How did it all start?

[Colin D Wilson]

I notice from reading the many threads in this forum, that a lot of people say things like "When i started keeping T's" and "The first Spider i got was a ...."

I was wondering if the long standing Tarantula keepers would like to tell us all the route that lead them to their first pet Arachnid.

I'll start the ball rolling with my own....I had just watched a re-run of the Bond film Dr No (way back in 1969.....god thats a long time ago) and there was....crawling up James Bond.....what i instantly knew was my ideal pet. After pestering my parents for what seemed like months (i think it was a week) my Dad gave in (my mum nearly left home) After Dad had made contact with all his old army buddies to try and locate a pet shop that dealt in such things we travelled to a London pet shop, and in January 1970 i was the proud owner of a Red Knee though it could have been a smithi or an emilia....cloudy memories !!. (my Dad also talked himself into a pair of Royal Pythons at the same time, he was used to exotic pets as he'd had them since 1946 ish after coming out of the army after WW2). I had her for 7 years (she was an adult at the time of purchase)

That started it all off, since then i've had tarantulas of all makes and models and reptiles ranging from little skinks to 17ft burmese (including some rearfanged colubrids when the wild and dangerous animal licence was easier to obtain) now the reptiles have all passed on due to old age i've started the obsessive collection again.

For those of you who are still awake after reading that....how about your own stories

[WAYNE M C]

hey colin

OK THEN,HOW IT ALL START..??

well i was 19 and working in an aquatic shop,just selling usual type stuff cold water to salt water fish (never seen the attraction myself,but each to their own) anyway, if i remember business was slow, so the owner decided to start sellin reptiles,only a small selection, iguana`s,few snake`s,few gecko`s and then, there they were OMG.
I still remember just staring at themlike a kid looking through a candy shop window, only had 6 T`s delivered,but their they were all 6 sat in their containers just waiting to get a new home, if i remember correctly we only had 3 x B.SMITHI and 3 x G.ROSEA but dam they were good looking to my eye`s.
So that was it,i was hooked and have been ever since, i bought 1 of each at the time, then got owner to order a few more for me, had my collection up to 12 T`s within a few week`s,but that was close on 20 year`s ago. had a break from hobby while i did all the going out and dating stuff.At the moment i have 28, most i ever had was roughly on the 50 mark, but like everyone say`s this hobby is totally addictive,there`s always a good looking T to add to your collection...
So that`s how it started for me.......

[Robert Farmer]

I've always wanted to keep Tarantulas since I was about 6/7 but my Father always said the minute I left the house he would set about them with a hoover...

Suffice to say it's taken 17 years for me to finally get a hold of one, and apart from my g/f being a bit apprehensive (she's coming round I guess, as long as she can call it George she doesn't mind - all of our pets; fish, hamster, gecko + now my B Boehmei - are all called George) all's going well!

One day I'll have my own invert wall no doubt lol

[Nicola Dolby]

start

The influence which got me started was pure chance. I was casually browsing the internet one day and saw a picture of a H. lividium. I was amazed at the thing and, having done a little research, realised how anti-social they can be and decided to get something else. Then I saw a picture of a Poecilotheria metallica and that was that! The BTS put me on to a breeder down in the Swindon area and I got one, along with an Avic metallica. The P. metallica died recently, apparently he had some deseise I can't pronounce but the A. metallica is doing fine, she's out and about every day terrorising crickets and playing around the plants in her tank. A fantastic spider! (now of course the addiction has set in and 2 have become 23, next week to become 25. The problem with having a lot though is that I don't get as much time with each, and compared to most in the hobby I still don't have a lot. Also its a pain trying to remember all their names!)

[Glen Feasey]

for me it all started about about 10 ish years ago when i used to take a mate down to Repider Gold in Enfield. I soon stated taking interest in the wide variety of T's the shop had and ended up purchasing 2 B. Vagans and a male and female C.darlingi. I ended up breeding the C.darlingi and had to give the hobby up about 7 years ago when my daughter was born.

I have recently purchased a B.vagans and a G.Rosea and look forward to adding some B.smithi and B.emelia to the collection very soon.

I would love to meet up with T owners in my area! Im from Dunstable in Bedfordshire!

Cheers, Glen

[Ray Gabriel]

I bought my first spider in the late 70s to get over my fear of spiders, it hasnt really stopped since then.

Spiders should carry a "dangerously addictive" label on them

Ray

[rhys brigida]

I bought my first spider in the late 70s to get over my fear of spiders, it hasnt really stopped since then.

Spiders should carry a "dangerously addictive" label on them

Ray

Ray,
That's remarkable. Can I just say "ditto", but for me the starting time was the early 1980's.

Fear got me in. Fear went away and got replaced with learning.

Cheers,
Rhys

[Michael Jacobi]

I actually caught my first tarantula on my grandparent's property in Arkansas, sometime around 1972 or 73. At the same time, I caught some local snakes and thus began a passion that continues today. In the mid-70s I started buying the few tarantulas available from reptile mail order companies, along with a host of snakes and lizards. By the time I graduated high school in 1981 I was breeding snakes and selling arachnids, reptiles, and more and about 15-20 species of tarantula were commonly available, with another dozen or so becoming available each year. Early breeding pioneers like Al McKee and Ralph Henning and Rick West provided eager keepers with an increasing variety of tarantulas to the North American keeper. And beginning in the early 80s, many of us ventured to the American southwest to capture our own.

