Uncle Charlie wrote: And Oom Stan is alive... :lol:

Yes. I had some obligations to take care of, a speech to prepare and give ( Valley Nature Center, Weslaco, Texas ) about Texas tarantulas, and frankly, I needed a vacation!

On an interesting (to me at least) aside, I had always had the gut feeling that termites might be a good baby food for wild tarantulas, but I never could figure out how a baby tarantula could get to them. A tarantula, good at digging as they are, couldn't dig fast enough to catch them underground. Well, during the month I was parked in Peñitas, Texas I had a revelation! (Hint: Use Google Maps to see where Peñitas is.) That part of Texas, the "Lower Rio Grande Valley," is mostly Chihuahua Desert, and there was a big patch of nearly bare dirt behind my motorhome.

(Click or right-click the thumbnails for larger images. Click the secondary image to expand it to full size.)
Note the two Sheltie dogs sitting there patiently, wondering "What in H*** is that buffoon up to now?"

Very soon after I arrived and while "wringing out the dogs" after sundown I noticed little lines of marching termites. Their points of origin were very small holes in the dirt that you ordinarily wouldn't notice, and they paraded most nights, looking for plant debris to eat. Here's a photo of their marching.

And here's a closeup of their little entry hole.

Notice as well that these are a species of "nasute" termites . There were apparently only two castes present. The workers were about 1.5 to 2 mm long. And the soldiers were only 2/3 that length and much lighter in body build. Even neater, the soldiers possessed a set of normal jaws not made for fighting, plus long nozzles protruding from their foreheads from which they apparently squirt a noxious substance at their enemies. (In other termites, the soldiers bear huge jaws used for fighting instead.)

So, aside from being able to watch these extremely cool bugs going about their daily (or rather "nightly") lives, I was able to answer an important question, "How would a baby tarantula possibly be able to run down or dig up termites for food?" The answer is obviously that the baby tarantula doesn't have to. Sooner or later the whole termite nest is likely to parade right through the tarantula's front yard!

And, as examples of Texas tarantulas to be used during the lecture, I drove about 20 km west of Peñitas, just past a little town called Sullivan City. Adjacent to a neighboring arroyo, I managed to catch several Rio Grande Gold tarantulas. Here's a habitat photo.

At the far left of the photo you can see the low bridge over the arroyo. I caught the Rio Grande golds along the two tire tracks on the bank near the fence around the right half of the photo. This points up an interesting strategy for looking for tarantulas: Look near sources of water, but above the high water line. The water, though only present periodically, supports a growth of plants that in turn supports a growth of insects that serve as food for the tarantulas. (Or, grazing animals whose manure attracts even more insects.) Look in undisturbed land. Land that has been tilled or otherwise disturbed probably won't hold any tarantulas. Any tarantulas that survive the tilling will starve to death because agriculture actively kills as many insects as possible.

In this case, the roadside had definitely been disturbed decades ago when the road had been built, recently during road maintenance, and by the US Border Patrol looking for illegal aliens trying to cross the border. (The Rio Grande River and Old Mexico are only 3 or 4 km to the south.) However, the tarantulas I caught were escapees from the cattle grazing land on the other side of the fence. That's the "undisturbed land" I needed to find tarantulas.

Enjoy your little "wetback" tarantulas!

Very interesting indeed Stan, we found the exact same thing holding true 10000 miles from you when looking for baboon spiders :woohoo:

ShaunT wrote: Thanks. Let's start with the knowlage part. ...

Shaun -

Maybe we ought to back up a few paces here and start you out with the right foot.

First, read Stan's Rant . You definitely need to read the books recommended in that page. Maybe twice. You can get some of them through your friendly, neighborhood, public library. If they don't have them on their shelves, they can borrow them from other libraries for you if you make a big enough stink. And Dimitri might be able to help you if you want to buy any of them for your library.

Failing all that, you'll be able to order them from Amazon in the U.K., but it may cost you a little more and take longer to get them.

Then you should read the Myths set of webpages before you start fretting uselessly over wrong info, spending gobs of money on useless stuff, and maybe killing more tarantulas than you save.

Lastly, start reading the entire Spiders, Calgary webpage tree from the top down. By the time you finish (maybe by next Christmas :ohmy: ), you'll be standing right up there next to the rest of we supposedly Grand Poobahs of the arachnid world! :happy: :thumbsup:


Enjoy your little 8-legged masterpiece!

Since I bought my second T I have been an info glutton. And since I found this forum, I have learned a lot. I am one of those people who believe you never stop learning and you never know it all. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that knowing more makes my T healthier and happier.

Thanks for all the info and the warm welcome

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