My elementary school was digging up a lot to add a football field and they dug up a ton of tarantula burrows and all the ts fled into the school. They shut down for a few days to clear out the building but when they opened back up, I went to the nurses office and there was a cute not so little tarantula hanging out under the sink. I caught it before anyone saw it because they would have killed it. I took it to my science teacher and asked of I could take it home, she called my mom, my mom said sure and that's how it all started!
Can't really explain it. I really wanted a pet but didn't have time for anything like a dog or a cat. Thought about getting a hamster for a bit, but something about tarantulas just drew me in. Everything about them is completely fascinating and enthralling to me, from the anatomy to the breeding process. It just tickled my fancy so much, I knew I had to get in to it. And it turns out that I love keeping Ts!
I can't own dogs, cats, aquariums, etc. due to some work travel. I once owned a bunch of Bonsai trees which is another hobby where proper care must be done and you look at them for enjoyment. But they were a pain to take care of due to the watering and light requirements. The tarantulas are far more fun and interesting.
The Tarantula Keeper's Guide by Schultz and Schultz. Saw it in the library, read it, and went on YouTube. Did more reading on the Dutch forum, and discovered i could keep them at home easily. It took some convincing of the husband, but that was a minor obstacle
We had this kind of topic here quite a few times. For me I always liked insects and spiders and after reading a newspaper article about a guy selling them as pets I did some research and got my first one.
I loved spiders from a very young age. Seeing tarantulas in films and the odd rare glimpse of Ariadne on the TV series Knightmare really got me interested in them. It was just a natural progression. Native spiders into tarantulas and other inverts.
I was quite an enterprising little entomologist from when I was 3 or 4, and my parent's got me a G. rosea when I was 6. I didn't really get into them in earnest until I went off to college. But yeah, basically, I've always been obsessed with bugs.
It was a warm summer day, my earliest memory in fact!!!
I was playing beside the house and a GIANT jumping spider landed on my finger tip. It was soooooo GIANT (remember its my eariest memory lol) it wrapped around my whole finger and i studied it while it crawled around my hand.
I was amazed at how it moved etc and was instantly hooked on spiders and hunted, captured, collected, etc every spider i could find. My dad would even take me to the marsh while he scouted spots for duck/goose blinds. We would pick good spots then collect every large female argiope we could on the way home and released them in moms garden.
One thing led quickly to another and i was into T's.
Dr. Sue the Bug Lady was doing a presentation at my moms school, and I got to meet Dr. Sue who then introduced me to her ginormous G. Rosea. Ever since then I've been obsessed!
Ive always liked spiders and other not-so-common pets. The more I went to reptile expos the more I started to learn about all the different tarantulas available. From there I started to do research and after learning they come in a huge variety and that they have a long lifespan (for the most part) I had to have one. That was 10 years ago when I first joined arachnoboards.
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.
Hello there, why not take a few seconds to register on our forums and become part of the community? Just click here.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.