Too hot for high humidity t's?

Spiderman24

Arachnoknight
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Nov 19, 2010
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Well this is going to sound really wierd cause it does to me. I mist my t cages once a day is that to much? Well this is why. I mist every evening at 7 and by the next morening its dry! Humidity is always like 60 to 65% which is so strange! If my heat drops to 70 75 the humidity is perfect all round depending on how I misted which t. But once I start giving them the heat for the day 85-90 degrees it eats the humidity! Is this bad for my t's they are all well watered and fed so does it matter that much!? What can i do to fix this?

Please help!
 

Scoolman

Arachnolord
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Misting is a waste if time. The water vapor evaporates too fast, and the rapid evaporation can actually cool the enclosure. It is far better to wet one corner of the sub. This moisture will evaporate much more slowly and will not adversely affect the temp. Switch corners periodically and allow the other to dry out.
 

Spiderman24

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Good deal mate thanks everyone has always told me "misting the enclosure walls is very important" so i didnt want to stop but thanks mate
 

pato_chacoana

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Misting is a waste if time. The water vapor evaporates too fast, and the rapid evaporation can actually cool the enclosure. It is far better to wet one corner of the sub. This moisture will evaporate much more slowly and will not adversely affect the temp. Switch corners periodically and allow the other to dry out.
I second this. I very rarely mist... I do it with spiderlings, but the rest, I mostly soak part of their enclosures.

Cheers,
Pato
 

Arborealis

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I agree. I only mist slings and tropical arboreals and even those I dampen the substrate by way of pouring water in more often than I mist. I've raised most of my tarantulas from tiny babies so I'd say so far it's working :)
 

Spiderman24

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Nov 19, 2010
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Thanks everyone i just kicked my heat up and poured it in the corners i rarely see them in thanks!
 

curiousme

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Misting is a waste if time. The water vapor evaporates too fast, and the rapid evaporation can actually cool the enclosure. It is far better to wet one corner of the sub. This moisture will evaporate much more slowly and will not adversely affect the temp. Switch corners periodically and allow the other to dry out.
I agree with all of this, except that water vapor is the gaseous form of water already...the water will evaporate off quickly though! ;)
 

curiousme

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Well this is going to sound really wierd cause it does to me. I mist my t cages once a day is that to much? Well this is why. I mist every evening at 7 and by the next morening its dry! Humidity is always like 60 to 65% which is so strange! If my heat drops to 70 75 the humidity is perfect all round depending on how I misted which t. But once I start giving them the heat for the day 85-90 degrees it eats the humidity! Is this bad for my t's they are all well watered and fed so does it matter that much!? What can i do to fix this?

Please help!
Winter is the driest time in a house, with central heating that makes perfect sense. You are pushing hot dry air throughout the house, so naturally it is going to be drier.

Spraying the walls of your enclosures every day does nothing but provide you with useless busywork. Kind of like when your boss makes you wipe down walls or ceiling tiles, so at least you're working. Wet a corner, or half of the substrate once a week or so; don't make it swampy, but don't just lightly dampen it either. If you see it starting to dry out, do it again. Speaking of busywork....... take that hygrometer and hide it under your mattress, or leave it in the living room, but quit stressing over it. There are some species that have more specific humidity requirements, but if you do not have them, quit driving yourself crazy with humidity.

Right now our room hygrometer that sits on our sing shelf, is reading 30% R(elative)H(umidity) with a temp of 64 degrees. If I were to go crank my heat up, the degrees would go up, but the RH would go down. All that hygrometer is doing for you, is giving you an estimate of the humidity, relative to that temperature. In other words, how much humidity is possible for that temperature. In 10-15 minutes my readings will change, the temp will go up and the humidity will go down; but in actuality the humidity is most likely the still exactly the same, because it will take a longer period of forced hot air to affect a difference. Same air, same humidity, but a different temp = different RH reading.

There really isn't a need to have additional heat for your Ts, especially to keep them at such high temps. I am unsure how you are accomplishing the temps, but you most likely can save on some electricity by letting them be in the same temps as you are. We also live in Indiana, and as I noted above, it is 64 degrees in our house right now and we are unworried for our Ts well being. When the temps really drop, it will be warmer in here, but not a whole lot and this will be our third winter done this way. They may not grow as fast during this period, but we don't see this as a bad thing either.:)
 

Stan Schultz

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Well this is going to sound really wierd cause it does to me. I mist my t cages once a day is that to much? Well this is why. I mist every evening at 7 and by the next morening its dry! Humidity is always like 60 to 65% which is so strange! If my heat drops to 70 75 the humidity is perfect all round depending on how I misted which t. But once I start giving them the heat for the day 85-90 degrees it eats the humidity! Is this bad for my t's they are all well watered and fed so does it matter that much!? What can i do to fix this? ...
Lord give me strength! Why do people do this?

