Well, I have always been fascinated by reptiles, and spiders, (at 5 I probably knew enough about snakes and crocodiles to teach a course on them haha...i was a weird little kid...) and around summer of last year I wanted to get a snake. I looked into it, and decided I would need to wait until I had enough money to get it and all the stuff it required. A couple months later my mum's minivan was invaded by salticids. She was absolutely horrified by it, after having a few of them jump on her while she was driving. I thought it was pretty cool, and it was then that the tarantula idea occured to me. So one day soon after the family was dicussing the spiders that had invaded the minivan and I said somewhat jokingly "Oh I should get a pet tarantula!", and too my suprise my mum said she didnt care as long as she would have nothing to do with it. So then a couple of days later I found myself in petco and they had an A. avic and a A. seemani. One of the employees took out the avic and let me hold it (which i did against my own better judgement since I knew it could potentially jump from my hands...) and I decided right then that this was going to be my tarantula. Now here I am today, with a total of 3 T's, all of which are still just as fascinating as ever.
What got you into T's in the first place?
- Thread starter Becky
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- Oct 20, 2006
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- 279
It happened quite unexpectedly. I was at a reptile show with my dad looking for a solomon island ground boa (ended up getting a tree boa instead, we were lied to :wall: ) And there was a table with a bunch of little tupperware containers with pink toes and rose hairs. They took out one of each for me to look at, and I remember a man taking a smallish pink toe in his fist and shaking it to show that it was docile! I held it, and I was hooked, and my dad was like "well, I think you might have to get it". I liked the pink toe better than the rose hair because it held onto my hand better, I loved how the feet felt. That was two years ago and I've been hooked, mentally, except my parents won't let me get any more (they say I have enough pets... which is probably true 
). Although I bought myself another pink toe as a graduation present for myself from petco because it was love at first sight, I went to visit it every few weeks for about two or three months before I gave in. My parents didn't know about it until I had already had it in my room for a few weeks
I've always loved spiders, and kept jumpers and wolfies and just about anything I could catch. I have lots of snakes and some various amphibians... I love to surround myself with animals (at times I like them much better than people!)
). Although I bought myself another pink toe as a graduation present for myself from petco because it was love at first sight, I went to visit it every few weeks for about two or three months before I gave in. My parents didn't know about it until I had already had it in my room for a few weeks I've always loved spiders, and kept jumpers and wolfies and just about anything I could catch. I have lots of snakes and some various amphibians... I love to surround myself with animals (at times I like them much better than people!)
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BinarySpider
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2007
- Messages
- 37
Cool Ghoul
I watched an old late night science fiction / horror show that was on TV near Cincinati Ohio that had a host called the Cool Ghoul. As a child I watched it on the weekend and that is what got me started on tarantulas. They had a large rubber tarantula used as a the real thing that showed up once in while. The Cool Ghoul would talk to it and the name of tarantula was George.
My father would never let me have one. After my parents divorced and I turned 16 I bought a large solid jet black one. It looked like a new world spider. I named it George. After a couple of years I did not have the time for him so had to give it up. I gave him to the high school biology class to take care of.
Now many years later I am into them again. I almost bought a 3 inch Green Bottle Blue tonight but I actually stopped myself. I have found that I only like the tree dwellers mainly the Avicularia species and the Poecilotheria species.
I really do not think that I am a tarantula addict,
BinarySpider
I watched an old late night science fiction / horror show that was on TV near Cincinati Ohio that had a host called the Cool Ghoul. As a child I watched it on the weekend and that is what got me started on tarantulas. They had a large rubber tarantula used as a the real thing that showed up once in while. The Cool Ghoul would talk to it and the name of tarantula was George.
My father would never let me have one. After my parents divorced and I turned 16 I bought a large solid jet black one. It looked like a new world spider. I named it George. After a couple of years I did not have the time for him so had to give it up. I gave him to the high school biology class to take care of.
Now many years later I am into them again. I almost bought a 3 inch Green Bottle Blue tonight but I actually stopped myself. I have found that I only like the tree dwellers mainly the Avicularia species and the Poecilotheria species.
