Check out this beautiful visitor I spotted at work today!

[Captante]

he's the 3rd different one we've seen here this month, i hope he's eating these loud af crickets

Unfortunately they usually pretty much stop eating towards the end which might explain why he's looking so skinny!

 

[Charmonium]

Unfortunately they usually pretty much stop eating towards the end which might explain why he's looking so skinny!

You'd make such a good spouse.

Honey, does this make my second body segment look fat?

 

[Captante]

In case it's not already obvious I used to keep tarantulas!

 

[Charmonium]

@Captante Are they soft? If they are, I will definitely take more of an interest. If they're bristley tho, meh, no sentiment either way.

 

[lxskllr]

You know what's soft? Kitties. I don't know why someone would get a tarantula when kitties exist.

 

[Captante]

Are they soft? If they are, I will definitely take more of an interest. If they're bristley tho, meh, no sentiment either way.

Technically yes, some are soft BUT even though you can handle some of the more docile "new-world" tarantulas, none of them like it and all of them can and do bite. (to be fair none of their venom does significant harm to humans)

What's more of a risk is that so-called "New-World" tarantulas have what are known as "urticating hairs" which are those "soft" looking hairs on the spiders back. They can fling them with their hind-legs like clouds of tiny harpoons and if they go in your eye it's going to be a bad day!

Invertebrates are "display" animals.... people that show off handling them are doing a disservice to both the animals and to enthusiasts who take proper care of them.

 

[WelshBloke]

 

[Captante]

View attachment 71751

Hypnosnail?

 

[Iron Woode]

I remember seeing these when I was a kid:

 

[Charmonium]

You know what's soft? Kitties. I don't know why someone would get a tarantula when kitties exist.

Kitties are basically emotional crack. And you've got to love those dainty, surgical grade, retractable scalpels on their little tootsies. So . . . YEOWWWWWW . . . adorable.

 

[Charmonium]

Invertebrates are "display" animals.... people that show off handling them are doing a disservice to both the animals and to enthusiasts who take proper care of them.

That is sooo cool. Are they sticky and just adhere to surfaces or are they so sharp that despite their light weight, they can still pierce your skin?

 

[Charmonium]

@Captante You should do a tarantula AMA. Just a thought tho.

 

[Captante]

That is sooo cool. Are they sticky and just adhere to surfaces or are they so sharp that despite their light weight, they can still pierce your skin?

Extremely sharp with tiny barbs similar to porcupine quills so they do more damage when removing them.

They only irritate skin most of the time but if you inhale them or worse they go in your eyes it can be serious.

@Captante You should do a tarantula AMA. Just a thought tho.

Here ya go! (been quite awhile since I posted lol)

Arachnoboards ~ invertebrate owner forum (Arachnoboards.com)

 

[KMFJD]

Saw this guy crossing the road today while on my walk, hope he made it across

 

[Muse]

Found this on the 1 gallon swamp milkweeds at work today! YAY!! Hopefully it turns into a Monarch.

That's a Monarch larvae. It won't want to pupate on the plant, it will abandon the plant when large enough and walk and walk until it finds a place it deems appropriate. I've been raising Monarchs in my backyard for about 4 years. This last summer, around 1/2 the time I could go back there and find a Monarch flying around, sometimes more than one. Besides being very beautiful, their flight pattern is wonderful to behold, more so than any other butterfly I've ever seen. They don't just flutter around like most (all have their own way of flying), they intermittently ride air currents and glide.

 

[Muse]

You know what's soft? Kitties. I don't know why someone would get a tarantula when kitties exist.

Kitties require shots, food, trips to the vet and I'm told they do better with companions, IOW get two kitties, not just one.

Edit: Oh, if indoors, cats require a litter box too.

 

[KMFJD]

is this a juvenile huntsman or a tarantula? i saw a much larger huntsman earlier this year in the house (3x bigger at least)

 

[lxskllr]

Looks like an invitation to move to Finland.

 

[Captante]

Banana for scale?

Seriously all I can tell you from that pic is it's a black or dark brown hairy spider.

Although since you saw mommy-huntsman earlier it MAY be a baby one of those. (you'll be thrilled to know she could have laid as many as 200 eggs!)

 

[KMFJD]

Banana for scale?

Seriously all I can tell you from that pic is it's a black or dark brown hairy spider.

Although since you saw mommy-huntsman earlier it MAY be a baby one of those. (you'll be thrilled to know she could have laid as many as 200 eggs!)

that on is a bit bigger than a quarter, probably about the width of 4-5 keys on a normal sized keyboard...the momma was huge, bigger than a tennis ball and fast

 

[Captante]

the momma was huge, bigger than a tennis ball and fast

"Huntsman spiders give bites that have caused prolonged pain, inflammation, headache, vomiting and irregular pulse rate. However, a scientific study into the bite of these spiders did not note any severe or unusual symptoms resulting from confirmed bites.

It is unclear under what circumstances these spiders bite people, however, it is known that female members of this family will aggressively defend against perceived threats to their egg sacs and their young."

(Animalcorner.org)


Sleep well!

 

[Red Squirrel]

I remember seeing these when I was a kid:

View attachment 71767

I found something like that once too as a kid and I thought it was the coolest thing, I was playing with it for a while, letting it crawl on my hands and stuff. I set it down for a sec and a chipmunk came and ate it.

 

[Charmonium]

@KMFJD Aww, such a cutie. It's the sneaky ones like the brown recluse that you have to watch out for. Saw a black widow when we were in Texas. That red hourglass is very visible from even 10 or 20 ft away. More if you've got eagle eyes.

I found something like that once too as a kid and I thought it was the coolest thing, I was playing with it for a while, letting it crawl on my hands and stuff. I set it down for a sec and a chipmunk came and ate it.

You were it's guardian, how could you let that happen. Slap that chipmunk back to the 13th century.

 

[KMFJD]

need to bring the cat inside to guard me i think

 

[igor_kavinski]

need to bring the cat inside to guard me i think

What makes you think the cat won't get scared? From what I've seen, most cats these days are useless when it comes to hunting.