Halloween early? Tarantulas!

It's October, so that means I need to write about creepy things, right? Some of you might think I always write about creepy things, but spiders, especially large, hairy spiders really creep most people out. Oh yeah, and cockroaches. Most people scream like a little girl when they see a cockroach, but I've already covered them. So for all you arachnophobes out there.....

Tarantulas are probably the heaviest spiders that we have in Texas. Their bodies can be up to 1 1/2 inches long and they get even larger when you add in their legspan. Tarantulas create burrows either by digging one or using natural cavities under rocks, logs, etc. Sometimes they'll line the burrow with silk and add a few lines in front of the burrow to help detect prey that might wander past. Tarantulas eat things such as crickets, grasshoppers, beetles and caterpillars, so they are beneficial and help reduce pests that may be wandering around in your yard.


While the size and hairiness of tarantulas freaks most people out, they really are fairly harmless. Of course, they have fangs and are capable of biting, but typically their venom doesn't react with our body chemistry in a negative way. Tarantulas will let you know if you are upsetting them to allow you ample time to move away- they'll rear up on their hind legs and put their front legs into the air. If you see one do this, then leave it alone. Tarantulas may also brush their legs along their abdomen when threatened to brush off urticating hairs that can cause irritation to the eyes or skin.


The above photo is of Debbie, the Bird Eating Tarantula that I have in my office (I feed her mice, not birds). The quarter is in the photo so you can have a size reference.

The Adventures of Rosie the Tarantula

I came back to the office last week with goodies for my wee-beasties. It was feeding time which usually happens every couple of weeks. I dumped a few crickets in with Debbie, my Goliath Bird-eating tarantula. She usually gets live mice about once a month, but she's been acting a bit odd lately and didn't eat her last mouse, so I think she's getting ready to molt. At this point I'm just waiting for her to get on with it. Next came Tiny, my Texas brown tarantula and the Scolopendra centipede. The centipede, as always, jumped on the crickets immediately. I came to Rosie's tank and imagine my horror and surprise when I noticed the lid was askew. For some reason, I still felt the need to search the tank for her, hoping that she might be in there somehow. To understand how ridiculous it was for me to do this, you need to know that the tank has substrate on the bottom and a water dish with gravel in it. I took all the plant material for hiding out last time I cleaned the tank because it was growing something. Even in my panic, I had to laugh....at least it wasn't Debbie. People in the office would freak out if she got out since she's so huge!

So, what do I do now? Do I let someone know just in case Rosie wanders off? There's a pretty good space under my door that it would be no problem for her to get out of my office. Parts of the office are being renovated at the moment, so there is furniture, boxes, books, etc. piled everywhere in offices and hallways. My office has a pathway that allows me to get to my desk. There was no way I could go search for Rosie; there was too much stuff in the way. I decided that I was going to keep the matter of Rosie's escape to myself. Hopefully if someone found her they would come a get me instead of squishing her or maybe she'll show up crawling across the floor or up the wall one day.

Tuesday, I turned around in my chair to take one of my all too frequent trips to the restroom (BB likes squishing Mommy's bladder) and guess who was waltzing out from behind my mini fridge- Rosie! I quickly picked her up and put her back into her tank. This time I secured the lid with a large rock on one side and a marble award thing I had on my bookshelf. She's now happily chilling in her tank, resting up from her big adventure in the open.