L. parahybana eating...the enclosure?

Mushroom Spore · Nov 28, 2006

Haha, well, this is a first. My 1.5-2" L. parahybana sling has been living in a nice plastic deli cup type thing for about a month and a half, maybe two. But in the last couple days, I've been hearing this strange popping noise from my bookshelf. It would stop when I went to go look for the cause, then start back up when I returned to my desk. It's been driving me bonkers!

I was sitting on the floor, about to start taking books off the shelf, expecting to find an escaped cricket or something in my books, when I noticed my parahybana sling down at the bottom of this hole it had dug in the dirt, up against the side of the deli cup.

And every time its little mouthparts moved, I would start hearing the popping noise again. Sure enough, when I picked up the cup, there's a tiny hole there at the bottom.

I've left a message with a friend of mine, hopefully I'll be able to go pick up a proper critter keeper tonight with plastic too thick to eat through. But...wow. I knew these guys were eating machines, but what the heck?

Brian S · Nov 28, 2006

Yep they will do that sometimes. Sounds like its time for a bigger home with a hide.

Alice · Nov 28, 2006

when i got my b. ruhnaui, she chewed through the thin plastic box i bought her in on the way home. luckily, the hole was not big enough for her to escape.

Mushroom Spore · Nov 28, 2006

Brian S said:
Yep they will do that sometimes. Sounds like its time for a bigger home with a hide.

He actually HAS a hide! His deli cup (which is long and rectangular, used to hold donuts) is like ten times his legspan in floor space, dirt two inches deep, and a hidebox that he buried in a fit of disgust.

I put work into setting up this enclosure, darnit. :evil: I have a BIG round critter keeper waiting for him, but I think he's still small enough to escape through the ventilation slots. He'll just have to live in a keeper slightly smaller than this deli cup until he molts once or twice more, I guess.

Brian S · Nov 28, 2006

I have noticed that alot of the time when a T is "climbing the walls" like that they are dry. Do you provide any water or moisten part of the substrate?

Mushroom Spore · Nov 28, 2006

Brian S said:
I have noticed that alot of the time when a T is "climbing the walls" like that they are dry. Do you provide any water or moisten part of the substrate?

I keep a large portion of the substrate moist enough that it's dark, yes. He wasn't climbing the walls, but dug a hole to the bottom of that dirt and started to eat the plastic at the bottom of the container. :?

Thoth · Nov 28, 2006

Also they can chew through metal sceen mesh.

ShadowBlade · Nov 28, 2006

Mad Haplo's and Hysterocrates will gnaw and bite through deli cups.

Cerbera · Nov 28, 2006

parahybana eating / biting stuff they shouldn't...

Oh yes, those little parahybana's have an occasional pop at pretty much anything. Here's my little bloke letting me know that he isn't happy with my light levels.

He hasn't climbed, or bitten the bars once since I draped some black material over half his tank...

Mushroom Spore · Nov 28, 2006

Cerbera said:
Oh yes, those little parahybana's have an occasional pop at pretty much anything. Here's my little bloke letting me know that he isn't happy with my light levels.

Hah! I love those pictures. TINY TEETH OF RAGE!

I went and got a little critter keeper, it's drying from being washed out. Your end is nigh, little would-be ninja spider!

Bob Bohnet · Nov 28, 2006

Wow! These posts give me high hopes for a couple of great kids soon! Right now they are 3/8". I can hardly wait!

brandi · Nov 28, 2006

Love the pictures! I have had a 2" Brachypelma smithi try the same thing... chewing through one of the air holes in a plastic lid. Cheeky little buggers aren't they?

Joe Xavier · Nov 29, 2006

Brian S said:
I have noticed that alot of the time when a T is "climbing the walls" like that they are dry. Do you provide any water or moisten part of the substrate?

Really? My Lividum has been climbing up the walls... but I kept the substrate perfectly moist...

The previous albostriatum living in the same terrarium also climbs the walls...

Cerbera · Nov 29, 2006

Joe Xavier said:
Really? My Lividum has been climbing up the walls... but I kept the substrate perfectly moist...

