New additions to the family!

We've had a very stressful week on a number of levels. Ashley has been working every evening from 3-11pm and we haven't had much time together, my research has been really intense, and there are a bunch of other things that have really been getting us frazzled.

So Ashley and I took today off to just be together all day and decompress. It has been one of the best days we have had together yet.

We started off taking a long car trip which I have wanted to make for some time and only now could because...well, we just got a car. We went to the Chicago all animal expo. It was a windy, difficult trip, but thankfully we have GPS, which handled most of the difficult stuff.

Basically the expo is a bunch of reptile and bug vendors that get together and sell stuff a couple of times a month. It was a blast!
Yes, you guessed it. In those containers are the three new additions to our little family. A beautiful Brachypelma smithi (Mexican Redknee)


You will notice that we took a picture of this little guy (or girl, we don't know) in its container. That's because this tarantula is one of the most aggressive hair flickers I have ever seen. Tarantulas are the porcupines of the bug world. The hair on their abdomens is kind of like fiberglass but worse. When they are scared they flick it at you. It can make your skin itch like nuts and don't even ask about getting it in your eyes and nose. That's why tarantulas are chilled out about biting. No need when they are covered in itchy itchy hair. Anyway, this one's a hair flicker, so we haven't handled her much.

And we got a close relative of the smithi, a spider chosen because Ashley liked it, our new Brachypelma emilia (Mexican Redleg).

This species is very similar to the smithi in the sense that they are known to be avid hair flickers, but ours so far has been a real cool customer. We like her.

She's also likely to be due for a molt.

And we got a really neat spider of a completely different variety. Avicularia Avicularia. The Guyana Pinktoe. Arboreal spiders like Avicularia live in trees, so our spends all its time on the walls of its enclosure and that's normal. From what we have seen it's a lot more active than we are used to in tarantulas. They are real friendly and don't flick hair, but we were a bit surprised because it is significantly faster than other tarantulas. Make that much faster. And it can jump. We practically jumped out of our skins when we started nudging it toward the new container it was to be in and it totally jumped out of my hand. Actually we have held it subsequent to that first encounter and every time we get a little shocked by its speed and jumpiness. When it hears anything, it jumps. When it gets scared, it runs quickly upward...as in TOWARD YOUR FACE. It's so fuzzy and gentle, though. For some reason I find it much less intimidating than other tarantulas, despite the fact that it's clearly the most difficult one to actually handle that we have.

We have fed them all and this one is the most interesting to watch eat. We have a little bit of a hard time getting handling pictures because it is very active and we are always on the alert for it to take off and hide somewhere. This is in stark contrast with our original tarantula, Stella (G aureostriata) who just holds still in your hand. If you nudge her insistently, she slowly puts one leg forward, and then another.

I (Grant) spend a lot of time researching and discussing tarantulas on the internet, and I've always wished my tarantula 'collection' consisted of more than just one tarantula. Now I have four and am officially a tarantula enthusiast. And Ashley is too, you know...community property.

Granted, tarantulas have a limited appeal to a general audience but we like them, and Ashley has been very tolerant of my interest in them. We had been wanting to go to the expo for some time, and we finally made it down there. For the rest of the day we walked on the beach, watched a few movies, and in general have just done the living for which we work the rest of the week.


This is what it's all about. For as long as it's just us, anyway. :)

PS here's a video of Stella (our original tarantula) eating. For anyone who has ever come seen her and she refused to eat. Watch fast... the action is at the beginning.