A Tarantula Dies...

[hcsk8ter]

Sad day. I finally saw the "death pose" not in a book but with my own eyes in my Brachypelma albopilosum's deli cup today. It was about 1/4" sling, a freebie, but sad all the same. It was ok for the past 2 days, but the shipping must have really stressed it out. Oh well. Onto the question:

How to dispose of the body?
Throw it out? Feed another T? What do you guys do?

 

[stonemantis]

How to dispose of the body?
Throw it out? Feed another T? What do you guys do?

First off I'm sorry about your loss. About the body disposal, it all depends on how you want to remember your pet. I personally try and freeze dry my larger deceased specimens. As for the small ones I usually throw them out.

 

[golda]

i myself have seen a deathcurl just last night. sorry for the loss bro. its something that cant be helped. if its that small theres no point in freezing it. you know what to do.

 

[Hedorah99]

Sorry for your loss. It always sucks. As for myself, as undignified as it is, I have been burying mine at sea (i.e. flushing them).

 

[Stylopidae]

I have a colony of dirmested beetles that will only eat fresh bug corpses. They have finished a 6" mantis in an hour before

 

[prey]

I cast failure to survive slings into my grass to return 'em to Mother Nature and drink a beer.
That sucks. Keep on truckin' and get replacements
Some are just going to perish no matter what we do.

 

[Selenops]

Sad day.

How to dispose of the body?
Throw it out? Feed another T? What do you guys do?

Definitely, I grow quite attached to my spiders and there is a noticable absence experienced when I glance at that empty tank. But you get over it and replace them quickly enough.

How I would dispose the body is perhaps give it a shallow grave (or ahem flush it). Maybe preserve your larger specimens like another poster suggested.

But not leaving 'em for the ants or to decompose and stink. Recycling their nutrients to another T, I don't think I could do that. My last memories of "kids" aren't going to be down the gullet of another.

Though my collection at the present moment is small. But I have freebie s'ling and purchased juvenile T hopefully if the weather is agreeable coming this week.

 

[green_bottle_04]

well...i hope people dont consider me heartless...but i dont grow attached to my T's. its hard for me to show affection for something that doesnt reciprocate said affection. so i just throw mine out just like i would a molt.

 

[Code Monkey]

When I get around to disposing of the body, I just throw it in the trash. I emphasise the 'when' because I'm not unknown to leave a technically empty cage for quite some time until I get around to doing a bulk cage cleanup. They're just dead bugs, sometimes very expensive dead bugs, and perhaps even dead bugs you were formerly very fond of, but after they die, they're not any different than a dried up housefly on the window sil.

 

[Selenops]

Well, I don't mourn behind a black veil and have a funeral procession.

But after raising or simply admiring this tarantula for whatever length of time, the thing that hits home is the fact I was this creature's 'life support' and a familiarity that has grown stronger each day and coming to associate the T as a form of personal affection. Something residual remains in the empty space of that particular empty tank.