Kind regards, Michael

[Colin D Wilson]

Early breeding pioneers like Al McKee and Ralph Henning and Rick West.

Kind regards, Michael

Is this the same Rick West that provides images and consultation for birdspider.com?
He's got to be one of the leading authorities on Taratulas, i've read several books by him...very imformative!!

[J M Clegg]

I was the typical runny nosed kid who always had a tic-tac case in his trouser (or shorts - usually shorts) pocket, in that case could be a ladybird, a wasp, 50 ants!, a worm, caterpillars. My mum never quite knew what she was going to find when she did the washing! It was amazing what we could get in a tic-tac case. Amazingly – in my life I have only ever been stung by just 1 bee!!! We had a porch on the side of the house and yes - it was also usually full of old coffee jars and the odd jam jar, each containing any number of insects and spiders and in many cases both.

Our favourite activity in the summer months was usually catch a flying insect, and see how long it lasted with an orb weaver spider that also lived - you guessed it - in the porch. In those days we more fascinated about how the orb weaver wrapped it's prey than worried about what that prey was. Needless to say we had some interesting times with wasps and bumblebees!!

I have to say - in those days we were more interested in seeing bugs get eaten than appreciating them for the remarkable creatures they were. As I got older, into my teenage years my interests turned to birds (feathered), and inevitably this led to attracting them to the garden. The best way to do this was plant flowers that bring in insects and again I went full circle - back to my first love of creepy crawlies. Which of course then inevitably leads to studying them and also becoming an adult!

I have 3 sons now and they all seem to have developed Dads love of the insects and associated creepys. For me it's been, and indeed continues to be a life long journey of discovery. Not many people actually realise that the very first creatures to ever leave the sea and walk on land, MILLIONS of years before the dinosaurs were the Scorpions!

Now we (including my boys) keep around 60 Tarantulas, 12 Scorpions, 3 species of Roaches (fascinating creatures in their own right), about 25 Macleays Spectres, 10 Leaf Insects, an African Mantid, A marbled Mantid, A Chameleon, 3 Geckos and a little Corn Snake. Our collection seems to keep getting bigger every month, but in terms of Tarantulas compared to many of the BTS members - we only have a handful!

Yes Tarantulas are addictive - but they are just a tiny part of interesting creatures that are out there. If you want to see a really cool predator in action – you have to go along way to beat a Praying Mantis! I personally get the most satisfaction from raising slings and seeing every process from sling to adulthood. It’s an amazing thing to watch.

[mary walters]

for me it all started about about 10 ish years ago when i used to take a mate down to Repider Gold in Enfield. I soon stated taking interest in the wide variety of T's the shop had and ended up purchasing 2 B. Vagans and a male and female C.darlingi. I ended up breeding the C.darlingi and had to give the hobby up about 7 years ago when my daughter was born.

I have recently purchased a B.vagans and a G.Rosea and look forward to adding some B.smithi and B.emelia to the collection very soon.

I would love to meet up with T owners in my area! Im from Dunstable in Bedfordshire!

Cheers, Glen

Glen, I live in Bletchley Milton Keynes, why don't we meet up???

Mary

[mary walters]

For me it started in 1994 with the BTS show at The Nature Centre in Brum, talk about sardines lol. Trev bought a B smithi when he was 18, 22 years ago now, I was terrified of her. Then we happened upon the show in Brum, I bought my first spiderling, a B albopilosum, rapidly followed by a P regalis and a H lividum. We had a break for about 4 years then we moved to MK and the bug bit again, now we have around 120 and for the last 3 years have been breeding them.

[Michael Jacobi]

Is this the same Rick West that provides images and consultation for birdspider.com?
He's got to be one of the leading authorities on Taratulas, i've read several books by him...very imformative!!

Yes, but birdspiders.com is Rick's own site so "provides" is inaccurate. Although Rick has published a number of scientific (including species descriptions) and hobby articles on theraphosid spiders, I am unaware of any "books" by him. You can go to my tarantulabibliography.net and search for "West" or "Rick C. West" to get a sampling of his publications.

Kind regards, Michael

[Colin D Wilson]

Yes "provides" was the wrong word, i stand corrected, wonderful site though.
The "books" that i mention (wrong word again) were scientific publications that were available at an International Herpetelogical Meeting in July (ish) 2000, this meeting was regarding all proposals for Cites II (covering all sections) which if i remember correctly Rick West and another gentleman or group recommended that all Poecilotheria spp were to be listed as Cites II animals, This was refused, if i remember correctly, mainly due to the natural habitat being affected and not due to the export of the species (again correct me if i'm wrong there).

[Michael Jacobi]

Your recollection of Rick West, CITES and Poecilotheria is correct, but I have no further comment on the issue

Kind regards, Michael