What Inspired You to Get into Tarantulas?

[IsraelMS]

Arachnophobia! xD

 

[nicodimus22]

I've always liked the weird pets. My favorite when I was a kid was a crayfish.

 

[Toxoderidae]

I was looking for mantids. I think I found some mantids, but they look strange.

 

[obie]

My stepmother got me a giant Millipede when I was 12 then my mom 1 upped her and got me a rose hair like a week later. Been hooked ever since.

 

[dragonfire1577]

I keep geckos then one day I bought this really weird 8 legged gecko with fangs, venom and urticating hairs, at a reptile expo. I wasn't 100% sure it was a gecko but @Sarkhan42 assured me it was in fact a gecko species called Aphonpelma chalcodes. Since then i've obtained and kept a few of these odd geckos and even moved into keeping geckos that have claws and stingers on their tails.

 

[Estein]

I had a seasonal coworker who was really into spiders and taught me some cool facts about them. I thought they were pretty neat.

At the end of the summer I helped a friend drive cross country to southern California where he would be starting grad school. We took a week to visit some parks along the way. One afternoon we were driving through Kolob Canyon and we saw something on the road. We pulled over and it turned out to be a tarantula. I didn't want her to get run over, so I picked her up (don't hurt me--I've reformed!) and moved her across the road. I was HOOKED. For the rest of our drive I researched tarantula care on my phone.

Two weeks later I bought a tarantula! Fun fact: The coworker who went to the pet store with me to get my tarantula is now my boyfriend, and the fact that my first T has been around longer than we've been dating has really worked in my favor. They have precedent.

 

[Nepenthe56]

Baby ladybugs. Baby ladybugs and a long line to get into Disnelyand.

For me, baby ladybugs were the "gateway bug" into invert keeping. My son's pre-K teacher knew I liked hiking and gardening and asked me to try to find ladybug larvae for her to use in class when they were teaching the kids about metamorphosis. I didn't even know what they looked like and had to look it up. I did find the ladybug larvae she wanted - but along the way, I also found a lot of other cool bugs. It's amazing what one can find if one only looks. I thought the kids might enjoy seeing them as well - but of course, I couldn't just bring in some random bug. I had to identify each one and learn a few things about them, first. It became sort of a hobby, finding and learning about bugs and sharing them with the kids. The kindergarten teacher suggested I expand on it and start teaching a bug and spider summer school class - but to do that, I had to start keeping assorted inverts as pets so I could show the kids live bugs. I started out with local bugs but I thought it would be interesting to add a few exotics to the collection.

Which brings us to Disneyland. I was taking my kids to Disneyland and the line just to get into the parking lot was super long. My younger son was being especially whiny and fighting with his brother. I warned him to knock it off or I was going to turn the car around - and he didn't stop. I didn't want to spend a long, hot day waiting in line after line at Disneyland, listening to him complain and fight. Some friends had told us that there was a reptile expo at the fairgrounds, so we went there instead. I stopped at one of the booths that had tarantulas (I'm pretty sure it was GBU Enterprises) and asked a bunch of stupid newbie questions about keeping tarantulas, mostly about which species would be good to keep in a classroom and perhaps handle from time to time. The guy gave me a B. albopilosum sling and told me to consider it his donation to my classroom. From there, it didn't take long to add an Emperor Scorpion, a Scolopendra Subspinipes, and - eventually - a host of other creatures. The rest, as they say, is history.

Love this story.

 

[MacDrachma]

ADHD most likely.

 

[Charlottesweb17]

Took my son to a reptile show and held a Golden Knee female for the first time and fell in love . She was very happy just sitting in my hand like we were made for one another.
Looking at getting a golden knee or pink salmon bird eater.

 

[FishermanSteve]

My girlfriend in high school had a younger brother who was into t's. I was actually terrified of spiders at the time but I was soo intrigued by the different colors and personalities. He gave me a b. smithi sling soon after and I've been hooked for the last 10 yrs.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Reclusive - check
Hairy - check
Think everything is either food or a threat - check
Misunderstood - check
Considered scary or weird by most people - check
Will bite you if the situation calls for it - check

They're basically my spirit animal.

 

[SpiderSling2017]

Same as you to be honest.

Used to have a massive fear of them, somehow stumbled across RobC

I soon to grow curious and it helped with my fear greatly.

It wasn't till a while ago did I decide to get my first T, I'm hoping to get it August time this year

 

[Abyss]

Good thread

 

[Yulian]

Well as a kid I was always into animals and bugs God knows why, I would even try to get raid cans when I was very little because I thought they had bugs in them XD. At around 8 years old I wondered about different tarantulas other than the native ones on the island and researched the heck out of them but sadly couldnt find a way to buy one. Now ten years later my dream of having a pet T is coming true. Getting my first T (a female 3in B.smithi) in a few days

 

[Goldcup]

I was helping my 12 year old son research his first pet(tarantula) trying to decide which T to get.
once we decided on a G. Pulchripes I was hooked on the variety of colors,temperment,and environments they were found. In November 2016 I bought a C. cyaneopubescensin
Thankfully I took it slow and only have 40 T's now. Sweet Jesus I can't stop.
Believe it or not I've owned a pest control company for 20 plus years and all my T's are
Housed at my office.

 

[checkmate]

+1 for arachnophobia when I was younger. It wasn't until recently though that I was in a situation where I could start my collection.

 

[Arachnomaniac19]

When I was ten my uncle got two baby rose hairs from a friend of his (buddy kept a bunch of scorpions). Long story short he gave one to me (my first T) and kept the other one for a while until he didn't want it anymore. I currently still have my first T, but the second little rosy matured and died without making a sperm web, unfortunately. He only lasted maybe six months after his last molt and matured at 2.5", so maybe something was wrong with him?

 

[skyvie]

I really don't know... Must've been the "voices" again or something.
I've had so many pets over the years... guess I'm just a plant and animal lover. Combine that with a "scientific" wonder of everything around me and a desire to understand and experience as much as I can. Then combine that with morbid curiosity, perhaps. The result: gotta get another one!

 

[draiko]

My cousin got a few and in this time I needed to get a hobby so I decided to just see. And they have been a fascinating experience so far.

 

[Kendricks]

Arachnophobia! xD

LOVE that movie! Though something tells me you mean the condition, not the flick.
(Those who don't know it yet, watch it!)