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Published: April 15th 2011
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Dear reader
One of Guapo’s most vivid memories from growing up in Uruguay is travelling in the family car on a road in Solis. It was after rain, and there in front was a whole sea of tarantulas crossing the road. “You had to just drive right over them, it was an awful squelching sound”. And having traversed this mass of spiders, Guapo remembers with a shiver his father stopping the car and everyone getting out. “It was a bit hairy” he says. Were there any angry survivors still clinging to the car somewhere, ready to jump?
On another occasion, when his father was out riding, a “pollito”, or chicken spider, lept off a tree onto his leg. Fortunately, he was wearing boots and quickly flicked the deadly spider off. Some people loathe them, others love them. We all have to have a hobby, so why not keep spiders as pets? Have a look at this You Tube video on how to feed a chicken spider -
Tarantulas from Uruguay is a good introduction to the topic. I'm not big on keeping animals in captivity, but this is the authors' explanation for why the hairy scary Tarantula
There are lots of different kinds of tarantulas tarantulas make much better pets than cats and dogs:
“Do not try to take it for a walk with a leash… Think about ornamental mascots as fish, hamsters or mice. Those small animals which stay at home in cages and according to the consumer’s likes, can move from the garage through the living, or even to your bedroom (perhaps beside your bed?). Excepting the dear tarantulas, all the other animals will need a lot of attention. You will have to change the water, feed them daily, put them with aerators which are really noisy, or change their ‘beds’ when you cannot stand anymore that disgusting smell. And that is not all, their lives are short, too short. And their deaths bring a huge family problem, with terrible cries from the small ones. Or the white lies: ‘ the vet took him to a place where he will be better’. Once again, the marvellous tarantulas win the championship: they do not make noise, they do not have smell, they can spend weeks without eating, they do not need a big space, they do not pay taxes, they do not transmit illnesses… and their lives are long, till thirty years. That
is why when the spider dies, your children will be married and with sons and they will not cry so much. With all these virtues, it will look beautiful to you! And you are not the only one. You should know that in the United States, England, France and Germany, there are important clubs for tarantula fans, and they organize expositions, contests and have specialized magazines with classified adds included.”
There are spider experts of the opinion that beginners should be wary of some of the large South American tarantulas. “They are too fast, hard to keep, some are very large, aggressive, nervous and have a bad bite. Stay away from these species until you have acquired lots of experience, reading, research and communication with experienced keeper's of these species under you belt.”
So where do you find people with spider expertise? If your local area doesn't have a tarantula club, it might have some other type of spider club. The International Society of Arachnology
looks like a good bunch of people with varied interests. How about doing a PhD followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in spider behaviour? Choose the right spider, and you could travel the world.
The Australian huntsman spider looks similar to the tarantula. Today in our very own suburban courtyard here in the Canberra region of Australia I came face to face with one of these hairy long legged monsters. It was hiding amongst the folds of a plastic cover tucked between a pot plant and the brick courtyard wall. When I started unfolding the plastic, the huntsman springboarded onto the table like a circus artist, and then quick as a flash climbed up the umbrella pole. No prizes for guessing what I did next … Let's just say that huntsman is still very much alive, and now probably trying to get into the house as the evening temperature is dropping. We often have them high up on the bedroom or bathroom wall. As long as they stay there, no worries. But I'll do what Guapo's sister always used to do in Uruguay: check the sheets and shake out the blankets on the bed before slipping under the covers...
Bye for now
Guapita
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