Putting the "Super" in "Superworm"

BC1579

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 17, 2017
Messages
321
New to collecting. Got my first Ts 3-4 days ago - 2 A. Avics and 1 T. Blondi.

The Blondi spans maybe 5" total. The Avics are 2-3" total.

One Avic ate an injured cricket, but the other Avic didn't. No biggie. I figure they're all still adapting.

The Blondi ate two injured crickets...I think. I dropped them both, but never found them. Never saw the Blondi eat. Never saw a bolus. I rooted through the substrate and found nothing. I assume they were taken.

I removed the heads of two superworms yesterday afternoon and left one in the Avic housing and one in the Blondi housing. The Avic worm has not moved. The Blondi worm was about a foot from where I dropped it. I grabbed it with tongs and it began writhing.

I know better than to leave live superworms (or any prey, really) in the enclosure, but I didn't think a headless worm could still be...alive?

I tried a few search combos before posting, but I saw nothing similar to this. Can this guy or gal somehow survive? I'll pull both worms since they weren't touched, but I found this really weird.

Anyone see this sort of thing before?
 

Chris LXXIX

ArachnoGod
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
5,845
Anyone see this sort of thing before?
Yes. By the hundreds my man, sadly. It's amazing the disrespect for the correct way and form of scientific names :angelic:

- "2 A. Avics" technically should be 2.0, 0.2, or 0.0.2 Avicularia avicularia -- mind, always in Italic :pompous:

Aside for this, I don't think you have too much to worry.

Post a couple of pics of the whole set up and Theraphosidae, if you can :)
 

BC1579

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 17, 2017
Messages
321
I swear I'm not trolling.

I don't think it's a danger to the T, but I doubt the T moved it just to redecorate.

I also understand they don't have really complex nervous systems, but I didn't think it'd still be functional after 24 hours.
 

BC1579

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 17, 2017
Messages
321
Yes. By the hundreds my man, sadly. It's amazing the disrespect for the correct way and form of scientific names :angelic:

- "2 A. Avics" technically should be 2.0, 0.2, or 0.0.2 Avicularia avicularia -- mind, always in Italic :pompous:

Aside for this, I don't think you have too much to worry.

Post a couple of pics of the whole set up and Theraphosidae, if you can :)
My apologies. I'm on mobile at the moment and didn't scroll up and down to see the markup toolbar.

Since we're in the helping mood, I went ahead and underlined a portion of your post where some disrespect of grammar was present. We all make mistakes, but when we point a finger at someone there are (usually) three more pointing back at us.

I didn't realize headless worms could have so much spunk for so long.

I'll grab a few pics of each momentarily. It's time to wrangle the kiddo into bed. :happy:
 

Venom1080

Arachnoemperor
Joined
Sep 24, 2015
Messages
4,611
My apologies. I'm on mobile at the moment and didn't scroll up and down to see the markup toolbar.

Since we're in the helping mood, I went ahead and underlined a portion of your post where some disrespect of grammar was present. We all make mistakes, but when we point a finger at someone there are (usually) three more pointing back at us.

I didn't realize headless worms could have so much spunk for so long.

I'll grab a few pics of each momentarily. It's time to wrangle the kiddo into bed. :happy:
Do you speak a second language as well?
 

Chris LXXIX

ArachnoGod
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
5,845
My apologies. I'm on mobile at the moment and didn't scroll up and down to see the markup toolbar.

Since we're in the helping mood, I went ahead and underlined a portion of your post where some disrespect of grammar was present. We all make mistakes, but when we point a finger at someone there are (usually) three more pointing back at us.

I didn't realize headless worms could have so much spunk for so long.

