Help Please..What are these???

My B.smithi molted yesterday and while I was inspecting her molt I noticed these worms on it. I tried to search for answers, but the more I search, the more I get confused/concerned. Are they parasites? fly larvae? ant larvae? What can they be? I immediately put her into a different room from all my other T's, but now I'm concerned my whole collection has been exposed because they were all on the same bookcase. I got her from a very reputable breeder who's been around a long time, and have only had her for about a month and this was her first molt in my care. No problem molting, no problem eating, the only thing that could be considered possibly odd, was that she turned very light colored on her abdomen before she turned very dark. Seeing as how this is my first B.smithi it didn't cause concern, I had only thought it was interesting at the time. Now I wonder if it was somehow related to these things. Please advise!!
Thanks,
Joanna

probably small-headed fly larvae. One of the few parasitoids a tarantula can actually survive encounters with. Very interesting species, they go dormant for years at a time, they remain lodged on the book-lungs.

They can be fatal, though, once they become "active" and begin attacking the spider. Seems those two were dormant and easily removed with a molt.

Should I continue to keep her in a separate room from my collection? Do you think she has more that are still inside her? Are there any signs I can watch for or anything I can do? She was 1 & 1/2 inches before molt so she is still pretty young and small. As far as I know she was CB. Should I let the breeder know so that he is aware that he might have a problem with his collection if it is spreadable? Btw, thank you so much, Smokehound, for the quick response, you don't know how helpful you have been!

jwebb427 said:

Should I continue to keep her in a separate room from my collection? Do you think she has more that are still inside her? Are there any signs I can watch for or anything I can do? She was 1 & 1/2 inches before molt so she is still pretty young and small. As far as I know she was CB. Should I let the breeder know so that he is aware that he might have a problem with his collection if it is spreadable? Btw, thank you so much, Smokehound, for the quick response, you don't know how helpful you have been!

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It's likely your T is parasite-free, now. The larvae of these flies begin as a planidium, a highly mobile stage, seeking out their mygalomorph hosts.. To my knowledge, they're never forcefully laid as eggs on a spider. Did you ever take her outside for a photo shoot, and place her on the ground?

the only other thing i can think of that resembles those would be phorids, which are common scavengers of dead arthropoda, and/or molted skins, feasting on the bodily fluids lost during molting.

However, those are pretty darn big for phorid larvae lol

Smokehound714 said:

It's likely your T is parasite-free, now. The larvae of these flies begin as a planidium, a highly mobile stage, seeking out their mygalomorph hosts.. To my knowledge, they're never forcefully laid as eggs on a spider. Did you ever take her outside for a photo shoot, and place her on the ground?

the only other thing i can think of that resembles those would be phorids, which are common scavengers of dead arthropoda, and/or molted skins, feasting on the bodily fluids lost during molting.

However, those are pretty darn big for phorid larvae lol

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That's really good to know! No, I didn't take her outside at all but maybe the breeder did for a picture for his website? These guys are a decent size, lol. I put her into a new enclosure with all new everything, because when I was checking her old one last night I found a bunch more of these buggers on the top of the underside of the corkbark of her burrow. There was a slimy substance where they were but Idk if it was from the molting process or from them. When they are at "rest" they are about a 1/4inch long, when they are moving, 1/2inch long. Here is a pic of them. I know you can find them without the red circles, but I wanted to make it easier, plus it was fun lol Anyways, hope they all got out with the molt! She seems to be acting normal but I guess only time will tell? Thank you again for your help Smokehound! I truly appreciate it Joanna :biggrin:

Sure they're not sawfly larvae?

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BobGrill said:

Sure they're not sawfly larvae?

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How big are sawflies usually? These guys were a 1/2 inch stretched/crawling. Are sawfly larvae parasites, and usually lethal? The good news is that my T seems to be perfectly fine. She's eating normally, active, normal color.

jwebb427 said:

How big are sawflies usually? These guys were a 1/2 inch stretched/crawling. Are sawfly larvae parasites, and usually lethal? The good news is that my T seems to be perfectly fine. She's eating normally, active, normal color.

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Sawfly larvae are normally pests of garden plants, I can't see them posing any harm to a tarantula. However, there are many different kinds of sawflies, and the larvae of each species look different from one another, so they may be something completely different. It was just a wild guess really.