Georgia
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2018
- Messages
- 12
Agree 100%, just plain old urticating setae sticking to its butt. Nothing at all to worry about.It just looks to me like it's been kicking hairs - which is perfectly normal behavior for T. stirmi (and most other old world tarantulas). My T. stirmi used to kick hairs all the time - not in response to anything I did, but just to set out a defensive perimeter around her burrow. After a molt she was always so pretty with that freshly-upholstered look - but a few weeks later, she'd resume kicking her hairs out again, covering her webbing and substrate in them, and start developing bald patches that would only continue getting worse until her next molt. Yours has not yet developed the big bald patches, but the white "fluff" looks like it's just loose urticating hairs to me.
A.K.A. "spider dandruff."Agree 100%, just plain old urticating setae sticking to its butt. Nothing at all to worry about.
It just looks to me like it's been kicking hairs - which is perfectly normal behavior for T. stirmi (and most other old world tarantulas). My T. stirmi used to kick hairs all the time - not in response to anything I did, but just to set out a defensive perimeter around her burrow. After a molt she was always so pretty with that freshly-upholstered look - but a few weeks later, she'd resume kicking her hairs out again, covering her webbing and substrate in them, and start developing bald patches that would only continue getting worse until her next molt. Yours has not yet developed the big bald patches, but the white "fluff" looks like it's just loose urticating hairs to me.
It just looks to me like it's been kicking hairs - which is perfectly normal behavior for T. stirmi (and most other old world tarantulas). My T. stirmi used to kick hairs all the time - not in response to anything I did, but just to set out a defensive perimeter around her burrow. After a molt she was always so pretty with that freshly-upholstered look - but a few weeks later, she'd resume kicking her hairs out again, covering her webbing and substrate in them, and start developing bald patches that would only continue getting worse until her next molt. Yours has not yet developed the big bald patches, but the white "fluff" looks like it's just loose urticating hairs to me.