I really do not think that I am a tarantula addict,
BinarySpider
My 6 year old son is really into insects. He bugged me for a tarantula for Christmas this year. I thought, like no way. Being the anal, OC person I am, I started to doing research, and found myself being sucked in. We started with a 3" PZB for him, and a 1" b. Smithi for me. Kinda like a bonding thing. A couple weeks later, I read on the ATSHQ board that some one wants to give away an adult female B. Smithi in my area, so we pick it up. Now we have 3, and I am completly hooked. I decide I hate crickets, and read about the roach colonies, so I decide I "need" one of those. So I order a starter setup from David Grimm, and while I am at it, I order a B. Vagens, L. Parahybana and a N. coloratovillosus, thinking "what the hell. Well, he sends me three additional G. Rosea (Larry, Darryl and my other brother Darryl) as freebees. Now all of a sudden, we have 9 tarantulas and a roach colony. I am already looking at my next purchase.
For what it is worth, tarantulas have been a wonderful bonding experience for my son and I. We can sit for hours looking and wishing at T pictures on the i-net. He wants a pokie, but as we call them "red species" (from Southern Spider Works rating) will have to wait until he is older.
By the way, thanks to all arachnoboard members for answering all my questions, and being a wealth of knowledge.
For what it is worth, tarantulas have been a wonderful bonding experience for my son and I. We can sit for hours looking and wishing at T pictures on the i-net. He wants a pokie, but as we call them "red species" (from Southern Spider Works rating) will have to wait until he is older.
By the way, thanks to all arachnoboard members for answering all my questions, and being a wealth of knowledge.
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2007
- Messages
- 458
I have never hated spiders, but never really liked them either. Tolerated their existence for the most part. I did find black widows to be quite fascinating, but then again, it was probably more due to the "your weird" or "how can you stand to do that" type effect it had on my coworkers and strangers especially when I'd go on my Widow Patrols. I work at a nature center and try to keep the area immediately around the building generally free of widows in the areas where most likely spots of human contact (kids) could occur. I don't kill them or anything (the spiders not the kids).. just did my best to relocate them further out into the woods or keep a few in jars for display. I've gotten pretty good at northern and southern widow wrangling lol. We've almost always would have a rose hair T on display at work, but they never really grabbed my attention. Most of them have always been a dull color and just sit there not doing much of anything...not very exciting. Tarantulas never really "got to me" until one year... back in 98 I think, we had animal control dump several confiscated snakes on us as well as a large Guyana Pinktoe. The pinktoe was so unlike the rose hair it just drew me in.. neat web tunnels, etc. Then of course, within a month, that 1 turned into 2 (found a pet store with a male pinktoe for sale cheap). I had some grandiose newbie plans for breeding them. Then I found out that the first one wasn't actually a full grown female like I assumed .. it molted a month later and became what was sooo obviously a male.. gee no wonder they didn't seem to like each other when I tried putting them together prior to that molt LOL. Of course mature male pinks don't last long. sigh. Since then over the years I've been experimenting with different species trying to find those that I like a lot and determining those which are a been there done that, not for me thanks. Found I liked raising spiderlings mostly as that way even if the luck of the draw is a male, I'll have had them a few years at least instead of just a few weeks or months.
Currently I am up to 13 tarantulas with 4 more due to arrive next week. Hopefully I'll even be able to re-start my grandiose ideas for breeding T's come the end of the year or early next year with some B. emilia and maybe my B. smithi that I raised up from a dime-sized baby. She is about a molt away from being large enough to try breeding and would just need to find her a boyfriend. Got a 4-pack of A. geroldi slings last summer, so odds are good I got a m/f combo to try future breeding with. Got some G. pulchras I'm raising too. After a year of waiting, the oldest juvie finally provided me with a molt that was big enough I could check the gender on.. male. oh well.. just another excuse to buy another T... of course it will have to be an even older female to properly match him up with LOLOL. My B. auratum also just molted this week and it was large enough to sex from.. female !
