Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

There was a post floating around my Facebook feed over the weekend that asked a very simple question: "Are there any arachnophobes out there who have been helped by jumping spiders?" This got me to thinking about my own situation, and the answer is....yes. I was as arachnophobic as it was possible to be for 30 years prior to my mission to get over it. I would freak out when ever I saw a spider sometimes I'd scream, sometimes I'd freeze, other times I would throw things. I would hallucinate spiders when awake and have nightmares when I was asleep. Some examples of how ridiculous my phobia got include: - There was once a time when my sister sent me a Facebook video that included a spider coming out from under a cabinet - I threw my phone across the work lunch room, and my manager had to pick it up and cancel the video for me because it was on a loop. I couldn't face it. - Another time I was playing World of Warcraft with my eyes shut because there was a spider ...

Webster wasn't really due for a housing upgrade, if I'm entirely honest, but somebody bought me this amazing enclosure from Tarantula Cribs and I had to decide who to put in it. As it is an arboreal enclosure, that meant that the slings in arboreal pots were the only ones it was really suitable for - Lucifer, Asmodeus, or Webster. I am not putting my fingers into the enclosures of Asmodeus or Lucifer for all the Cribs in the world. As such, that left Webster. The benefits of putting Webster into this enclosure were mainly aesthetic. Firstly, Webster likes to web, so seeing it all webbed up will look awesome. Secondly, as Webster grows he will change colour, going from blue to purple, red and green. These colours would look amazing when backlit against the purple acrylic. And to be fair, his arboreal keeper was pretty boring, although he had made a rather impressive tunnel web in it. As with most of my recent rehousings, I opted for the natural look again. However, I did ...

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....

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"...

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 ...