Has anyone ever killed one of your tarantulas?

[Andy00]

You have no brother

lol yep... my family has zero sympathy for my inverts, maybe my dad just a little bit.

 

[Moakmeister]

For whatever stupid reason, I decided to hike up my skirt and pee on her.

 

[Moakmeister]

But on another note, your post should get an award by everyone reading...see, this one lone post is literally the only person to actually answer the OP's question...literally the only one...hilarious...then again, I am super easily amused, so I did enjoy all the other stories

He's not the only one who answered the question. One of the criteria was killing a tarantula by taking care of it badly, i.e. forgetting to give it water or leaving feeders in the enclosure. Several people have answered with that.

 

[Jeff23]

I have received a couple DOA's for shipments, but when you receive over 100 T's (almost all slings) through shipping that is doing pretty good. We can't easily say someone killed the tarantula if the seller did their part right. We know when we order them that Fed Ex is going to treat the box like any other box.

 

[Andrea82]

I have received a couple DOA's for shipments, but when you receive over 100 T's (almost all slings) through shipping that is doing pretty good. We can't easily say someone killed the tarantula if the seller did their part right. We know when we order them that Fed Ex is going to treat the box like any other box.

My local post office employee saw i put 'fragile!!'-tape on my package. She told me it is better to not use that tape because apparently it is like an invitation to the mailmen to play soccer with it. Some people...

 

[Anoplogaster]

My local post office employee saw i put 'fragile!!'-tape on my package. She told me it is better to not use that tape because apparently it is like an invitation to the mailmen to play soccer with it. Some people...

Really? Because you can actually get THAT employee in trouble for telling you that. An employee who knows about bad things happening, and does nothing about it, is part of the problem.

 

[Jeff23]

My local post office employee saw i put 'fragile!!'-tape on my package. She told me it is better to not use that tape because apparently it is like an invitation to the mailmen to play soccer with it. Some people...

I would not be surprised if they are the same way here. The only time I put fragile stickers on boxes is if the information is for me when storing stuff.

 

[Anoplogaster]

I would not be surprised if they are the same way here. The only time I put fragile stickers on boxes is if the information is for me when storing stuff.

That's so ridiculous, though! Why doesn't someone design an accelerometer sensor to record the movements of a package? Might make a good case to charge the carrier for damage/loss due to rough shipping. Companies already do that for temperature of perishable goods. There is a sensor called an ibutton that is placed in the package that can track the temperature of the package over the shipping period. I'm sure someone could come up with a motion sensing device also.

Edit: Someone already did! Haha
http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?10411/2

 

[Jeff23]

That's so ridiculous, though! Why doesn't someone design an accelerometer sensor to record the movements of a package? Might make a good case to charge the carrier for damage/loss due to rough shipping. Companies already do that for temperature of perishable goods. There is a sensor called an ibutton that is placed in the package that can track the temperature of the package over the shipping period. I'm sure someone could come up with a motion sensing device also.

Edit: Someone already did! Haha
http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?10411/2

In general, I don't think the shipping companies like Federal Express, UPS, and USPS here in the states have time to mess with the packages and most of them are routed with automatic conveyor systems such that people don't touch them except maybe at the part where the boxes go on and off the air plane and vehicles. But there will always be morons that will do wrong things and I would just as well my package mix into the crowd of packages.

 

[Andrea82]

Really? Because you can actually get THAT employee in trouble for telling you that. An employee who knows about bad things happening, and does nothing about it, is part of the problem.

That may be the case in the 'capital of lawsuits'- US, but not here. She was actually doing me a favor.

 

[Andrea82]

That's so ridiculous, though! Why doesn't someone design an accelerometer sensor to record the movements of a package? Might make a good case to charge the carrier for damage/loss due to rough shipping. Companies already do that for temperature of perishable goods. There is a sensor called an ibutton that is placed in the package that can track the temperature of the package over the shipping period. I'm sure someone could come up with a motion sensing device also.

Edit: Someone already did! Haha
http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?10411/2

Again...capital of lawsuits US? Yes.Europe? Nope. Unless you pay triple or quadrupole the shipping fee, only sender and receiver are liable for any damage done.
So we just do our very best to package well. And fortunately, shipping time is nowhere near as long as in the US. Within the Netherlands it takes just one day, from the Netherlands to Germany two or three. I think the Netherlands are even smaller than the smallest state of the US

 

[Jeff23]

Nobody says you can ship tarantulas. It is kind of a "Don't look Don't Tell" policy for Federal Express. And in the case where the vendors are guaranteeing live delivery you only lose the shipping cost. The seller would be the one with the largest financial impact for a purposeful harm to a package containing multiple tarantulas.

