Are Essential Oils Harmful to Tarantulas?

[Najakeeper]

Hey Guys,

The tick season in Switzerland has started and everyday my husky ends up getting a few of these buggers. This is the 1st spring that I have a "big" and somewhat valuable tarantula collection so I am not using any chemical treatment.

I have read in many places that Rose Geranium essential oil is very effective against ticks and Lavender essential oil is effective as well. I am going to try a combination on the dog but I am still worried a bit.

Can trace amounts of this oil get into my T room and effect my collection? I would be glad to here if anybody has experience or ideas to share.

Thanks

 

[Mez]

Feed the dog garlic. This will work apparently.
No idea what essential oils are, but if its a spot-on it will get into the air. I lost about 20 animals due to treating my Skunk with Frontline, and it killed off all my Stomatopod collection, but it seems these are very sensitive to strange things anyway, such as certain brands of floor wax.
Edit: I always thought Beringen was in Sweden. Big geography fail!

 

[Najakeeper]

Feed the dog garlic. This will work apparently.
Edit: I always thought Beringen was in Sweden. Big geography fail!

Not really, very small town that nobody knows about.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Absolutely, positively, by all means necessary, keep Patchouli Oil out of your house. Otherwise all hippies within a 50 mile radius will invade your house with their bongos and your tarantulas will end up commuting suicide as a way to deal with all the B.O. and Patchouli Stink.

I don't know about the other oils.

 

[AmbushArachnids]

Dont touch your feeders or tarantulas and wash your hands often. Tong feeding is ideal. I use non poison "flea flea soap" (comes in a white bottle green text) on my dog and have not noticed any ill effects. Thats all the advice i can offer.

Adding this: Not to be "cruel" or politically incorrect here. Go outside, find a wild spider and give it just a touch of the dilluted product. Monitor any effects you see and get back to us with the results. You might even get some other pest insects to experiment on if you dont want to kill any bug eaters.

 

[Bill S]

No idea what essential oils are, ....

A common term, more accurately called aromatic oils. Some can be effective insect repellents, which would probably not be good around tarantulas. And since the OP is specifically looking at using them to get rid of insects, these would be the very oils to avoid. As the name "aromatic" implies, they do not rely so much on direct contact of the liquid oil as on the vapors. Hence, not a good idea to use them in the vicinity of your "bug" collection.

 

[J Morningstar]

As ticks are kind of close to spiders in their makeup, the garlic suggestion sounds best and lavender oil will not hurt if you put a few drops of food quality oil in their food(and they're still willing to eat it, but it is a dog). I know it's okay to eat a lot of lavender but I do not know if the other flower oil is poisionous or not.

 

[Bill S]

I lost about 20 animals due to treating my Skunk with Frontline....

Skunks are cool - I've got plenty of them around here. But in case you didn't know it, they eat tarantulas. We commonly find tarantula burrows on our property, and every once in a while one of them gets dug up by skunks. I'm sure you keep your tarantulas in good cages on shelves up out of the reach of your skunk, but people are often surprised at how well skunks can climb. The ones I've got in my garage compete over nest boxes on the top shelf, about 6' above the floor. And squabbles between them sometimes result in items being pushed off that shelf onto the floor below.

What kind of skunk do you keep? We've got striped, hooded and spotted, and supposedly hog-nosed skunks also live in the region.

 

[Mez]

Lol, Einstein is about 4 years old, and dosnt even attempt to climb the stairs now, he used to climb when he was younger and I've even seen him 'jump' if I can call it that.
The Ts are upstairs anyway, and he does like his insects (loves meal worms locust etc) but also gets on fine with the parrot and dog. He's a good lad and very tame, comes out for cuddles etc. He's a striped skunk, captive bred and descented, but he's so tame he dosnt even stomp, let alone try to spray. Have you got any pics of your locals? I'll Pm you..

 

[Bill S]

PM sent - I have pictures of one of the spotted skunks. The others are too shy to be handled. They're all wild, but spotties seem to be more people-oriented than the others. The spotty is the only one likely to follow me around when I clean cages.

 

[zonbonzovi]

Absolutely, positively, by all means necessary, keep Patchouli Oil out of your house. Otherwise all hippies within a 50 mile radius will invade your house with their bongos and your tarantulas will end up commuting suicide as a way to deal with all the B.O. and Patchouli Stink.

I don't know about the other oils.

LOL. You ought to come by with some of that delicious hummus. We can drink copious amounts of great beer whilst thrashing bohemians in my hippie dungeon...just got a lethal injection machine that uses patchouli

Sorry for the derailment...carry on.

 

[boobjones]

Feed the dog garlic. This will work apparently.
No idea what essential oils are, but if its a spot-on it will get into the air. I lost about 20 animals due to treating my Skunk with Frontline, and it killed off all my Stomatopod collection, but it seems these are very sensitive to strange things anyway, such as certain brands of floor wax.
Edit: I always thought Beringen was in Sweden. Big geography fail!

Please do not feed dogs garlic!!! "According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, garlic and other members of the allium family, including onions, contain thiosulfate, which is toxic to dogs but not to humans. Thiosulfate causes oxidative damage to red blood cells, resulting in hemolytic anemia."
Source: https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/n...amage to,cells, resulting in hemolytic anemia.

 

[Hydrazine]

Feed the dog garlic. This will work apparently.

Are you serious? Garlic is poisonous to dogs. Get out.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

Many essential oils are quite toxic to invertebrates so they're not necessarily safer. Possibly look into getting your dog onto oral flea/ tick prevention. That way there isn't a risk of direct contact with the medication. It's what I do with my pets and I've never had issues.

 

[Dorifto]

Many essential oils are quite toxic to invertebrates so they're not necessarily safer. Possibly look into getting your dog onto oral flea/ tick prevention. That way there isn't a risk of direct contact with the medication. It's what I do with my pets and I've never had issues.

Ahem 2012...