GBB having trouble killing dubia

M

MitchAZ

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Nov 10, 2011
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Can't find answer to this on boards - sorry if I've missed it, and appreciate suggestions:

I've got 8 T's, and recently decided to switch from feeder crickets to dubia colony (tired of small, and chirping crix in house). Got started colony online, and today gave a 3/4" dubia to my 4" DLS GBB. The T immediately latched onto the dubia's back, but the dubia has been kicking for the last 15 min. Not dying. T not letting go. Is this normal? I realize this is a bigger meal than even 3 or 4 crix (with the GBB will kill & eat in less than an hour), but I'm worried that the roach is still alive and there's the possibility of the T getting hurt (?)

Hope I haven't messed this up. I also put a 1/2" dubia in with a 3" L para, which has shown exactly no interest in the roach.

Appreciate suggestions / thoughts.

Thx,
 
Hobo

Hobo

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They're more resilient than crickets, from what I've seen, and may take a long time to finally kick the bucket.
I mean, these things can survive headless for weeks.
It's a tarantula, it's designed to over power and eat things just like this, I don't think you need to worry.
 
M

MitchAZ

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Thx - it's finally slowing down (about 30 min to kill!). The L para is eating. the others (B albo, L diff, Eauthlus sp, G rosea, G pulchripes) are all ignoring their respective offerings to varying degrees... Will be fun to see how this all plays out!

Thx,
 
C

cmcghee358

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I noticed my N. coloratovillosus takes a long time to kill her dubia. I was worried I fed her too early after her last molt, and possible damaged her ability to inject venom properly.

I stopped feeding her about 3 weeks ago(as she was quite well fed to begin with) and shes darkening up for premolt. I'll see if there is any improvement in the speed of her killing the dubia in a few weeks.
 
spiderengineer

spiderengineer

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when my T's feed on a dubia they are kicking for alot longer then a cricket will maybe not 15 minutes or so (my are haplopelmas so mostly because they are stronger venom to subdue its prey.) also you will notice the take longer to eat them unlike crickets. another thing it could have been was maybe he didn't get the fangs in the right placet. I remember watching a bug wars episode were it was a T versus a roach (I know not much of a fight) but what happen was the T sank its fangs into a a part were the venom would do nothing to kill the roach. the roaches had a big shell to make it look like leaf litter so alot of the outside shell was just skin baiscally.. so the T had to basically let it go and try again. so maybe maybe that's what happen. roaches are more like tanks while crickets are ground troops so tanks have weak spots in only a few places.
 
poisoned

poisoned

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spiderengineer said:
when my T's feed on a dubia they are kicking for alot longer then a cricket will maybe not 15 minutes or so (my are haplopelmas so mostly because they are stronger venom to subdue its prey.) also you will notice the take longer to eat them unlike crickets. another thing it could have been was maybe he didn't get the fangs in the right placet. I remember watching a bug wars episode were it was a T versus a roach (I know not much of a fight) but what happen was the T sank its fangs into a a part were the venom would do nothing to kill the roach. the roaches had a big shell to make it look like leaf litter so alot of the outside shell was just skin baiscally.. so the T had to basically let it go and try again. so maybe maybe that's what happen. roaches are more like tanks while crickets are ground troops so tanks have weak spots in only a few places.
Click to expand...
AFAIK Ts rarely use venom when eating. Except if it's XL prey item.
 
spiderengineer

spiderengineer

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poisoned said:
AFAIK Ts rarely use venom when eating. Except if it's XL prey item.
Click to expand...
wouldn't a large roach be consider large prey necessary for envenomation? I mean I understand for small prey yeah the fangs pretty much stab them to death so there is no need.
 
