Banana Spiders...location?

[Arachnotized]

I will be moving to Arkansas soon and was wondering if these are native there? I would love to keep one as a pet in a large screen cage in front of my window as a conversation piece...not sure if they are native there or not..here's a pic for reference of the spider I would like to keep..

 

[JColt]

Yes Arkansas has those, they also have Aphonopelma baergi

 

[Arachnotized]

wow thanks!..now I am really excited!!!

 

[Pulk]

I'm pretty sure that's either a huge specimen, or the hand is deceptively far back, or it's a tiny hand. On my hand that would be 40 mm body length... I think N. clavipes are in the 20-30 mm range.

 

[Arachnotized]

You might be right...but either way it's a gorgeous spider and one that I really want to keep! Going to buy a reptile screen cage with a slide out bottom and put all plants in it..what a display!!!

 

[Pulk]

it is my favorite-looking in Nephila.
post pics of your display!

 

[Spyder 1.0]

if you find them can you ship me one.

 

[Arachnotized]

Sure....I just have to find them first LOL....hopefully they are all over my new house so I wont have to look to far

 

[Texas Blonde]

You might be right...but either way it's a gorgeous spider and one that I really want to keep! Going to buy a reptile screen cage with a slide out bottom and put all plants in it..what a display!!!

I hope you are buying an incredibly large cage. Im not aware of these spiders doing well in captivity, because in the wild their webs are enormous. Ive seen webs almost 20' across in Louisiana. As cool a pet as a Nephila could make, please be sure to check that you can properly care for one. No use taking it out of the wild if it will suffer.

 

[Pulk]

if you find them can you ship me one.

if Arachnotized can't, don't worry; i've seen several people selling them for reasonable prices in the FS/T section.


also, I don't know the actual average, but I know 20' is huge for an N. clavipes web.

 

[Arachnotized]

Well I would be buying a very large cage such as the ones chameleons are kept in...it would not be a tiny screen box ...this is what I had in mind..

Now I am wondering if that is even too small? Surely a smallish specimen would do well in that :? ? I find it hard to believe that many spider enthusiasts have a hard time maintaining them in captivity with the appropriate set ups..if that is the case then I would invite everyone to speak up on their experiences. I also have no intention of making anything suffer...no worries there.

 

[Pulk]

It's pretty hard to tell how big that cage is without any ruler or person in the picture.
But if it's the same size as the other similar chameleon setups I've seen, that's -definitely- too small.

beyond this I have no idea as my orb weaver experience is limited to one A. argentata.

also: I think the majority of Nephila problems are with more exotic species, like N. pilipes.

 

[Texas Blonde]

Here are pictures I took of some Nephilas in LA last year.

This is the road we were on. You can tell how wide it is from my sister to the trees to her right side. My sister was standing about 5' from the trees on her left. The webs spanned that road. For reference, my sister is 5'4.

Here is the road again from a different angle. My sister is in the blue. She was covering her face and freaking out because she had just walked right into a spider web. She missed the spider by about 6", it was hanging out almost dead center of the path.

Some random pictures showing large webs.

(The spider in this one is the little black dot in the middle of the white sky, kind of hard to see.)

 

[Arachnotized]

Hmmmm.....well perhaps it would seem I am looking at the wrong type of spider to keep...I by no means want to keep anything in anything less then it would need to strive...perhaps I should look at some of the smaller type species available...I am sure there must be something I can find that is colorful rather then large and still be nice. I'll will have to do some more investigating it seems..thanks for the advice..it's greatly appreciated..and btw..the size of the cage is 24x24x48 tall.

Wow great pics....yes I can certainly see where that cage would be too tiny now lol...I am definantly going to have to look at something else...now just trying to figure out what lol...

 

[Pulk]

i think there is no orb weaver you can't let loose in an unused corner of a room to build its web free-range.
it doesn't seem like fitting into that specific cage should be a deciding factor in getting one.

but if you want a smaller but also colorful orb weaver, try an argiope sp. They are very common.


(if i get the hang of shipping spiders with these trapdoor slings and i can find some, i could send you an A. argentata. nobody is selling them on the boards and it would fit better that aurantia in that enclosure.)

 

[Arachnotized]

Well ... I would have no problem letting one loose in the house the only thing that is deterring me from that is the fact I have two cats...I dont think they would mix well and my mother would prolly faint dead away if she walked out and saw that in the morning whilst on her way to make her cup of coffee LOL...bad scene either way...so, yes, if you can get the hang of shipping out spiders I would be more then glad to obtain one of the smaller ones from you. I wont be able to get one til after I make the move which should be all completed by the end of next month or so, so there is plenty of time to see if you can get one and to see how your shipping skills work out hehe..either way i'll be around..thanks again!

 

[Lucifer]

I recently posted a video of one of these that was in my yard here in FLA. There are several throughout my yard and she was the largest of the group. She was approximately 4 inches but not quite as big as the one in the earlier photo would appear. The ones in the yard all appear to have webs that would cover only about 4 feet across, 4 feet high, and maybe 3 feet thick. Nothing that would approach 20 feet here. I have identified about 6 different locations throughout the yard and avoid the areas so as not to disturb the sites.
On a side note, yesterday I was walking the yard and found that I had apparently stepped on one in my driveway. Being rather large I was very upset to have ended the life of such a beautiful specimen. Since I'd not seen others that large other than the one I'd videotaped I stopped by her 'website' and found her no longer there and the web removed/abandoned. I have no idea why she would've left the site, why she would've been walking the ground on my driveway, or how she traveled the approximately 40-50 foot distance, but unfortunately it appears I have inadvertently killed my most striking specimen. I am in mourning.

 

[blackbird939]

I live in Fla too. On the Wekiva river, especially after an intense period of rain, I have seen webs of these spiders that were at LEAST 30'. They spanned the entire river. There were so many on one canoe trip that we were thoroughly freaked out, sometimes having 3"-4" specimens JUST overhead. We had to duck in our canoe constantly, and everwhere we stepped out, they would scurry over the tree or soil. It was like a hollywood flick for real. I might have spotted 100 in 4 hours, and that is conservative. I keep a little one in a jar. Molted once and eats well.

 

[kingfarvito]

someone willing to ship me one?

 

[Ted]

i could be incorrect..but bananna spiders are the south and central american species
the ones we have in the us are much smaller and are the argiopes..which are big..and common..very friendly too!