terrestrial p. irminia

[krystal]

_NOW_ i find out my p. irminia is afraid of heights!

yesterday i purchased one of those round kritter keeper aquariums for fish, along with this nice piece of dead drift wood. i expected my irminia to start building a beautiful web against the drift wood, but alas, she has decided the ground is more suitable because that is were she started digging a burrow--underneath the wood. and that is where she is going to stay since she has started to web up the entrance.

oh well. she's probably suffered a lot of spider trauma or something.

 

[mebebraz]

I had one like that, kept digging it up, she kept burrowing, so finally I took a hot glue gun and glued the wood off the substrate and she followed the wood up and webbed, might try doing that if you want it in the upper area.

 

[MizM]

Whoa braz, quite the disciplinarian aren't we?

I let my Ts do WHATEVER they want. And they are all the more spoiled rotten for it!!

 

[pelo]

I had an A.metallica,P.rufilata and P.irminia all do the same thing.They all burrowed at the base of the corkbark.The metallica and irminia stayed burrowed for about a week and the rufilata about 3 weeks.They've all now taken to aboreal life.Give it some time to settle in.It'll climb and web when it's ready....peace..

 

[defour]

Originally posted by mebebraz
I had one like that, kept digging it up, she kept burrowing, so finally I took a hot glue gun and glued the wood off the substrate and she followed the wood up and webbed, might try doing that if you want it in the upper area.

Better yet, glue the tarantula right where you want it! Sounds good to me, and it sure worked when I first had kids and had to get a good night's sleep! Of course, a tarantula will require a lesser dose of glue than a pesky ankle-biter.

Steve

 

[SpiderFood]

Thats wierd, I have an A. metallica that has always been arboreal, but my P. rufilata and my P. irminia are both terrestrial burrowers, confused the $#*@ outta me, after reading up on them. I think it may have something to do with instinct at a certain age frame. My P. irminia is only about an inch right now, the A. metallica is about an inch and a half, and the P. rufilata is pushin 2.5 inches. If yours is the same size maybe its a characteristic of the younger spider. Who knows, JMO.
dale

 

[SpiderTwin]

Hmmm...Strange to hear of an Avic not being arboreal. I have never seen any of mine spend more than a minute or two on the substrate.

And as for the P. irminia, I thought the were primarily arboreal. I guess I'll know when I get one

 

[Alias]

well, I dont own an irminia, but I was told by a guy who focuses just on breeding psalmopoeus, that its completely common for them to burrow at young age..or make half burrow/ half dirt covered webbing on the surface. also, all small irminias that I saw on various spider conventions did this, never saw them make avicularia-like webbing..

 

[Dafne]

I have got 1" P. irminia. Actually this T does not burrow. At least not now... It is definitely aboreal for now... But I have also P. cambridgei (about 3,5" now). It made beautiful web at the top of its enclosure during the first days after I purchased it. But after couple of weeks it became a burrower. It went down underneath the cork bar and took out all of the substrate from there till the bottom of its enclosure and used it together with web to prepare new home for himself... The entrance is open all of the time... For me it looks beautiful, like his own castle It stays there till now, it is more than one month now and I think it feels really good there...
I think there is nothing to worry about as I have heard too that Psalmopoeus species burrows a lot especially when they are young

 

[RugbyDave]

i was under the impression that, at a younger age, irminias were more terrestrial, but as the aged towards maturity, they started building more arboreal webs...

could be wrong though
peace
dave