Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

Wow. I am a very happy spood keeper. I have got home, and transferred all of my spoods into their new homes. Because of sizing, I did not have enough Braplast tubs to rehouse all of the original spoods, so Shelob remains unhoused. But as she is the smallest of the three, she can wait another molt or so. Heterometrus laoticus We might as well start with the biggest surprise. This was a difficult critter to transfer. I was unprepared for a scorpion - I don't keep scorpions at all, and nothing I own has gotten big enough for me to have spare enclosures hanging around or anything, so I had to use what was available to me and borrow an enclosure from work. It's not really suitable - it doesn't have cross ventilation and it's not wide enough - but I have since ordered a glass terrarium from TSS and he will be rehoused again once it arrived. Fortunately, I had enough cork bark and substrate hanging around that I was able to throw a house together, and I can refine it later on....

I got my replacement female jumping spider today, Phidippus regius . I haven't opened the tube yet to let her out as I am still at work. As such, she doesn't even have a name as yet because I wanted to see her before I named her. Her theoretical name at the moment is Winona - Close enough to Winnie that I still feel that I have my Winnie, but different enough to not be a direct replacement. And obviously, a play on Winona Ryder (Winona Spider). I have also received my Caribena versicolor (also still in it's tube), three braplast tubs to rehouse my original Spood trio (photos to come), and another arboreal sling keeper. All exactly as I expected, no issues here. But.... I also received my first mystery box. I've never ordered a mystery box before, and common sense ought to have deterred me, as a novice. But I was bored, and the devil makes work for idle hands.... So I ordered a £30 mystery box from The Spider Shop. And, well. I don't regret it, that'...

I don't have much to say right now - my recent order hasn't arrived yet, and not a huge amount has happened. Both Loki and Pratt have molted, though I don't have pictures of them as they like to hide, but that's about it. So I am sharing these photos of some of my larger slings. Both Shelob and Lolth escaped again during a recent maintenance session on their enclosures, so I have ordered braplast tubs to upgrade their homes. Maybe they're a little small for a 1.3 litre braplast, but they definitely seem too large for the little sling boxes they are in right now. And every time they escape, they scare my daughter, which is the opposite of what I am trying to achieve here. So, long term, Shelob, Anansi, Lolth and Joy are getting moved to larger enclosures. At the same time, I intend to move Loki and Pratt back into their smaller sling tubes, as I think the boxes they are in are too big and they seem unhappy. So a major rehousing session will be imminent. In the meanti...

This spider keeping malarkey is getting addictive. I'm really starting to think I have a problem. I currently own one mantis, one jumping spider, nine tarantulas, and by proxy, four stick insects. I have just ordered more . A few days ago I was lying in bed feeling very sorry for myself. I had been ill with a lurgy - nothing serious, but ill nevertheless. My daughter came into my room, and we chatted for a while before she looked at me with big, sad, blue eyes and told me "I miss Winnie. When can we get a new spider like her?" And damn, I am such a soft touch when it comes to my daughter! So.... long story short, I have ordered another Phidippus regius female to be delivered next week. But as I was putting in the order and paying the £10 delivery anyway, I also checked off one of my wishlist - Caribena versicolor . The Spider Shop had a very good deal on the sling plus enclosure for £20, and I couldn't resist. My daughter keeps asking for a "black and pink"...

God help me, I don't know why I googled this, but I did... Did you know that spiders don't slurp their food up through their fangs? Like many people (I assume) I always thought that a spider injected venom/digestive juices into their prey with their fangs, and then I just assumed they slurped the resulting soup up through said same fangs and swallowed it that way. I don't know why I thought this, I just always have... Well. It turns out that this is not the case. Spiders actually have some almost Alien style crap going on, because they actually have a separate, almost tube-like mouth under their fangs that slurps the soup up like a straw. I had no idea! So since I googled this and was exposed to this Ungodly (used ironically - I am not religious) imagery myself, now you must be too. Welcome to the reality of the spider's mouth: The mouth is that fleshy nodule, directly under the fangs right there. Everything I learn about spiders simultaneously fascinates me, and leav...

Believe it or not, there are still Spoods that I would like to add to my collection. Yes, I am aware that I have a lot, and yes, I am aware that there is no hurry, and yes, I do know that I don't "gotta cetch 'em all". And to be honest, at this point, I probably won't get any more until Lolth, Shelob and Anansi have molted a couple more times and been moved into the next size of enclosure - a braplast tub. But! That isn't set in stone, mind you. If The Spider Shop get any of my "bucket" spiders in stock, then I might be swayed. Or if I suddenly come into enough money to afford some of the more expensive ones... So, in lieu of an actual post, here is my current wishlist: Caribena versicolor , the Martinique pink toe tarantula. When I first saw this spider, I was convinced it was photoshopped. Even now, I can't quite believe that a single spider can come in so many vibrant, clearly defined, different colours. It's beautiful. But it ...

