What does a false widow in yout T enclosure actually do ?

[ant ramblings]

I ask this because its been bought up recently with dave Fisher saying its a very bad thing for slings and mark the spider guy discovering his p.reducus dead and a little false widow mysteriously in the enclosure .

Do they feed on a moulted t ?
I use lots of naturally collected stuff from outdoors and wasn't awear this was such a Major problem .

False widows are very common near me .

 

[BoyFromLA]

I may not know what it does or does not, but I am certain that I would not want it in any of tarantula enclosures, and I would remove it at once when I find one.

 

[ant ramblings]

Yes i am just trying to get to bottom of it .
Is it something about the false widow exactly that's the problem or all spiders?

 

[BoyFromLA]

Is it something about the false widow exactly that's the problem or all spiders?

Like I mentioned above, I do not know what it does or does not in the tarantula enclosures, but I personally do not want any hitchhiking spiders in them, at all.

 

[curtisgiganteus]

Here is a thought, don’t use wild collected stuff OR bake it to hell before using it.

 

[ant ramblings]

I am totally converted to wild collected within certain confines .
In fact only yesterday collected all the substrate, leaf litter ,bark and bark with moss that will do me for the coming year at least .
Obviously you don't collect it from the local park , near a road or in a place the farmers spray might have got to .
We have higher standards in the UK than the US for what the farmers are allowed to use but the US is full of some really nice wild places.
I do give the bark a good brushing and visual inspection .

 

[ant ramblings]

One problem with baking it is it changes the mould that will happen .
If you keep it in the natural state its still rotting and full of bacteria but it's what's meant to be there from the woods .
Kill all that off and you get the blue wierd stuff.

 

[ant ramblings]

I mean I have a natural teraruim that I purposfully wanted as many species in as possible but that doesn't have a tarantula in.
It did have two local spiders that just turned up . It's really a breeding tall for giant isopods and stick insects with a hibernating potential Lasius flavus ant colony . A tarantula would upset the balence too much .

 

[curtisgiganteus]

I am totally converted to wild collected within certain confines .
In fact only yesterday collected all the substrate, leaf litter ,bark and bark with moss that will do me for the coming year at least .
Obviously you don't collect it from the local park , near a road or in a place the farmers spray might have got to .
We have higher standards in the UK than the US for what the farmers are allowed to use but the US is full of some really nice wild places.
I do give the bark a good brushing and visual inspection .

I didn’t know you were in the UK, I know there it’s much safer. Are you allowed to ship dirt and leaves and such? xD

 

[ant ramblings]

Yes people collect and sell there own mixed soil and leaf litter here .
I know someone who sells a living soil mix but it's not specifically for tarantulas it's more the terrarium market .
Can't see why it wouldn't be great in a real bio set up for a t . Obviously don't put isopods in unless you knows what you are doing .
Best place to collect substraight is in the middle of a wood the place the leaves collect but the really good stuff is where a tree has long rotted away that's when you get the thick black soft stuff .

My t. apophosis is on a totally collected mix and apart from the odd Mushroom at the start it seems to be going well .

 

[ant ramblings]

This is an extream example and he only has true spiders .

 

[campj]

I didn’t know you were in the UK, I know there it’s much safer. Are you allowed to ship dirt and leaves and such? xD

I've never had an issue in the US. Just get as far away from civilisation as I can... but have also had the luxury of living in fairly sparsely populated areas off and on over the last fifteen years. I could see living in urban areas being an issue.

Lots of agriculture where I live now so I'm a bit more careful, but zero problems so far.

Should say I use wild collected stuff in most enclosures, and don't bake or sanitize anything.

 

[ant ramblings]

AHH I see we are on the same page .
Though i know its not practical for many people to collect stuff .

 

[curtisgiganteus]

AHH I see we are on the same page .
Though i know its not practical for many people to collect stuff .

I live in Seattle. There are a few cool green areas but I don’t know how ong they have been or what pesticides have been used prior

 

[The Grym Reaper]

I live near the south coast where we have plenty of False Widows and I've never had an issue with them even getting into my enclosures, let alone killing my tarantulas. 2 YouTubers (one of whom I've never even heard of prior to today, and the other I choose not to watch) bringing them up hardly constitutes a major problem. If they're getting into your sling enclosures then your ventilation holes are too big (big enough that the sling would probably escape anyway), and I seriously doubt that brer's P. reduncus was killed by a false widow either, it most likely died of other causes and was scavenged on (the setup he was meant to be rehousing it to didn't look great tbh, no plant cover and bad vent hole placement).