Personal Experiences

Interesting Anecdotes H o m e - C a r e s h e e t - P h o t o A l b u m - E m a i l m e - L i n k s

Something left under the stairs... on my hand!
	I was taking my sister's spider (avicularia metallica) out to handle it as usual. Its abdomen was bloated with the juices of some hapless cricket. I was using a magnifying glass to inspect its brightly coloured abdomen (it was a juvenile). I had just lifted the magnifying glass to peer at its bottom when I noticed that it was doing something odd. It was jerking its abdomen up and down. Naturally, I brought it closer to my face to take a look. Suddenly, it stopped. An awful thought had just crossed me mind... I was already reaching for its container when suddenly Something white and pasty was squirted onto my hand! Yuck! Disgusting! The silly little thing has just shat on my hand! This incident should have dissuaded me from handling it too often, but I stubbornly persisted. Then, it happened a second time. This time it was on my face. The incident is still too painful to talk about. And it went happening, usually after a full meal. This is just a shot in the dark, but I think that maybe moving might stimulate its bowel movements. Oh well, that's the price we have to pay to handle the little critters...
Spider exploding?!?
	I don't know if this particular story is true, but I was reading a book on tarantulas (as usual) when I encountered a story that was really quite shocking. Apparently, the author was feeding his spider. It already had a bloated abdomen, but he kept on feeding it (I don't know why, maybe, like me, he enjoyed seeing the ugly, evil little crickets struggle in the jaws of the big bad spider...). It was in the middle of sucking the innards out from the cricket when its abdomen exploded wetly. This is the only report I have ever encountered of a tarantula exploding from gluttony, but I if I see any more of them, I'll be sure to post them here (yuck, imagine all that stuff all over the tank...).