I think my beloved H davidbowie is dying

[The Spider Faery]

My H. davidbowie somehow got out of it's cage on April 6, but then I found it on the 12th! I was so happy and relived. Now....there's been a change of luck, and I think it's dying of a mites attack. I found it on its back yesterday. It looked like it was going to molt, but after 24 hours it hasn't started the process and is still lying limp on its back, so I inspected it further to discover the round type of white mites (not springtails) were crawling on it. These are harmful to spiders, aren't they? They were swarming all over it...I know you're not supposed to move a spider if you suspect it may be about to molt, but I felt like I had to get it out of that cage and out of the substrate, so I gently transferred it to another container with just moist papertowels. I've since discarded the old substrate and thoroughly cleaned its old cage.

I hope it pulls through, but it's not looking good. How long should I wait before I know for sure it's not going to pull through?

P.S. I checked my other spiders' cages and there are no mites. It must've picked them up while it was out of its cage wandering around. Can these mites be found on plants, by any chance?

This has not been a good week for spiders for me! (I had another traumatic moment with one of my T's too)

 

[Zoltan]

Can you post a picture?

 

[The Spider Faery]

I'm sorry, Zolton, unfortunately I can't post a pic. My camera doesn't have a macro feature or a good zoom lens and the pic would just come out blurry.

 

[The Spider Faery]

The spider didn't make it. I think it picked up these mites while it was escaped from its cage for that week...probably from the soil in one of my houseplants.

I enjoyed keeping this spider alot. It was unique and slightly challenging. R.I.P.

 

[jsloan]

Are you going to preserve it in alcohol? Maybe you can get someone at a nearby university to ID the mites for you.

 

[The Spider Faery]

jsloan, preserving it in alcohol would have been ideal, but it didn't look so great at the point it died. As for the mites, I guess IDing them might have been something I could have looked into, but I just wanted to quickly dispose of the substrate and the spider as soon as possible to keep them away from my spiders. Like I said, luckily they haven't gotten anywhere near my other ones, so I think they came from a plant in another room.

 

[SandDeku]

well I hope your spiders get better!

 

[The Spider Faery]

SandDeku, the davidbowie already passed.

But I do need a change of luck, because I had another unfortunate incident with a male (unrelated to mites) that was going to be bred also, so thanks.

 

[SandDeku]

SandDeku, the davidbowie already passed.

But I do need a change of luck, because I had another unfortunate incident with a male (unrelated to mites) that was going to be bred also, so thanks.

Sorry for your loss! D:

 

[synyster]

SandDeku, the davidbowie already passed.

But I do need a change of luck, because I had another unfortunate incident with a male (unrelated to mites) that was going to be bred also, so thanks.

Sorry for your loss

It had truely been a bad week! Hope it all get's better