Superworm beetle (zophobas mairo?) in my P Stiata's enclosure.

[Methal]

I recall her ever missing a meal, I typically do not tong feed my Tarantulas, I also dont make it a habbit of rooting around in their enclosures.

Got up this morning and she is up on the wall displaying her beautiful colors (love these species) and this 1 inch long black beetle is wandering around the enclosure like a small bulldozer.

Its kinda cute =D lol HOWEVER i'll not hesitate to skoosh that thing if it posses any threat to my tarantula.

Shes as big as my hand, but i have smallish hands. So shes probably 5 inches? maybe 6? Shes just gone pre-molt so not as active as she was a month ago. I'll I'll see if I can get a measurement one of these days.

Anyway, should I risk getting my world rocked by a Tarantula who threat posses when I walk into the room? (This I do have a picture of) to get the thing out of there? I dont want her to get munched on while molting. she JUST started ignoring food. So could be couple weeks, month? dunno.

THe whole situation makes me a bit nervous.

 

[lalberts9310]

I'd remove it, maybe catchcup the T and remove the beetle then?

 

[cold blood]

That beetle WILL eat your t if it happens to molt. If you cant be right on top of superworm feedings to prevent escapes, the head should be crushed prior to feeding.

This is an adult GBB that was left to molt with beetles...yeah, it was dead in hours.

 

[Methal]

What i think im going to do, is wait/startle her into her cork bark log hide, then put the cup over that. and fish the beetle out with the tongs.

 

[Poec54]

There should never be beetles in a tarantula cage. That means superworms/mealworms have been roaming around, looking for something to eat. They have some serious jaws. When I give my spiders superworms, I drop them in and stand over the cage with forceps, and pull them out if the spider doesn't get them immediately, because they burrow in the substrate in seconds. Most hungry spiders, especially post-molt, will eat superworms. But once they've got some weight on, some of them won't anymore.

 

[BobGrill]

Hate those things. That odor they release when threatened makes me absolutely nauseous. I always make sure I remove them right away should I ever find one in an enclosure.

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[Poec54]

The reasons I use superworms are: 1) variety in the spider's diet, and 2) they last a long time, and get me thru times when I'm out of adult crickets. I get 1,000 superworms at a shot, and they last months. Spiders seem to fatten up quicker with superworms vs crickets.

 

[jigalojey]

You need to start crunching their heads, I like super worms because they seem to last forever when I buy them from the store, no clue how many they put in there lol. but crickets should be the staple diet, everything else is secondary.