19 straight months without escapes ruined!

[TomM]

I started in the hobby late August/early September of 2009. I have had a good variety of tarantulas and have rehoused all of them without a hitch... until today. My 2.25" H. maculata bolted out of its enclosure an the big tub that i use to rehouse them in about 1 second (no exaggeration). The enclosure was about 4" width, 5" length, and 6" tall and the big "rehoming" tub is about 1.5 by 2 feet and 1.5 feet high. It escaped at around 4:30 this afternoon (in my bedroom no less!) and hid in my closet. Well, after reading all of the "Escape threads" for the past year and a half I devised a plan. I turned a space heater towards a corner of my room and turned off all of the lights and closed the shades. I searched my room with a flashlight about every 2 hours. Well, the last time I checked at around 9 o'clock I found it right in the corner, where I strategically aimed the space heater, right where the wall meets the ceiling. i corralled it into an unused tupperware and finally got it back into its enclosure at around 9:15. Horrible experience. Great outcome! Hopefully this experience can help anyone else who has lost a tarantula (keep in mid that this was an arboreal tarantula and they have the tendency to climb to high places, i.e. the heated corner near the ceiling.) Hope this is a useful tale.

 

[dianedfisher]

Congrats on the recapture. :clap::clap: You can come over to my house and trap the 3" Tapinauchenius cupreus I lost on Tuesday night. They usually turn up within a day or two but this one is being a little stubborn. I'd much rather have a Tap loose than a H.maculata. ;P
Diane

 

[Rob1985]

yup, I lost and OBT similarly... found her under my pillow. It was winter and she found the warmest place, considering I had a heated mattress cover lol.

Good to hear ya found yours..

 

[Scolopeon]

Lost a 7" H.Gigas to the hole in the wall behind our toilet... I left the spider after a substrate change for 2 minutes and she navigated her way 10 ft to behind the toilet, I saw her brown legs enter it and by that time it was too late (reaching around that is awkward).

Tried closing the doors and letting the shower run to humidate the room, no luck.

Now it has been over a month and we have no seen her, she is possibly in the walls somewhere.

I have had to replace her now with a 3" juvie, really hurts to do so aswell knowing that she is alive and in the walls somewhere.

I will never EVER leave a T on the floor unattended again, not even for a minute.

[YOUTUBE]zsjEl82Thd4[/YOUTUBE]
- My big girl who is now gone

 

[TomM]

Congrats on the recapture. :clap::clap: You can come over to my house and trap the 3" Tapinauchenius cupreus I lost on Tuesday night.

You should try the same trick that I did. Put a space heater in the same room that you lost your Tap and point it towards one corner. It might just turn up!