Why did you get into spiders?

[leiurus]

Because I love bugs! Tarantulas aren't like other pets, they are amazing.
They are incredable predators, they can web, they can climb on glass, they don't eat a lot, don't smell bad and they are such a wonderful animal...
Dom

 

[MANSON]

Fear

it was my fear of spiders that drove my curiosity. I never really knew anything about spiders, exept there creepy fast biting little monsters. I wanted to learn about what i was fearing before i could judge what i thought it was. I hate to fear something out of ignorance. I learned it was ignorance that i was afraid of, the thought of not knowing, which drove my curiosity. oh, and my moms allergic to fir.

if this doesnt make sense, its because of the demonic deathmetal im listening to

 

[FelixA9]

I grew up afraid/facinated by spiders and would read about them whenever I could find a good book on the subject. An unexpected closeup picture of a spider would send the book sailing across the room but still my interest kept me coming back. Whenever I'd go into petstores I'd always check out the Ts first and think to myself "I need to get one one of these days" but never did. Then one day my brother calls me from work to tell me he thinks a coworker's wife found a T, that they had it at work and were wondering what to do with it. Since I'd never even heard of them living around here nor seen one around here I was skeptical but said for him to bring it by so I could look at it. I decided to adopt it and have had it for about four years now. When my life is actually settled to the point that I could spend the time to appreciate them I intend to get more. a. geniculata, OBT, Trinidad Cheveron, and T.blondi are first on my list.

 

[KZoo]

When HAVEN'T I loved them?!

I was the only girl-child I ever knew who loved EVERYTHIng live ... and jumping spiders were among my favorite little critters!! When I was in my late teens, tarantulas were starting to be prevalent in pet stores. Egads, all the attraction of jumping spiders in a nice BIG size!! COOL!! So I got my first one, have NO idea what it was, sort of brownish ... and named it Sebastian. Of course, being as how there was no information out there on them at the time that was any good, Sebastian made it abou 2 years ... then passed on. Next arachoincarnation was in my mid-late 20's, when I got a B. smithi, then got ... well, here we go again, have NO idea what THAT one was, either. But they lived with me for about 2 years too. Sometime in there, I tried a pink-toe, but again- not near enough known as to how to take care of them. I believe it passed on of dehydration.

Fast-forward to about 8 years ago, I again gave a go to this hobby. I scoured pet stores, and located one which had a goodly selection of spids. Ended up with about 6 of them ... and got SOME information this time, off of a site which my partener at the time printed for me off her computer. I was computer illiterate at that time - perish the thought!! Those poor spids lasted only about a year or so ... I have NO idea why. But I thought, I can't keep watching these guys die!! NO MORE FOR ME!!!

HA - well, about 3 years ago, the love of my life did a very brave thing. She gave me a pink-toe for my birthday!! No big deal, you say - EXCEPT that she is arachnophobic, and so this was truly an act of love! Sparkles lasted 3 years ... during that time, I read and read and read everything I could find on these beautiful and delicate creatures. I thought at first, "I won't get into this again ... just Sparkles will be fine, thanks!" Well, we see how long THAT lasted!!

Now, I have 31 spids, none of them duplicates of species, and several more on the way!! I think I will stop at 35 ...

 

[shogun804]

how did everyone start collecting T's???

i just wanted to share with everyone why i got into the hobby and maybe some of you all would like to share your stories...

well about 2 or 3 months ago i decided to look up common spiders to see which ones were venomous in and around VA. well i knew very little about T's to begin with. and on the bottom of one of the pages i looked up was a link to the swifts invertebrates website well none the less i clicked it and was amazed at all the different Ts and the colors and everything else about them. so i started to do some research on them and could not stop thinking about them. so a couple of days later i called some pet shops to see if anyone sold them. and the place i called gave me a # to a place. i called them up and when they said they had a pinktoe up there i asked how much. they told me i took a ride up there looked at it and bought it. i was so happy when i got it and no one in my family belived me that i bought it. so i took them upto my room and showed them there were all in shock. and now from me getting that one T now my brother has got one and some of his friends are thinking of doing the same..i know own 6 T's and im riddled with amazement everytime i look at them man they are awsome....

