Nick says ; “For The equivalent of £3 a month at full subscription rate you get… No data tracking by Google AdSense. No weird adverts in your feed that don’t apply to you. A continuously evolving social media platform. Access to a quarterly newsletter (depending on subscription level). Access to the on-line wildlife book (depending upon subscription level). COMPLETE freedom to create for sale posts, for ANY exotic pet (reptiles, amphibians and inverts with the prices without fear of groups being deleted). A safe haven for REGISTERED re-homing facilities to post details about their animals desperate for forever loving homes. All the world’s traders (well, the ones who want to take part) in one place, and easy to find. The subscription fee is going to discourage rogue traders and illegal brown boxers, who will be removed from the platform – they won’t want to be forking out £36 a time to create new fake profiles! With all that in the equation, is it not actually a great deal? And besides, the servers we are going to need for this as it grows will be very expensive, and so will the teams of people we will need to employ in time for back end web mastering, development and engineering, and dealing with user enquiries and needs.”
I’m loving it! With FaceBook shutting done pages and removing sales posts without warning we are going to need to swap if we want to keep trading online.
I’m suggesting that you just give it a try – use the link below and have a nose through the book
Keep the Praying Mantis in a tall container; a plastic sweet jar is ideal. There is sufficient air in the container but provide some ventilation to prevent stale air. Provide twigs, which are almost the height of the jar for the mantis to climb up on; this is essential for it to be able to moult successfully. Temperature: The ideal range is 18° – 30°C. ( The lower the temp. the slower the growth rate.) with regular fine water spray in the cage, without making the cage wet as mould is a potential insect killer. Food: Feed on live foods e.g. flies, maggots, crickets, locusts, and grasshoppers. etc. in fact, they will eat just about anything they can grab, but as a rule, try feed things that are less than half the size of the Mantis. Breeding: Introduce the male to the female in a large cage, or aquarium after feeding her all she can eat (no easy task!). Mating (pairing) may last some hours and only occasionally results in the male being eaten. The female should lay an egg mass (ootheca) 2 – 4 weeks after mating which will be attached to a twig or stick. This can produce between 10 – 300 young, depending on the species and will hatch about 4 – 6 weeks after being laid. Young Mantis should be fed on fruit flies, green /black flies or again anything they can grab, micro crickets suit quite a few species shortly after hatching.
It has been a dream of mine to have a free-roaming giant Orb Weaver in my spider room. Every time I see them for sale I’ve missed them. A friend of mine once had one escape and build it’s own web in a window, so he left it and it thrived and it’s been in the back of my mind ever since. Browsing Facebook I saw that Tony from Venomous Visions had some wild caught Nephila pilipes and I was too broke to buy them. Now then, these really don’t come up too often so I scraped cash from under the sofa and pulled the trigger.
People have successfully kept these by constructing a frame so that the spider has something sturdy to anchor it’s incredible web. Once the main web is created then the spider will hardly ever leave the centre.
Creating the scene
I had a good idea on how I was going to make a frame but no idea on how to hang it properly – the solution was staring me right in the face THE GREEN SCREEN. I grabbed four bamboo sticks from the greenhouse and tied them together to make a giant square frame, I then tied the frame to the green screen – it wasn’t right! Something was off! This first picture shows the bamboo square on the green screen frame and it’s not too bad, it would work.
Bamboo Frame
Something was missing – I had an idea! Around five years ago I bought a jungle scene from IKEA and because the last spider room was smaller and it wouldn’t fit I packed it away. After grabbing the jungle print I decided that it would be wrong just to place it next to the bamboo, the spider would probably then reject it and move somewhere else. I decided to make a kind of canter lever…. redneck style! The next picture has the frame construction nearly complete
Full Scene
I’m really liking the finished article, there is a few structural elements to sort but I’m sure this will be good. I just hope that the spider takes to the frame and this experiment works out. All that’s left is to wait for the arrival of my first free-roaming Nephila pilipes – it should be here next week depending on the weather (It is February after all)
Update 23/02/2020 – Decided to make some improvements to the frame. I am now building the bamboo frame into a box type frame (pics will follow) My next problem is to work out how to erect the frame on to some kind of cantilever but one that is strong enough to take the added weight.
