closer to nature I ordered some flightless fruit flies & threw several in. I had a bottle cap in there already for water, & perched another on the paper near her web containing a blueberry but in half, to attract the flies. Imagine my shock when I saw her feeding on the blueberry rather than the fly sat next to it. That was the moment I lost my fear of spiders.
I had several more weeks observing the now named Tasha (Marvel Fan). Including what appeared to be her aimlessly scrabbling at the sides, but on closer inspection was her using her legs to gather condensation & bring it to her mouth. The time came when I decided that I had held her long enough & carefully released her into the thick ivy that grew along the back fence of my flats communal gardens.
Thank you Tasha, you taught me so much.
Now I remove false widows for scared people with bare hands to demonstrate how harmless they really are. I am confident enough in this, because I know them. They really are so timid & reluctant to bite, but I still remove some by cup, if I'm not confident in the signals I'm getting from the spider.
Just after Christmas I was in a local pet shop, that was primarily fish, but had an small exotic range & I saw the spiders. They were beautiful but beyond my price range, then I noticed the slings. I walked out with Curly, who is proving to be a delight to watch grow
I have had many different types of pets, including snakes, lizards & millipedes, but have never been one for strictly following care guides. They are often contradictory & inaccurate, sometimes dangerously so. Likewise advice in pets shops. In my experience it doesn't matter what the creature, or even plant is, if you take the time to observe them closely & learn their behavior, they will let you know their specific needs. I was eager for Curly to grow, so I kept her slightly warmer & gave her as much food as she would eat.
Only today have I actually started doing enough research on tarantulas to discover this is an practiced technique. I wanted to know more about Rainbow (GBB sling) and set Curly up in a nice new home ready for her final size.
Many of the videos I'm watching are sounding like a foreign language, so I thought I'd best join here so I can do the absolute best by my spiders. Odds are I'll be asking a few question over the next few days.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read. BTW has anyone else observed a spider feeding on fruit?
I wanted to give a bit of background, its a long story , so please bare with me. I think you'll find it interesting.
Until today all I had was a 9 month old Curly Hair Tarantula that I grew from a sling. Now I have a Greenbottle Blue Sling. Guess its time to admit I'm in the hobby. Will post that story another time. I refer to all spiders as her, as I do not have the knowledge to sex them & I just think of spiders as female.
Like many 2 years ago I was a staunch arachnophobe. With a particular fear of the False Widow Spiders that are found here in the UK. A member of staff at my daughters primary school actually managed to get bitten by one on the playing field & nearly wound up having to have a skin graft. She showed me photos of the bite. Nasty doesn't get near to describing it.
I am also the animal care assistant at the same school. When I had to dismantle & move the Eglu chicken enclosure teachers & pupils nearby stopped & stared as I let out various shrieks & yells, occasionally jumping back, whilst doing so. I didn't care. Apparently the inside of the clips I was taking apart were ideal spider homes & seemed to be in every one I had to open. They also liked to fall on me as I moved the mesh. Only my duty to the chickens got me through it.
Then one day I found a False widow in my children's bedroom, that was very clearly visible. So I caught it in a cup. Now I had a dilemma. I didn't want to just chuck it out the window, in case it returned. Being an animals lover I couldn't just kill it.
So being the crazy person that I am, I thoroughly cleaned & dried a pasta jar, then punched tiny holes in the lid, placed in some damp kitchen paper, a couple of twigs, tipped the spider in, secured the lid & left her to it. That way I knew where it was, & I didn't have to kill it.
A few days later when I checked, it had spun a web....So I decided it was Feeding Time. But what? Luckily I had a colony of mealworms on the go ( great chicken treats) & I selected tiny one & dropped it on her web. She fled into the fold of the now dry kitchen paper. When I saw her out a couple of days later I taught her that meal worm was food, by basically using tongs to hold it & annoy her until she bit in defense. Having got a taste, she quickly returned to eat it, & attacked the next one I put in her web a few days later straight away. Over the coming days, I upgraded her enclosure to a plastic ****tail bowl, covered with a fabric mesh to hold it in place. I observed that she really liked hiding in crumpled kitchen paper, over anything else.
To make her diet more varied & closer to nature I ordered some flightless fruit flies & threw several in. I had a bottle cap in there already for water, & perched another on the paper near her web containing a blueberry but in half, to attract the flies. Imagine my shock when I saw her feeding on the blueberry rather than the fly sat next to it. That was the moment I lost my fear of spiders.
I had several more weeks observing the now named Tasha (Marvel Fan). Including what appeared to be her aimlessly scrabbling at the sides, but on closer inspection was her using her legs to gather condensation & bring it to her mouth. The time came when I decided that I had held her long enough & carefully released her into the thick ivy that grew along the back fence of my flats communal gardens.
Thank you Tasha, you taught me so much.
Now I remove false widows for scared people with bare hands to demonstrate how harmless they really are. I am confident enough in this, because I know them. They really are so timid & reluctant to bite, but I still remove some by cup, if I'm not confident in the signals I'm getting from the spider.
Just after Christmas I was in a local pet shop, that was primarily fish, but had an small exotic range & I saw the spiders. They were beautiful but beyond my price range, then I noticed the slings. I walked out with Curly, who is proving to be a delight to watch grow
I have had many different types of pets, including snakes, lizards & millipedes, but have never been one for strictly following care guides. They are often contradictory & inaccurate, sometimes dangerously so. Likewise advice in pets shops. In my experience it doesn't matter what the creature, or even plant is, if you take the time to observe them closely & learn their behavior, they will let you know their specific needs. I was eager for Curly to grow, so I kept her slightly warmer & gave her as much food as she would eat.
Only today have I actually started doing enough research on tarantulas to discover this is an practiced technique. I wanted to know more about Rainbow (GBB sling) and set Curly up in a nice new home ready for her final size.
Many of the videos I'm watching are sounding like a foreign language, so I thought I'd best join here so I can do the absolute best by my spiders. Odds are I'll be asking a few question over the next few days.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read. BTW has anyone else observed a spider feeding on fruit?
