Kicking myself over sling deaths

KoriTamashii

Arachnobaron
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Nov 21, 2009
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A few of my slings have just randomly died the last week or so. I'm thinking it's a moisture issue, since it's crazy dry and nothing I do seems to help.

Anyone else experiencing anything like this?
 

CAK

Arachnoknight
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Nov 17, 2009
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As you have seen my place. It's crazy dry here too. I am scrambling to keep things humid. Moving my entire collection into that laundry room and sealing it off and bumping heat and humidity in there tonight. :) It's my only option.

Anyone in Iowa wanna come over and help me move a couple spiders? ;)
 

gmrpnk21

Arachnobaron
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It's crazy in Florida as well. The substrate for my avicularia avicularia dries overnight!
 

Bengal21

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If a sling container is too small, could you put it in a larger container that holds humidity? Maybe a clear rubbermaid with some vermiculate and soil as substrate, that would keep the humidity up? Then keep the sling containers in that container? Was just an idea I had.
 

curiousme

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What are you doing to try and keep it humid? Also, how big are the ones you are having troubles with?
 

Nicole

Arachnosquire
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Yep, I've been checking on my guys nightly. Desiccation happens so fast with tiny slings.
 

ZergFront

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I have noticed my GBB water dish dried up in a couple days. That didn't even happen in the summer. :?

Just been keeping an eye on the substrates and the dishes and made sure no moss or sub was leeching out water from the dish.
 

KoriTamashii

Arachnobaron
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If a sling container is too small, could you put it in a larger container that holds humidity? Maybe a clear rubbermaid with some vermiculate and soil as substrate, that would keep the humidity up? Then keep the sling containers in that container? Was just an idea I had.
Couldn't hurt; might help.

What are you doing to try and keep it humid? Also, how big are the ones you are having troubles with?
Adding a little water to each enclosure once (now twice) a week. Not exactly misting, but pouring a small amount into one corner/spot of the substrate to keep the moisture up.

And they're little bitties, like 1/8th of an inch size. My H. tachira, my B. albopilosum, and one of my Avicularia sp. Peru Purples. Just frustrated as all hell over it.
 

curiousme

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Adding a little water to each enclosure once (now twice) a week. Not exactly misting, but pouring a small amount into one corner/spot of the substrate to keep the moisture up.

And they're little bitties, like 1/8th of an inch size. My H. tachira, my B. albopilosum, and one of my Avicularia sp. Peru Purples. Just frustrated as all hell over it.
Keep the ventilation to a minimum and keep pouring water in there, but do it every time you see it starting to dry up. Don't try and put it on a schedule, because they may need it before you get to the next time you were scheduled. At that size, keeping them on wet substrate is not an altogether bad thing, so wetting more than a corner is what I would recommend. I will find you Pikaia's post about it later this morning.

So sorry you lost some little ones. :(
 

Armstrong5

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May 6, 2010
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yea seems a lot harder to keep it humid in the winter with all the artificial heat. it seems to dry everything out a lot faster so i go from misting once or twice to nearly everyday with the slings in deli containers i simply put new lids on them with only half the holes so its holds humidity better
 

curiousme

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Here it is. It was in a thread about B. smithi, but at the size yours are, care is the same.

So, don't be afraid of wetting the entire substrate, instead of just a corner.
 

Venari

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Jun 22, 2009
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Now that winter is here, I assume people are bringing out their humidifiers to help with static charges we accumulate walking around. Maybe place the humidifier near your T enclosures, or pick up a smaller one for the T room?
 

CAK

Arachnoknight
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Nov 17, 2009
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Hey Kori,

I just moved my entire collection into the laundry room against one wall. Popped a space heater in there to bring the temp up to about 77 or 78 and now i'm working on the humidity. one humidifier doesn't seem to keep it any where near 25 even. I need to replace my current humidifier and add a second one.

I'll keep you posted on how it works!
 