Feb 25th 2020 – Full video of the spider arriving and unpacking
25th Feb 2020
After this video was made I kept finding the female looking dehydrated (curling and weak) and numerous mornings I’d have to take emergency action to get some water into her before she would spring back and look great again. It seems that the spider room is very dry if you are not inside one of the glass/plastic enclosures. I made the decision to move her off the free frame and to house her in the biggest plastic tub I had available.
Over the next month she settled into the RUB (really useful box) created a partial web but never really ate… I was starting to worry that she was extremely thin – I even offered her an injured stick insect, which she took but then discarded. I offered wax moths, dubia roaches, meal worms and anything I could think of – live and pre-killed. Things were starting to look dire until the night after “The Escape”…
During this period of self-isolation, sit back and chill with this relaxed video of Nephila pilipes using her silk to wrap up a small stick insect. Unfortunately, I injured the stick insect while changing its bramble and it couldn’t grip or walk properly – this is why I thought it best to feed to the Orb Weaver.
I normally don’t encourage handling of spiders BUT there are times when it is unavoidable – like when it’s on your head! I don’t know if or when I’d ever get the chance to have her walk on me again so took my chance.
One of the most beautiful arboreal Tarantulas available. In you can imagine a 20cm+ metallic purple / blue spider with long red hairs and pink toes you nearly there! There appears to be a very low ratio of females to males in egg sacks (1 female to every 5 males so I have been told) so females are hard to come by. I have yet to see a photograph do this species justice, we tried for hours but never really got a perfect match, the photos just don’t seem to capture the purple only the blue. This species needs to be kept in a relatively large arboreal set up with vertical hides. They also like quite dark enclosures. Spiderlings tend to burrow until bigger. This species is a must for all arboreal and Asian keepers or anyone who just likes stunning spiders!
Keith gets a defrosted weaner rat every two weeks or so. He has only ever refused a meal once in our care and then the Goliath Birdeater “Tiny” ate it.
The reason he is now a celebrity is that he spent the summer educating the masses at Cardiff Museum in their “Snakes” exhibition.
A nice big chunky Aphonopelma species that is blonde with a brown abdomen covered in reddish hairs. The colouration differs depending on locality, the Tucson locality has green looking femurs and brighter yellow on the carapace. They are not commonly seen in Europe as they are not often bred and can take up to 10 years to mature from Spiderling, they do however live for 20+ years.
Being a desert species they are very easy to care and have no delicate requirements and are as pullet proof as a Tarantula gets. They can be housed in simple terrestrial setup add something to hide under, a heat and a small bowl of water. They are slow moving and settle down quickly and though they make ideal pet spiders I reckon in a few years everyone will have one.
This species is a real monster, it is a giant, robust, heavy bodied, fast and powerful Spider. This is probably the most popular species in the Hobby. Uniformly dark brown in body colour covered with dense short setae (hair) which gives it a beautiful suede appearance. There are also some longish reddish hairs on the abdomen and legs. It is interested to observe the changes of coloration of this giant from moult to moult as it can vary from jet black to pale orange. In wild it inhabits very moist (even swamp) deep rainforests where it lives in deep burrows. They feed on any capable sized prey: insects, small mammals, frogs, lizards and has also been recorded to feed on lethal venomous snakes (West, 1992). In captivity it needs a very ample terrarium with a thick layer of humid substrate. and a big water bowl for drinking. Regular misting of the terrarium provides an increased humidity which is critical for this species. It readily utilizes artificial retreats and you can also decorate the enclosure with artificial plants. This species doesn’t spin much web. In spite of the this Tarantula often being bred as spiderlings it is very hard to breed. The mating is usually successful but females do not produce the eggsacks, or if they do the eggs are often infertile. Eggsacks usually contain less than 100 eggs but the offspring are rather large and around 2cm. There are a few points about this unique species a potential keeper must bear in mind. Humidity is important to this species and require regular misting, however it also important to have good ventilation so that the enclosure does not get stagnant as this can also be harmful. This species is a voracious eater and fast grower – it can eat and eat and eat and eat…. until the abdomen looks fit to burst, so try not to overfeed it to much. This species also has urticating hairs (type III) which are considered the nastiest among tarantula fauna and can cause serious irritation to the skin. Just the slightest movement of one rear leg rubbing against the abdomen of the is monster raises a whole cloud of this hair. It is also not a docile pet, they have 1.5 – 2cm fangs and can strike a very painful bite. When this monster is distributed it will stridulate which is a hissing sound let you know it is annoyed.