The previous albostriatum living in the same terrarium also climbs the walls...

Oh - well I've noticed the opposite - climbing spiders because it's too wet underfoot (mostly Rosies, I must admit) ! Who knows which one, or if both are correct... I think the truth is, they climb once in a while anyway, just to check nothing has changed since they last 'looked', but a consistently climbing / biting / escape-attempting spider suggests something is wrong, and perhaps seriously so, but that it could be any one of a myriad of causes for us to try to find the solution to.

So - possible reasons so far might include:

substrate too wet
substrate too dry
humidity or temp not right
too much light getting into tank
annoyed by other things living at substrate level
annoyed by burrowing cockroaches moving earth about under their feet.
a habitual need to try to escape (Only applies to a. seemanni IME)
adult males trying to go a-wandering, looking for love action.
when the tank is so full of clutter / debris / remains that the spider would rather leave it and set up shop elsewhere (not that I'm suggesting your tank is like this !)

So can we think of any more reasons, and do any of these apply to the para in question ?

Mushroom Spore · Nov 29, 2006

Cerbera said:
So can we think of any more reasons, and do any of these apply to the para in question ?

I think we might be able to add "food" as the most likely suspect. I checked my records yesterday and the little guy (and his G. aureostriata sling neighbor) was half a week overdue to be fed. :8o (What can I say, it's been a busy week at college. :8o )

I guess he figured if he could just dig deep enough into the wet dirt, and get through that pesky plastic, he'd find where the crickets were hiding.

Cerbera · Nov 29, 2006

Er yeah - can't believe I missed that

possibly the most obvious reason of all...

and vibration wasn't on my list either - is there any of that going on nearby ?

Mushroom Spore · Nov 29, 2006

Cerbera said:
and vibration wasn't on my list either - is there any of that going on nearby ?

Nope. I live by myself in a small apartment, on the top floor (no neighbors stomping above, no boom boxes next door). All my T enclosures are on various levels of a sturdy bookshelf.

The only vibration would just be me walking by, though they never seem to notice it as I'm a pretty small person.

I've also noticed that this para is completely water-obsessed, more so than any other T. Granted, two of my other Ts are a C. cyaneopubescens and G. rosea, and the third is that G. aureostriata. The aureo used to get pretty eager when I poured water in the dirt (before it got a bottlecap), but this para just goes nuts. I have to keep at least half the enclosure wet enough to be dark at all times, and he just buries himself in it like a pig in mud.

He's...probably big enough for a bottlecap now, really, but it's hard to refill those with a deli cup (if I open it more than a crack, he freaks out). When I get him into that new critter keeper, I'll add one.

elyanalyous · Nov 29, 2006

i don't know if anyone remembers doing this as a kid. while drinking juice boxes, we used to suck the juice into the straw, and use our finger over the end to create suction. then you take the straw out of the juice box and turn it around and remove the finger to release the juice into your mouth.

i use a simular method with my H.incei when i fill thier caps, because they too freak if i open the cage up. i have them in KK already. would this work for you?

ShadowBlade · Nov 29, 2006

elyanalyous said:
remove the finger to release the juice into your mouth.

No no, down the back of your brother shirt. Or something.

Mushroom Spore · Nov 29, 2006

elyanalyous said:
i use a simular method with my H.incei when i fill thier caps, because they too freak if i open the cage up. i have them in KK already. would this work for you?

Yeah, that's how I water all my Ts.

The parahybana will let me crack open the deli cup just enough to stick in a straw full of water a few times, or tweezers with a cricket, but any more than that and it's psycho time. Getting the angle right to fill a bottlecap that way would be a nightmare.

L. parahybana eating...the enclosure?

Arachnoemperor

ArachnoGod

Arachnoangel

Arachnoemperor

ArachnoGod

Arachnoemperor

Arachnopharoah

Planeswalker

Arachnobaron

Arachnoemperor

Arachnosquire

Arachnoknight

Arachnosquire

Arachnobaron

Arachnoemperor

Arachnobaron

Arachnoemperor

Arachnobaron

Planeswalker

Arachnoemperor