San Antonio Area Tarantula Habitat Pictures

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Hello Everyone,

From the looks of my work schedule, I will be missing Arachnocon this year. Yesterday I went out to my girlfriend's parent's home in Bulverde (On the northern outskirts of San Antonio) to take some Aphonopelma sp. habitat pictures. I was able to find 22 Aphonopelma sp. within ONE hour in their YARD!!!! They were everywhere.

Arachnocon is on the south side of San Anotnio so the habitat will be a little different, but not much. I don not know how many people attending have found tarantulas in the wild.... ONCE YOU FIGURE OUT WHAT TO LOOK FOR, IT IS VERY EASY!

In the San Antonio area, Aphonopelma are found in BOTH holes/burrows & scrapes under rocks/debris. Below is a group of pictures showing both. Once you find one, look around the area and you'll (usually) find many more... please only take a few because colonies can be wiped out really easy...

NONE were collected yesterday- just photos taken!

********* SORRY ABOUT PICTURE QUALITY ********* This camera was given to me (I'm very technologically challenged- lol- it's my first digital camera)... and this was the first time I have ever used it. I don't have any photo editting software.....Still learning how to take good photos...

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Photo #1: Tarantula Burrow in a flowerbed.... notice the bark mulch-lol! The main thing I look for is the silk covering of the enterence...I think (and may be wrong) that this helps to hold in humidity and regulate temperature. You can guarantee there is a tarantula in a burrow IF there is silk at the enterence. If NOT- there is a very good chance that one isn't in it (although sometimes there is).

The easiest way to get them out is to pour water down the hole...

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Pictures #2 & #3: Tarantula burrows in grass.... Sometimes you have to really look alittle harder to find them... Notice that BOTH have the silk around the enterence. These were both found in a mowed/manicured grass lawn. On a side note, I have found many colonies in manicured lawns.... most people don't even know what they have living in their yards.

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SCRAPES- Manytimes in Texas- in rocky areas- tarantulas are found in "scrapes". These are an area cleared out underneath a rock/debris that the tarantula lives in... sometimes the area may be too rocky/hard for them to burrow into...or maybe they are just LAZY... This habitat had both scrapes and burrows so your guess is as good as mine.....

Picture #4: Photo of scrape area.... This photo is of rocks linning their driveway...there were/are at least 14 tarantulas underneath the rocks visible in this picture! Sometimes, they were underneath multiple rocks in a row...pretty cool to flip 4 rocks next to each other and find 4 tarantulas.

*PLEASE PUT ROCKS BACK AFTER FLIPPING THEM....IF NOT, IMPORTANT HABITAT IS DESTROYED. Also be careful not to smash the spider when setting the rocks back down....

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Scrape Pics #5 & #6.... Pretty sure it was the same spider in both pics (just from a different angle)... I should have taken notes on which pics were which... sorry.

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More Scrapes... Pics #7 & #8

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Scrape Pic #9- This tarantula was especially "pretty"...must have molted recently...

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It's HOT here in Texas right now...I was suprised that I didn't find and Scolopendra heros or Scolopendra polymorpha (I have found BOTH in thier yard on a number of ocassions)... there were a ton of brown recluse spiders...easily 1 under every 4th rock, multiple Centruroides vittatus (Striped Bark scorpions), and a few snakes (a Patchnose & a Texas Brown... nothing too exciting).

Hope the photos helped to give you an idea of what to look for when down for Arachnocon.....

The last 2 pictures were taken on the land behind their yard... This is "classic" Hill Country habitat that I love.....

[The Shadow]

I can't WAIT to move to TEXAS in the fall. (Providing I graduate college this summer)

I'll be in the Dallas area. Where are you located on the map?

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I'll be in Austin- about 2-3 hours below you. Dallas has a nice Aphonopelma population...there is even a Dallas/Ft. Worth tarantula "club" that has monthly meetings. I met one of the guys about 6 months ago at a reptile show... sounded like alot of fun! You'll really like Texas!

Graham

[ironmonkey78]

wow nice pics. lets hold arachnocon in her yard. then we can turn around and to a trip at the same time. J/k.
how big is her yard. I knew that they were near each other but 14 under one lil strip of driveway? wow. I wish I knew some people in TX so I could go hunt on their land.
thanks for the pics.

[JColt]

Man that looks fun! Very nice pic's. Thanks for sharing ;)

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The yard is less tha 2 acres..... the neighbors also have colonies :)

[Drachenjager]

wow nice pics. lets hold arachnocon in her yard. then we can turn around and to a trip at the same time. J/k.
how big is her yard. I knew that they were near each other but 14 under one lil strip of driveway? wow. I wish I knew some people in TX so I could go hunt on their land.
thanks for the pics.

you can hunt in my yard if you want to


of course you wont find any Ts unless some escape lol
but you may find some rat snakes and c. vitattus lol

[ironmonkey78]

I will probably be picking peoples brains about where to hunt and who might let me run around their yard. we are most likely going to stay 3 or 4 days after achon and see some sights. im also hoping to get some collecting done.