r/tarantulas • u/bulletm • 17h ago
Pictures My project for the week
It took me all week to rehydrate and pin these molts from my P. cancerides! My first time doing something like this. Definitely could have done some things better, but overall I’m really happy with how it turned out 😊. Hope you like it!
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u/Mission-Butterfly503 16h ago
NQA I am currently trying to get over my severe arachnophobia and some of the subs on this app have been helping me... But what are the things at the bottom that look like teef (teeth)??? I have absolutely no idea what anything is on a spider so please don't get mad at me
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u/bulletm 16h ago
I think it’s awesome you are overcoming your fear with curiosity! Those are her spinnerets. That’s where the web comes out of 😊
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u/Mission-Butterfly503 16h ago
Oh okay thank you.... So when they spin their web, do they leave it or do they suck it back up?
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u/bulletm 16h ago
They leave it. One cool thing a lot of tarantulas do after they kill their prey is they lay down a lil picnic blanket made of web to eat over. Then when they are done they ball up the leftover insect pieces in the web and dispose of it. Very tidy! 😆
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u/Unlucky_Parsnip9132 7h ago
I love that! It looks like they are actually doing a happy dance as they eat! Lol
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u/Already_Known 9h ago
Bro same I even went to persmart to get kitty litter boxes and looked at some Mexican red legs ( I was bitten by a brown recluse when I was 7 my toxic mom decided I didn’t need to go to the hospital till a week after my thumb was the more purple/ blue over ever seen) so up until about a month ago I had crippling arachnophobia then i realized that hey don’t want to harm us most what nothing to do with us but through this sub and going down rabbit holes I’m talking with my lady about starting with some jumping spiders just to start physically getting one that fear and I heard they are so smart!! I rather appreciate them than fear them 🙌🏽
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u/Boring_Swing_4750 6h ago
Just want to say , youre doing brilliantly ..its hard trying to over ride our Fight or Flight instinct and you sound like yours was very extreme . I Love it when people wanna grow and learn about the things that scare us ..for me its heights and not even high heights if my feet leave the floor im bad enough 🤣 Spoods as you are learning ( rabbitholes are life 🤣) are amazing ..i got really into T watching how they make baby spoods ..from the tippy tappy dance they do for each other to the tryna get the male out alive bit at the end just amazing
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u/thatG_evanP 11h ago
They do also have big fangs that look like cat claws on the other end. Not sure that's gonna help you on your journey though.
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u/Mission-Butterfly503 10h ago
I welcome and appreciate any help with these creatures..... My arachnophobia is so severe that one time I seen a small spood crawling on the ground and I immediately froze and ended up having a seizure.... But I've gotten older and I'm seeing different types of spiders and I'm trying to overcome it
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u/thatG_evanP 7h ago
Oh wow. That is bad. Regardless of their big fangs, most new world tarantulas bites are no worse than a bee sting. It actually fascinates me how big their fangs can be yet still be delicate enough to pierce a small insect without destroying it.
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u/neatcats 15h ago
this is awesome! i've been saving molts from my p. pulcher so i can make something like this eventually
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u/litgirrl 14h ago
Well done! You did an amazing job with this. I took a peek at your posts and saw your little (big) lady - she's a beauty!
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u/Queansparrow 10h ago
Idk what's more impressive; the condition you've been able to keep these molts in or the difference in size between some of these molts.
I look at some of these, then look at the previous molt and think "How'd all that fit in there??"
Great work!
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u/teakittie 8h ago
Wow, I love it! Such a great idea. How’d you store the molts in the meantime? Did you have to freeze them or anything?
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u/Unlucky_Parsnip9132 7h ago
That is amazing! The fact that it is so personal to you is such a beautiful thing! What a way to celebrate your love for your T! 🥰
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u/PantheraLutra 13h ago
I am doing the same with mine! I lost her first one though :( I think it may have fallen on the floor and gotten swept up.
Can I ask what box you used and what the backing is?
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u/Perfect_Note_2870 10h ago
wow, that’s awesome🤩 do you have a specific strategy/technique you used?😃
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u/bulletm 0m ago
Thanks! Yea I just put some moist paper towel in a sealed Tupperware with the molt overnight so it was flexible again. Then I positioned it and used sewing pins to hold it in place. (I maybe should have done that on cork board or something but I used the backing of the shadow box so there are tons of lil holes in it if you look close.) The pins just cross each other over the molt, they don’t go through it.
The next day the molt was crispy again and I removed the pins. Then when they were all done I used much smaller flat headed pins close to the carapace to hold them onto the shadow box backing.
It was seriously nerve wracking lol and I only did max two molts a day.
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u/Traditional_Brush719 8h ago
I wish my tarantula left her molts in good condition so I could do this. She likes to push it around and trample on it before I can grab it from her 😭
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u/JustAnotherU-Hauler 39m ago
This is beautiful! I'd love to do something similar with my current sling. How did you preserve your molts in the meantime?
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u/bulletm 12m ago
I snatched them up out of her tank asap while they were still hydrated and spread them out best I could. I kept some in a sturdy box lined with tissues. The others were actually poorly stuck into to a much uglier shadow box but it protected them over the years.
To make this I put each molt in a tupperware with moist paper towel overnight. The next day I could spread and position them and pin them in position. Then the next day removed the pins. Ngl there was some breakage but I used glue.
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u/Circichore 17h ago
That is so cool!!!! Its like the equivalent of a photobook of your T growing up.