An unfortunate find…

[SavageDigital]

We just got back into town tonight and went to feed and water the spiders. When I got to this one, it just didn’t look right. Now six weeks ago the spider looked fine and ate well, 4 weeks ago the same thing, 2 and 1 weeks ago it turned down food...last night it was visibly degenerated with noticeable white material on the chelicerae (nematodes, and there may also be a secondary larva of some type at the site).

So I caused it to rise up and shot these images…

…while it was in the same room with my other T’s, it was kept isolated across the room. I know there aren't too many quality images to reference for this problem, so I opted to post these.

 

[Ando55]

Just terrible! Sad to see it end like this! No one deserves that to happen to their T..

 

[MindUtopia]

Very sad. Sorry to hear that happened to your little guy. I would definitely recommend completely quarantining it from the rest of your collection and unfortunately, you may want to euthanize it, just to minimize suffering and decrease the chance of it spreading, as hard as that is to have to do.

 

[KJE]

Thank you for sharing those awesome pics! Sorry that you have a sick T.

I would probably put it in the freezer so it doesn't have to go through a horrible death.

What is the species?

 

[cheetah13mo]

Sorry about your T.

Are nematodes brought in from the outside somehow or do they just magicly just show up one day?

 

[gumby]

can nematodes be harmful to humans? how careful should someone be about touching the T if their T has nematodes?
scott

 

[Ph4nToM]

Sorry about your T. I just have a question about this: is all that white material around the mouth moving? Or is that just a foam like substance?

 

[Stylopidae]

Randy, please contact me as soon as possible.

 

[ShadowBlade]

Randy, please contact me as soon as possible.

Sounds like you have your fresh specimen.

Randy, too bad this happened, but you did good taking such nice pictures. I'm sure many new people here need to see what nematodes look like.

 

[TheDarkFinder]

Randy my I recommend grapefruit seed oil. It just might work.

Edit sorry grapefruit is what i ment.

 

[wonderfvl]

Are nematodes brought in from the outside somehow or do they just magicly just show up one day?

I don't know much about them, but the insect killing kinds are being used in agriculture. Apparently, nematodes are everywhere. Check out this site which lists "CURRENT USE OF NEMATODES AS BIOLOGICAL INSECTICIDES".

It's kind of scarry to me. There may be some in my refrigerator!

 

[rm90]

It looks painful and horrible.. but im still a bit confused on what it is.. is it some kind of parasite or whatever? UGH! *Lost*

 

[SavageDigital]

can nematodes be harmful to humans?

Not the same species that affects tarantulas.

I just have a question about this: is all that white material around the mouth moving?

The large, more yellow larval structure (seen dead center in the 1st image, about 5 o’clock in the second) was clearly moving. The other semi-translucent thread like pieces, can’t say for certain.

I would definitely recommend completely quarantining it from the rest of your collection and unfortunately, you may want to euthanize it, just to minimize suffering and decrease the chance of it spreading,

That's exactly what we did this morning.

 

[Pyst]

Here's an interesting page on nematodes in general.

Click Me

 

[EDED]

thanks for sharing the image, the best shot ive ever seen of infected spider.

check your PM please.

-Brian

 

[ShadowBlade]

should someone be about touching the T if their T has nematodes?

Nah, theres no danger. You only have to be careful about spreading it to other tarantulas.

 

[Taceas]

Wow, I'm sorry to hear about this, Randy. I do hope that this is an isolated incident and you don't find yourself with more cases of this.

But I do thank you for the very high quality pictures. Its nice to see exactly what a nematode infestation looks like. Most of the pics I've seen are pitiful at best.

 

[OldHag]

Sorry about your Tarantula...

Thanks for posting that picture. I always wanted to know just what that looked like!! You can actually SEE the nematodes! WOW.

 

[Kriegan]

Wow I have never seen such sharp and detailed pics of a severe nematode infestation like this

Randy kudos to you for the high quality and impressive pics! I can imagine how bummed and sad you must be feeling right now, this sucks bad. May I ask what species is it, and if you ever fed it any wild crickets or roaches that may have been the cause of it. :? I dunno much about nematodes or how T's get infected, but I'm sure I'd be angry as hell coming from vacation and seeing one of my T's slowly dying, and knowing I can't do anything to cure it

Regards,
Ulrich

 

[Nich]

....

Have you considered manual removal of them? Saved a pede or 2 form mites ans otherr nasties ime. Wosrt comes to worst just dry out the enclosure....has worked for me.