Due to YouTube restrictions I am no longer able to have the word “predator” in my channel name so we are in the process of re-branding all social media and the website
This species is a voracious eater and fast grower – it can eat and eat and eat and eat…. until the abdomen looks fit to burst, so try not to overfeed it too much. This species also has urticating hairs (type III) which are considered the nastiest among tarantula fauna and can cause serious irritation to the skin. Just the slightest movement of one rear leg rubbing against the abdomen of the is monster raises a whole cloud of this hair. It is also not a docile pet, they have 1.5 – 2cm fangs and can strike a very painful bite. When this monster is distributed it will stridulate which is a hissing sound let you know it is annoyed. As you can see this spider is definitely not a toy and demands a lot of respect and common sense when keeping it. It is an interesting species to observe, nice, attractive and a good display Tarantulas the sort of thing every serious keeper keeps or has kept but is not a suitable species for the inexperienced.
Description from http://www.thespidershop.co.uk A striking slender species from Papua New Guinea with bright orange legs and carapace contrasting against pitch-black femurs and abdomen. Terrestrial Asian species are generally aggressive when threatened they rear up in a threat display and won’t hesitate to bite. These are however in a league of their own and are 6 inches of pure evil. Not only are they fearlessly aggressive but also exceptionally fast so only suitable for experienced keepers. If provoked not only will they bite, they will shoot across your floor, pull the scart lead out your TV and tombstone your cat before disappearing underneath your fridge. They are generally less secretive than other Asians and are often out in the open. They require a moist substrate 10 – 15cm deep to allow burrowing and increase the humidity. They should be kept around 26°c with a 4°c drop in temperature at night.
The colour of the this species varies depending on original locality. They vary from a beautiful bright orange colour to tan with a starburst pattern covering its body. It is very interesting in both its behaviour and habits. Not a beginners species but definitely one of those species you need to keep sooner or later. They do not require high humidity and can be kept on slightly moistened substrate with a water dish. They are best kept in a terrarium that is set up with both arboreal and terrestrial hides. If given enough substrate they may even dig a burrow. They are very heavy webber’s and will not only cover a dense layer of web over their retreat but also over the entire enclosure, establishing elaborate silken tunnels. Care needs to be given when moving them and maintaining the enclosure as they are very fast and will not hesitate to bite or escape.
Description from http://www.thespidershop.co.uk This species is a real monster, it is a giant, robust, heavy bodied, fast and powerful Spider. This is probably the most popular species in the Hobby. Uniformly dark brown in body colour covered with dense short setae (hair) which gives it a beautiful suede appearance. There are also some longish reddish hairs on the abdomen and legs. It is interested to observe the changes of coloration of this giant from moult to moult as it can vary from jet black to pale orange. In wild it inhabits very moist (even swamp) deep rain forests where it lives in deep burrows. They feed on any capable sized prey: insects, small mammals, frogs, lizards and has also been recorded to feed on lethal venomous snakes (West, 1992). In captivity it needs a very ample terrarium with a thick layer of humid substrate. and a big water bowl for drinking. Regular misting of the terrarium provides an increased humidity which is critical for this species. It readily utilises artificial retreats and you can also decorate the enclosure with artificial plants. This species doesn’t spin much web. In spite of the this Tarantula often being bred as spiderlings it is very hard to breed. The mating is usually successful but females do not produce the egg sacks, or if they do the eggs are often infertile. Egg sacks usually contain less than 100 eggs but the offspring are rather large and around 2 cm. There are a few points about this unique species a potential keeper must bear in mind. Humidity is important to this species and require regular misting, however it also important to have good ventilation so that the enclosure does not get stagnant as this can also be harmful. This species is a voracious eater and fast grower – it can eat and eat and eat and eat…. until the abdomen looks fit to burst, so try not to overfeed it to much. This species also has urticating hairs (type III) which are considered the nastiest among tarantula fauna and can cause serious irritation to the skin. Just the slightest movement of one rear leg rubbing against the abdomen of the is monster raises a whole cloud of this hair. It is also not a docile pet, they have 1.5 – 2 cm fangs and can strike a very painful bite. When this monster is distributed it will stridulate which is a hissing sound let you know it is annoyed.
