How Many?

Brandon

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 19, 2002
Messages
415
Hello all,
I was curious about how many of you are truly concerned about humidity requirements? I fill that the humidity requirements are just extra added stress, when with most tarantulas only a water dish is really need to fill those requirements. Even with some of the Tropical species alot of ppl mist every day, is it really needed? I would like to know what how other people fill on the issue. Let me know

Sincerely,

Brandon

www.geocities.com/southwest_inverts
 

JacenBeers

Arachnoprince
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Sep 1, 2002
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1,264
Humidity is important so it is alwaysd a bad idea to overlook it. SOme species need more humidity attention than others. I treat all of mine the same. I give them water dishes and I mist them every 2 days. That isnt very high maintenance at all.
 

Brandon

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 19, 2002
Messages
415
Jacen,
Dont get me wronge I dont over look them, I was mearly trying to state that for some species it is too much. For example a desert Aphonopelma does it really need 50-60 percent humidity? When on average there natural humidity is 20-30 percent there is quite a diffrance there. Iv seen pleanty of healthy desert T with such low humidity. Do you undertand what I am saying? Let me know

Sincerely,

Brandon

www.geocities.com/southwest_inverts
 

zoobugs

L.D.50
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Joined
Jul 19, 2002
Messages
101
Hey Brandon,
In the Schultz' book, "The Tarantula Keepers Guide", Stan mentions that even rainforest arboreals don't need to be sprayed. They do quite well with just a water dish. I've had a few terrestrial rainforest T's and all I ever give them is a water dish w/o spraying or wetting down the cage. My only exception is a T. blondi and with these, I moisten the substrate only once every 2 weeks or so and make sure the water dish is constantly full.
Best..
Jim
 

Vayu Son

Avatar of Anansi
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808
><

I tend not to really worry about humidity. In small contained vials misting will just provide a perfect environment for mold. I provide water dishes and on occasion will mist the webbing of the higher-humidity species. There are a few species that are humidity dependent, and you also must take into consideration the standing humidity of your house.

-V
 

Henry Kane

Arachnoprince
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Jul 19, 2002
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Well, the tropical species I like to keep a bit more humid. I mist once ever couple days. Mostly to compensate for the lack of humidity here where I live. The common humidity range is about 20% here, even less in the winter so I'm not quite confident that just a water dish on it's own will raise humidity to the level that the tropical T's are comfortable with.
For desert species, what I do is mist just a small area of their enclosure maybe every 5 days or so making sure to moisten deep into the substrate as well as provide a water dish. The reason is that even though the desert is dry, during daylight hours (when it's the dryest) you never really see T's out in the open. They're more likely to be in their burrows, underground where it's cooler and there's a bit of moisture. With the tropical species, there's pretty much "ambient moisture" climatically. With the desert species, I think they still need some moisture (although probably not as much as tropical), they just need to go elsewhere to get it. In their case, underground.
The case for Centipedes is different altogether but that's for another forum. ;)

Atrax
 

ithuriel

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 11, 2002
Messages
239
:) hi , humidity requirements huh:) i quite often am not in and i live alone so i only have the water dish for humidity , i rarely mist and keep dry substrate. my Ts seem o.k. though and my b.emilia and my b.vagans both molted this week with no problems whatsoever.
 

Immortal_sin

Arachnotemptress
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Jul 17, 2002
Messages
3,952
here is how much I think about it:
I have NO CLUE about the humidity in any of my containers. I just figure out what seems to work best for each T and go from there.
Of course, I don't have any Ts of the Hysterocrates genus etc either.
I DO keep the H lividums more moist, but still not wet.
The slings are fairly damp as well, but also have a dry spot in the deli cup.
The Aphonopelma slings and the Usambaras are a bit drier than the B albos though.
I used to be terribly paranoid about it, then I just stopped worrying about it.
 

Code Monkey

Arachnoemperor
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Jul 22, 2002
Messages
3,783
I'm not even slightly concerned. My slings get a moist substrate with mistings about 1.5X a week. I keep my Pamphobeteus fairly moist, and the Nhanu slightly moist (I mist as needed to keep the substrate moist). Everyone gets some sort of a water dish once they're big enough and I mist every now and again just to give the guys the opportunity to drink from the sides since not all are too gung ho on the water bowl (like my curly who constantly fills it with dirt).

Other than that, I do nada. No moist towels, no plastic wrap over the lid, no room fogger, no daily mistings, nothing. If I honestly thought that a species required anything more complicated than moist substrate, I'd never bother getting it because I'd wind up killing it.
 

atavuss

Arachnoprince
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Aug 16, 2002
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for grammostolas, aphonopelmas, brachypelmas, and many other "dry" type sp. I do not stress over their humidity (EXCEPT lings!) I keep them on dry substrate and supply them with a weekly filled deli cup water dish. lings up to 1.5" are kept on moist substrate in pill vials, then moved into small kritter keepers with dry substrate and a full water dish at all times until they get up to 3 or 4" and I keep them on dry substrate with weekly filled water dishes.
tropical sp. (I only keep a. versicolors and m. robustums which could be higher humidity sp. than the rest of what I have) have moist substrate that I don't allow to dry out-especially the robustums.
Ed
 

galeogirl

Arachnoprince
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Aug 15, 2002
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1,198
My H. gigas, T. blondi, and H. lividum I mist more often than the others. I keep slings in small containers with slightly moistened peat moss. Larger ts that need less humidity have a water dish and get the occasional misting, especially before molts.

I try to keep all of my feeders hydrated and fed on juicy fruits and vegetables like apples, orange slices, and cucumber.
 

Alonso99

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
537
hey

My H.Gigas gets a daily mist, has a water bowl, in which she might take a small swim when I clean up left over prey items
 

Jobe

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 9, 2002
Messages
187
I guess i have the least to worry about... I live smack on the equator... sometimes its so bloody humid even i cant stand it.
:D
 

Rookie

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
283
Too much..

I've been misting my G. Pulchra s'ling every day. That sounds like it might be way too much. I guess I should cut it back a little..
Paul
 
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