environmental cues triggering molts?

[LisaD]

About 30% of my collection (7 T's) all molted over a two-day period last week. I have noticed this before, but never so many all at once. The Ts are all in the same room, get some natural light. Could there be some environmental cue causing them to molt at the same time? These are all different species, and some of the OW also molted at the same time as the NW spiders.

 

[becca81]

Several different things that trigger molts like this.

There was an article about it a few years ago in one of the journals that went into some detail, I'll see if I can find which one.

But, to answer your question, yes, it's normal for you have several at once molt.

 

[Mez]

Yeah, this is happening to me, now..

Blue fang 3 weeks ago
LPs x5 slings now
A. chalc premolt stopped a week ago
B. albiceps - premolt start 3 weeks - sealed
P irminia molt 2 weeks ago
T. apophysis premolt start 1-2 week - sealed
C. fasciatum - premolt and sealed (but new)
A. versicolor molted last week
N. chromatus molted last week
P. sp. machalla in premolt for 8 days - sealed

The only other T i own is an OBT (got a b. smithii/c. darlingii recently but not counting that as its not used to my 'cycle')and that isnt in premolt as far as i can tell.

 

[ornamentalist]

if you mist them all in turn, heavily, once every couple of days, instead of lightly and daily, then that may explain why they moult at the same time. Many a time i have given them all a good soaking and then had 3 or 4 moults the next day, they tend to hang on as long as poss and wait until the humidity steps up a gear before flipping over

 

[k2power]

Mine seem to molt in groups as well. Had 3 the past week and a half. I only have 5. One Avic may be in premolt. The B. emilia , who knows about that one. Goes on and off feed all the time and the bald patch is not black yet. Man I wish it would molt. It would be gorgeous then.

 

[Londoner]

I've seen plenty of discussions on these boards about drops in barometric pressure being a possible trigger for multiple molts. As far as I'm aware there have been no detailed studies carried out but there's enough anecdotal evidence to make it an interesting possibility. A couple of years ago Talkenlate04 attempted to record barometric pressure at molt times in his own collection. It wasn't a controlled experiment, just a spreadsheet that would record pressure when a T molted if I remember correctly. I don't know how far he got with it but if anyone's interested, run a search and see if you can find it .