Preserving a dead spider.

[TheEternal]

What's the best method to preserve a dead spider to be mounted? I want to make sure I do this right.

-Bryan

[Code Monkey]

I guess that would depend on how realistic a mount you want. I've read of people having really good results with opening up the abdomen from the bottom and removing the guts and then stuffing with cotton balls, positioning the body, and then allowing it to dry.

If you don't move quickly, Ts are so massive they begin to decay soon after death and they STINK horribly.

I'd like to be more help but the only ones I ever kept I just dried without stuffing the abdomen and they didn't look all that great, the others had the unceremonious burial in the trash can. A living T is a beautiful thing, a dead T is a dead, potentially stinky bug.

[TheEternal]

Damn. That's not going to work then. I was hoping to mount the first tarantula I ever caught from the wild (photo in the thread "Shhh... I'm hunting B. vagans"). She was so pretty.

-Bryan

[Immortal_sin]

at the ATS conference, Rhys did a demonstration on preserving them in resin. However, it will cost a bit for the right materials, and it was alot of trial and error for him at first. You might want to freeze her, then email Rhys and ask him for the steps to do it. If it's done right, it looks awesome
Holley