Sorry, Spiderman24, I'm not yelling at you. It's someone else's fault, really. You've just been cruelly mislead for the sake of extracting a few more bucks from your wallet.

Rather than bore the rest of the readership by recanting an already too well traveled tale, I will merely recommend that you click the Search link in the gray bar across the top of this page, then click Advanced Search.

In the resulting page type humidity into the Keyword(s): box and Pikaia into the User Name: box. Then click Search Now at the bottom.

While Arachnoboards and the Internet are grinding away you should put on another pot of coffee or pour yourself a large glass/cup/stein of your other favorite beverage, and clear your schedule. You have a lot of reading to do.

If you want a more global point of view (and a LOT more reading) leave out the Pikaia part.

I know this isn't what you wanted, but trust me, it's best. Sorry.
 

Spiderman24

Arachnoknight
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Nov 19, 2010
Messages
224
curiousme THANK YOU =D i love my t's as if they were my children so i over stress as any parent would over the well being of there children =) as for my heating i heat my entire house to 85° (no joke) lol i hate the cold heat is no bother i weigh 110 pounds so i need the heat during these cold times lol but now thanks to you i will no longer pay a 250$ over gas bill lmao but yet again thank you im taking all of that into newly formed consideration and see how they deal with this

The person below curiousme
Well rhank you for wasting your time with the smart remark im doing just fine now thanks =) as i can see you had to much time on your hands =) have a wonderful evening =)
 

Spiderman24

Arachnoknight
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Messages
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One last thing =) you stated you know this isnt what i wanted... lol wellas you were typing that it should have been about the time to hit the little button on your keyboard known as backspace dlt or just delete =)
 

Hobo

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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The person below curiousme
Well rhank you for wasting your time with the smart remark im doing just fine now thanks =) as i can see you had to much time on your hands =) have a wonderful evening =)
He actually gave you good advice that'll help you find more info in the future, instead of waiting for it to be spoonfed to you. If, for example, you had an emergency on you hands, you might not have the time to sit and wait for a reply.

He might have a lot of time on his hands though, I agree. So much time, in fact, that he co-wrote a whole book on Tarantulas!
:rolleyes:
 

curiousme

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curiousme THANK YOU =D i love my t's as if they were my children so i over stress as any parent would over the well being of there children =) as for my heating i heat my entire house to 85° (no joke) lol i hate the cold heat is no bother i weigh 110 pounds so i need the heat during these cold times lol but now thanks to you i will no longer pay a 250$ over gas bill lmao but yet again thank you im taking all of that into newly formed consideration and see how they deal with this
You are very welcome, that is a heck of a gas bill, so I am glad you will be saving yourself some money.(you can use it to buy more Ts ;) )

The person below curiousme
Well rhank you for wasting your time with the smart remark im doing just fine now thanks =) as i can see you had to much time on your hands =) have a wonderful evening =)
Actually, he(Stan Schultz, author of the Tarantula Keeper's Guide) also gave you very good advice. The advanced search is one of the most valuable assets on this site, so don't knock it til you try it. That said, I even linked you to one of his posts about humidity, because he does take the time to type up well thought out responses to questions. He is most likely a busy man, so typing that detailed of a response to every question like yours isn't feasible. He knows he has typed up something good already and directed you to it. ;)
 

Stan Schultz

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... The person below curiousme
Well rhank you for wasting your time with the smart remark im doing just fine now thanks =) as i can see you had to much time on your hands =) have a wonderful evening =)
One last thing =) you stated you know this isnt what i wanted... lol wellas you were typing that it should have been about the time to hit the little button on your keyboard known as backspace dlt or just delete =)
I'm confused. Did you misread my posting? It was a smart remark, but aimed at those ignorati who persist in either parroting drivel or publishing misleading or even outright fallacious instructions to novices. I'm sorry if you took it the wrong way; my intention was not to reprimand you. I am just eternally frustrated at how our hobby has devolved into passing down erroneous myth after erroneous myth. We're supposed to be working to dispel myths about tarantulas, not propagate them!

Please reread the first few sentences:

Lord give me strength! Why do people do this?

Sorry, Spiderman24, I'm not yelling at you. It's someone else's fault, really. You've just been cruelly mislead for the sake of extracting a few more bucks from your wallet. ...


And, here is the translation:

Lord give me strength!...

A measure of my frustration. People who regularly follow these forums know that I rarely use such language.

Why do people do this? ...

"Houston, we have a problem."

