Poll: Have you ever had a tarantula escape in your house/apartment?

Well?


  • Total voters
    124

nicodimus22

Arachnomancer
Arachnosupporter
Joined
Sep 26, 2013
Messages
715
For the purposes of this poll, by 'escape' I'm talking about a situation in which you find an empty enclosure and have no idea where the tarantula is in your house/apartment.

Feel free to share happy or sad endings with us if you have had this experience.

If you have any advice that might help others deal with and/or prevent an escape situation, please share that too.
 

Chris LXXIX

ArachnoGod
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
5,845
No. And in all honesty, without the will to sound pompous, T's aren't escape masters (especially full comfy/settled T's) like sometimes depicted.

I'm not talking now about a S.calceatum, or a genus Poecilotheria "escaping" during a rehouse/transfer (I've chased a juvenile S.calceatum on the walls, btw, but wasn't mine nor that was my house) but about a Theraphosidae that 'papillon' night time, or someone returning home from work finding an empty enclosure/s.

When this happens is 100% keeper/s goofy fault, like slings housed in enclosures where holes were too bigger or statements like "I didn't closed well the lid".

I had, on the other hand, a S.subspinipes (so not a Theraphosidae) living with me (yeah, not inside an enclosure) for more or less 6 months and I wasn't aware, but that's another story.
 

boina

Lady of the mites
Active Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2015
Messages
2,217
Weeeelll, when I was still new to Ts I had one escape. My adult Ts live in enclosures with front sliding doors. I also have a whole bunch of rescue cats around (numbers vary since I try to find new homes for them). Since the cats didn't show any interest in tarantulas I didn't worry about the combination. However, the cats are VERY interested in those funny crickets hopping around... and cats can open sliding doors without a problem. So, one morning I'm coming down the stairs and see one of the enclosures open and eco earth everywhere and my AF G. pulchripes nowhere to be found. I searched everywhere but didn't find a thing, not even a leg. I considered that one of the cats might have eaten the spider, but I couldn't really believe it, I mean with all those urticating hairs and everything. Finally I talked my more or less arachnophobic neighbor into helping me remove my bookcase. And we are not talking about a few shelves here but a wall to wall huge bookcase (which, btw, is by now mainly filled with spider enclosures, the books having been relocated to the spare bedroom / cat room). So we took down the book case, piece by piece and after removing the last shelf unit... there she was. Completely bald, which she hadn't been before, but otherwise unharmed.
I put her back and put locks on every enclosure and that was that.

And that's her after her next molt:
IMG_1076a.jpg
 

Nightstalker47

Arachnoking
Joined
Jul 2, 2016
Messages
2,612
This is embarassing but I'll be honest. When I first got started in this hobby some years ago I had an Avic avic, he was a super sweet little guy, one of the calmest Ts I've ever owned, and one of the few I've ever handled.

Anyway, I was feeding one night and all was fine and dandy till I came back the next morning. I was horrified to see an empty enclosure, I had literally left his cage open overnight. About a second later I turned around and saw him on the wall. Relieved, I prodded him back into his cage without any trouble. I was very lucky he stayed out in the open. I always make sure to close the lids now and double check after my feeding sessions. It's been 5 years and I don't plan on reliving that experience...
 

Paramite

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 6, 2006
Messages
1,184
I once had a P. murinus escape and she went into the mechanism of my sofa. It took me 1-2 hours to get her back.

So this has only happened to me once.
 

Paiige

Arachnobaron
Joined
Oct 2, 2016
Messages
335
Yep, I have. Just once and it was my AF G. porteri, many years ago.

I used to live in a warehouse, a bit of an artist live/work space. I have no idea how she got out but she just wasn't in her tank one day when I got home. Searched for hours and alerted everyone I lived with. Found her in my dresser, stretched out pokie-style on one of my sweaters.
 

