Hygrometer shows 99%

[David Burns]

If a hygrometer is put in a airtight ziplock bag with a small, open container of damp salt (not wet). After 24 hours the reading should be 75%.

I have a hygometer, but don't think it is needed.

 

[Stan Schultz]

If you get an expensive hygrometer,(Not in pet sotres) obviously the readings will be more accurately.

I still dont understand whats the problem with keeping good hygrometers.
Is not complicating your life at all, is just providing a better yet conditions.
:?

The major question here isn't whether you should spend the money on a hygrometer. It's whether one really does any good. Judging from the number of people who have successfully kept (and often bred) tarantulas over the last 50 years or so who didn't even know what a hygrometer was, much less own one, my judgment is that they're so close to useless as to make them one of the bigger jokes in arachnoculture.

Now, if you were testing some hypothesis concerning the role of humidity in some facet of tarantula care and breeding, go for it! I LOVE to hear about relatively benign, little research projects people perform on their pets. Just be sure to write up your results and submit them to the American Tarantula Society's Forum Magazine for publication.

Here's an interesting thread to read in your spare time.

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=145819

Enjoy your 8-legged little buddies!

 

[Stan Schultz]

Hello,
I keep my B. vagans in a shoebox. I placed a hygrometer in the enclosure today first time and it measures the humidity 99%. ...

Either there's something wrong with your hygrometer or you need to put 12 to 18 holes in the side walls of your shoe box.

Assuming that you mean "plastic shoe box," remove the tarantula to a different, safe container for a few minutes. Heat a 4 penny nail on your kitchen range until it just begins to glow a dull red. Using a pair of pliers, carefully pick it up by the head end and melt the holes in the box with the pointed end. For really big projects, if you use 2 nails you can alternate between them, using one while the other is reheating.

Be sure to place the holes as close to the top of the box as you can, but low enough that they aren't blocked when you install the cover. This will help prevent crickets from escaping.

Wait a few minutes until the stink of melted plastic has left the box and everything has cooled to safe levels, then reintroduce your tarantula. Voilá! Ventilated tarantula.

... I never mist the pete moss in the enclosure but do make sure that there is water in a little plastic cup. ...

Good guy (Or, "gal!" It's hard to tell on these forums.)

... I know that the ideal humidity for B. vagans is 65-75% ...

Wrong! For all the reasons given in http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=145819 and http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showpost.php?p=1338246&postcount=27 any such "ideal humidity" is only a figment of someone's overactive imagination. This "animal" simply doesn't exist.

Having said that, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in winter (my home) the relative humidity outdoors is commonly 25% or lower. Unless you live in a greenhouse or a tropical fish store the humidity in your home is likely to be very close to that. Stripping off a polyester sweater in the dark can be a truly amazing operation! While keeping tarantulas in these conditions we DID routinely cover the openings of all our tarantula cages with plastic food wrap to retard ventilation. Water evaporating from the water dish was all that was necessary to raise the humidity to what were apparently quite comfortable levels for virtually every tarantula we ever tried to keep except for the few "swamp dwellers." For them, we dampened the substrate.

The only hygrometers that I ever owned were one that was part of a household thermometer that I inherited from someone else and another that I won in a raffle at a local herptile show (TARAS). I never used either in our collection.

One exception: I did make homemade hygrometers for use in the Mechanical Moms we used, but eventually even abandoned their use. If we simply used a large enough water dish and retarded ventilation a lot, the humidity stayed way up there without being monitored.

Enjoy your 65%-75% little buddies!

 

[Fran]

It's whether one really does any good. Judging from the number of people who have successfully kept (and often bred) tarantulas over the last 50 years or so who didn't even know what a hygrometer was, much less own one, my judgment is that they're so close to useless as to make them one of the bigger jokes in arachnoculture.

!

Lets see if we understand here a bit.

1: Most of the NW tarantulas we keep as pets in our tanks, are from rain forests/jungles.

2: In te jungle, the relative humidity in the air is really high.

3: If we want to provide the best conditions for our tarantulas, considering its never like in the wild, we need to emulate wild life conditions as much as possible (Obviously, without te wild life risks).

4:If your home is not in the middle of the Amazonas,in Venezuela,and if you dont have a built in hygrometer in your brain (which I have never heared of a person with one of those) then in order to provide the correct humidity in your tarantula tanks is by buying one.


So, to say that a hygrometer is near to usseless is quite stupid.


Now, you dont want one? You dont want to spend the money? You dont like them? You dont care for thhem?
Thats another issue.

 

[JimM]

:?

I dont know JimM, I think is just your personal choice not to have hgyrometers,but you shouldnt dissmiss their mission.

If tarantulas tended to drop dead, or even become stressed if not kept within a 2%, or even 10% margin of error with regard to humidity, that would be one thing.
As it is, they don't, rendering the hygrometer superfluous at best, silly at worst.

 

[JimM]

Lets see if we understand here a bit.

1: Most of the NW tarantulas we keep as pets in our tanks, are from rain forests/jungles.

2: In te jungle, the relative humidity in the air is really high.

3: If we want to provide the best conditions for our tarantulas, considering its never like in the wild, we need to emulate wild life conditions as much as possible (Obviously, without te wild life risks).

4:If your home is not in the middle of the Amazonas,in Venezuela,and if you dont have a built in hygrometer in your brain (which I have never heared of a person with one of those) then in order to provide the correct humidity in your tarantula tanks is by buying one.


So, to say that a hygrometer is near to usseless is quite stupid.


Now, you dont want one? You dont want to spend the money? You dont like them? You dont care for thhem?
Thats another issue.

