Change of underwear required

[rknralf]

I decided today was the day to clean out my Usambara tank. There were small mites around the water dish and I figured an entire cleanout was in order. Well, the cleaning and transfer from/to the tank went well, but she was all over the new setup and decided to settle at the top. I really couldn't let her start a web up there, so I removed the top to move her down to the cork bark and she had other ideas. She ran across the screen top, around the side and was headed toward freedom when I leaned the top into the tank and she jumped off right onto the cork bark and was immediately under it!
Needless to say, I was shaking! She is a full 6 inches and fast as lighting! A real beauty!
I'm still freaked! She and my Chocolate baboon are the only ones I haven't held for obvious reasons.

 

[belewfripp]

The shaking will probably cease once you get used to that happening every other time you deal with her

 

[savian]

I had fun like that not to long ago. My P. Ornamental didn't want to go into it's new home and wanted to sit on my hand instead. Ya me. After remembering a simple rule "they don't bite the ground well most of the time any how." I went and got him to walk not run into it's new home. Very hard to keep calm. But thing worked out.

 

[galeogirl]

Zaza, my Usumbara, is a real heart-stopper, too! She's the only one of my Ts that unnerves the rest of the family.

A few weeks ago she burst out of her burrow and headed straight for my hand as I was about to toss a feeder in. Somehow I had the presence of mind to shove the roach in her face and she decided that was a better option than racing up my arm.

I like a spider with attitude and she has plenty!

 

[Valael]

That speed is what nearly killed my Usambara. I opened the tank and it shot up the side, except it kept going once it reached the top and fell about 3 feet to the ground (on a somewhat soft carpet)


I thought for sure it'd die -- luckily it had just molted a few days earlier and it was rather skinny and managed to land unscathed and did a few laps around my room before stopping long enough for me to get it in a container.

 

[Immortal_sin]

I had a male 'Usambara' on loan for two of my females. EVERY time I had to move him from one female's tank to the other...he escaped! And I had to recapture him....oh man...was he FAST!
I thought all Ts had to 'stop for breath' at some point, but not him! He was a tiny skinny little guy and could run like hell! Recapturing him was always heart stopping as well. I've never seen anything so fast, and once cornered, out come the fangs and WHAM....striking the carpet like crazy!
It gave me one hell of an adrenaline rush every time I had to deal with him..poor little guy finally got munched...but it looks like I have a gravid female now!

 

[skinheaddave]

I've found that the key is just to remain calm. When you tense up, time does funny things on you. When you stay calm, you seem to have all sorts of time to sort things out. I haven't had too much to deal with, though. My H.lividum took a small run at me one day and managed to escape for about 20 seconds before I got a container over it. My girlfriend's ornamental went on a bit of a walkabout on our wall but was easy to re-capture.

On the other hand, when I first got my Costa-Rican Zebras I put one in the wrong enclosure (dry instead of humid) and during the transfer to the proper enclosure it got out and scared me half to death. At least that's how I remember it -- it couldn't have been that bad, though, because I still managed to contain it quite promptly.

I do have three Usumbaras (and am in the process of getting a bunch of spiderlings) but I find that they aren't that hard to deal with -- I just keep my distance and work with tools at all times.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[SkyeSpider]

Oddly enough, I have a male curlyhair that does things like that to me. He's VERY spastic, but has never shown any sign of agression. Every time I go into his tank, though, he sprints out, usually towards my "wall of wires" (aka computer desk/ recording studio). It generally takes me 20 minutes to recapture the dork. I named him Tweek. It seemed appropriate

-Bryan