We've almost always would have a rose hair T on display at work, but they never really grabbed my attention. Most of them have always been a dull color and just sit there not doing much of anything...not very exciting. Tarantulas never really "got to me" until one year... back in 98 I think, we had animal control dump several confiscated snakes on us as well as a large Guyana Pinktoe. The pinktoe was so unlike the rose hair it just drew me in.. neat web tunnels, etc. Then of course, within a month, that 1 turned into 2 (found a pet store with a male pinktoe for sale cheap). I had some grandiose newbie plans for breeding them. Then I found out that the first one wasn't actually a full grown female like I assumed .. it molted a month later and became what was sooo obviously a male.. gee no wonder they didn't seem to like each other when I tried putting them together prior to that molt LOL. Of course mature male pinks don't last long. sigh. Since then over the years I've been experimenting with different species trying to find those that I like a lot and determining those which are a been there done that, not for me thanks. Found I liked raising spiderlings mostly as that way even if the luck of the draw is a male, I'll have had them a few years at least instead of just a few weeks or months.Currently I am up to 13 tarantulas with 4 more due to arrive next week. Hopefully I'll even be able to re-start my grandiose ideas for breeding T's come the end of the year or early next year with some B. emilia and maybe my B. smithi that I raised up from a dime-sized baby. She is about a molt away from being large enough to try breeding and would just need to find her a boyfriend. Got a 4-pack of A. geroldi slings last summer, so odds are good I got a m/f combo to try future breeding with. Got some G. pulchras I'm raising too. After a year of waiting, the oldest juvie finally provided me with a molt that was big enough I could check the gender on.. male. oh well.. just another excuse to buy another T... of course it will have to be an even older female to properly match him up with LOLOL. My B. auratum also just molted this week and it was large enough to sex from.. female !
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2006
- Messages
- 652
I grew up in a house with two adult female B. smithi (Miss Muffet and Puff). My dad had gotten them both as adults from different people in the early 70s. I was born in 1980 and lived with them until the early 90s when the last girl died. They were incredibly docile. My parents even have a picture of me holding one when I was about 3 years old. I always had the coolest show-and-tell at school!
I grew up and graduated college. Our two pets were just a really fond memory. We never knew anybody else with Ts, and I had never heard of anyone since keeping them as pets.
I've been a regular on a saltwater fish forum for a couple years, and one day one of the members was reminiscing about his beloved Pinktoe. He went on and on about how much he missed her and how great she was. Another woman chimed in that her company (she's an evolutionary biologist) had several G. rosea, and they were pretty cool. I was fascinated! There was actually such a thing as keeping them as pets!
She recommended Glades Herp Inc as the dealer that her company dealt with. I checked out the website, and they had B. smithi slings. Not only that, but they were only about 2 hours from my house! I weighed it over for a couple weeks, but there was no going back. I called to put one on hold, took a day off work, and went to get my girl. I couldn't have been happier, and dad was as proud as could be that he started it all.
I spotted the rosehairs at the lps when I was buying crickets one day. I held one for the longest time, and just didn't have the heart to put her back in that cramped crappy place, so I brought her home. Having one T was awesome, but getting a second just crossed some kind of invisible line. A year and a half later, I have 12 and I'm not done yet. :clap:
I grew up and graduated college. Our two pets were just a really fond memory. We never knew anybody else with Ts, and I had never heard of anyone since keeping them as pets.
I've been a regular on a saltwater fish forum for a couple years, and one day one of the members was reminiscing about his beloved Pinktoe. He went on and on about how much he missed her and how great she was. Another woman chimed in that her company (she's an evolutionary biologist) had several G. rosea, and they were pretty cool. I was fascinated! There was actually such a thing as keeping them as pets!
She recommended Glades Herp Inc as the dealer that her company dealt with. I checked out the website, and they had B. smithi slings. Not only that, but they were only about 2 hours from my house! I weighed it over for a couple weeks, but there was no going back. I called to put one on hold, took a day off work, and went to get my girl. I couldn't have been happier, and dad was as proud as could be that he started it all.
I spotted the rosehairs at the lps when I was buying crickets one day. I held one for the longest time, and just didn't have the heart to put her back in that cramped crappy place, so I brought her home.
Having one T was awesome, but getting a second just crossed some kind of invisible line. A year and a half later, I have 12 and I'm not done yet. :clap:I have always like Ts but never had owned any until a friend of mine who is an exterminator said he had removed some from a client's property before spraying. He asked me if I knew anyone who wanted em, I said I would take em. Well all 3 were males of a local species and didn't last real long afterwards... missed having Ts to watch so I got a G. rosea and then later got more...
got started
my dad got me started, when i seen him through a cricket into a spiders web.on a hicking trip in the rockies .the spiders lightning speed to grab the cricket and start to roll it in webbing was and still is awesome.first time i ever bought a t was at a reptile show about 5 or 6 years ago.a male grammostola aureostriata 1/2 inch from botar.now i am hooked
my dad got me started, when i seen him through a cricket into a spiders web.on a hicking trip in the rockies .the spiders lightning speed to grab the cricket and start to roll it in webbing was and still is awesome.first time i ever bought a t was at a reptile show about 5 or 6 years ago.a male grammostola aureostriata 1/2 inch from botar.now i am hooked