The use of a reptile incubator for your tarantula egg sacs

Has anyone ever used a reptile specific incubator for tarantul egg sacs? If so, with what type of success or failure?

I do not see the need as it is super easy to make one out of tupperware, go to arachnophiles.com, watch Rob C video on incubators, late.

They work great especially if you have a lot to incubate! 100% success with them, keeps 80-86 and 100% humidity. It is a Reptimin Mini Refrigerator types. I have a mechanical mom too, but this works just as well.

I thought that might be the case. I was talking to a fellow hobbyist who just recently started breeding and getting sacs and he swore by the Hovabator as being essential to the breeding/pairing success he's had thus far.

brickster said:

Has anyone ever used a reptile specific incubator for tarantul egg sacs? If so, with what type of success or failure?

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I'm going to rain on your parade.

Generally massive overkill. And inordinately expensive. The Nefcy incubator works just as well, is a lot simpler to use, and a lot cheaper.

Breeding boxes for your little 8-legged wonders.

AWW COME ON STAN lol... The NEFCY incubator (and similar variants) ARE practical, but takes all the fun out of building stuff like this http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?177852-Robc-s-Mechanical-Mom-Tutorial/page4 :biggrin:

Seriously, RobCs mechanical mom DOES look cool (even if it DOES look like a nuclear bomb kind of) but id stick with the basic dollar store variety ANY DAY.. Maybe if i win the lotto i can afford to drop 800$ on somethin that you can set up for like 5-10$ via other means.

grayzone said:

AWW COME ON STAN lol... The NEFCY incubator (and similar variants) ARE practical, but takes all the fun out of building stuff like this http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?177852-Robc-s-Mechanical-Mom-Tutorial/page4 :biggrin:

Seriously, RobCs mechanical mom DOES look cool (even if it DOES look like a nuclear bomb kind of) but id stick with the basic dollar store variety ANY DAY.. Maybe if i win the lotto i can afford to drop 800$ on somethin that you can set up for like 5-10$ via other means.

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I know exactly what you mean! It's as though trying to learn and understand tarantulas wasn't already hard enough (And by reading these posts it's quite obvious the majority have failed at this!), now they have to incorporate all sorts of technological "stuff" (because, after all, this is supposed to be a family forum) to dilute or sidetrack them from their original goal. There's little hope for them. They're lost souls in Hell.

On the subject of Mechanical Moms, my publication detailing the construction of my variation of the original, Al McKee, Mechanical Mom was submitted to the American Tarantula Society for consideration for free distribution to at least members if not the public at large. It required a 10 gallon aquarium and a Kritter Keeper. Total cost of parts, even at today's prices could easily be less than $100. Total time for manufacture would require less than a Sunday afternoon once you had collected all the parts into the work area. In fact, I built two at the same time. Here's a photo. Click or right-click the thumbnail to see a larger image.



Marguerite and I literally hatched thousands of baby tarantulas with the two I made. They're now moldering in someone's attic in Calgary, Alberta, Canada I think. If they still exist at all.

I'm going to check on the publication's status, and if I come up with any news I'll post it here.


Enjoy you're little 8-legged technological marvel!

not as fancy lookin, but as you stated, it gets the job done.

Which would YOU say yields better results, the nefcy or the mech mom

grayzone said:

not as fancy lookin, but as you stated, it gets the job done.

Which would YOU say yields better results, the nefcy or the mech mom

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I haven't had a chance to compare them. Judging from Ryan's reports, they're about the same. Pretty close to 100% hatch rate for both, all other things being equal.

Using mine, you set it up and forget it. Maybe you'd need to check on the water level in the little dish every week or two. But it still costs more money than a lot of people can afford to squander on such a project, and you need to build it. That might easily be a big problem for those people who are mechanically or electrically challenged.

Ryan's setup is really cheap, less than $5, and requires virtually no actual construction short of melting or drilling a few holes in the plastic. No mechanical skills beyond holding a nail in a flame are required. So, if you walk into the spider room some afternoon to find a Chilean rose with an eggsac, you can set his incubator up from scratch in 10 minutes if you have all the parts handy. But, it does require daily or almost daily attention to roll the eggs around a little and check that the water in the paper towel hasn't dried up. But, from the time you enter the room until the time that you leave shouldn't require longer than 5 minutes. Less than the time of commercials during your favorite sport's extravaganza.

It's just nice to have options, I guess.

Enjoy your little 8-legged, mechanically challenged, web spinner.

Pikaia said:

It's just nice to have options, I guess.

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one of my favorite parts of this hobby lol.. so many options to choose from
Anyways, Thanks again for your input in this thread