I found these photo's on my phone while I was browsing, and she was SO cute, so I decided to post them here. I love the one of her that looks like shes's tapping on the glass. Poor baby. :(

The Spooder Prince has finally eaten something!! After everything I've tried, from moving him to smaller enclosures, to smushing mealworm guts near his fangs, and dangling flies in front of his face in tweezers.... in the end, I released a green bottle fly into his main enclosure, and when I came to bed I found him sitting in bed (his nest) eating the fly! It was so simple, and I'm so happy. I do feel a little bit like it was a pride thing - "I'll catch up own food, thankyou very much" - but I'm just happy that after a month, he finally has something . And a pretty decent sized something, too.

I got a surprise today. I have been home sick from work as I got Freshers flu (can you call it freshers flu in January?) Whilst I was in bed, I could hear a buzzing, as if a bee had gotten trapped in my room. I couldn't find the source for love nor money... until I looked to the Spood shelf. The green bottle casters that I had written off as dead had finally hatched. I'm not sure what had taken so long, but suddenly I find myself with a box full of hungry green bottles. Since hatching, the green bottles have been given a healthy meal of chicken, and some of them have been unfortunate enough to find their way into my enclosures. Catchy thoroughly enjoyed having the chance to properly hunt larger prey, Joy immediately leapt on the fly with all the ferocity of a starving Spood, and even Poe came out for a munch. I haven't seen him since he arrived, so that was a real treat. There was one Spood who wasn't interested in the flies though. The spood who I had initially bought ...

Well, I did say that Anansi liked his food, so I shouldn't be too surprised. But here is Anansi having massively overeaten. His abdomen is quite distended. Hopefully he will either shrink down in time, or go into another molt cycle. I currently use a spreadsheet to help me keep track of each spoods last meal, what it was, whether they took it, and their last molts. This is supposed to help me monitor any issues as a lot of the spoods (e.g. Lucifer and Pratt) have disappeared into their substrate and not been seen since they arrived. It doesn't help me with Spoods who over eat, however. Anansi? You are on a diet!

So, this makes me a little bit anxious. Today I noticed that Shelob was on her back. There's only one reason why a spider would be on their back, and that is molting. Usually, if they die, they die in situ, where they are standing. So I knew this was a molt. Now, I did have some warning that this was due. Firstly, she had stopped accepting any food. This is a classic spider sign of an impending molt, and combined with the second sign - the fact that she went into hiding under her water bowl - is known as "premolt". Shelob had been in premolt for about a week. So when I saw her upside down, I knew what was coming. I've never caught a spider in the act of molting before, and I really wish I could have stayed to watch, but I have children and life goes on. Ultimately I was unable to watch her, though I did take some photos if the various stages. I tried very hard not to disturb her, as I know they're very delicate at this stage, but I did manage to get this very shor...

The Spooder Prince is giving me cause for concern. Much like Winnie when she first arrived, he is not eating. He hasn't eaten since he arrived about three weeks ago. He's definitely active enough, wandering around his enclosure, and being mostly happy to be handled, but no matter what I do he just won't eat. The first thing I tried was moving him into a smaller container so that he didn't lose his prey in the enclosure - after all, that worked for Winnie. But he just sits there looking at it. Then I tried changing up the types of prey I offered him. When he's not running away from fruit flies then he's letting them walk all over his abdomen, When confronted with a mealworm, he bats it on the head as if to get it away from him. I haven't had any success in getting him to eat green bottles either, though that may be more to do with the fact that I can't get them to pupate successfully. I really hope he eats soon, because I am very worried right now...

Just watched Lolth take down a mealworm. He tried to snatch it right out of the tweezers, so he must have been hungry. You can't see the meal worm in the photo though, because he's sitting on it, but he's getting big enough now that you can see his fangs open when he goes for something. It made me jump, I'm not gonna lie.

Today was Careers day at my daughters primary school. As is the tradition, the school appeal for parents to go in and discuss their jobs, the things they do, what it's like to do that job, etc. I've done it every year so far - usually I take my lab coat, a microscope, and a selection of plastic skulls from the lab. Sometimes I have laminated photographs, latex gloves, or plastic pipettes - just a selection of things that give an idea of what it's like to work in the lab. This year I took Catchy and Zucchini, and they were a HIT. I didn't let the children handle the insects, I just showed them. But you would have thought that I was handing out free candy or something. The children had so many questions, there was a LOT of screaming, and the insects definitely earned their treats by the end of the day. Zucchini had fresh bramble leaves, while Catchy got a whole juicy mealworm and is looking quite gorged now.

I hope everyone has had a great new years celebration? I am hoping that my 2024 continues in a better way to the way 2023 ended... And on that note - For the first post of the new year: Catchy the giant praying mantis, and Fred the regal jumping spider.