Grave digging spiders: how to deal with?

[orkimedies]

when i check my T. Blondi sling's(past the 3'' mark now so semi sling) cage for remains the most i have ever found other than crickets it kills and does not eat are legs.

took me a while to figure it out but inside my Blondi's hide it has dug a pit and when it is finished eating it puts the cricket remains into the pit then webs it over.

i dont like to disturb the little beast, should i excavate the pit to remove cricket remains or just leave it?

and my Lasiodora sling does something similar only different, it has made a wall of substrate so that it can hide between it's wall and the container's side with a tiny hole that it drags crix into to eat then comes back out when it is done.

my Cancerides sling has made a really cool burrow with 4 exits, one of which is 5 inches away from the main enterence, not bad considering it is only 1.5 inches big, it takes crickets in there to feed as well, i wouldnt want to destroy such a cool burrow for maintenance.

is it best to remove remains in these conditions or leave them?

 

[JungleGuts]

well leaving the left over food balls they make in the cage could attract pests. I perfer to remove them when i can personally.

 

[AnimalMother]

Who cares about 'disturbing the beast' ? Not me. But let me explain.

So you get the spider out of the burrow, put a clear cup over him, clean out his burrow however you choose to, remove the cup, and let him go on his way.

some little sissies on this board might whine about 'stressing out' the tarantula, but dont these things go through battles almost weekly over burrows in the wild? Yet they dont get stressed out and die after going up against rats, mice, to take over a burrow. So I think they should be able to deal with a cup being put over them just fine.

Or you dont. and let pests and bacteria build up and he could potentially die, because you didnt want to disturb. your pick.

 

[Talkenlate04]

If you cant find it you cant find it, but keep your eyes peeled for small clusters of mites that might appear, and some spotty mold. When you see this you just found some remains. Spot mold like that is not going to kill the T so when you see it remove it and you will be fine. If you see mites on an area same thing you just found cricket remains. Remove with tweezers and make sure there are no more mites, most of the time when you remove the remains the mites go with it, any that fall off will die if you let the container dry out a bit.