plastic/silk leaves danger

[Abby]

Hi guys,

I just wanted to share something that happened to me this weekend.

I am fostering about 70 A. avicularia slings for a friend. She lent her MM to another hobbyist and an eggsac was produced from that.
The babies are 2nd instars. They are all in vials, they have substrate, and a piece of silk leaf in there to anchor their web.
I was checking on them this weekend, and I noticed one of the slings didn't look right.

It seems that since a cut-off piece of silk leaf was in there, a strand of the leaf wrapped around the carapace of the baby, and it squished the sling.
I'm guessing it kept tightening as he tried to free himself, and killed it

I just wanted to share so the same thing doesn't happen to other slings.

 

[Midknight xrs]

That is so sad to hear. At second instar, even until they are about 5th or 6th instar, I would think there was really a need for the fake flowers. Mine were and still are just webbing across and around the top of the container. Those avic avic's have some pretty strong silk.

Either way, a good heads up on not using cut silk flowers.

 

[CAK]

I will tell ya Abby... I don't know what it is about Avic slings, but I always seem to have them end up tangled in their web when they are in vials. I have probably performed 10 or so Avic release procedures to cut them out of their own strands of web. I had one that was caught up so bad, it has a thick web strand wrapped around one fang, through the middle and around two legs on left 1 and left 2 and then around the abdomen.

Using a trick I learned from Christian (one of our NTEC) members, I was able to free him/her pretty easily and I seem to have to do that every couple of weeks.

I chalk it up to "silly avic!"


Joe - CAK

 

[Redneck]

I had one do that.. It would just sit there and web in circles.. It got its legs tangled in it so bad that it dropped several legs..

Not sure what the deal was.. I ended up giving it to another member here.. Said it did well for a while.. Then died..

 

[Abby]

Hi Joe!

Can you please tell me what the trick is?
These are Anette's babies and I want to make sure I do a good job taking care of them

Oh Tommy, poor little sling.

I hope I have no more casualties. I'm going to buy some precision scissors after work. I hope I won't need to use them though

 

[CAK]

Hi Joe!

Can you please tell me what the trick is?
These are Anette's babies and I want to make sure I do a good job taking care of them

Oh Tommy, poor little sling.

I hope I have no more casualties. I'm going to buy some precision scissors after work. I hope I won't need to use them though

Hey Abby!

Christian used a petri dish and then put the sling on the dish and then a paper towel with a hole in it to lay over the critter to restrain it just a bit while you use the scissors to cut the webbing off. I found something a bit more practical for us folks with out quite the dexterity. I use a ziplock baggie and punch a dinky little hole in the front and the back of the baggy that way if the sling is turned around, you can work from either side. At that point you can use the little bit of space around it to "gently" (and I can't repeat it enough... Gently) work the spider to where you need to get it and then you can lightly work the web off or cut it off. I have used needles for most of them to untangle them, but one was real bad, I used a precision scissors to cut and then untangle.

This is not a quick process, but if you are patient... Most of the critters do real well with this!

Joe

 

[Abby]

Thanks Joe

I will definitely try this if it happens again

I am not usually patient when it comes to people, but when it comes to animals I am very patient

 

[Terry D]

Abby, One wouldn't think this sorta thing could even happen. Glad to see you caught it early on before it happened to many others. Good luck with all those babies!!

Terry