Venom dripping?

[Bjorgly]

Hi everyone. I had just transferred my A.geniculata 4" female to her new cage yesterday, and later on that night i noticed a droplet coming from her mouth area. Is this venom or water? Two of these droplets formed and dropped down onto the soil before i stopped watching. here are some pics, maybe someone knows what it is. Pics are a little fuzzy because i took them through glass.

Mark

 

[Bjorgly]

Another

 

[Bjorgly]

Last one

 

[Bjorgly]

Nobodies ever seen this before?

Mark

 

[Joy]

My guess would be digestive enzymes, aka drool. My understanding is that they regurgitate the enzymes as a way of cleaning their cheliceral areas. It's fairly common, but often solicits worried questions from tarantula owners!

Joy

 

[LaRiz]

This is something that's not really talked about.
I've seen it in just about every tarantula I've kept.
I always thought it was water, 'cause it has the consistency of it. Like after a drink, perhaps. A drop might form due to the extra water that a taratula might have not "sucked" up. Kinda like water reflux?
or,
what Joy said.
?john

 

[dilleo]

I too have seen this in many of my tarantulas. I suppose it may be only water because of consistency, but do you what the consistency of the venom is like? I fortunately have not had the honor come into close contact with spider venom, but if it like any other venom out there, snake, then I assume it's water.

-Jeremy

 

[Steve Nunn]

Originally posted by Joy
My guess would be digestive enzymes, aka drool. My understanding is that they regurgitate the enzymes as a way of cleaning their cheliceral areas. It's fairly common, but often solicits worried questions from tarantula owners!

Joy

That's what it is! Just some spider drool. It's also used to clean the tarsal scopula.

Steve

 

[atavuss]

Originally posted by dilleo
I too have seen this in many of my tarantulas. I suppose it may be only water because of consistency, but do you what the consistency of the venom is like? I fortunately have not had the honor come into close contact with spider venom, but if it like any other venom out there, snake, then I assume it's water.

-Jeremy

I posted a picture of an a. moderatum that was milked for its venom on this board on another thread if you want to do a search for it.
Ed

 

[chaset]

hrm

Only spider i know that does the venom droplets is everyones
fav Atrax Sp.

 

[arachnopunks]

I saw our T. blondi do this once when he was a juvie. He has just leapt to catch a cricket and all this bubbly yellowish liquid started dripping off his fangs. There was a whole lot of it considering he was only abour 3-4 inches at the time. I just figured it was digestive enzymes. It was really cool to see, but something I haven't really seen to that extent. Some of our arboreals will drip small amounts of a similar clear liquid, but not in teh quantity of our T. blondi.