How many of you...

[Arachnopuppy]

Darn it. I just lost a sling in my room. Adult ones are hard to find, and the young ones are impossible to find. This brings this thought to my mind. How many of you have slings and/or adults roaming around your place?

 

[JacenBeers]

How do spiders get free? Dont you take precautions to avoid this?

 

[Botar]

According to the laws of probability, given enough time, anything that can happen, will happen.

There are plenty of people who go to great lengths to prevent escapes... but yet they happen. I don't know of very many people who want to have auto accidents... but they happen. People try to avoid getting the crap beat out of them... but it happens... just not often enough.

Botar

 

[Lopez]

My Chile rose escaped when she was smaller - my fault for leaving the lid off the tank, but I was only 15 and kids make mistakes.

Other than that, nothing. I sometimes sit my adult Chile rose and baby Curly hair on the desk for a while after I've been handling them, but certainly don't let them "roam around" the room.

It is not wise to allow a young but feisty Usambara free rein of the house.

 

[pategirl]

I have a smallish female A. Avic wandering around my room somewhere after I didn't close her door properly. I don't think she went far, but I haven't had a lot of time to look for her. At least she's an avic and not the orange demon spider.

 

[Grael]

no T.s......yet but ive dropped god knows how many crickets on my floor which then i lose ^_^

 

[jwb121377]

I have 3 loose right now: 2 Pterinochilus species usumbara baboon and 1 Cyclosternum gaujoni\ Ecuadorian Green . Of the usumbaras one I presume is dead since it went awol about one year ago after a cage change that the vent holes were to big on. The other bolted out of the deli cup it was in and blended right in with the brown carpet, it's been awol for 2 months(still hopeful that I will find it). And the Cyclosternum gaujoni I was feeding when it just vanished it was only 1/4".

 

[Botar]

LOL @ Grael. I'm with you. In fact I've considered releasing a T or two just to take care of that problem.

Botar

 

[Grael]

Originally posted by Botar
LOL @ Grael. I'm with you. In fact I've considered releasing a T or two just to take care of that problem.

Botar

lol i throw up this morning somewhat bad! Im sure i ate a cricket in my sleep

But im glad the kind of crickets i got dont make those noises...would drive me crazy

 

[MrDeranged]

You can take all the precautions in the world and sooner or later, a T is gonna do a runner on you and you're not gonna be quick enough. Just because is hasn't happened to you yet doesn't mean it won't......

Scott

 

[rapunzel]

i have none at the moment..

but when I first got the a. versicolor sling, it was very very well packed...But, it somehow managed to wriggle itself out of all the papertoweling and have itself pressed unseen to me against the lid of the vial..and when I barely opened it for the very first time, it took off...across my hand, across the table, down to the floor...and I got it just in time before it was completely lost.(absolutely no way I could ever find a 1/2 inch sling in THIS household).
As for crickets..I don't even keep track now.It seems for every microcricket I manage to get into a sling container, I lose three.Hopefully, my cats eat most of those escapees, though.

 

[LPacker79]

No current escapees for me. The only time one of my T's got loose, it was a 3/4" Pterror. It took me 15 minutes to get her, after ripping the shelves off one of my aquarium stands and finding out that she was halfway up the back of the stand the whole time. I ripped the thing apart for nothing.
She sure did blend in well with the brown carpet and I now know exactly how fast she is!

Leanne

 

[sunnymarcie]

Well, we haven't had any jail breaks, but I have a few crickets
loose in the house..........the cat will find them sooner or later :}
He likes to eat them

 

[Maggie]

It happens sooner or later, like fate steps in to give you a wake up call...
I had a spiderling go through a hole in the enclosure that i was sure (at the time!) was impossible. I had even purposefully made them smaller because of reading of that type of occurence.:8o
Since then i have had a couple try to make a run for it, but reacted quickly enough. But. LOL. I know with the number i keep it very likely wont be the last time.

