Humidity

[rohrrocks]

How often do you all mist your substrate? We have a one year old Mexican Red Knee sling and I think the humidity is too high. It's at 74% and I am in a debate with my husband. He read somewhere to spray water 3 to 4 times a week. I disagree and think the humidity should not go above 60%.

 

[Wolfram1]

i don't measure humidity, the exact numbers are essentially a moot point and will fluctuate wildly depending on the weather conditions they experience in the wild, in fact i want them to fluctuate

chasing specific humidity numbers has killed many a spider.

make sure there is allways at least a dry spot and that there is enough ventilation so that there is no condensation.

persistent condensation is a bad sign.

depending on your ventilation you can get away with either a lot or very little moisture

without an idea what your ventilation is like it is impossible to properly judge your situation

 

[Mustafa67]

How often do you all mist your substrate? We have a one year old Mexican Red Knee sling and I think the humidity is too high. It's at 74% and I am in a debate with my husband. He read somewhere to spray water 3 to 4 times a week. I disagree and think the humidity should not go above 60%.

Don’t worry about humidity and don’t mist misting will put too much water in your enclosure and will make it too wet and create mold. I have advice for you: first use latin names as english names are wild, change often and cause confusion. I assume Mexican Red Knee means a Brachypelma hamorii, with a sling pot, coco fibre substrate, water dish and lid (with holes for ventilation) and that’s all you need.

As said, 1 or 2 oz for terrestrials and taller 4 or 5 oz for arboreals...many fast arboreals can be housed in 16 or 32oz deli cups.

Standard terrestrial sling in a 2oz condiment cup.

IMG_0472

• cold blood
• Feb 7, 2017

Keep your small terrestrial slings like this.

I use this as a guide for slings

I also recommend the beginners guide which is full of helpful info：

Tarantula Information for Beginners (and More)

Below are some helpful resources. (Rather than having half a dozen or more pinned threads, which clutter the top of the board, we are pinning this index.) While the focus is on beginners, there are other threads on health and more advanced species that may be useful to more experienced keepers...

arachnoboards.com

 

[fcat]

May you never forget the date that he was wrong and you were right

Tell him to abandon his source of information and come here instead.

 

[Brewser]

Suggest not chasing % humidity #’s
Best Regards,

 

[kingshockey]

[Q

How often do you all mist your substrate? We have a one year old Mexican Red Knee sling and I think the humidity is too high. It's at 74% and I am in a debate with my husband. He read somewhere to spray water 3 to 4 times a week. I disagree and think the humidity should not go above 60%.

waste of time to mist at a year old it should be around an inch in leg span big enough to keep in a cage with space for a water dish quit chasing humidity numbers that will only stress you out trying to maintain flood over water dish once in a while is all you need to do. good luck

 

[Gevo]

How often do you all mist your substrate? We have a one year old Mexican Red Knee sling and I think the humidity is too high. It's at 74% and I am in a debate with my husband. He read somewhere to spray water 3 to 4 times a week. I disagree and think the humidity should not go above 60%.

Never! I do not worry about humidity numbers at all. Instead, I take a squeeze bottle and unobtrusively moisten a corner of the substrate every once in a while--very demure and mindful! I don't put a ton of water in; it's just enough to see either a damp spot in that area that doesn't spread too far, or if it runs right to the bottom, then it's just enough to see a thin layer of moistened soil along that side of the enclosure. Then, when I can see that it has fully dried out again, I repeat. This usually happens once every ten days to two weeks or so in the winter with the central heating going and drying everything out.

This species is an arid species and tends not to appreciate soil that is damp on the surface. What's more important to this species than humidity in the air is having that little bit of moistened soil every now and then and having a water dish available at all times so they can hydrate internally as they need to.

 

[zsiciarz]

Dry substrate, water dish in a corner. That's all it takes for a Brachypelma species.

 

[viper69]

How often do you all mist your substrate? We have a one year old Mexican Red Knee sling and I think the humidity is too high. It's at 74% and I am in a debate with my husband. He read somewhere to spray water 3 to 4 times a week. I disagree and think the humidity should not go above 60%.

His source is WRONG!!
I own that species and others like it. I NEVER mist or spray they aren’t plants.