I would think that drivers of the trucks would not want to kick around packages. Beyond on-time delivery, package damage is the other item of importance for a shipper. I suspect with everything being in a computer, it will be noticed if a particular driver has lots of damage claims for their deliveries.

If you get a damaged package. I advise that you immediately take multiple pictures before you open it and of contents as you open it. Open the package fast as possible (but very carefully) to help save any T's that might be loose in the package. If the outer packaging has been compromised and the package contains OW's be even more prepared for the unexpected. Contact the seller immediately after you verify health of the tarantulas.

 

[dmahaffie]

I had issues in the winter when I first started out back in 2004, but once I figure out the balance of winter, humidity and temperature I haven't lost a T since.

How do you keep the humidity up in your T room?

 

[Rob1985]

How do you keep the humidity up in your T room?

In the winter I often run a vaporizer anyway, so that helps.

I don't have a high humidity depended species right now, but when I did, I did two things. I would custom make the enclosure with a little less ventilation and I also turned a 50 gallon aquarium into a micro climate for my T's.

 

[cold blood]

How do you keep the humidity up in your T room?

Worry less about the moisture in the air and concentrate on the moisture in your substrate. There's literally zero reason to measure humidity other than your own curiosity. Simplify...too many keepers needlessly over-complicate things, and stressing about humidity numbers is a perfect example.

 

[Paiige]

I would just like to chime in on this - I used to work overnights at Fedex in a delivery warehouse as a package sorter/picker and the people that they hire to do that job are extremely unpleasant (generally drug addicts/people on probation/generally unsavory characters) and do not at all care about their jobs. I was in school full time and didn't have much choice and it fit my schedule and paid decently so I went with it. It was a seasonal position (holiday job) so it was only for a few months.
The process:
Packages are unloaded from trucks (thrown/kicked/pushed), loaded onto a conveyor belt (thrown/stacked) where they are then brought to the correct area of the warehouse to be removed (thrown/pushed/kicked/dropped) and scanned/sorted (thrown/kicked/dropped) onto large wooden pallets. These pallets then become a kind of tetris/jenga game to fit as many as possible without the stack collapsing (which happens often) and to stack as high as possible. Small packages are frequently used as building blocks and wedges that are shoved in small gaps to prevent heavier boxes from shifting. These completed pallets are then wrapped in plastic wrap, put on a pallet truck/lift and brought out to sit in the cold until being loaded onto trucks.

If a package was marked "fragile" it would purposely be dropped multiple times, accompanied by sarcastic exclamations of "oops!" each time. If a package is marked "this end up" it was specifically placed upside down.

I will forever be skeptical about ordering a live animal that would potentially have to go through this process.

 

[Anoplogaster]

I would just like to chime in on this - I used to work overnights at Fedex in a delivery warehouse as a package sorter/picker and the people that they hire to do that job are extremely unpleasant (generally drug addicts/people on probation/generally unsavory characters) and do not at all care about their jobs. I was in school full time and didn't have much choice and it fit my schedule and paid decently so I went with it. It was a seasonal position (holiday job) so it was only for a few months.
The process:
Packages are unloaded from trucks (thrown/kicked/pushed), loaded onto a conveyor belt (thrown/stacked) where they are then brought to the correct area of the warehouse to be removed (thrown/pushed/kicked/dropped) and scanned/sorted (thrown/kicked/dropped) onto large wooden pallets. These pallets then become a kind of tetris/jenga game to fit as many as possible without the stack collapsing (which happens often) and to stack as high as possible. Small packages are frequently used as building blocks and wedges that are shoved in small gaps to prevent heavier boxes from shifting. These completed pallets are then wrapped in plastic wrap, put on a pallet truck/lift and brought out to sit in the cold until being loaded onto trucks.

If a package was marked "fragile" it would purposely be dropped multiple times, accompanied by sarcastic exclamations of "oops!" each time. If a package is marked "this end up" it was specifically placed upside down.

I will forever be skeptical about ordering a live animal that would potentially have to go through this process.

Moral of the story: Don't ship stuff at all

 

[Paiige]

Moral of the story: Don't ship stuff at all

I order a lot online but never anything fragile and I pretty much expect things to be broken. Granted, this is just Fedex and I've never had anything arrive damaged from UPS.

 

[nicodimus22]

Moral of the story: Don't ship stuff at all

I think slings are much more likely to survive bad handling than a bigger T would, assuming that they are packed well. I would feel pretty nervous shipping an adult T with a big soft abdomen.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

I think slings are much more likely to survive bad handling than a bigger T would, assuming that they are packed well. I would feel pretty nervous shipping an adult T with a big soft abdomen.

I'd personally double box them, should be good unless someone hits it with a 720 swanton knee drop from the top of the building although I wouldn't put that past some postal service employees lol.