Bill S

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If a sling container is too small, could you put it in a larger container that holds humidity? Maybe a clear rubbermaid with some vermiculate and soil as substrate, that would keep the humidity up? Then keep the sling containers in that container? Was just an idea I had.
That's pretty much what I do. When I've had a bunch of slings and I need to be extra careful about humidity I used an aquarium with a thick layer of course gravel on the bottom, and keep the gravel thoroughly wet. Vials, deli cups, etc., can be stacked on top of the gravel. The lid on the aquarium allows for airflow, but can be adjusted by placing a towel over it.

I'm hoping that a variation of this technique will also help prevent baby OBTs from dispersing - but that's an experiment in progress. I've got a female OBT that mated not too long ago. She's in a KK - burrowed in and hiding now. I've got the KK setting inside a 10 gallon aquarium with a bare floor, but when it gets closer to time for babies to appear I'll put about a half inch of water in the 10 gallon aquarium. The idea is that if the babies slip through the ventilation slots of the KK (like a bunch of Holotheles did last summer) the water barrier will stop them from wandering down the hallway walls (like the Holothele babies did).
 

KoriTamashii

Arachnobaron
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That's pretty much what I do. When I've had a bunch of slings and I need to be extra careful about humidity I used an aquarium with a thick layer of course gravel on the bottom, and keep the gravel thoroughly wet. Vials, deli cups, etc., can be stacked on top of the gravel. The lid on the aquarium allows for airflow, but can be adjusted by placing a towel over it.

I'm hoping that a variation of this technique will also help prevent baby OBTs from dispersing - but that's an experiment in progress. I've got a female OBT that mated not too long ago. She's in a KK - burrowed in and hiding now. I've got the KK setting inside a 10 gallon aquarium with a bare floor, but when it gets closer to time for babies to appear I'll put about a half inch of water in the 10 gallon aquarium. The idea is that if the babies slip through the ventilation slots of the KK (like a bunch of Holotheles did last summer) the water barrier will stop them from wandering down the hallway walls (like the Holothele babies did).
This seems like a really interesting idea... may have to give that a try.

Joe - Please, do let me know how it works for you. I'm considering moving mine around, too.
 

angrychair

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Oct 12, 2010
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I have to run a reptifogger on my avicularia avicularias enclosure. It's way tooo big but anyway has thick cocoafiber substrate, three live plants, and I run the reptifogger til its empty on the light timer. By the time I get hime its ran out and the humidity is back to 40%. I need a better timer to do half hour on one hour off. But yeah here in missouri, its dry.
 

2oCHEVYo0

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Aug 29, 2010
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Hmm, that's wierd... It's insanely dry over here as well. I just mist them once every two days and cycle them under the light and they are doing fine (no deaths as of yet). They all seem to come out for some warmth and once they are done they go back and hide. Then, I just rotate the containers depending on what they are doing. Most containers stay moist for longer periods of time (I used less holes) and they seem to not be affected whatsoever.

That is a pretty good idea Joe, probably end up doing something like that if my luck starts heading south. Hope your luck turns around Kori :(
 

Leviticus

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I feel bad for you Kori. Here in Saskatchewan we have extremely cold and dry winters. It is so dry that my larger water dishes in some of my larger terrestrial cages are going dry in 3 days or less. I have been adding extra water to my sling containers every 2 days or so otherwise the soil gets bone dry. Nothing worse in the hobby than losing multiple spiders.
 

kaydyn1512

Arachnobaron
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Jan 30, 2009
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Forgive me if I'm repeating something already said. It's late (early depending on how you look at it :) here so I didn't read all the posts. I live in Washington and during the winter it's very humid OUTSIDE but we have the heater going so it gets rediculously dry in the house. We have recently started running a cool humidifyer in the exotics room. The enclosures don't dry out nearly as fast. It's a rather cheap helping hand. Ours was about $35.
 
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