How to extract one egg sack from one spider and still have no holes in fingers?

Gail

Arachnopixie
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
556
The time is coming when I should take the sack from my pinktoe - I peeked at her through a slit I cut in the hide last night - sack is huge, looks decent on the outside and she is guarding it well. Never took a sack from a spider before, looking for any hints and tips that will keep my bits and pieces from getting bitten. This is much more of a concern than it was before as I have found out that I seem to react very badly to spider venom. Got hit by a simple yellow sack spider (common house spider) on the top of the foot - ended up with swelling, lots of pain, oozing and some necrotic tissue - this, from a less than one inch house spider... sooo, I really don't want angry momma pumping me full of venom :D

Gail
 

pelo

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2003
Messages
938
Gail said:
The time is coming when I should take the sack from my pinktoe - I peeked at her through a slit I cut in the hide last night - sack is huge, looks decent on the outside and she is guarding it well. Never took a sack from a spider before, looking for any hints and tips that will keep my bits and pieces from getting bitten. This is much more of a concern than it was before as I have found out that I seem to react very badly to spider venom. Got hit by a simple yellow sack spider (common house spider) on the top of the foot - ended up with swelling, lots of pain, oozing and some necrotic tissue - this, from a less than one inch house spider... sooo, I really don't want angry momma pumping me full of venom :D

Gail
>>use two sets of tongs/foreceps/tweezers..one set to distract her and the other to grab the sack.Use tongs/foreceps/tweezers long enough that she can't get at your fingers.It's not that hard really...
 

Immortal_sin

Arachnotemptress
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 17, 2002
Messages
3,952
it's actually fairly easy, like pelo says. I use a plastic kitchen spoon with a long handle. I use it to separate the mom from the sac. Then, I just pluck the sac out with tweezers, or what have you.
I just took the A huriana sac this way, and there were no problems at all, except for my feelings of guilt, as I watched her looking for it after :(
 

Gail

Arachnopixie
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
556
Oh, you would have to say the "guilt" thing :) - this is the female that is so old and was "rescued" (given to me happily) from a bad home where she'd been for all her long years. I felt so good to be giving her a chance to pass on her genes and she was super eager to do so. I know they really don't "think" but I can't help but feel even worse now at the thought that she might go looking for it, thinking that once again, her owner has "abused" her... one of the curses of an overly active imagination LOL.

Gail
 

Immortal_sin

Arachnotemptress
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 17, 2002
Messages
3,952
well, give her a cotton ball, and see if she'll 'feel better' :)
Mine wouldn't have anything to do with one, she just webbed right over it, but she's eating, so I think it's all good...
 

edesign

AB FB Group Moderatr
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 23, 2004
Messages
2,104
Gail said:
This is much more of a concern than it was before as I have found out that I seem to react very badly to spider venom. Got hit by a simple yellow sack spider (common house spider) on the top of the foot - ended up with swelling, lots of pain, oozing and some necrotic tissue - this, from a less than one inch house spider... sooo, I really don't want angry momma pumping me full of venom :D

Gail
nothin wrong with wanting to protect yourself :)

but actually the effects you describe sound "normal" for that type of spider...a lot of people don't know that they actually do carry a strong enough venom to cause what you described. read this for more info:

http://hobospider.org/yellosac.html

do maybe (hopefully) you're not as sensitive as you think
 

Gail

Arachnopixie
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
556
hum, that's very interesting and it is what happened - let me tell ya, necrotic tissue is, well, um, gross :eek:
Bad news is our house is infested with them - I don't know how I've gone this long without getting bitten. There are so many that some actually have set up house keeping in my roach colonies and feast on the tiny nymphs. Talk about freeloaders... well, I guess I'll just have to start "disposing" of them as they are found or seen.

Gail
 

Bearskin10

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 13, 2003
Messages
1,405
Gail said:
This is much more of a concern than it was before as I have found out that I seem to react very badly to spider venom. Got hit by a simple yellow sack spider (common house spider) on the top of the foot - ended up with swelling, lots of pain, oozing and some necrotic tissue - this, from a less than one inch house spider... sooo, I really don't want angry momma pumping me full of venom :D

Gail
Little yellow guy may be a little more venomous than you think. http://hobospider.org/ Look up yellow sac spider, pretty interesting stuff. Greg
 

Gail

Arachnopixie
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
556
OK, I got brave and I just took the sack from her and opened it up. It was so sad, actually, she didn't get nasty at all, just kept hunkering and slowly circling the sack in that deceptively lethargic pink toe way. I had to actually put a paintbrush under her and lift her to get the sack.
And now I'm hysterical - in a good way - the babies are fully "spiders", not just eggs with legs, they are pale tan and crawling about, there are at least 80 of them or more, only a couple of dead and dried up eggs - but NOW WHAT? I feel like a momma hen - I'm worried, should I have left them with her since she obviously did such a good job? Will they be OK in the hammock setup? Will the paper towel get bone dry without me noticing? Why were they so active when I first opened the sack and now are "sleeping" - did I hurt them? And WHAT am I going to do with all these babies! It's like the infertile couple that wanted a child and ended up with quinmillionettes :eek:
I'm tired and know I won't sleep, I'm fretting and looking at them every few minutes - GAK, is this what it was like for others with their first sack of babies?

