Hydrophilus
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2015
- Messages
- 31
We don't have any trapdoor spiders in my area, but I'll be in southern Kentucky this holiday weekend and am hoping to make a couple forays to look for and collect Myrmekiaphila and Antrodiaetus. I've seen Myrmekiaphila, Cyclocosmia, and Ummidia in a number of places in the gulf coast before, so I know the kind of habitat to look for, but I have never tried to collect them.
Does anyone here have experience collecting these genera? I'd prefer not to dig up the whole burrow. I have heard of people taking a knife or trowel and quickly slicing up and into the bank a few inches behind a burrow entrance, preventing the spiders from backing all the way down their burrows, but obviously that only works when they are waiting at their entrance. Has anyone tried pouring water down a burrow to "flush" them out? That seems like a far less destructive method that would also enable collecting during the day.
Thanks in advance!
Does anyone here have experience collecting these genera? I'd prefer not to dig up the whole burrow. I have heard of people taking a knife or trowel and quickly slicing up and into the bank a few inches behind a burrow entrance, preventing the spiders from backing all the way down their burrows, but obviously that only works when they are waiting at their entrance. Has anyone tried pouring water down a burrow to "flush" them out? That seems like a far less destructive method that would also enable collecting during the day.
Thanks in advance!