suggestions for digging up my h. lividium?

[xBurntBytheSunx]

so my lividium's tank has gotten so moldy i think i'm going to clean the whole thing out. i scraped mold out once before and within a week it was three times as bad. i have been putting off cleaning it b/c i don't want to deal with an angry lividium. but i know eventually i will have to do it.

what i am planning on doing is taking the top half of a 2-liter and covering her burrow with it while digging the burrow up with ruler. does that sound like a good plan? or is there something else that might work better. what i am most concerned about is not getting bitten or the lividium getting loose in my apt (which would be bad news)

 

[manville]

maybe you can try do use something to get her out and then use a cup and a book to get her in and you can do whatever you want..whatever you do try not to get bitten!

 

[da_illest]

get something thin like a shishkobob stick and poke thru the substrate into her burrow and touch her till she comes out.. this is why i like to sterilize stuff when i first find mold although i've tested and found that if it's only a little bit you can take it out and keep the area dry so it won't come back.

 

[PapaSmurf]

Best things to use when working with any Tarantula is a glad ware bowl catch it in the bowl then slide the lid under it and snap it shut use something long and soft for pokeing around at the spider so you dont hurt it.

josh

 

[abstract]

I just actually moved my H. "longipendum" last week to give to Trinity - here's what I did. Different sp., similar attitude and burrow...

Placed the medium sized KK in my bathtub, and started scooping out dirt from the top with a big spoon. I put the dirt in my toilet - which i don't recommend for a variety of reasons - a bag or box would probably work better.

Either way, I scooped dirt out until I had gotten down to where the burrow was underneath all of the substrate, and kept scooping until I had partially collapsed the burrow on it. At this point, the dirt was coming out in big chunks; it had been stuck together for so long. So I picked out a few more chunks, and could finally see some legs sticking out from the collapsed dirt.

I then used my paintbrush to get the excess dirt off the top of it, which got it to move out to on top of the dirt. I attempted to manipulate it by brushing it around and into the delicup - which resulted in a lot of threat positions, striking, and general attitude. After a couple minutes of attempts, it actually struck and grabbed onto the paintbrush - so i picked it up by the paintbrush, lowered it into the delicup, and then put the lid on and slid the brush out.

Volia! Now it might be kinda difficult getting it back into the enclosure, but probably not too bad. The bathtub is a very nice buffer that keeps a spazzy spider from running too far too quickly.

 

[DJ_AD]

use the power of air...

What I used to do to coax mine out of it's lair was to first locate the back of the burrow and then slowly insert a plastic drinking straw down in until it broke through into the burrow.

Once you've broken through, nest a few more straws together to help get your face a comfortable distance from the tank. At this point you'll want to put a plastic lid or something in the tank to be used later to cover up the entrance when the spider emerges. Replace the tank lid, leaving just enough space for the straw contraption to get through.

Then, just start gently blowing in the straw. The gentler you can do it, usually the less agitated the spider will emerge from the burrow. Once it is out, use another LONG tool to gently slide the plastic lid over the burrow entrance to prevent it from dashing back inside. If it comes out guns blazing, it is probably best to let it cool down for a bit before placing a deli-cup over the top of it. Once it's under the deli-cup, slide it's lid under and you've got one contained cobalt.

The first time I tried to dig him up the old fashoned earth-moving way - I was nearly bitten, my roomate ran from the house screaming and the spider wouldn't calm down for nearly a week. After that, I tried the straw method to great success. It made it so I could get him out every 6 months or so for a checkup or tank change without any problems.

Doing it in the bathtub would also give you double redundancy in case of an escape if you want to be extra careful

 

[Nich]

I ususally just distact mine with a pencil then pin it by the middle and then pick it up between the 2nd & 3 legs.....but how does your tank get moldy......? Even my pede tank doesnt get moldy and she's got WAY more humidity than the lividum's tank (90%).....thts crazy....Ive only seen mold on the inside of an old hide.....what state do you live in? :?

 

[MizM]

When you re-house it, drill some holes around the BOTTOM of the container too. To water it, just set the container in a pan of water for a while. No need to keep the soil moist enough to encourage mold. Also, you can use your handy-dandy b.b.q. skewer to poke it from underneath.

 

[willywonka]

What I did was to put a plastic soda bottle (cut in half) over the hole of the burrow, then I would slowly fill the tank with water. The T (not liking the water) would slowly work its way to the top and into the soda bottle. I have always had a great deal of success with this method.