Haiti Videos > Opinions > Message 10837

I am Jon3800 on youtube... I do have a caresheet video of the...

jon3800 Says...

I am Jon3800 on youtube...

I do have a caresheet video of the Haitian Brown Bird Eater as I am the author of the video posted here.

You wanted some information about this species...much as I will say to you knows will just be a repetition of what I have said in the video

I don't know what they think over there, but have never been a recorded death on a tarantula bite. This is falsified information if someone tells you if its true. The only spiders capable of killing humans are the austrailian funnel web and brazilian wandering spider...no relation to tarantulas whatsoever.

Tarantulas are in a totally different class, ans as I currently own 71 different species, all of them are venomous but certain species found in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe do have significant venom that may require hospital attention.

As I am 15 years in this hobby and no one has ever died from a tarantula bite unless they are severely allergic to their venom.

Most of their venom contains peptides found in bees and wasps, so chances are you are allergic to tarantula or T venom if you're allergic to Ts. Tarantulas are not aggressive animals.

Phormictopus cancerides (Haitian Brown Bird Eaters) are beautiful large tarantula residing from Central America.

Itis underrated in the hobby.

Mature females are brown with a few purple highlights and mature males are purple all over. Their maximum legspan is between 8 and 9 inches.

These are new world terrestrial species therefore they are equipped with urticating hair on the abdomen, which the T will throw by rubbing the abdomen with its hind legs to ward off predators.

These hairs are very irritant, and should not in your eyes and should be washed immediately.

These are pretty defensive and nasty tempered spiders so please do not handle it, because you will get bit. The bite is similar to a bee sting and you might get local swelling and soreness around the bite area.

They generally do well in a large kritter keeper or 5 gallon tank with a fair amount of potting soil so they can burrow, a cave and a water dish. DO NOT use sponges, the fangs can get stuck.

Keep them fairly warm 75-80F with 75-80% humidity, which can be done by putting water over the substrate.

For feeding DO NOT feed it outside prey nor vertebrates like anoles or mice. They feed on B. dubia roaches, mealworms, waxworms and store bought crickets.

After all, outside prey may contain pesticide which may prove fatal to the T ( T is tarantula for short).

As far as anoles are concerned, these are vertebrates.

A tarantula cannot digest calcium.

Therefore the only bone that resides in its body is its exoskeleton.

When a tarantula molts or sheds (be sure to keep them humid, and feed it a week later after they do), they will shed off the exoskeleton.

Since calcium hardens bones, it will complicate the molts and it can also prove fatal

There's a quite a bit of info about tarantulas available on the net. You can check my youtube channel "Jon3800" or visit forums like arachnophiles.com or arachnoboards.com

Hope this helps
JON

Reply to Msg 11752 Posted December 6 2009 at 10:02 PM

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