Moakmeister

Arachnodemon
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Messages
741
There's a guy on these forums who had a G. pulchripes juvie escape, and it survived in his house for over a year before he got her back. Apparently it was living off escaped crickets and molted at least once while escaped. Pretty cool, and further proves that G. pulchripes are the ultimate tarantulas :troll:
 

Chris LXXIX

ArachnoGod
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
5,845
There's a guy on these forums who had a G. pulchripes juvie escape, and it survived in his house for over a year before he got her back. Apparently it was living off escaped crickets and molted at least once while escaped. Pretty cool, and further proves that G. pulchripes are the ultimate tarantulas :troll:
You should be concerned about your primordial, ancestral "escape": Peanut.

So far your hands didn't reached Her; on my book we are still 0-0 man, even if you are living near Her, unlike me :-s
 

Screamingreenmachine

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
Messages
65
Nope, not yet and hopefully I can keep my track record clean! My Juvie A. Genic goes a bit insane every time I open the enclosure so I do worry about that one making a dash one of these days.
 

The Grym Reaper

Arachnoreaper
Joined
Jul 19, 2016
Messages
4,835
Nope, had a few try to bolt while rehousing but no "Where, for the love of Hades, is my T?!" moments so far.
 

BabaYaga

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 20, 2016
Messages
6
My first H. Maculata .5 inch sling went missing at some point a while back.
She was my first T so I wasn't super savvy at the time with how to keep such small ones, and she squeezed through a gap in the top I had thought was too small for her to attempt. Apparently not lol.
Realized she was missing about two weeks later when none of the crickets I put in there were eaten... lived in fear of the baby H. Mac somewhere in my bedroom, lest I find her again with my foot or hand or something when I wasn't paying attention.

Haven't come across her yet and it's been almost a year. Kind of hoping she died so I can clean under my bed without fear but who knows, maybe I'll look under and find a big web with a big angry spider in it. (Man I hope not)

Haven't made the same mistake since, so it was a good learning experience if nothing else!
 

D Sherlod

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 30, 2016
Messages
218
Have not had any escaped T's.
But I have had geckos get misplaced. Once lost 6 hatchling geckos when the cat knocked over the container. Recaptured 5 over the next couple days only found the tail of the last one.
Also had an adult gecko go for an adventure,,, can't call it escape, I was dumb enough to not close the door to the enclosure. I left his door open kept putting food inside. Low and behold 2 weeks later he was in his encloser. He just took a little vacation.
 

Moakmeister

Arachnodemon
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Messages
741
My first H. Maculata .5 inch sling went missing at some point a while back.
She was my first T so I wasn't super savvy at the time with how to keep such small ones, and she squeezed through a gap in the top I had thought was too small for her to attempt. Apparently not lol.
Realized she was missing about two weeks later when none of the crickets I put in there were eaten... lived in fear of the baby H. Mac somewhere in my bedroom, lest I find her again with my foot or hand or something when I wasn't paying attention.

Haven't come across her yet and it's been almost a year. Kind of hoping she died so I can clean under my bed without fear but who knows, maybe I'll look under and find a big web with a big angry spider in it. (Man I hope not)

Haven't made the same mistake since, so it was a good learning experience if nothing else!
Your first T was an H. maculata? Go big or go home, I guess. Sorry to hear about that.
 

BabaYaga

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 20, 2016
Messages
6
Your first T was an H. maculata? Go big or go home, I guess. Sorry to hear about that.
I've got a weakness for Ts with tempers haha
My second was an H. Lividum, third was a far more successful H. Mac. Did well with them for a year and now I'm picking up a C. Minax.
If it's composed of venom and fury, chances are I want it.
 

Bugmom

Arachnolord
Joined
May 28, 2012
Messages
646
I viewed that thread, and I AM DYING to see the video of you coaxing your T out of the drain!
There should be a link to it towards the end.
I just took a look at that thread...

I'm shocked at how much everyone was laughing about it. Usually people get lynched on these forums for having an escaped tarantula. EIGHTY DAYS? That's a bit disturbing to be honest.
I'm going to introduce an OW tarantula to your bathtub drain and see just how fast and easy you convince it to get back in it's enclosure :smug:
 
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