The Funny New Tarantula Owner Thread

Bill S

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
1,418
Don't have to be new for goofy things to happen. My wife and I came home one evening and I started working at the computer. My wife announces, from down the hall, that there's an unusual spider climbing the wall. A minute later she comments that there are several of them, and they look a lot like tiny tarantulas. That got my attention. Turned out that one of my Holothele sp "Tachira" had produced an egg sac that I hadn't known about, and the babies were now hatched and dispersing. Spent some time that night rounding up babies - captured more than 40 of them.

Another time I opened the lid of a cage in order to feed one of my faster tarantulas. In less time than it took to get the cricket into the cage I had a spider run up my arm and around my shoulder onto my back. Next several minutes were an interesting game of hide and seek crossed with tag.
 

Ictinike

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Messages
460
Another time I opened the lid of a cage in order to feed one of my faster tarantulas. In less time than it took to get the cricket into the cage I had a spider run up my arm and around my shoulder onto my back. Next several minutes were an interesting game of hide and seek crossed with tag.
But.. were YOU it? ;)
 

2oCHEVYo0

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
67
I have had ALOT of newb moments in my time keeping T's. But the one that caught me off guard the most was not soo long ago.

I had just gotten my first couple T's after 4-5 years of having none and man was I soo excited!!! I built all there little containers and set em up perfectly. I would watch them for several hours at a time to realize, hmm... I have sat here to watch tarantulas, and nothing has happened. Well, I went to go check on my new P. Pederseni one last time before heading to bed and was shocked to find it was nowhere to be found.

I checked and checked for 30 minutes and REALLY started panicking! I mean, it was a pokie and from what I had heard they were quick and venomous and not the type of tarantula you would want to go missing. I slowly started tearing the enclosure apart bit by bit and still, NOTHING! I freaked out, and had my dad and older brother come down and see if maybe they could help me. We continued digging through the substrate (carefully) and removed the waterbowl and logs after careful inspection and pretty soon had just a container in front of us with no ball of fuzz.

We went through everything one last time and pondered how exactly it could have escaped as the container was made to be innescapable. My bro grabbed the log and looked at it with a flashlight and, whalaa!!! Little furry ball of fuzz had wedged itself into a little tiny crack no thicker than 1/16"...

Wasn't soo funny at the time, but I can't help but laugh now! There was also a time when I thought tarantula's drank through there feet :wall: and would drown without a sponge!!!
 

malevolentrobot

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
310
ditto to underestimating the speed of slings when i first started out. after a slow moving G. rosea and G. pulchripes, i was terrified when my P. irminia shot out like a lightning bolt when i unpacked it!
 

6StringSamurai

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 24, 2006
Messages
134
I read something about crickets hurting Ts and I put a few in the refrigerator to slow them down for my T. Well they stopped moving completely and I thought they were dead so I put them in the container and when they warmed up again (10 minutes later) there were 3 crickets jumping around the cage and I freaked out and tried fishing them out but my T was faster than I. Stuffing 2 of the 3 in its mouth rather suddenly.
This post reminded me of something that isn't really a "stupid newbie" story but I thought I would share.

I was a Holden Caulfield like alienated youth, and I would get into trouble at school for making trouble in class and pulling pranks on kids I didn't like. I don't remember how this one kid ticked me off, but I decided he needed something special.

I bought a gross of feeder crickets, that's a dozen dozen or 144. They had been sitting in my car for a while and it was very cold, so they were dazed and slow moving, which made them perfect for my evil plan.

I dumped them into the kid's locker, some in his book bag, some in his coat pockets, anywhere I could fit some I stuck them in. They warmed up during that class period and when he opened his locker between classes they poured out on him and scattered from him all over the floor. It looked like a waterfall made of crickets. They just kept coming. It actually looked like a lot more than 144 of them.

Kids were screaming and laughing, and teachers were running through the halls trying to figure out what was happening.

I suppose I should regret that and be ashamed of myself today, but it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
 

blackrayne

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 20, 2009
Messages
9
Pot meet kettle.

I'm only saying this because you didn't see what the original text was, not that it was terrible, so thinking we are all "freaking" out about it and "criticizing" then you too have just done so. I presume most of your tirade was directed towards me so if you wish to discuss it further PM me.

Thanks.
i wasnt directing it to anyone (but if you're feeling like that, it says something about you), and i didn't go on a "tirade"...the general feeling of this forum has gone way downhill since i joined, and this is 99% of the reason why i don't post...like i said, i don't know what the op originally posted, the the adjusted post asked for beginner stories, and after saying people needed to chill over the adjusted op, that's what i did...and if you have an issue with that, then YOU can pm me over it...
 

Ictinike

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Messages
460
i wasnt directing it to anyone (but if you're feeling like that, it says something about you), and i didn't go on a "tirade"...the general feeling of this forum has gone way downhill since i joined, and this is 99% of the reason why i don't post...like i said, i don't know what the op originally posted, the the adjusted post asked for beginner stories, and after saying people needed to chill over the adjusted op, that's what i did...and if you have an issue with that, then YOU can pm me over it...
PM Sent.

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