WTF virus update(pics)

[noboyscout]

This may sound stupid but, what about a spray type cleaning agent? You know furniture polish or Windex? You did say your collection is in your bedroom. Are you the sole person that has access to your room and it's cleaning?:?

 

[Vayu Son]

><

Absolutely not any cleaning spray.
thanks

-V

 

[Pixie]

I'm really sorry to hear about your Ts dying on you... I too would be very distraught to see it happen to one of my Ts nevermind more!

As you suspect from the symptoms, it seems the affliction is neurological in nature. My first impulse is too also think of an external chemical agent causing this first hand as tarantula diseases in what I've researched so far are fairly rare.

It's sometimes very hard to pin point an exact source. A few years back on another T message board, a keeper went through similar events only to find out their neighboor had sprayed pesticides and they had seeped in through an open window and killed off a bunch of Ts. Sometimes the source isn't you or anything you would think of.

The fact that different Ts died at different times doesn't rule out this possibility. It could be a borderline level of chemical that is affecting weaker Ts.

I wish I could help you with great advice on how to solve your situation but I can't... The ideal would be to separate Ts into different areas further away from each other but practical reasons make that impossible most often.

Try to scratch your brain for anything that has changed or is new in your Ts environment in the past month could lead to something.

Good luck,
Pixie

 

[bodisky]

Hello all!
In the past month we have been able to locate and photograph nematodes present in tarantula tissue especially cheliceral tissue. Once inside the tissue they release their toxic cocktail of symbiont bacteria. IMHO I believe this is what is causing the "fang lock up" symptom of some nematode infested T's. I am not saying that nematodes are the cause of this particular problem but in some cases a nematode/parasitic infestation of T tissue may look like a neurological problem.
Kerry Gowin
Research Institute for Exotic Species Microbiology