Vagans in Florida

[Nemesis]

Does anybody have specific information on collecting B. vagans in Florida? Schultz book says orange grove 40 miles outside of Ft. Pierce. Does this sight still exist? Is it accessible to the public? Where is it specifically?

I would love to go down there and see if I could do some collecting. Any information would be highly appreciated.

Pax,
Kelly O

 

[Wade]

I'm not sure where it is, but I'm pretty sure it's on private land (orange grove) and the orange growers are pretty protective of their property. You would definately want to get permission.

Wade

 

[SkyeSpider]

I went there about a year ago. The owners don't mind, and actually say a lot of people come around looking. That also means that they've been hunted to almost extinction in this area. In the course of 8 hours of searching, I found *ONE* spider, and a bunch of dug-up burrows (I think I counted 220+).

I imagine by now that there's nothing out there. They've been overcollected.

-Bryan

 

[Vys]

I thought they exterminated them ? Or did they just try to ?

 

[Buspirone]

It was my understanding that they tried to exterminate as many as they could but some still show up or are found in small numbers. I guess they don't mind collecting cause its less of a hassle for regular people to be poking around than the government morons and it keep the numbers from growing to a noticeable population. Does anyone know who tried to establish the tarantulas or why??

 

[Arachnopuppy]

Here is my thought about any kind of collecting specimens in the wild of any kind. If you want to collect something, then it is likely that there are others who also want to collect it. Nobody wants to be the one that doesn't get it, right? Everybody collects it = it disappears. It is as simple as that.

One of those consequences that people just don't care enough about to think about it for just 1 second.

 

[Vys]

Gah, poor things, so much for their new-found home. There's something inherently cool about T's being in a place they don't really belong..it isn't so with wax-worms, though..nasty climbing squeezing little buggers

 

[Nemesis]

retracted

 

[Steve Nunn]

Howdy puardners,
This topic has been discussed heavily on the ATS forum. Going by what the 'experts' there said, it's highly unlikely a tarantula cluster of any kind will do anything harmful to any ecosystem, based on general theraphosid ecology and behaviour. The owners of the grove were quite happy to keep the spiders on their grove. Back in the mid 90's the authorities tried to erradicate them, this attempt obviously failed. There is an online research paper regarding this topic, published in 1999 in the Entomology Circular No.394, by G.B.Edwards and K.L.Hibbard.

While Florida has sustained much damage from introduced species, the tarantula isn't one of them, YET. I doubt it ever will, though who's to say, right?

The B.vagans were found by the grove workers in 1996, the workers then gave the specimen to a citrus survey crew who took it back to Gainesville, where it was tentatively ID'd by the author of the paper. After futher collections were done, one of the males was sent to Rick West who confirmed the ID.

It's assumed that the population has been on the grove since the early 80's.

Cheers,
Steve