This species is a real monster, it is a giant, robust, heavy bodied, fast and powerful Spider. This is probably the most popular species in the Hobby. Uniformly dark brown in body colour covered with dense short setae (hair) which gives it a beautiful suede appearance. There are also some longish reddish hairs on the abdomen and legs. It is interested to observe the changes of coloration of this giant from moult to moult as it can vary from jet black to pale orange. In wild it inhabits very moist (even swamp) deep rainforests where it lives in deep burrows. They feed on any capable sized prey: insects, small mammals, frogs, lizards and has also been recorded to feed on lethal venomous snakes (West, 1992). In captivity it needs a very ample terrarium with a thick layer of humid substrate. and a big water bowl for drinking. Regular misting of the terrarium provides an increased humidity which is critical for this species. It readily utilizes artificial retreats and you can also decorate the enclosure with artificial plants. This species doesn’t spin much web. In spite of the this Tarantula often being bred as spiderlings it is very hard to breed. The mating is usually successful but females do not produce the eggsacks, or if they do the eggs are often infertile. Eggsacks usually contain less than 100 eggs but the offspring are rather large and around 2cm. There are a few points about this unique species a potential keeper must bear in mind. Humidity is important to this species and require regular misting, however it also important to have good ventilation so that the enclosure does not get stagnant as this can also be harmful. This species is a voracious eater and fast grower – it can eat and eat and eat and eat…. until the abdomen looks fit to burst, so try not to overfeed it to much. This species also has urticating hairs (type III) which are considered the nastiest among tarantula fauna and can cause serious irritation to the skin. Just the slightest movement of one rear leg rubbing against the abdomen of the is monster raises a whole cloud of this hair. It is also not a docile pet, they have 1.5 – 2cm fangs and can strike a very painful bite. When this monster is distributed it will stridulate which is a hissing sound let you know it is annoyed.
This was a total surprise. I have not paired this female so the sac may be infertile – what we call a phantom eggsac. BUT, the spider is wild caught so there is still a small chance it may be viable.
This is the best bit of spider news I’ve had this year as these spiders are not kept commonly in the hobby, they are pretty rare. If this is a viable eggsac AND they make it to spiderlings, I’ll most probably keep all the offspring or sell just a handful.
Managed to find a shed skin from the new Theraphosa apophysis (Pink Foot Goliath) spiderling. I can now determine the gender of this spider in preparation for setting up a future breeding project.
The revised taxonomic placement of some arboreal Ornithoctoninae Pocock, 1895 with description of a new species of Omothymus Thorell, 1891 (Araneae: Theraphosidae) The revised taxonomic placement of some arboreal Ornithoctoninae Pocock, 1895 with description of a new species of Omothymus Thorell, 1891 (Araneae: Theraphosidae) The revised taxonomic placement of some arboreal Ornithoctoninae Pocock, 1895 with description of a new species of Omothymus Thorell, 1891 (Araneae: Theraphosidae)
So every now and then a video will keep popping up in my social media feeds and over the years become extremely difficult to ignore any longer. This is one of of them. A young chap apparently getting bitten by different species of tarantula for “research” purposes…. what a crock of shite!
This spider, Pterinochilus murinus, is a defensive “old world” Theraphosid spider found in central, eastern and southern Africa and is affectionately known as the OBT or Orange Bitey Thing.
So I thought I’d be a clever bugger and pair up three different species in the same night (after midnight)
I was especially keen to get the Davus pentaloris project started to get a time under my belt – me and Martin from “The Tarantula Cave” have a competition going to see who’s male Davus is the bigger stud muffin. Rules are simple, time starts when the male enters the enclosure and touches the substrate and quickest time to get at the female and connect.
Totally underestimated how long this would take. I heard from Martin that his was long…… BUT after 3 hours I gave up. Looks like I’ll have to try again soon for a better time.
Its always good to come home to find a nice surprise in the spider room – this time it is a Poecilotheria striata eggsac. This female was paired over 6 months ago and I was almost starting to give up hope of her ever dropping. We’ve had striata eggsacs previously this year but have been eaten within the first three weeks. Fingers crossed that this one will go the distance.
I’m especially happy with this sac as it seems like there aren’t many people breeding this species of pokie at the moment.
This is probably my favourite dwarf species at the moment. There have been a few females available over the years but I have personally never seen a mature male in the flesh.