 

[jeffh_x]

i got my Ts around 2-3 months ago when i first followed a friend to a nearby pet store to look at sugar gliders..and the Ts there just caught my attention...i cudn stop thinking about them either..2 weeks later i got my 1st pnktoe...and i progressed and now i have 4...still hunting for a smithi though..the varieties aren't much here..only on the mainland...ish...yea they are awesome to look at...

 

[MrArachnid]

How I Got Into Tarantulas:

Well, I think its safe to say that I was atleast intrigued by Tarantulas and Scorpions at a very young age, and as far as what influenced me to set-aside the pre-misconception and just buy one? I'm not too sure, I had thought about it seriously for maybe two years, researching and what not, but I think I got depressed and came to the conclusion that it was just too complex for someone like me, and that given the fact that I never was good with taking care of pets, I just tried to ignore it.

However, it always seemed to come back to me, and after getting really into J.R.R. Tolkien, I learned just how significant a spider could be, and I guess I got tired of the thought of owning Tarantulas seeming so much like it was only for certain people, and maybe I just flat out wasn't cool enough, or smart enough.

Well, I still don't think I'm cool enough or smart enough but all that aside, I ended up buying an Avicularia avicularia from a pet shop, I had done what I felt was more than adequate reasearch to atleast own a pinktoe, so thats what I bought.

As far as I know, its a male and he's still thankfully alive and kicking, I'm planning on attempting to handle him pretty soon. Anyways, I've been technically in the hobby for maybe six months or more, and at this very moment I now have five Tarantulas and one Scorpion.

Avicularia avicularia, Grammostola rosea, Aphonopelma seemanni, Haplopelma lividum, Psalmopoeus cambridgei and Pandinus imperator.

I agree, its something you just can't stop thinking about, from the moment I wake up to the very second I fall asleep, Arachnids are always on my mind. I've even been inspired enough to take it as seriously as to start work on a documentary all about Arachnids, and I've even considered going to college to be an Arachnologist, not bad for a dreamer and a High School drop-out 'eh? I expect to be in the hobby for the rest of my life.

-Mr.Arachnid

 

[Brian F.]

A few years ago, when my wife (girlfriend back then) was doing her student teaching, she got an A. avicularia on loan from a reptile store for some sort of science lesson/presentation she was doing. Although she fully intended to return it after she was done, I gave her the money to just go pay for it and I kept it. One turned into two, then five, etc. I now have eleven, with at least seven other species I can think of off the top of my head that I still want.

Everyone asks me "Doesn't your wife say anything about you having all those creatures in the house?" and I tell them "It's her fault!"

Unfortunately, the school she teaches at now only allows their science teachers to have fish in their classrooms.

 

[aliasx]

About 6-7 years ago I worked at a reptile wholesaler [mostly imports :/] and grabbed a rosy. After that I went to some shows and got a cobalt blue and
a venezualan sun tiger sling.

I also had an OBT but was completely unaware of its nature, at that time they were imported as starburst baboons.

Fast forward to now, years later.. . I found tarcan's site :worship: and now I have the privilege of keeping some amazing species.

 

[TroyMcClureOG82]

I had a T or two when I was a kid. They were just local species that the guy at the fish store gave me for free. Had them for a couple of years and hadn't kept anymore Ts in a long time. Two months ago I went to a reptile show. I came there looking for a centipede and decided I wanted to have a T as well. I ended up picking up an A versicolor sling. Two months later I have 20 Ts

 

[Nico]

Since I moved to Ireland (7 years ago) I always thoud about getting a T.
I never had any money before I moved to Ireland since I was in the Army (Military Service) and had a couple of apprentiantships (you get feck all money when you do that).
So I always wanted a T and knew the shops that sells them, but my girlfriend never agreed and so I keep thinkning about them read up on them etc.

She finished our 12 year relationship (I was bleeding 18 years old when I meet her) just a month ago, and I had to move out of my beloved appartment.

I never feelt so much pain and grief in my live before (and I have lost some very speciaql people before) but since she was more than a friend/partner/lover to me I really suffered.