 

[Matt Man]

I never mist any of my Ts except misting the lid of sling vials, drams.... Brachypelma come from a pretty dry, scrub brush / deciduous forest ecosystem and aren't what I would say need any humidity other than a water dish. Sometimes I spill a bit and wet the corner under the dish. I have raised several Brachypelma, Grammastola, Aphonopelma, Acanthoscurria and GBBs as such and all are healthy, or lived long healthy lives and expired of old age

Brachypelma hamorii

 

[Dorifto]

Enclosure pics?

Even for me, misting the enclosure 3-4 times a week looks excessive...

They thrive in a quite broad range of conditions, so do not focus on any spefic numbers.

Usually giving them a small damp spot, like around the water dish is enough to fulfill their needs.

Imho it's one of the easiest Ts to replicate their habitat's conditions. A high clay content topsoil, some dry leaves and branches and a rock or wood like an entrance to their burrow. Nothing else. They are not as "arid" as people thing, but under our care, they thrive in such conditions.

 

[cold blood]

How often do you all mist your substrate? We have a one year old Mexican Red Knee sling and I think the humidity is too high. It's at 74% and I am in a debate with my husband. He read somewhere to spray water 3 to 4 times a week. I disagree and think the humidity should not go above 60%.

That's terrible advice as has been noted by several others.

Misting, first of all, is not something that should ever be done as a part of husbandry....Misting is primarily something done to offer an easy drinking opportunity.

Dampening substrate, particularly the deeper parts of the substrate, is what's done for husbandry. And this should absolutely NEVER be done on a set schedule, doing so is a recipe for disaster. Instead, substrate should only be dampened once it's dried out. This means a highly variable timetable based on your location, season, heating methods and to a degree, ventilation.

Example; someone in Florida may dampen substrate, and not see it dry out for weeks or months, while some in las Vegas with the same set up may see the sub dry out in a week.....someone in the far north running a space heater all winter may see the same enclosure dry out in a few days, but in summer it may take weeks with the heater off and windows open.....and even in that situation, it will vary greatly between spring, summer and fall.

Your humidity will dictate dampening, but your humidity numbers within the enclosure aren't important and can vary widely....so don't focus on humidity numbers within your enclosures, just focus on your substrate for those species requiring damp sub. Your red knee however, has no such moisture requirements and can simply be kept dry with a water dish (regardless of humidity)....and there is no reason to ever dampen it's substrate OR mist anything. This t demands that you follow the old adage, keep it simple. You're over-complicating the simple task of keeping this tarantula.

 

[TheraMygale]

I have two b hamoriis.

first off, this species lives, in general, where the habitat is dry. Its not cactus desert dry sand.

here is a video of where you find them.

considering this, it answers the question about misting.

it will rain though. And since they can live in burrows, there will be a different humidity level in the burrow, because its dark and deep.

its not a misted burrow. I suppose you came here because you found the information strange.

their substrate moisture level can be dry. That is how they are kept.

a well filled water bowl, close to their burrow or hide, will provide their needed moisture. It also creates a little bubble of “humidity”.

that humidity, is for their breathing. Its how the book lungs function.

if a person was to mist all the time, even if it evaporates quickly, the water would accumilate slowly in the substrate. Especialy if you use reptisoil.

with time, it wont be dry anymore. It will be damp. And after that, it will be saturated. Which is not how the b hamorii lives most of the year.

when it rains down there, its not everyday year round. Its drought followed by flash floods.

so that is why people do not recommend reading humidity levels. Its pointless. You would also need a professional grade hygrometer that can be calibrated to get actual results.

to provide a b hamorii its needs, dry sub. A water bowl. A moist corner that is usualy created by pouring a bit of excess water in the water bowl.

for my brachypelmas that burrow, i dig a small dent near the burrow. I inject a tiny bit of water. This creates a small layer of moist sub in the lower levels. The tarantula can then choose where it wishes to go.

it always has a dry layer on the top of its substrate.

i hope this vulgarized enough and simple to understand.

If these tarantulas are exposed to constant high levels of humidity, which happens by constant misting, then they are not living how they should.

nature also never has a fixed humidity level. It changes every hour, every day, every month.