Tarantulas hailing from humid environments is neither here nor there, we easily duplicate this with a spray bottle and box....come on.
I've been keeping herps and T's for 25 years, including species from all manner of humid locales, I think I would have figured it out by now of a hygrometer was in any way a necessity.

 

[Fran]

If tarantulas tended to drop dead, or even become stressed if not kept within a 2%, or even 10% margin of error with regard to humidity, that would be one thing.
As it is, they don't, rendering the hygrometer superfluous at best, silly at worst.

Again , the fact that they dont commit suicide does not mean there isnt any diference between rigt conditions or not so right.

You are just "humanizing" them. You dont know how much it affects.
What we do know is that emulating their wildlife is best.No questions about it.

 

[Fran]

Tarantulas hailing from humid environments is neither here nor there, we easily duplicate this with a spray bottle and box....come on.
I've been keeping herps and T's for 25 years, including species from all manner of humid locales, I think I would have figured it out by now of a hygrometer was in any way a necessity.

Who said is a necessity?
Cos I didnt.

 

[xhexdx]

How many spiders do you have hygrometers with, Fran?

 

[Fran]

Most of them, Joe.
(Are you gonna add up the money spent, then tell me you could have bought this many T's ? lol )

 

[xhexdx]

No, I was just curious.

I'm not familiar with how many you have in your collection, and I'm not really concerned with the actual quantity, but what percent would you say you have them in? Have you tried experimenting by keeping multiple specimens of the same species with and without, and observed their behavior?

I'm not accusing you of anything or trying to appear hostile. I'm genuinely curious if you have or if you would be willing to, as I'm interested in the results but too busy/lazy (take your pick :}) to do this myself.

--Joe

 

[JimM]

Again , the fact that they dont commit suicide does not mean there isnt any diference between rigt conditions or not so right.

You are just "humanizing" them. You dont know how much it affects.
What we do know is that emulating their wildlife is best.No questions about it.

The first part of your post is a non sequitur darlin.

I'm humanizing them because I'm saying their tolerance range is far too wide to necessitate this piece of equipment? Ooookaaay then. :?

 

[Fran]

No, I was just curious.

I'm not familiar with how many you have in your collection, and I'm not really concerned with the actual quantity, but what percent would you say you have them in? Have you tried experimenting by keeping multiple specimens of the same species with and without, and observed their behavior?

I'm not accusing you of anything or trying to appear hostile. I'm genuinely curious if you have or if you would be willing to, as I'm interested in the results but too busy/lazy (take your pick :}) to do this myself.

--Joe

Well, I have notice than with certain species humidity plays a big role in order to their behavior.
Blondis are tricky with big changes in humidity.Geniculatas could be too.

I have a couple of Smithis without hygrometer, but the rest, them all have one.
Im sure its not something that you can notice right away in some species, but I really think in the long run will affect somehow their lifes,their behavior.

Again, it makes perfect sense that, keeping them as similar as possible than in their nature surroundings, will give you a better oportunity to have them living longer,producing egg sacks,behaving more natural, and all around better quaility of life.
The more accurately, the better, is what im trying to say.

 

[xhexdx]

I understand. Of course, one could argue that if you want to keep them as close to nature as possible, don't keep them in the first place. :}

I wasn't aware of genics having any special humidity requirements. :?

 

[Fran]

The first part of your post is a non sequitur darlin.
:?

I dont understand what you mean here, sorry .

I'm humanizing them because I'm saying their tolerance range is far too wide to necessitate this piece of equipment? Ooookaaay then. :?

You are short of humanizing them in the way of thinking that, because you dont see any apparent different between having the right temps or not, soes not mean there are no differences at all.

Is like when people says "Dont worry, if you are fine the tarantula will be fine too", talking about temperature.

Well,thats very inacurate, to say the least. Again, they can keep living
at 65F, but that does not mean thats the right way to keep them.

 

[JimM]

What are O2 and CO2 levels/fluctuations within the burrows? How do your readings correspond to those in the wild at various locales, at various times of the year?

I'd assume you'd be taking these readings in your quest to exactly replicate their natural surroundings, and monitoring exact humidity with this goal in mind, without keeping track of what the T is actually breathing would be a bit pointless eh?

 

[Fran]

I understand. Of course, one could argue that if you want to keep them as close to nature as possible, don't keep them in the first place. :}

I wasn't aware of genics having any special humidity requirements. :?

I didnt mean it in that way, sorry (darn language problems ) I mean that I have noticed that when , for some reason, the humidity in the air suddenly goes avobe 75%, they start acting out, climbing and moving around like if somehing is wrong.
It might be that, or not, but I really think so. (Only tried that with 3 Geniculatas)


About the first sentence in your response...True. But at least, keeping them that way is less "harm" for them.

 

[Fran]

What are O2 and CO2 levels/fluctuations within the burrows? How do your readings correspond to those in the wild at various locales, at various times of the year?

I'd assume you'd be taking these readings in your quest to exactly replicate their natural surroundings, and monitoring exact humidity with this goal in mind, without keeping track of what the T is actually breathing would be a bit pointless eh?

As a matter of fact I can have those readings. Im a Geographist and my family owns a Geography consulting company who does field investigation in the jungle of Venezuela.


Now Im just gonna assume you would agree that, buying a hygrometer is far easier than analize subatomic particles or calculate the amount of possible Neutrinos in the area of a tarantula, to get some valuable readings.

 

[JimM]

As a matter of fact I can have those readings. Im a Geographist and my family owns a Geography consulting company who does field investigation in the jungle of Venezuela.


Now Im just gonna assume you would agree that, buying a hygrometer is far easier than analize subatomic particles around the area of a tarantula, to get some valuable readings.

OK then...color me impressed.

 

[xhexdx]

OK then...color me impressed.

You have been colored.

Ugh...way too much effort.