Those that watch the channel will remember that I was given these by Lee from http://www.thespidershop.co.uk with the plan to breed them in the future – I didn’t expect a male to mature so fast. There are another two unsexed spiders here that may be worth a punt pairing up (if female) but I’m thinking my best bet to get an adult female with be at the BTS exhibition in a few weeks.
In the meantime, have a look at this weeks video of when I found the male – the excitement is real.
The annual BTS exhibition will be on us again very soon – 19th of May to be exact. This year we are most definitely attending, the hotel is booked and the time off work requested.
I will be doing a kind of diary vlog of the three days (preparation day, night before shenanigans and then the exhibition)…Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I’m also going to try to live stream some of the tables and vendors in the main hall – your favourite YouTubers too.
Hype is building and the vendor spaces are all but full, it’s shaping up to be the best ever.
What are you looking out for? New species? Weird bugs? That one that got away so many times before?
I will be on the hunt for pairs of Poecilotheria species and groups of Selenocosmia but I’m sure there will be a few things that I can’t walk away from once seeing them in the flesh.
I plan to show some of my spiders in the “Spider Crufts” competition. In fact, I plan to enter something in nearly every category. The categories are as follows:
Best Brachypelma
Best New World Terrestrial
Best New World Arboreal
Best African
Best Asian Terrestrial
Best Asian Arboreal
Best Scorpion
Remember the competition isn’t only about the animals, there is a photography and Art group too. You will need to be a BTS member to enter but you can always join on the day at the BTS stand.
Here they are, BIG thank you to Lee at http://www.thespidershop.co.uk for sorting me out with these bad boys. They are also bonkers! Haha checknout the vid now below or on my YouTube channel.
Thanks to everyone that has contacted me with kind messages – I was totally gutted BUT these things happen. I will be trying again and again until I crack it.
To say this species is my kryptonite is an understatement. This old female will no longer be bred with any males and she will live the rest of her days happy on the shelf.
We have a second female, recently bought, to carry on with our attempts to finally get a successful eggsac.
Please think about subscribing to the YouTube channel if you’d like to see more of the metallica
“Tiny” The Worlds Biggest Tarantula Genus (Theraphosa) Making her EGGSAC! by predatororpreyonline
You’ve just watched our Goliath Birdeater Tarantula (Theraphosa stirmi) making her eggsac. It took over 28 hours of recording, speeded up x100 to make the last portion of this video.
It is a youtube first for this species and was totally nerve-wracking.
She was mated on May 1st 2018 so It’s now over 8 months.
This week I received my Christmas pressies from my fiance Claire, a large order from Lee and the gang at The Spider Shop UK.
We had to get them this early as the weather in Wales is going to turn bad over the next two weeks…. and you can’t exactly wrap tarantulas to put under the tree.
I made the most and stretched the one box into three videos for the channel –
I lost a scorpion yesterday, a Heterometrus petersii to be exact. Thank you for all your support, lot’s of people messaged and gave tips on where to try looking. We tried all night to see if he would come out wandering in the spider room – nope!
Decided I would have to dismantle the spider room systematically.
To watch the video on youtube please click the link below
It’s now been six months after pairing the monster in my collection – “The Burgundy Goliath” or Theraphosa stirmi.
I was expecting something to happen by now or at least some indication that she is gravid and preparing herself for eggsac production ie moving earth around or heavy webbing. So far, nothing. It’s time to take matters into my own hands and start making changes to her environment that may spur her on to drop.
In a very “off the cuff” episode from the YouTube channel, you can find out what I’ll be doing and how I’ll go about it.
I seem to have a lot going on at the moment, we’re moving house again and moving the inverts into a new spider room. This is a big task but I’m feeling better about the new room.. it’s even better than the room I have now – laminate flooring so no mess on the carpet. Space may be an issue as it’s either the same size as the present one or even a little smaller (I have a lot of projects coming up)
Today’s video is the first to incorporate the use of my new green screen. I’m most definitely still learning, but it is a very cool effect.
Aphonopelma chalcodes, Aphonopelma seemanni and Theraphosa stirmi are showcased in this video. I also point out some problems in their enclosures with mould and spot maintenance.
With thanks to Peter for sending me five assassin bug nymphs. They are totally awesome and pretty damn quick. You can see me opening the box in the link below, I’m sure they will feature heavily in my upcoming videos.
You can view the video on youtube by clicking the link —> CLICK ME!
