Someone tell me what this is?

AfterTheAsylum

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
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Aug 13, 2005
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674
There is something else you can do, due to the speed and size of the T. We'll see how many people disagree with this!

Experience takes a handle here. You could refrigerate her to slow her down, and then Q-Tip her, or you can use tweezers with rounded tips. A soft bristled toothbrush is great as well.
 

Sheazy

Arachnoknight
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Apr 19, 2007
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155
While I have no experience in the matter, I personally would wait for her to molt then snatch her up and put her in a fresh new environment, rather than leaving her and removing the molt. I would be too afraid that as long as the molting process goes a few would jump ship and be in the area around her even after the molt is removed.

She will be delicate after molting, but I would feel better about it than leaving her be and only removing the molt. Plus, all of my Avic's were really slowed down after molting, so you may be able to put her in an ICU container and pick any mites off that you see before transferring her to a new container.

I wish you luck, mites and nematodes are something I have no desire to experience first hand.
Sorry, I should have clarified. I will be removing both her, and the molt. I figured some may transfer back to her rather quickly, so another transfer and cleaning will be definate after molting.

When she is actually molting and I see the carapace split or pop up, should I put a single small drop of water an inch or so away to attract any mites away from her? Would that even work?

And generally, keep things drier and make sure the enclosure is well ventilated. Good luck!
Yea, she is in a small AMAC container that had 22 holes drilled in it, and I just added 4 more in the top yesterday during cleaning while she was in ICU. I am sure she had them when I got her. Her habitat is well ventilated so hoping this is a one time problem for me. I even open the container and then reclose it to allow fresh air to force any remaining old air out through the ventilation holes (the downward motion of her habitat meeting the base forces air out the top).

Dunking the whole spider in baby powder would probably cause more harm than good. The book lungs would become clogged with the stuff which is so fine it could get into every orifice.
That's what I was thinking since the book lungs absorb air directly, and thus anything on or around their book lungs, into their lungs. I dont think my case is anywhere extreme enough to merrit trying this, so will just keep her in the dry container now for a few days and then offer a small cap of water for one night, and then back to dry for a few days and check progress.

Experience takes a handle here. You could refrigerate her to slow her down, and then Q-Tip her, or you can use tweezers with rounded tips. A soft bristled toothbrush is great as well.
I have heard of this as well, just too afraid to try since she is so small. Not to mention, I just got into keeping T's...not too high on the experience totem pole yet. Thanks for the idea, but will try the other options first and see where it gets me. I am hoping they wont be that problematic.

Removed her from ICU this morning, and put her back in her thoroughly cleaned, DRY habitat. It does have substrate, but only about a quarter inch and is completely dry.

Thanks everyone, and if anyone has info on the predatory mites...I am still curious, even if I dont need to use them.
 

AfterTheAsylum

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
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I have never been one to wait something out to see if it gets better. I have had way too many experiences where time was the worst idea. If I were you, I would spend ten minutes trying to pull those suckers off. Wait about half a day, then do it again.
 

billopelma

Arachnolord
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Sep 20, 2005
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604
Noticed some mites on this 2.5" T when I was rehousing...



Took it out in the middle of the yard and chased it around using a head magnifier and some very fine tweezers After 5 or 10 minutes they get fairly resigned (probably tired) to the intrusion and can become pretty easy to work with. And Lampropelma isn't exacltly the ideal candidate for this, so it should be possible with most T's.
Most of the mites can be just pushed off, they're not actually attached, others are easier to grab. A brush also works well in gereral and is good to remove the more accessable ones but it can be hard to get the ones that run off in between legs, chelicerae and such. That's where the tweezers come in.

End result... I noticed a couple hangers on still, so I may have to do a round two.




Bill
 

Sheazy

Arachnoknight
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Apr 19, 2007
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I have never been one to wait something out to see if it gets better. I have had way too many experiences where time was the worst idea. If I were you, I would spend ten minutes trying to pull those suckers off. Wait about half a day, then do it again.
I would gladly do that if I could see them, or keep the spider still. You gotta remember I am dealing with a sling that only has a legspan of 0.75". I have tweezers, but the end of them is still the size of the avic's carapace. Even with a magnifying glass I can barely see the mites.

If you can tell me a good way to hold one that small then I am all ears. I feel like if I even attempted it I would injure or squish it...if I could even catch it in my fingers..lol.

I'm not one to wait it out either...which is why I am posting and asking about any and all possible ways of removal. I'm even willing to buy predatory mites just to take care of this one problem...even if it costs me three times what the spider did.
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
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Jan 5, 2005
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8,325
lol, i was going to say... you are just going to club the poor thing to death if you go the manual route. and sharp tipped tweezers are an even worse bet at that size.


i am pretty sure they aren't vampires, so it's not like they are draining its life essence... so you have time. the worst thing you can do is something rash and irrevocable. if some are coming off from the icu treatment i think it would be folly to move to something more dramatic because of impatience.
 

Sheazy

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
155
lol, i was going to say... you are just going to club the poor thing to death if you go the manual route. and sharp tipped tweezers are an even worse bet at that size.


i am pretty sure they aren't vampires, so it's not like they are draining its life essence... so you have time. the worst thing you can do is something rash and irrevocable. if some are coming off from the icu treatment i think it would be folly to move to something more dramatic because of impatience.
That's exactly what I am thinking. I would hate to cause damage, death, or stress to the poor little sling. I have three different type of tweezers and all look like medieval weapons when near the sling...she's prolly thinking "oh crap, dont touch me with that"...lol. Even my smallest paintbrush looks gigantic.

I will check her again when I get home, and probably go the ICU route again and see if I can't get more to migrate off. I would rather have to repeat this 50x than accidentally injure her once with a foul move of the tweezers or brush.
 

AfterTheAsylum

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 13, 2005
Messages
674
Didn't realize it was that small. I somehow missed it in the first post... yeah... crap... there goes my next suggestion! {D
 
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