CEC

CEC

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I have noticed, when the T's fangs are stuck through the belly of the roach the process is much quicker. Those dubias have a thick "shell".
 
grayzone

grayzone

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Hobo said:
They're more resilient than crickets, from what I've seen, and may take a long time to finally kick the bucket.
I mean, these things can survive headless for weeks.
It's a tarantula, it's designed to over power and eat things just like this, I don't think you need to worry.
Click to expand...
Very true... i remember seeing a show about roaches being exposed to all sorts of poisons, gasses from nuclear bombs, and even being exposed to radiation via being microwaved and surviving. From what i can remember, they stated roaches will be among, if not THE last thing surviving on the planet
 
lucarelli78

lucarelli78

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MitchAZ said:
Can't find answer to this on boards - sorry if I've missed it, and appreciate suggestions:

I've got 8 T's, and recently decided to switch from feeder crickets to dubia colony (tired of small, and chirping crix in house). Got started colony online, and today gave a 3/4" dubia to my 4" DLS GBB. The T immediately latched onto the dubia's back, but the dubia has been kicking for the last 15 min. Not dying. T not letting go. Is this normal? I realize this is a bigger meal than even 3 or 4 crix (with the GBB will kill & eat in less than an hour), but I'm worried that the roach is still alive and there's the possibility of the T getting hurt (?)

Hope I haven't messed this up. I also put a 1/2" dubia in with a 3" L para, which has shown exactly no interest in the roach.

Appreciate suggestions / thoughts.

Thx,
Click to expand...
I have a video on my phone of my OBT latched on to an adult male dubia and he's kicking for all he's worth for several minutes, this goes on, and on, and on, for quite a while.

Sent from my ME302C using Tapatalk
 
Pokie Master

Pokie Master

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MitchAZ said:
Can't find answer to this on boards - sorry if I've missed it, and appreciate suggestions:

I've got 8 T's, and recently decided to switch from feeder crickets to dubia colony (tired of small, and chirping crix in house). Got started colony online, and today gave a 3/4" dubia to my 4" DLS GBB. The T immediately latched onto the dubia's back, but the dubia has been kicking for the last 15 min. Not dying. T not letting go. Is this normal? I realize this is a bigger meal than even 3 or 4 crix (with the GBB will kill & eat in less than an hour), but I'm worried that the roach is still alive and there's the possibility of the T getting hurt (?)

Hope I haven't messed this up. I also put a 1/2" dubia in with a 3" L para, which has shown exactly no interest in the roach.

Appreciate suggestions / thoughts.

Thx,
Click to expand...
It does usually take a while for dubia to stop kicking. I feed most everything I have dubia. If personally seen my b. Auratum hold a kicking adult male dubia for over 1 hour so I wouldn't worry about it. My personal thoughts are if they have a hold of prey and they feel it's not a threat to them (weather it's kicking or not) why kill it? Would it not be fresher to eat if it's still kicking? Some T's like to take time and enjoy their meal while other devour it. It's nothing to worry about.
 
truecreature

truecreature

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Dubias aren't a potential threat like crickets are, no harm in leaving those in the cage if they don't eat them right away
 
cold blood

cold blood

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poisoned said:
AFAIK Ts rarely use venom when eating. Except if it's XL prey item.
Click to expand...

Where did you get this info? I'd be very interested to read this. I've never heard this before and wonder how this could be proven.
 
awiec

awiec

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cold blood said:
Where did you get this info? I'd be very interested to read this. I've never heard this before and wonder how this could be proven.
Click to expand...
I remember a discussion in my spider class in that t venom is highly specialized to kill/harm rodents as a defense mechanism and that most ts will just use their size to over whelm the prey. Granted tarantula venom is poorly studied so that convo is just some speculation based on a few papers on the subject. As for the ops issue it's pretty normal for roaches to die slow, I had a g.pulchripes fight with a dubia for a good 20 minutes before it finally succumbed.
 
CEC

CEC

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cold blood said:
Where did you get this info? I'd be very interested to read this. I've never heard this before and wonder how this could be proven.
Click to expand...
I haven't seen this thread in awhile and poisoned hasn't been on here since 2013, so I doubt you will get a response. He is("was") very knowledgeable but I know nothing of this topic.
 
shamilt1

shamilt1

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Mar 13, 2014
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The Dubia shell is like an armored shield over its back. I notice my T's will usually grab it from the back and for the smaller T's the fangs are not always long enough to come around the shell and pierce through the Dubia. They usually hold it up off the ground while it kicks and by the next day the Dubia is crushed up in a big ball. I have seen this go on for well over 3 hours with an immature L. Violaceopes. By morning.....big ball in pedipalps.
 
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