sling mortality (long post)

[freddierossero]

hi everyone. i've been having a lot of my slings die in the past few months, so i was wondering if you could help me figure out what's going on.

about a year ago, i got 5 Ts shipped to me: 1 A. chalcodes, 1 C. cyaneopubescens, 1 Euathlus sp. red, 1 P. murinus (a freebie), and 1 H. sp. Colombia (also a freebie). i unpacked them and put them in their enclosures--for the slings, the terrestrial sling kit from jamie's tarantulas, the juvenile kit for the GBB, and a critter keeper for the ~3" A. chalcodes. about a week later, the pumpkin patch died. i was sad, but i figured it was just a bad molt, and that these things happen. the rest were okay for a while, and then i ended up being hospitalized for a month and a half, with no one to take care of my Ts. i came home expecting them to pretty much all be dead, but none of them were. the P. murinus had a piece of bark in its cage that was moldy, and that's what i assume caused its death, which happened not too long after i got back.

then this spring, i ordered 5 more slings, and got 1 freebie-- 2 A. eutylenum, 1 G. pulchripes, 1 P. scrofa, 1 A. geniculata, and the free N. chromatus. all through the spring and summer, they were all ok. i ended up moving, and the spiders moved with me, staying in my closet until we unpacked and settled in. i think this is when i started to see some jerky movements from one or two of the slings, and was concerned that maybe something in the closet was causing dks. i cleaned out anything chemical-y, and checked on the spiders i could see (a couple would stay burrowed for weeks or months at a time). i went away for a week or so, and when i came back, things had gotten worse. by august, 3 of my spiders had died--1 A. eutylenum, the P. scrofa, and the A. geniculata, all within about a week of each other. the G. pulchripes had been burrowed for a long time, so i'm not sure when it died, but rest assured that it did. again, in some of them i had seen the uncoordinated/jerky movements, and some seemed like they had bad molts. i moved the spiders all out to a separate building, where we keep our snakes.

in september, my GBB died, which was really upsetting since i'd had it for almost a year, and it had grown quite a bit. it looked like a bad molt, potentially from me not keeping up on its water enough. since then, i've been checking their moisture/water daily, and generally spraying the sides of their enclosures and wetting the substrate a little every other day. i did have to bring them back into the closet for about a week and a half because we were doing some construction in that separate building. up until about a week ago, everything seemed fine--they were back in the separate building, eating pretty well, seeming fine. i switched the E. sp. red to a different substrate, coco coir mixed with moss, to help prevent some mold issues. it seemed like it was having some trouble adjusting to the more varied surface at first, but then its movements got worse, and are now jerky and uncoordinated like dks might be the problem. a little before this got worse, i noticed that the (smaller) A. eutylenum was starting to move strangely, too.

this morning i went out to check on them, and those two are still moving with difficulty, and i think the N. chromatus is dead--it's hard to say if it was moving strangely, since it's almost always burrowed. i looked through the bottom of its enclosure to where the tunnels are visible, and it doesn't look good. the A. chalcodes still seems to be fine.

so after all that, my question is: is this my fault? is it a case of improper husbandry, or just the fact that spiders have a lot of babies at once, most of which don't survive? it seems to me that seven spiders dying in a year or less is a lot, even if they were all slings, especially knowing that three more may be dying or dead soon.

they're all kept in pretty small containers, and i'm good about cleaning up their pre-killed crickets after a couple of days. a couple of them had some mold issues with the bark i was using as hides, so i took that out of all the enclosures--now they just have their tunnels and/or some fake plants. like i said, i spray water droplets on them about every other day, especially now that we're heating the snake room and it's getting pretty dry in there.

sorry for the super long post, and thanks in advance!!!!

 

[EulersK]

Slings do indeed die with no reason - I had two H. maculata slings from the same sac, kept the exact same way, only to have one die and the other thrive. These things happen. However, you have juveniles that have died (it's no longer a "sling" when the carapace is larger than the abdomen, generally speaking). That being said, I think you may have a bit of bad luck mixed in with some other factor. Are there pesticides being sprayed anywhere? If your neighbors are close by and douse their home in pesticides, then this may be an issue. Stagnant air and low humidity are death sentences to most slings, and it's something I had to learn early on. Or it may be something completely unrelated. I'd suggest posting pictures of some of your enclosures.

Personally, I'd suggest just staying away from slings all together until you have more experience under your belt. Even now, I despise slings, and only pick them up when they're a great deal. Stick to sub-adults and adults of hardier species for the time being. A chalcodes, G. rosea, most Brachypelma species, most Euathlus species, C. cyaneopubescens, etc. They're more expensive, but an expensive live adult is better than a cheap dead sling.

 

[awiec]

Seems like you basically got a big kiss from Murphy's law. I presume the more recent deaths are chemical poisoning as most chemicals disrupt the nervous system of inverts leading to the jerky movements. I would get rid of the cages from jamies as they don't have enough ventilation for my tastes and are expensive compared to tupperware or delicups that are much easier to modify. The worst case of sling loss I got was when I had 10 LP slings shipped to me and 7 of them died as a result of A) the package came late and B) the lawn company sprayed the day they came. I've also had 2 pass on me due to the fact that they were weaklings and wouldn't eat or do anything really, while their siblings are still with me and going strong. It also sounds like a few newbie mistakes happened too but I think your group just suffered from chemical poisoning and weak genetics.

