This ever happen to you?

[Chris]

My C. Paganus has met an untimely death...

My little demon tried to molt and apparently had a parasite problem. I am almost certain she was a WC specimen as I got her from a pet shop about 8 months ago.

I never noticed any parasites on her or anywhere in her cage before... and I have never had mite problems ever (My apartment is very dry and high up). I saw them all over her new skin as she was coming out of her old exoskeleton. By the time I saw this it was to late for poor little Toni the thai-ger.

Has something like this ever happened to any of you?

 

[Steve Nunn]

Chris, this sounds very unusual, sounds like one of those wierd internal parasites, not mites. Do you have a scope to have a better look at these things?

More ofen then not during a molt the T can get rid of most mites as they'll stay on the old exuvium, not congregate en mass on the spider itself. It's even rarer that mites will kill their host, even the ones that feed off the spiders hemolymph(there are a few of these types in the Asian regions). I'd send the sider off to Romain (contactable through arachnid_world list) for tests.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Chris]

Damn... I wish I had thought of that before I threw her out

I wanted to get her out ASAP in case of an infestation... there is no guarentee that they killed her (might have just had a bad molt) but it sure looks suspicious when they are in between the new and old skins!