I'll grab a few pics of each momentarily. It's time to wrangle the kiddo into bed. :happy:
My man, the language of the 'conquerors' (English) isn't, I'm afraid, my native one :)

Grammar errors are perfectly fine for me, but the way how a scientific name (in this case, Arachnids) should be typed, is international I suppose :kiss:
 

Chris LXXIX

ArachnoGod
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
5,845
Anyway, I didn't mean for things to devolve like this. Just thought I'd share something I found interesting.
No hard feelings at all, man, believe me :)

Just that my 'cultural background' takes the upper hand on this issue, since here where I live that is a 'capital sin' :angelic:

A kinda "deformazione professionale" (Déformation professionnelle) :kiss:
 

Venom1080

Arachnoemperor
Joined
Sep 24, 2015
Messages
4,611
Generally, the larger the spider, the less it takes to prekilled prey.
 

BC1579

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 17, 2017
Messages
321
Well, I certainly didn't want to rock the boat. English is my first language, but it's neither of my parents'. You gave me a little poke, I gave one back.

Attached is one (of many) pictures I received from a "breeder" in my area. It's supposedly a T. stirmi (see, I can learn) but I zoomed in on this one because this patch caught my eye.

Are those patches scars or some sort of sign of abuse or miskeeping?
 

Attachments

TRection

Arachnoknight
Joined
Apr 19, 2017
Messages
267
I use superworms too and i also find this unnerving, i crush the heads of mine and even if i leave them in there for a day or over the weekend and come back the moment i grab them the start spazzing out.
If they are really still alive i feel sorry for them, but if not then the only other explanation i can think of is their nervous system must act in the same way a fish does. You can behead a fish, gut, de-bone and filet it, and even after all that it will continue to flop around and twitch for a sometimes quite a while.
 

sasker

Arachnoprince
Joined
Oct 9, 2016
Messages
1,091
Are those patches scars or some sort of sign of abuse or miskeeping?
Just from kicking hairs. These spiders have a lot of urticating hairs and they really enjoy kicking them around. It should be fixed after the next molt.

Just another question regarding your initial post: how is it that you never saw your T. stirmi eat? Was it hiding and you placed the super worm too far away from it? These bigger South American terrestrials are quite aggressive eaters so they pounce on everything as soon as something disturbs their silk carpet. If your tarantula was not interested in the prey items you provided, it could mean premolt and the crickets you provided must be in the enclosure somewhere.
 

Rittdk01

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
258
You don't cut the heads off lol. Take tongs and crunch half the head instead. If you crunch the entire head it will just sit there.
Yeah it's most likely a wild caught T stirmi. Mine was beat up when I got her but she molted and looks great. She molted December 16, 2016 and still has all her hair. I would be interested to see your setup for the T Stirmi.
 

The Grym Reaper

Arachnoreaper
Joined
Jul 19, 2016
Messages
4,835
I also understand they don't have really complex nervous systems, but I didn't think it'd still be functional after 24 hours.
It's normal for a lot of feeders to twitch/spasm hours or even days after death, roaches can walk around just fine for about a week or so after having their heads crushed/removed.
 

Yorkshire

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 5, 2017
Messages
15
So I just crushed the head of a superworm with an audible crunch. Juice came out and worm stopped moving. My T is a 3.5 inch G. pulchripes I went back 5 mins later, the worm had buried itself. I dug it up and crushed it's head again (good and proper) also crushed it's ass end as I've seen them burrow backwards. Returned after another 5 mins and the bugger has well and truly disappeared this time. I swear I have pulverised this thing, how is this possible?

Has this happened to anyone else? Back to Dubias or crix for me I think.
 

Yorkshire

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 5, 2017
Messages
15
False alarm! No undead army of superworms after all.

Upon closer inspection it turns out she must've taken it and put it at the back of her hide and then gone for a walk before dinner.:embarrassed:
 

MetalMan2004

Arachnodemon
Joined
Oct 14, 2016
Messages
676
Well this isn’t the deadest of dead threads I’ve seen revived.

I’ll comment though because I’m working on similar stuff.

I got tired of the crickets so I’m waiting on 500 superworms from Josh’s frogs. In the meantime I bought a few extras at Petco. They are some resiliant buggers for sure. I figured out that if I crush the head then leave them in a dry waterdish the Ts find them pretty quick. I guess I need to add a feeding dish to go with the water dish.

In the meantime I’m enjoying the lack of chirping.
 
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