For those of you not familiar with tarantula behaviors, this is actually a good sign. Being invertebrates, tarantulas need to shed their exoskeleton in order to grow. This is called molting. Smaller spiders can do this several times a year (depending on the species), while larger tarantulas, like our Chaco here, usually do this once a year. When they are on their backs, their carapace “pops” open and the spider pushes its old skin off. For our big girl here, she laid on her back for over 15 hours before she began coming out of her old skin! (The picture below is one of the few that came out. We did not want to disturb her by opening the cage for a better picture. If you look carefully, you can see the first signs of her gray/white body pushing off the old skin.)

About 90 minutes later, she was finished. (Thank goodness!) You see, not only is the molting process necessary, but it is also a very dangerous time for the spider. If the tarantula gets stuck inside their old skin, they will die. For those that do make it out safely, they are like Superman holding a bag full of Kryptonite. They are extremely vulnerable at this time, as their exoskeleton is still soft and pliable – as are their fangs. Their energy is spent as well, so they are a moist, eight legged helpless baby for a while. Lucky for the captive tarantulas, there are no predators to come along and take advantage of this situation.

It is now the end of the week, and she is doing better everyday. She is stretching her legs out and moving about the cage every-so-slightly. Her overall color is much darker than it was in premolt, and the gold markings on her skin are vibrant. (Here is the molt itself, still intact after the process.)

I purchased a beautiful Thai Tiger (C. paganus) about two months ago. After putting it in the tank, it dug a burrow and that was it. I walked by the tank yesterday and had to do a double take. So that’s what it looks like! It finally came out of it’s burrow and stayed put for some pictures.

Now, I’m not saying that this spider is aggressive, but she is VERY QUICK to pounce (and investigate) anything that enters her tank! She is usually one of the tarantulas in our collection that runs for her burrow whenever I open the tank for feeding. Well, one evening last week, I was feeding the brood and came to the vagan’s tank. She sat out in the open, making no attempt to run for it. Having held her on only one occasion previously, I decided I would give her a little leg-stroke before dropping in her dinner.

She ended up giving ME a stroke! My finger had barely grazed the fine fuzz on her leg, when she launched herself onto my hand – all eight legs (and pedipalps) wrapped around my hand. A split second later, she let go and turned her back to me. After screaming…I mean, expressing my surprise, I understood that she thought I was a cricket.

A few days later, Carla has the long tweezers in hand to pick something out of the vagans tank – a very routine procedure. I’m not sure if the tweezers even made it to the substrate in the tank before spider had again launched itself onto the “intruder.” It was almost like watching a slow motion movie clip, but the vagans was climbing the tweezers towards Carla’s hand. Needless to say, she quickly abandoned the task at hand. (Luckily, the spider was only about an inch off of the substrate when she let go of the tweezers.) Now we had the problem of retrieving the tweezers. With the help of a spatula, another pair of tweezers, and some holy water, we were able to wrench the captive tweezers free!

Poecilotheria fasciata, Aphonopelma sp. (Carlsbad Green), Brachypelma emilia, Grammostola aureostriata, Cyclosternum fasciatum, 2 Brachypelma albopilosum, Lasiodora parahybana, Brachypelma auratum, Aphonopelma chalcodes, and last night, Grammostola rosea.

A. chalcodes before her molt…

A. chalcodes after her molt…

A few days after the pictures above were taken, our first tarantula, Drucilla (G. rosea) decided it was her turn. When I got home from work at about 1:40 p.m., she was just finishing this web-bed on the floor of her tank. Two hours later, I found her on her back. At 10:00 that night, I took these pictures…

Pamphobeteus sp.II from Ecuador.

Aphonopelma hentzi

Aphonopelma chalcodes (caught by Carla during a morning field trip on 6/17/06)

Carla’s “Avicularia metallica” tattoo.

We were eating dinner at our favorite Mexican restaraunt, not too far from our house, when Carla saw a tattoo parlour a few shops away. She announced that we (and since I was the only one there, I assumed she meant me) were getting tattoos after dinner. Now, she has wanted one for a while now, but was never sure what to get. After having just finished her first American Tarantula Society convention, she thought that a tarantula tat would be a great way to award herself for conquering such a long time fear. Since I am such a loving and supporting husband, I decided to get one too (her first, my second).

Rick’s “Lasiodora parahybana” tattoo.

We talked to the tattoo artist, and after looking at the few designs they had there, decided to return the next day with pictures in hand. Each tattoo took about an hour to an hour and a half, and we were very pleased with the result.

And if you think this was impulsive, ask us about how we went from dating to engagement in four days!

This is a video of “spidey” my brachypelma smithi (mexican red knee) moulting.Unfortunately I didn’t get the original flip, and I have cut out some of the footage of him on his back, as he just layed there for an hour motionless, and the Vid is long enough as it is.

The first pictures is an Aphonopelma chalcodes flipped onto her back, ready for the molting process. The second picture is a Haplopelma sp. that has died. Top picture, glad. Bottom picture, bad.

This picture was taken from one of our juvenile Brachypelma albopilosum. I love these spiders!