Gail
 

MysticKigh

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 20, 2004
Messages
287
Gail said:
I'm tired and know I won't sleep, I'm fretting and looking at them every few minutes - GAK, is this what it was like for others with their first sack of babies?

Gail
And people wonder why I don't wanna breed my roseas... just my luck it'd be successful. We're already a little concerned that our WC female is gravid... but truthfully I hope she's just fat {D

Wishing you the very best!!!
 

rknralf

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 19, 2002
Messages
663
Gail,
Congratulations on the eggsac/spiderlings! They should be a lot of fun! I've heard with A. avicularia you can house them together for a least a few months before they start to eat each other. It might be easier to do this as feeding you can just dump a bunch of pinheads or tiny roaches in with them. When you seperate them, I've found the 6oz clear plastic solo cups to be the best homes for small arboreals. You can get the clear plastic solo lid as well. You can use a small soldering iron to punch a few holes. Just a little peat/vermiculite and something to climb on and ready to go. Caring for spiderlings is rewarding and lots of fun.
Good luck!
Ralph
 

David_F

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 9, 2004
Messages
1,764
Well....if you're looking for someone to off-load a bunch of slings on.......:) I love avics. But seriously, congrats on the eggsac.
 

Gail

Arachnopixie
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
556
Thanks for the "pats on the back" :D
I am so tired, even after I went to bed I was up every 2 hours to check the toweling LOL
I love avics as well, my first T was a WC avic from a local shop. And I do love taking care of little ones, I've ordered enough of them :rolleyes: but this is my first shot at "from the sack to the deli cup" ;) I was figuring on keeping them together for at least a few weeks, though, now that I've been looking at them I think they may need another molt? They look like fully formed spiders and they can crawl about but their butts are still rather fat on a few of them, wilst others have shrunk down to a more normal size.
Man did I feel guilty this morning when I looked at mom - she gathered up bits and pieces of her hammock and was holding them like a sack :(
I definately can't keep them all (my husband is squirming at the thought of so many heh heh), but considering that I have them as well as being swamped (literally) with hissers and lobsters I was thinking of getting a spot at the local reptile show, I'm fairly sure I could recoupe the $25 table fee, but I've got to find out what the other regs are (I have a sales tax license already but I'm sure they have some other rules, they always do...)

Gail
 

Darwinsdad

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 23, 2004
Messages
338
there is a board member "bloodletting looking for slings to raise for a school class project for six graders and they are looking for about 50 slings. You might wanna pm them and see if you can work somthing out. One hand washes the other they say
 

invadermike

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 1, 2003
Messages
275
This is probably a dumb question but here goes... why don't you just leave the sac with the mom until they hatch? I mean i know taking it makes it easier for seperating them when they hatch and getting them all into their own little homes, but... is that the reason for taking the sac? also besides the fact that the mother "could" eat them. I mean in the wild they do it, so why not see it the way it's done in the wild? does anyone have any pictures of sacs left with the mother and hatched? I don't know.. ha it just ran through my head.
-Mike
 

MizM

Arachnoprincess
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 13, 2003
Messages
4,915
Avics should be fine together for quite some time as long as you provide plenty of prey. If you can't find a buyer, check out the Archnodealers. Sometimes they will take all of them and give you credit for purchases. Unless they have TONS of them already! Congratulations, and CALM DOWN!! You sound like ME when I got my first rosea sac!! ;)
 

Gail

Arachnopixie
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
556
As you mentioned - taking the sack makes it easier to seperate them but there are also a lot of other reasons - if there are bad eggs you may be able to get to them before they spoil the whole clutch, you also avoid at least some of the potential of an infestation of mites from the substrate destroying the clutch.
To say that one should just leave them with the mom an accept the fact that some will die or be eaten (or you might lose the whole batch) because that is the way it is done in nature is, IMHO, the same as coming upon a tortise on it's back in the desert sun and refusing to turn it over because "it is the way of nature that it should die". Look, no matter how much we may like to deny it, no matter how far from it we go, WE ARE a part of nature - you being there at the time that turtle needs flipped is a sign, to me at least, TO FLIP THE POOR THING OVER. And as for tarantulas - we have brought them out of "nature" and into our homes, now WE are nature.
OK, climbing down off of soap box...

Gail
 

Code Monkey

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 22, 2002
Messages
3,783
Re: Leaving sac

As I understand it, of the biggest reasons to pull the sac is that as the end of the incubation period ends the odds of mom going all "voices from God told me to kill my children" increases. So the "she might eat it" is not at all inconsequential. Why go to all the trouble of breeding them if you're not going to maximise your chances of success?
 

invadermike

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 1, 2003
Messages
275
Makes sense, i was just woundering if anyone just ever left the sac with the mother and had everything work out fine. I never said it should be like that, i was just curious to why it's RARELY done like that. Guess i know now. I still think it would be cool to wake up to a tank full of little baby tarantulas one morning, in their home just crawling everywhere, anyway good luck with the sac.
-Mike
 

Immortal_sin

Arachnotemptress
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 17, 2002
Messages
3,952
I don't leave mine with mom, for the reason C_M mentioned. I'm too afraid of mom getting the munchies, probably the day before I was going to pull the sac!
However, with the last 2 sacs I got having problems, I'm seriously considering leaving them with mom much longer then the 30 days I've been doing....
 
Top