Darlingi has colonized a drain.

[cold blood]

I seriously think giving this thing access to a meal is a mistake.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Things I never thought I'd say: "I need to feed the drain spider."

Sounds like one of the worst euphemisms I've ever heard.

Be that as it may, this reminds me of an old Night Gallery" episode called "A Fear of Spiders". It was the story of a rather mean man who happened to also be a arachnophobe. One night, he spots a tiny spider in the sink. Horrified, he quickly flushes it down the drain. he returns later to find it crawleld back up. But it is bigger, he flushes it again. It returns again even bigger. It goes to tarantula size and beyond dog-size is how I think he described it to a disbelieving neighbour woman who he had treated poorly. There is more to the plot than that, but if I recall it ends with his screams. The moral of the story was either A) Be kind. B) Be kind to spiders. or C) Always keep a REALLY big catch cup in the kitchen.

I looked it up, and you can watch it on Hulu for free, if you don't mind a couple commercial interruptions. Try here for few laughs. Did you know spiders squeak like rats?

 

[Sana]

I think that I would go with CB's don't feed for a while theory. My burrowers don't come out unless they are hungry.

 

[Sentinel]

Go fishing. I'm serious. Now, people might not think this is good for the spider, but neither is it staying in there. Agitate it with something attached to a piece of string. Get it to sink its fangs in. Then pull it out. Or warm up some raw chicken or something and leave it in the bathtub. Or leave mealworms in the tub.

 

[cold blood]

Or warm up some raw chicken or something and leave it in the bathtub.

Yeah that's it ...maybe some mayo or mustard would increase the appeal even more? Do you think wraps would be too much?

Warmed up chicken? Really, that's a t attractant? Should I be heating my crickets prior to feeding??:? Sorry, I can't help but to chuckle at that, don't be mad at me....might be great for stray cats though

Seriously, if you ever seen them eat, they will grab any food offered and be back in the hole almost before you could react....and to react you'd need to literally sit in position for as long as it takes, which could be a really, really long time. Miss a couple times, now you have a fat t sealing its self in for a month or three while it molts...bad quickly goes to worse.


The hungrier it gets, the further it will venture from its new home and the more time it will spend away from the drain...mine roams a lot when hungry....it gets plump and I see feet if I'm lucky.

 

[Sentinel]

Yeah that's it ...maybe some mayo or mustard would increase the appeal even more? Do you think wraps would be too much?

Warmed up chicken? Really, that's a t attractant? Should I be heating my crickets prior to feeding??:? Sorry, I can't help but to chuckle at that, don't be mad at me....might be great for stray cats though

Seriously, if you ever seen them eat, they will grab any food offered and be back in the hole almost before you could react....and to react you'd need to literally sit in position for as long as it takes, which could be a really, really long time. Miss a couple times, now you have a fat t sealing its self in for a month or three while it molts...bad quickly goes to worse.


The hungrier it gets, the further it will venture from its new home and the more time it will spend away from the drain...mine roams a lot when hungry....it gets plump and I see feet if I'm lucky.

Lol, obviously you've never been fishing. Try and catch a bass during the rain at night. 4 hour struggle on that one.

 

[cold blood]

Lol, obviously you've never been fishing. Try and catch a bass during the rain at night. 4 hour struggle on that one.

Fishing? What's that? You mean following around that odd band "phish"?

Yeah, caught bass in thunderstorms just yesterday evening...ya just gotta change up your approach....deeper fish are less effected, even if its only a few feet.

 

[Sentinel]

Fishing? What's that? You mean following around that odd band "phish"?

Yeah, caught bass in thunderstorms just yesterday evening...ya just gotta change up your approach....deeper fish are less effected, even if its only a few feet.

Problem is the local lake is swamped with weed shoots and broken logs. You hook a lot weirder things than the fish when you're trying to catch something, lol. Too bad this wasn't an OBT. He'd have no problem getting it out, those things love biting. I don't doubt it'd have its fangs stuck.

But maybe. You know those tripwire triggered animal traps? The ones that close the gate behind the creature after it goes in? Maybe he can get a really tiny, really sensitive one, and fill it with food. Spider goes in, gate goes down. Now this is totally unrealistic, but hey, never know.

He may have to cut the beams in the drain.

 

[cold blood]

Sentinal, investigate the technique known as "punching" :wink:

 

[Bugmom]

She. I'm a she

I have actually tried the worms method. Spider wasn't interested.

I tried trickling some water in there, slowly. Spider didn't care.

He's been in there for about a month already. I asked here because I was out of ideas.

