College and Tarantulas

[Frazier_05]

Hi,
I will be going to college in roughly a month now and I have 8 T's, mostly slings. My college of choice only allows fish in a 10 gallon or smaller aquarium. A buddy of mine, who resides in the same hall as I will be living in, did tell me that they do room checks but generally tell you about a week or two in advance, and that they aren't allowed to open anything closed, i.e. closets, drawers, boxes, etc, etc. . I've thrown around the idea of taking them along with me and hiding them say in my closet. My mom suggests however to just leave them here, which is about 2 1/2 hrs from my school. I will be coming home on the weekends, so I am really torn about what to do here. Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I don't think I left anything out, but if I did just ask and I'll be more than willing to tell. Thanks for your time.

Brett

 

[Code Monkey]

You should do what I did: leave them with mom until you have a feel for your R.A., roommates, floormates, and whether the room checks are just to make sure you don't have a grizzly bear and/or trash piled up to the ceiling or something more.

I left mine at home until Christmas break (my family lived in Virginia and I went to school in Florida). By then I knew that I would be safe - my R.A. was pretty cool, my two roommates had moved out, and I knew all the guys on the floor well enough for them not to freak out at a giant spider.

A month or two at home won't hurt anything, and they'll be safer anyhow. Most of the hardass rule enforcement is going to come in that first month or two when everybody is going mad from such freedom for the first time in their lives.

 

[spydrhunter1]

I would be worried most about pest control issues...in places like dormitories a lot of places do monthly or periodic spraying to keep pests such as cockroaches under control. Try to find out if this is the case for the dormitory your staying in (tell them your chemical sensitive) and don't mention the T's.

 

[Scolopendra]

i have the same dilemma on my hands. i was thinking of rigging up a trunk/chest for heat and ventilation. although code monkeys solution sounds a little more rational. good luck

 

[EDED]

i would worry about other 'ignorant' kids that dont know and dont give a crap about spiders coming into your room, tappin the glass, shaking it opening it or while you are away your roomates friends come in and what not cuz you will have people going in and out, and i doubt you have a single dorm or an apt cuz its your first year, im saying worry about people instead of the regulations, what if your roomates dont sleep till 3 am , iwth lights on or play music,,,man, there are all kinds of people out there,

all the stress and more above are not needed when you are at school to study and party,,,cuz you will need all the time you need to play and study, dont miss out, so leave them with your parents, have them feed once a week, you are gonna see them on the weekends anyhow, also dont go home EVERY weekends, are you crazy? go have fun and goodluck at school

 

[arachnoguy]

go with code monkey's idea and leave them with mum for the time being. also eded has some other good points that you should consider before taking your t's with you. all kinds of crazy stuff can happen when you are sharing a place with someone else that doesn't know what to do and what not to do with tarantula's. i think my main concern would be some idiot walking into your room and going oooh what is this and opening a container and then you are down a critter due to escape.

 

[Snipes]

Im having the same problem but i think CM's solution will work. I am lucky because i will be having a single room so i dont have to worry about a roommate. I am also going to sneak some AGB millis

 

[jdcarrel]

I would recommend taking them with you. You might be going home every weekend in the beginning, but that soon turns into every other week then every month, etc... Since you said they are for the most part slings, then they shouldn't take up too much room.

 

[Mad Hatter]

I am in the same situation as you. I will also be going away to college in about a month and it's two and a half hours away from where I live now. Since your spiders are mostly slings, they need more attention than full grown Ts and take up less space (i.e. easier to hide) - so I would recommend taking those with you. I'm taking all mine with me, and I have about 18 T's at the moment. I have a closet I'll be keeping them in, on which I plan on getting a lock installed. Just in case.

 

[Frazier_05]

You all have really good points. What should I do about water if they are left here though? My mom is afraid of them, my dad is indifferent and my sister doesn't care either way. Should I convince a friend to water them during the week?

 

[Mad Hatter]

I suppose you could get a friend to do it. They'd probably only need water once or twice during the week and if you find a way to make it so that the water can be administered without opening the containers, you could better avoid any tragedies on the part of your slings.

 

[Frazier_05]

Good idea Mad Hatter. I utilized the 'Beta tank method' of caging, I don't remember if I found it on Arachnoboards or if I found it through the web, but anyways if you know what I mean by the beta tank method, what would be a good way of going about watering them that way?

 

[VesAn]

RAs usually don't care about the job, and the room checks around my college pretty much works the way you said it - they inform you weeks in advance to make sure you got plenty of time to hide prohibited stuff.

So long as you don't have a constant stream of people coming in and out of your room, you should be good. Roommates will pose no problems, bribe them with free beer/pizza/beef jerky/use of your video gaming systems. Better yet try for single living dorm rooms.