Roach and Molting Tarantula

[Sohki]

Hi!

So, I believe my G. actaeon is in pre-molt and has been so for a couple of weeks.

I offered him/her a B. lateralis... but he/she shied away when the roach touched his/her leg. I tried to remove the roach, but the booger ran down the tarantula's burrow. A few days later, I found the roach atop the cork bark, so I tried to catch it... but the demon ran down the burrow again. I tried a third time a few days further, but I can't catch this darn monkey. The roach's presence in the enclosure seems to be stressing out my tarantula... and me attempting to catch it is also stressing out my tarantula, so should I just leave it in there?

If the roach were to crawl on top of my tarantula while they were molting, could this potentially lead to the tarantula's death??

Thanks for reading; please forgive my newbie-questions. :3

 

[Cmac2111]

Hi!

So, I believe my G. actaeon is in pre-molt and has been so for a couple of weeks.

I offered him/her a B. lateralis... but he/she shied away when the roach touched his/her leg. I tried to remove the roach, but the booger ran down the tarantula's burrow. A few days later, I found the roach atop the cork bark, so I tried to catch it... but the demon ran down the burrow again. I tried a third time a few days further, but I can't catch this darn monkey. The roach's presence in the enclosure seems to be stressing out my tarantula... and me attempting to catch it is also stressing out my tarantula, so should I just leave it in there?

If the roach were to crawl on top of my tarantula while they were molting, could this potentially lead to the tarantula's death??

Thanks for reading; please forgive my newbie-questions. :3

This was the first question I asked on the boards, so I'll give the same answer I got back then... GET IT OUTTA THERE! Premolt or no, if she isn't eating, then that sucker has no reason to be there. Also yeah, the roach could easily kill and eat your T if it decides to molt. T's are defenseless during the molting process, and are potentially a big meal for opportunistic, omnivorous scavengers like roaches. Do what is necessary first and don't fret too much over stressing her in this instance, you can gently catch her up and remove her from the enclosure if you need to.

 

[NMTs]

Yep, get it out. An easier way to get the roach is to bait it away from the burrow by placing something like an apple slice on the other side of the enclosure. Once the roach goes to eat it, you can put a cup over it to keep it from getting back into the burrow.

 

[Sohki]

Thanks a lot, both of you!!

The baiting thing is a good idea. I'll definitely try that. I'll probably temporarily remove the tarantula from the enclosure as well, since she/he seems to be really stressed by me messing around.

Thanks ssoooooo much for the tips!!

 

[Cmac2111]

The baiting thing is a good idea. I'll definitely try that. I'll probably temporarily remove the tarantula from the enclosure as well

Go with NMT's idea first, only remove her/him if this doesn't work or if you really can't catch the bugger (I completely forgot about baiting loose feeders when I wrote my comment). Better to get the roach to come where you want it if possible!

 

[Sohki]

Go with NMT's idea first, only remove her/him if this doesn't work or if you really can't catch the bugger (I completely forgot about baiting loose feeders when I wrote my comment). Better to get the roach to come where you want it if possible!

Alright; will do. I put a bit of cantaloupe in one corner... hopefully the roach will go for it.

 

[Sohki]

Aiyaiyai, I caught the Umbridge roach.

It quickly came to see the cantaloupe... and then I pounced on it with the catch-cup... AND THEN IT SQUEEZED ITSELF FREE while I was trying to slip a piece of paper between it and the substrate... and, of course, it shot right into the burrow. I spent some time trying to fish it out using my chopstick... but it disappeared for a while--I could only see its unholy antennae waving up and down, slowly (it looked like it was snug in a hole in the burrow's wall or something, where my chopstick couldn't get to without destroying the burrow).

It eventually came out and I used the chopstick to guide it away from the burrow (it wouldn't leave the cork bark, aaaarrrgh!!). I threw the cup on it, scooped it up in a ball of substrate (I didn't want to risk trying the paper again) and took that foul ogre out of my beautiful darling's enclosure. :'c

Okay... that is the LAST time I am putting a roach in there, until the tarantula molts.

Thanks for the help, guys!! I appreciate your time!!!

 

[Sohki]

I ended up never having to take the tarantula out. He/she is huddled up in a fuzzy smush, though. I think it's a good idea to not disturb the T for a while.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Roaches will eat almost anything (including your tarantula if it's moulting/freshly moulted) so you did the right thing by removing it.

 

[Sohki]

Roaches will eat almost anything (including your tarantula if it's moulting/freshly moulted) so you did the right thing by removing it.

Thanks for the reassurance! I was afraid that messing up some of the webbing was going to stress my tarantula, but it's good to know that getting the roach out was the priority.

 

[looseyfur]

you can bait them as youve seen, one thing they cant resist is Oranges (at least in my experience) I have no idea if any citrus would bother a T thought.

 

[Sohki]

you can bait them as youve seen, one thing they cant resist is Oranges (at least in my experience) I have no idea if any citrus would bother a T thought.

Yes; my roaches love oranges, too!! I don't have any oranges available to me right now, though.... hence the cantaloupe, haha

 

[winter]

Aiyaiyai, I caught the Umbridge roach.

It quickly came to see the cantaloupe... and then I pounced on it with the catch-cup... AND THEN IT SQUEEZED ITSELF FREE while I was trying to slip a piece of paper between it and the substrate... and, of course, it shot right into the burrow. I spent some time trying to fish it out using my chopstick... but it disappeared for a while--I could only see its unholy antennae waving up and down, slowly (it looked like it was snug in a hole in the burrow's wall or something, where my chopstick couldn't get to without destroying the burrow).

It eventually came out and I used the chopstick to guide it away from the burrow (it wouldn't leave the cork bark, aaaarrrgh!!). I threw the cup on it, scooped it up in a ball of substrate (I didn't want to risk trying the paper again) and took that foul ogre out of my beautiful darling's enclosure. :'c

Okay... that is the LAST time I am putting a roach in there, until the tarantula molts.

Thanks for the help, guys!! I appreciate your time!!!

Whenever I need to remove uneaten prey, I don't try to capture them alive with tweezers, chopsticks, or catch cups. Rather, I just crush them with a large pair of tweezers then remove the crushed corpse; they're much easier to eliminate when I aim to kill rather than to capture.

I've learned from others to crush the heads of mealworms and cockroaches prior to giving them to my Ts; nowadays, the only prey that are fed intact are the crickets and flightless fruit flies. When I use the larger hissers as feeders, I crush their heads and cut off their legs to reduce risk of injury to the Ts.

 

[viper69]

Remove it