 

[pamandron]

Hi, right now we have one escapee. Our H. Gigas is loose, and this isn't the first time that we have had this species escape. We even had a rock on top of the lid and she still managed to escape. Hopefully we will find her. She has been missing a couple of months now. I think this is one spider that nobody should turn their backs on Pam

 

[Rookie]

Obviously I've had no escapes since I only have the one T, so if it happened, you all would've known about it. He/she has certainly made attempts though. I could have lost Peso a few weeks ago when he got out for the first time. I had just opened his 'feeding hatch' (KK) to mist, and I forgot to close it. I left it open for half an hour, and when I looked again, Peso was crawling up the side of my desk. I think i described that online already.
I had another situation only a few days ago due to a botched handling attempt. He began to scale my forearm, so I blocked his path, as I was advised to do, but he didn't like that so much and made a run for it. He somehow got onto my floor, and scurried around on my carpet. I usually handle in a furnitureless room, but instead I did this one in my very, very messy room. Luckily I got him back onto my hand, but things could've been a lot worse. Keep in mind though, that was handling attempt #3.
Anyway, no escapes, but some close calls. I have a brood of crickets all over my room.
Paul

 

[Godzilla2000]

I had my angry Cobalt Blue (This is post Stray Cat harassing mind you.) scramble up on top of the lid of his (I'm starting to think it's a male based on a few pictures and diagrams I've seen of Tarantula undersides.) enclosure and throw up a defensive stance. But I was able to scoop it up into a deli dish before it could take a flying leap off the dresser. Actually I don't think Luci is that stupid because he stopped his progress halfway down the side of his tank and realized it was quite a far distance down.

 

[Arachnopuppy]

Originally posted by JacenBeers
How do spiders get free? Dont you take precautions to avoid this?

Precautions? I thought tarantulas come to you when you call them just like dogs.

 

[Arachnopuppy]

Originally posted by Grael
no T.s......yet but ive dropped god knows how many crickets on my floor which then i lose ^_^

Crix are great escape artists. I have lost so many crix over the years in my house. Some of my friends been noticing some crix crawling around their dorm rooms. I wonder which room they came from...

 

[belewfripp]

Originally posted by mrderanged
You can take all the precautions in the world and sooner or later, a T is gonna do a runner on you and you're not gonna be quick enough. Just because is hasn't happened to you yet doesn't mean it won't......

Scott

Very true. I had an H. maculata make a run for it last night. The way its tank is sitting, it is on top of a sort of oak table/cabinet thingy, behind which is what used to be a display case for (sealed) packages of cigars. Behind that, against the wall are two big bookshelves and the display case straddles the empty space (about a foot) between the bookshelves. The case, which more properly should be called shelving, has an open front and back so that if a spider is on top of the oak cabinet it can get into the case and then, if it so desires, move 2 feet down and one foot back and it is suddenly entirely out of reach and between the bookshelves, which it can then get behind, under, or completely past and potentially make it out of the room and into the rest of the house.


What is the point of all that? Well, one, I maybe don't have the set up quite as ideal as it should be but the point is the spider wouldn't have even had to move _fast_, just in a certain direction and in a matter of minutes could have been in a totally unreachable spot that would have required upheaving and re-arranging a gazillion tanks, a bajillion books and a lot of heavy furniture. At one point it was walking upside down on the underside of one of the bookshelf shelves above the box turtle tank (fortunately empty as the turtles were enjoying a soak) and it was walking toward the point where it could make one turn and be god knows where. I was trying to get the tank out (there was no space to reach in with it in there) quickly but simultaneously trying not to frighten the T into a run. Fortunately I got the tank out, prodded the spider gently in the butt, got it to come up and out onto the 'up' side of the shelf, scooped it up and let it walk off back into its tank.


It is nearly impossible to seal up all avenues of escape or hide in a room with Ts and accidents and instances of bad luck can and do happen. I have some good experience with fast escapee Old Worlders, but I chalk this recovery up to plain and simple luck.


Adrian


By the way, does anyone else find that they are more comfortable of making a successful capture of an escapee spider when they use their hands? I'm not talking about bravado or expertise with 'nasty' Ts, just the feeling that you're better at capturing them bare-handed. I will occasionally use the 'drop a lid on 'em' method of capture if the spider is way out in front of me running over open floor but I find that I am far more confident in doing it directly with my hands. I bring it up because I read Martin's post in that Pokie thread about thinking twice now about working bare-handed around them, and I wonder if it is a good idea to be doing retrievals like this. At the same time, though, I doubt my ability to get the T back without directly using my hands. Does anyone else have a similar lack of confidence in using other items to indirectly recover fugitive Ts?