So what I did was to go to City Center and fullfill my dreams (what ever you can buy with money)

So I went in to Reptile Heaven (cheers Tony) and bought some T's there.

I have now 4 T's and buy this weekend another one Brazilian Black weeeeee (can't wait for that baby) I will call her/he Teddy

Still hurts but i have something to work with now and don't have time to think

 

[nightbreed]

Well it started out as a joke for me, you see my mum is terrified of spiders so when ever there was any talk of pets in the house I would pipe up and say I wanted a tarantula, I had no intention of getting one (as I had a mild fear of spiders that I think I learned from my mum) but as a kid I found it amusing to see the look of disgust on her face , many years pass and I now have a wife and two kids now my wife has heard all about me wanting a T as a child she's an arachnophobe herself but being the incredibly cool person that she is she decided she was gonna buy a surprise present my dream pet the one I've wanted since I was a kid luckily I got wind of it before she bought it as I had no idea what went into keeping T's and when I get a pet I like to have as much info on their care as i can, so anyway after this close call I started thinking about T's because I've always been interested in them but didn't think I could keep a pet that I was afraid of so I started doing some research on the net, checking out all the sites I could to find out about the care of tarantulas, I start thinking they aren't scary they are kinda cute so off to the petshop we go and look at a G. rosea I fell in love with him (it turned out he was a male) and he came home with me that was the start of a very slippery slope as that was about eight months ago and I now have seven T's G.rosea B.vagans B.smithi B.emilia G.aureostriata A.avicularia and L.parahybana
the good news is I'm not scared of them anymore I have a healthy respect for my salmon pink but no fear lol

P.S if your reading this thread and thinking about getting your first T be very careful as IMO you cant stop at one, T's are as addictive as crack

 

[Bort]

When I was 3 or 4 (1983 or '84), my dad brought home an aquarium with two tarantulas in it, separated by a pane of glass (And you guessed it, the glass didn't work forever, and one did kill the other). Apparantly, the people he got it from were scared of them, and didn't want to deal with them anymore. I don't know if they were truly T. Blondis, but that's what my parents told me they were. I had no fear of them as a little kid, and I remember picking them up often, and having swollen hands due to the hairs.

Maybe around 1990, I got my own T, which I want to say was a rose hair, but I can't remember for sure. For some reason, I was really scared of it, even though I really wanted a tarantula. I'm pretty sure I gave it back to the Pet Store owner.

Then, earlier this year, I started working at a pet store, and we have an A. avicularia there that really fascinated me. Instead of buying that pinktoe, I bought a B. smithi, which has been one of my favorite looking tarantulas for years. That pinktoe is still there, and I am greatly considering buying it. Since that B. smithi, I've bought 7 other Ts. One more couldn't hurt. Just don't really have anymore room for it. He's a sweet one though. He's the T I take out for customers most often, mainly because he's the calmest.

I think that educating myself about tarantulas my have been why I have no fear of them now, but did when I got my rosie. I knew next to nothing about the care and behaviors of a tarantula. Before I bought the B. smithi, I read everything I could find on the net, and it helped get over the fear of not only tarantulas, but the fear of not caring for them well. I love animals, and I would hate to take poor care of an animal ignorantly, as well as intentionally of course.

-Bort

 

[Catherine]

I started off a couple of years ago, my boyfriend, (although he wasn't at the time!) Bought a collection of about 12 adult females and was selling off the ones he already had. I bought a female B vagans off him, and that was it.
A bit later i deceided I wanted some more and bought two G. rosea slings from the pet shop where he worked. I liked the idea of raising them.
Then, I'd get more when he ordered slings off the 'net and my collection slowly grew. Since we've got together its positively exploded!

 

[Code Monkey]

First, some background threads (there's more, I just grabbed the first 2 I found that I had posted to ):

<deleted thread links since sheri merged them with this thread>

Second, I was 11 and into spiders and other myriad biological things. My family was vacationing at my grandmother's and we were shopping at the mall. They had a Haitian brown (P. cancerides) on sale for $10.99 and I had something like $15 to my name. I asked my mom, she said yes and even helped with the few bucks I needed to get a kritter keeper type cage and some gravel (yikes ).