Sorry, Spiderman24, I'm not yelling at you. ...

More or less self explanatory. I'm yelling at someone else (e.g., those who persist in misleading novices by passing along bad recommendations).

It's someone else's fault, really. ...

You're not to blame. We don't hold you responsible. In fact, "Most of our faults aren't our fault."

You've just been cruelly mislead for the sake of extracting a few more bucks from your wallet. ...

You've been snookered. There are really two possible or probable reasons for this:

1) The person(s) who told you to do this really haven't a clue*, and are misleading you terribly out of benevolent ignorance.

2) The person(s) who told you to do this are after as many of your hard earned dollars as they can extract before you learn better.

The rest, of course, is merely a point by point set of instructions for using this forum's search utility. I'm amazed at the number of enthusiasts who either don't know one exists, don't know how to use it, or don't think to use it.

My instructions pointed you specifically to other postings I've made on more or less the same subject. I've been roundly criticized for this on occasion on the grounds that it's terribly egocentric. Perhaps it is, but it saves me from retyping the same tiresome message over and over and over again; and saves the long time readers from having to read the same tiresome message over and over and over again. It's simply more efficient for everybody.

And yes, I do have time on my hands. I'm retired. The governments (both the USA and Canada) pay me a pittance to be a professional consumer. {D

And, I while away my extra time by trying to help you and others like you enjoy these fascinating, bizarre, 8-legged creatures.

So, in that one rather brief posting (and this one as well) you learned that you had been mislead and were wasting a lot of time, money, and effort uselessly; you learned that your presumed problem was nowhere as serious as you'd been led to believe; you learned that there were much easier, more reliable ways to deal with the issue; you learned how to use the search function; you learned (with a little research) a little more about caring for your tarantula; and you learned a little about me, whether you wanted to or not.

It sounds like a bang-up day for education!

Now we need to know something about you. Is "Spiderman24" a guy or a gal? Or, does it really matter? Where do you live (city, state/province/country)? About what age are you? Teens? Adult? Grizzled old f*rt like me?

What do your friends/roommates/siblings/parents/significant other/spouse/neighbors think of your hobby?

How'd you get into tarantulas in the first place? How many tarantulas do you have? What kinds are they? How long have you had them?

Enjoy your little 8-legged buddy!



* To paraphrase a quote about clues:
"They don't have a clue, and couldn't get a clue if they smeared themselves with clue musk and danced the clue mating dance naked in a whole field full of horny clues while making clue mating calls during the clue mating season."
(Compiled from several different sources. The original quotation is attributed to Edward Flaherty, http://www.aphids.com/cgi-bin/quotes.pl?act=ShowListingsForCat&Category=F)
 

Spiderman24

Arachnoknight
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
Messages
224
I misread your post mate sorry i thought you were trying to say i was dumb for posting something in the questions forum it was like 4 am and all i coukd think is is why the hell is this person telling me i shouldnt post here!? But i completely understand where you are coming from its all become what another person in this tells you ive heard so many contradicting things about this species that setup that species this set up but thank you both of you fir the good advise my apologies for being rude it was past my bedtime lol,
 

Spiderman24

Arachnoknight
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
Messages
224
Now we need to know something about you. Is "Spiderman24" a guy or a gal? Or, does it really matter? Where do you live (city, state/province/country)? About what age are you? Teens? Adult? Grizzled old f*rt like me?


What do your friends/roommates/siblings/parents/significant other/spouse/neighbors think of your hobby?


How'd you get into tarantulas in the first place? How many tarantulas do you have? What kinds are they? How long have you had them?

I am a guy lol i live in terre haute indiana/perth western australia (story for another day) im 20 everyone around me is very interested in my hobby my fiance adores them just as i do my mum actually despised spiders till she woke up to the magnificent greenbottle blue running around my floor (escaped the deli cup trying to move her to her nww home) how i cf ot into t's is quite funny my first being the infamous obt (couldnt resist the orange ball of joy) as of this moment i care for 11 i have a p.regalis p.miranda p.rufilata gbb cobalt blue obt (2) king baboon g.rosea new river rust and soon to be monday a p.ornata ive had them sonce june =) i cant have any of these back home so im quite new to this but i cant stop here

lol now a question for you are you a spy? Lol jk
 

curiousme

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 11, 2008
Messages
1,661
I should add to the advice in the thread not requiring a search, that you can add another water dish/ wider water dish and block off some of the ventilation with saran wrap to achieve more humidity as well. I don't recommend it myself, because we do not use that method as all of our adult Ts have planted enclosures. Personally, I feel like it would make an eyesore of an enclosure, but some are not able to gauge what 'wetting' the substrate means and would be better off with dry substrate, larger water dishes and saran wrap.