So to prevent this in the future, keep them out of that closet, get well ventilated deli cups/cages, provide water bowls and keep an eye on how damp your sub is as you can also over water them (GBB's aren't fond of wet enclosures).

 

[lalberts9310]

Pictures of the enclosures and setups would be most helpful. Also, there should always be a waterbowl provided as soon as the enclosure allows. Like awiec said, it sounds like the recent deaths were caused by chemicals, have there been any use of pesticides in or nearby your home that you are aware of?

 

[dementedlullaby]

If you have a lot die in a short period (few months) I would also suspect something a little more nefarious. I'd also look into possible pesticide usage.

Agree with lalberts, pics of enclosures would help too. A little mold isn't going to be the end of the world and better ventilation should be a good solution. Which is recommended anyway .


Sorry about the losses. One of my original Avic slings didn't make it when I first started keeping tarantulas. It sucks , but at least the siblings are still kicking and doing well. I'd be quite upset in your situation as well >_<.

 

[cold blood]

I agree that it was almost certainly poisoning. My guess is that possibly the place had been treated prior to you moving in, and while it may have dissipated fine throughout the house, the small closed off closet may have been a different story...or maybe that was the source of the bulk of spraying. Find a new location for the survivors or new ones.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

First, i'm sorry man. Seriously. So sorry.

Second: skilled enthusiasts here mentioned poisoning, pesticides, chemicals. All "words" i hate. So, i can't (of course) know if that's is your problem but, anyway.. too bad that Dante Alighieri, the White Guelf, the great poet, wasn't into T's (at least for what i know about him, and i know a bit) ... otherwise he would gladly reserved a special place in Inferno for those who spray. Spray. Spray. Spray, again, for being happy. Disrespect nature. They keep spraying, as a sort of mandatory thing. What the "enter f-word" you have to spray for?

Spray your head, weirdo, and die. Would be better to spray directly in the mouth some people, instead of "bugs"

Hope that's not the cause of death of your T's, but just damn, normal, pure finest bad luck. Because i can't tolerate those who spray.

Thank God here where i live no one give a damn about those paranoid things.

 

[freddierossero]

thanks so much, everyone! i had read that the dks symptoms could be caused by chemical exposure, but i'm stumped as to where that could have happened. the apartment i was living in before was a green apartment--not even perfume was allowed. here i'm at my mom's house, and we don't ever spray for anything, and we're acres away from any neighbors. i don't know what could have been in the closet--there were some shower things like soaps and shampoos that i took out, but no clues otherwise. we do have dogs and cats that get spot treatments for fleas and ticks once in a while (mostly in fall and spring), but they don't ever have contact with the Ts. the only other thing i can think of is that my mom smokes, but she never smokes in my room, and all of the house spiders are doing perfectly well (which my fiance hates, lol). the other thing is that the most recent slings to have the problems didn't even really show them much until i had them out in the garage with the snakes, where there are definitely no chemicals.

dang, i'm a talker.

i do keep water bowls in the larger spiders' enclosures, but i read that for most slings, you should have a water bowl no bigger than their legspan--any suggestions for tiny water bowls? most of these slings were smaller than water bottle caps when they died.

i'm definitely going to keep away from slings for a while until i have more experience. i liked the idea of raising my spiders from babies, but it's not worth it if i can't keep them alive.

i feel so bad about all of this, like i've let my pets down. your advice really helps.

 

[awiec]

thanks so much, everyone! i had read that the dks symptoms could be caused by chemical exposure, but i'm stumped as to where that could have happened. the apartment i was living in before was a green apartment--not even perfume was allowed. here i'm at my mom's house, and we don't ever spray for anything, and we're acres away from any neighbors. i don't know what could have been in the closet--there were some shower things like soaps and shampoos that i took out, but no clues otherwise. we do have dogs and cats that get spot treatments for fleas and ticks once in a while (mostly in fall and spring), but they don't ever have contact with the Ts. the only other thing i can think of is that my mom smokes, but she never smokes in my room, and all of the house spiders are doing perfectly well (which my fiance hates, lol). the other thing is that the most recent slings to have the problems didn't even really show them much until i had them out in the garage with the snakes, where there are definitely no chemicals.

dang, i'm a talker.

i do keep water bowls in the larger spiders' enclosures, but i read that for most slings, you should have a water bowl no bigger than their legspan--any suggestions for tiny water bowls? most of these slings were smaller than water bottle caps when they died.

i'm definitely going to keep away from slings for a while until i have more experience. i liked the idea of raising my spiders from babies, but it's not worth it if i can't keep them alive.

i feel so bad about all of this, like i've let my pets down. your advice really helps.

Fun fact, spiders are covered in hydrophobic "hairs" thus they float on water and those hairs can even trap air so you have spiders that will dive to hunt or get away. I usually use water bottle caps and then upgrade to milk cap, power aid caps and finally condiment cups/proper water bowls. You mentioned construction which I think might have stirred up some dust/chemicals that may have poisoned the animals, being in an unventilated closet most likely didn't help either. Though another thing is that local governments will spray for mosquitos at night in little planes or farmers who spray for their crops can also do a number on tarantulas while the more adapted and hardier native spiders don't care.

 

[Sana]

Just out of curiosity, do you always get your feeders from the same place? Feeders to my knowledge might carry all kinds of nastiness including mites and pesticide residue.