That was sometime in 1981 or 1982.

I kept tarantulas a couple at a time all to the beginning of college. When I started college I only took my B. smithi and left the what was probably a G. rosea with my brother (which died an early death at the hands of my brother's ferret pushing its cage off the desk a couple of years later). That smithi was with me through graduation and the start of my marriage, she died sometime in 1998 after 16 years in my care.

I went T-less for a few years but missed having big, hairy spiders in my life so in late 2001 I started looking around. My mother offered to help me buy another B. smithi & A. avicularia if I could find them. Pet stores weren't really cutting it for the supply side so I figured that the internet probably held the solution, and, boy, did it

So, a bit over 2 1/2 years ago I started out with the honest intention of just getting that B. smithi and A. avicularia, and maybe a couple of others to justify the shipping cost. However, the variety out there was mind blowing to a guy who grew up in a scenario where you were lucky to get to choose between 2 wild caught adults of dubious ID in a petstore so I kept going like a stoner who got handed a bag of cheetos.

Now, I'm working on building up breeding stock of a handful of my favorite species and focusing on my old standbys of the Brachypelma, Grammostola, & Avicularia with my new faves of the Nhandu and Poecilotheria added in.

 

[Wade]

I got my first tarantula in 1992, a G. rosea (still have her). Not my first arachnid, as I already had a Asian forest scorpion. At the time, I had a growing collection of reptiles and was just starting to get interested in invertebrates. From there, I added tarantulas here and there, and the total collection is in the hundreds if you count all the spiderlings that I need to sell , but I have somewhere around 100 in my regular, permanent collection of which around 70 are adult or close to it. Invertebrates have pretty much taken over, and now I only maintain a few "pet" reptiles. My intrest in recent years has veered more towards insects, but I still have a healthy respect for arachnids.

Wade

 

[earthgirl]

there, back, and there again

About 8 years ago a good friend gave me a praying mantis. Fascinating. He bought a G.rosea, and later gave her to me. She walked on my hand and then I was hooked by her scary look but gentle demeanor.

I proceeded to get seven more tarantulas of different sorts. :clap:

I kept them for a few years but when I got a puppy and moved, I found good homes for all of my Ts.

As my puppy grew, I really missed having my Ts, so I bought a B.smithi (and that was going to be it). Well, we all know what happens...now I have four Ts - G.aureostriatum, A.avicularia and C.cyanopubescens.

And I read this forum EVERY DAY. I can't get enough!!!!!
:drool:

 

[Nerri1029]

Had Herps...

Got a G. rosea too ..

Pretty standard intro to T's...

was trying to date the girl working at the petstore

so I needed reasons to get crickets right??

Had the G. rosea for 9 years.. lost her recently .. 6 months ago.. started collecting since.. up to 5 T's and a wolf spider now..

 

[Washout]

2 Months ago I bought my first, a G. rosea like everyone else. Then I decied I raise a couple of batches of slings. So I ordered 10 P. Murinus from Garrik and 10 b. albopilosum from Immortal_sin. Well they both had way too many apparently because I ended up with 16 usmbaras and 20 curlies.

Once I found out how easy slings were to take care of I decided I'd like to have a bunch of different species, and well now I have close to a hundred slings running around. Currently trying to sell off my excess usmbaras and curly hairs so I can make room for more species!

 

[Randolph XX()]

i always like collecting animals since i was young. there used to be a big grassland back home with lots of grasshoppers, mantis, snakes, and lots wolf spiders. i used to have almost evey spices of jumping spiders, place them in round film boxes and some mantis. since that day i caught my first wolf spider, i got into them. 4yaers ago, i had my first t, which is a wild caught H. schmidti black form and 9" in size. she died within a year due to the reason of parasites inside of her body that i cannot clean up. i was studying in Australia for the past 2 yaers and could only get some wild wite-tail spiders around my place. As soon as i transfer to Canada, i went to a pet shop to get some crix for my Macrothele gigas and found out i can get a lot of ts in here! then i started my collecting....