Near infra red light.

[addertay]

Forgive me if this has been covered but my searches only came up with infra red produced by ceramic heaters.

I have an ip camera that has infra red night vision. It's one of the cheapy models so it's near ir and has a slight glow.

Right now it's positioned between my two smithi enclosures so it can pan between the two. If spiders are not sensitive to IR it would be a great way for me to check them at night. Just wondering if anyone knows.

Wouldn't want to disturb them with a potential lighthouse spinning around to check on them.

Thanks for any help

Best wishes

Adam

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Hello!

Tarantulas can not see in the infrared (or near IR) light spectrum. They can only detect light in the visible and near ultraviolet wavelengths.

For more details of what wavelengths tarantulas can see:

Dahl, R. D.and A. M.Granda.1989.Spectral sensitivities of photoreceptor in the ocelli of the tarantula, Aphonopelma chalcodes (Araneae, Theraphosidae) . J. Arachnol ., 1 :195-205 .
http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v17_n2/JoA_v17_p195.pdf

 

[Bill S]

I've used infrared videocams for recording wildlife at night on my back porch. The kinds I've used had IR LEDs, or more accurately near IR LEDs (since, as you mention, they have a slight visible glow) built into them, but they were not strong enough emitters for distances of more than a few feet. If you are using an IR sensitive videocam, consider getting supplementary IR lights or working at close distances. (Which, with a tarantula, is probably what you will be doing anyway.) The good news is that ordinary incandescent red bulbs work well for this and do not bother most wildlife. (And from at least one study I've seen, ordinary red light in what humans consider to be the "visible range" is outside the visible range of at least some species of spiders.)

 

[jimip]

my spiders hide all day but will show up at a night red light or no red light.