The bathroom is on the second level of the house, which is a rental. I can't just tear it apart to get a wayward spider free, and we actually need to be able to use that bathroom now.

 

[Sentinel]

She. I'm a she

I have actually tried the worms method. Spider wasn't interested.

I tried trickling some water in there, slowly. Spider didn't care.

He's been in there for about a month already. I asked here because I was out of ideas.

The bathroom is on the second level of the house, which is a rental. I can't just tear it apart to get a wayward spider free, and we actually need to be able to use that bathroom now.

This is a shot in the dark.... but why not call a plumber? They might have better ideas, hell, they might even be able to reverse the water flow and jet the spider out.

 

[Bugmom]

My neighbor is a plumber. Maybe he'll take pity on me lol

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

I've been keeping an eye on this thread because it is so fascinating to me that there is a Ceratogyrus darlingi living in a drain just like it would in its natural habitat. Out of all of the suggestions posted here, cold blood's does make the most sense. Providing food and water is providing a livable habitat that the tarantula will not want to leave. Everything stated about this spider's behavior is practically text book. From my experience, tarantulas will leave their burrows if conditions become unfavorable. In the wild that will be when you see wandering females and juveniles; in captivity, is is when a tarantula leaves its hide or burrow and climbs the walls of its enclosure. However, for an arid species capable of going a long period of time without food and water, who knows how long that would be. If it did leave the drain, who then knows where it would go.

I can't provide constructive advice on how to get it out of the drain, but I would suggest studying it's behavior and learning its daily patterns to form some ideas. If it were me, I would buy a cheap USB endoscope from Amazon.com and put it down the drain to get a visual of how far down the drain it goes and to get an idea of the shape of the drain. If it lives near the drain opening, it maybe possible to put something down in the drain to block it and prod it out. I would also buy a cheap Wi-Fi web cam or camera of some sort with night vision (if such a thing exists cheaply), point it to the bath tub, and view it remotely. I imagine the bath tub amplifies any vibrations so getting close to the bath tub will spook it back into the drain. Remote viewing is necessary.

Because of its sensitivity to vibrations in or on the tub, I bet the only option to remove it is to suck it up and call a plumber as previously suggested. From my experience and the experience of others with getting tarantulas out of their burrows in the wild, sometimes the spider leaves you no choice but to dig it out. In this case obviously, the equivalent is to take the drain apart.

 

[edgeofthefreak]

Since we're adding in suggestions... I have a weird one - and it stems from "tarantulas will leave their burrows if conditions become unfavorable", suggested by AphonopelmaTX.


Take a large clear container - aquarium is likely best. Take a lot of whatever they had as substrate, including their webbing, and mound it around the drain, nearly covering it. Place aquarium over it. The box of superworms on the other end (coldblood's approach) may be a good bit of bait.

You'll be making the outside of the drain more favourable than the inside of it. Once spider has taken to the "new enclosure", slide the aquarium away from the drain.

When you post "how do I flip an upside-down aquarium that's in my bathtub, while keeping the C. darlingi safe inside" thread, I'll be able to come up with an idea for that then too.

Baby steps, baby, Baby steps.

 

[catfishrod69]

The solution is very simple. Go into your basement, or other access to the drain below the tub. Remove the fittings below the trap. You will now have a open end on both sides. So the tarantula will have only two options, run out into the tub, or out the bottom of the trap. Have someone at the bottom of the trap, and someone at the tub, decide which way to force him, and be ready.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Wondering if this has been resolved yet...

 

[vespers]

I agree with catfishrod69. Seems like the simple and logical thing to do.

 

[sdsnybny]

The solution is very simple. Go into your basement, or other access to the drain below the tub. Remove the fittings below the trap. You will now have a open end on both sides. So the tarantula will have only two options, run out into the tub, or out the bottom of the trap. Have someone at the bottom of the trap, and someone at the tub, decide which way to force him, and be ready.

Actually there is no "trap" on a bathtub the overflow serves this purpose. you would have to tear into the ceiling/floor to expose it. Possibly driving the T further down into the drain which connects to other drain/vents throughout the houses plumbing.

 

[scott99]

Does anybody here know what a P-Trap is. One of the reasons your T is not leaving is because he always has access to water(unless the P-Trap has been drain) . If you do not know what a P-Trap is, then you will have no idea what I'm talking about.

 

[sdsnybny]

He escaped, and has apparently been living in the bathtub drain in our rarely used spare bathroom for some time.

I've removed the drain stopper, but he's too quick for me to catch when he's mocking me by hanging half out of the drain.

Any suggestions on how to catch him?

Bath tub drains do not have "P traps" see diagram above