The great thing about the hobby though, is that personal preference is completely applicable when it comes to taking care of Ts. :)
 
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Stan Schultz

Arachnoprince
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Jul 16, 2004
Messages
1,677
... I am a guy lol i live in terre haute indiana/perth western australia (story for another day) ...
So, you're an Aussie? Cool!

... lol now a question for you are you a spy? Lol jk
For the spider police, maybe? No. As a matter of fact, if anything I'm exactly the reverse: a card carrying member of the Spider Underground Alliance! (I just made that up, but it does have sort of a James Bond ring to it, doesn't it?)

One of my first memories is from hog slaughtering season in northern Wisconsin many years ago, the details of which I won't go into here. I've always had a fascination for all things biological. I finally realized my dream when Marguerite and I opened Noah's Ark Pet Shop in E. Lansing, Michigan in October 1967. In February 1968 I ordered in our first 6 Texas brown tarantulas (putatively, Aphonopelma hentzi) only to discover that Marguerite was an arachnophobe! It didn't take long to dissuade her of that mindset, and until just a few years ago we always had at least a few tarantulas as pets.

While we had the store we were constantly frustrated by the complete lack of any books on tarantulas. So, when we finally sold the store in 1976 to move on to other lives and other careers I began to collect information and work on a tarantula book. We finally manged to get the first edition of The Tarantula Keeper's Guide (aka, TKG1) published by Sterling Publishing in the spring of 1984, but it was a small press run, and Sterling didn't have a very good connection in the pet industry. It didn't help that the book wasn't a very good one either, about the same level of the poorer modern tarantula books. It quietly went out of print within a year.

At about this same time we emigrated to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (Like you, another story best left for another time.)

We started working on a revision, and we spent the next 12 years haunting university libraries and spending buckets of dimes in photocopy machines, collecting data and rewriting the book. We managed to convince Barron's Educational Series to publish TKG2 in 1998. It was a much more authoritative book, and clearly disproved the basic tenet that the masses (e.g., all you tarantula keepers) didn't buy books for the text, but rather for the color photos and the glitz.

We immediately recognized that TKG2 had some problems, and the hobby was advancing so fast that it would soon be obsolete, so we started working on TKG3 (the current edition) almost before the ink dried on TKG2. TKG3 was released in March of 2009, and all reports are that it's still the best selling tarantula book on the market.

Marguerite (21 years my senior, it's one of those "May/December" marriages) retired many years ago, but I retired the end of August, 2005. We immediately (like the next day!) moved into our motorhome full-time and began an Odyssey that continues to this day, touring North America, promoting the book, meeting and enjoying other tarantula enthusiasts, and enjoying our retirement as classic snowbirds (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowbird_(people)).

The only thing I regret is that, because we frequently cross the US/Canadian border, we cannot keep any tarantulas a pets. We had to liquidate our collection a few years before retirement. Advantages to our lifestyle are that we get to visit a lot of enthusiasts in our travels, and we get to spend a few months a year in tarantula country.

More info about the books can be had at http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/g0.html.

Here's a photo of our motorhome on site near the Davis Mountains in Texas (click the thumbnail for a larger version).



(Uploaded with ImageShack.us)

Here's a photo of Marguerite and me last year on our 34th wedding anniversary.



(Uploaded with ImageShack.us)

We celebrate our 35th in just a few days.

And, to help justify this rambling essay on a tarantula forum, here is a photo of one of our favorite (and perhaps most published) tarantulas, the Duchess (Brachypelma emelia, the Mexican redleg tarantula).



(Uploaded with ImageShack.us)

At the moment we're staying in a small RV park in Dickinson, Texas, about 25 miles south of Houston.

So, you're in Terra Haute! We go through TH about every second year. If you'd like to get together to talk spiders and show off your collection, send me your phone number and E-mail addy to schultz@ucalgary.ca. I'll put it on our itinerary and contact you in advance of our next trip through town.

Cheers,
 
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pato_chacoana

Arachnoangel
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Feb 2, 2008
Messages
789
Stan, I think you guys have a very cool retirement style! I'd do the same thing, only that it would be all around South America :)
I remember when a friend loaned me the TKG2, and I was just starting to get serious with tarantulas (at that time I was keeping 2 tarantulas, one of them I still keep). I spent that summer reading and learning very curious stuff... Since I was about two years old (I couldn't even spell ''frasco'' right -spanish for ''jar''-) I was chasing spiders and keeping them, but that summer was a turning point and a one way ticket journey! I don't think I'll ever let go the passion for theraphosids :)

Cheers,
Pato
 
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