dumb question

[Lolita]

okay so bare in mind before i ask this question, that i have in fact not slept for 2 days and have been really tired so if this comes off dumb i apologize ahead of time and we can all laugh about me being dumb but do tarantulas have a sense of smell or is it all based off vibration cause of their poor eyesight?

 

[Barons]

I don't know... I did read somewhere that they have to hold their breath when they run. Kinda like a steam engine i guess more air pressure = faster?

I think it will be a lot of fun testing this out. "Adds dirty socks, Tarantula runs to its hide."

 

[Lolita]

I think it will be a lot of fun testing this out. "Adds dirty socks, Tarantula runs to its hide."

haha thats awesome, i just never heard of whether or not they hear i've heard a lot about vibrations and near blindness but nothing about hearing so i figured it might be a worthwhile question to ask i did never hear of them holding their breath when they run though so thats kinda interesting

 

[Spidershane1]

It would seem that they do in fact have some sort of olfactory senses. The reason I beleive this, is that they can find a prekilled prey item after it has been sitting in their tank for hours, even if they were nowhere near you when you put it in. They simply leave their hide and walk straight to it when they get hungry. A dead cricket or roach would make sensing it through vibration impossible, and their eyesight is supposedly not good enough to distinguish a dead cricket from a stick or peice of dirt. The only other way I can imagine a T being able to locate a dead food item would be some sort of smell or tasting of the air.
I'm not sure of the scientific evidence, but all my slings are raised on prekilled food & they always find it with ease.

 

[Lolita]

It would seem that they do in fact have some sort of olfactory senses. The reason I beleive this, is that they can find a prekilled prey item after it has been sitting in their tank for hours, even if they were nowhere near you when you put it in. They simply leave their hide and walk straight to it when they get hungry. A dead cricket or roach would make sensing it through vibration impossible, and their eyesight is supposedly not good enough to distinguish a dead cricket from a stick or peice of dirt. The only other way I can imagine a T being able to locate a dead food item would be some sort of smell or tasting of the air.
I'm not sure of the scientific evidence, but all my slings are raised on prekilled food & they always find it with ease.

see thats what i'm saying if theres no vibration how would they find it? i figure since their almost blind it has to be some kind of other sense.

Edit: okay so someone PM'd me an article on tarantulas and apparently they do smell with their feet! http://www.readkiddoread.com/book/142 i never would've expected that one but i guess since they don't have noses feet work just as well? lol

 

[Bill S]

They have chemoreceptors in their legs. These chemoreceptors are in some ways similar to our sense of smell, picking up everything from the scent of crickets to pheromones put out by other tarantulas.

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Tarantula hairs are capable of picking up chemical signatures, vibrations (including sounds), and wind direction. They have scopula on their feet as well that aid in climbing, the hairs on the scopular pads being like extremely tiny suction cups on the ends, however, I suspect from observation that they can be used similar to their other hairs, to "smell" food if they walk across or touch it.