This may be of help to a few people

[Dave Gunter]

My Usambara orange has recently moulted and needed a bigger home so i prepared a 16"x8"x8" fishtank for it's new residence, now came the big problem - just how to get a burrowed in, heavily webbed, agressive, bad tempered spider out of it's old place and into the new.

The problem - it's down that hole



my solution, cover all the surface of the tank in case of a second "bolt hole" leaving just the web tunnel uncovered



put an upturned cricket tub over the hole



Then what i did was to VERY slowly fill the cage with water from the opposite end to the burrow entrance, the spider sensed its burrow was flooding and popped up out and into the cricket tub, i then just slid a sheet of plastic under the crix tub and presto - captured Sorry no pics of the last bit but being that this is the one i had escape a while back i wasn't taking any chances at this stage and wanted it in its new tank.

The beastie concerned





an idea of its size now, even "scrunched" up it's as wide as a crix tub

[mike halewood]

Fantastic thread, well Done. I must make note incase I have to move my OBT in the future.

Mike

[Neil Ashby]

yeah great Mike !! now he tells me !!


great idea mate , wish i had thought of that when i got Mikes OBT out of its web !

[Colin D Wilson]

you innovative little chap you.

great idea Dave.

[Dave Gunter]

This method can of course be used for any burrowing nasties - H. lividum and C. crawshayi come to mind

[Larry Shone]

Ah yes,this reminded me of the chapter in the Schulz 'bible' on ahem capturing your own wild T by flooding the burrow. And that T is gorgeous! Is it P.murinus?

[Paul Claven]

Hey Dave -

That goes straight onto my 'sticky' list, mate!

Thanks!

[Robert Farmer]

Nice tactics, last time I moved my OBT it was a case of gently peeling away layers of web (no burrow just LOADS of web) and watching as it lay on it's back fangs waving...

Good idea none-the-less!

[Nicola Dolby]

Thanks for this, I wish I'd used it this morning. I was packing up my OBT to go off breeding and I remember how well behaved my Poecilotheria was, so I put the container in his tank and gave him a little nudge. Bad move. He was up the side of the tank, accross the setee and on the carpet before I could blink. Of course he wanted somewhere dark to hide and the nearest thing was, me! I backed up and not wanting him heading up my skirt like my Euathlus did (another story) I tried to get away. So when I went left he followed me, when I went right he followed me and I found myself being chased out of my own living room by a spider! Fortunately I sidetracked him by making him think a padded container was equally dark and warm and he's now on his way to (I hope) a female who's happy to see him. I think I profer your method Dave!

[Colin D Wilson]

Nicola, that gave me the giggle i needed today.

Conjured up some comical images (although i doubt it was comical first hand)

Thanks and glad it's all sorted.

[Nicola Dolby]

Funny thing is I actually feel guilty! Seeing the poor little thing with his eight little legs going like mad, normally I'd have just stood there and waited until he'd calmed down then I'd have brushed him off my leg into the container and that would be that. Thing was all that was going through my head was "major surgery, Pterinochilus venom" and " where the hell is he going?!" He better arrive safely after all that!
Thanks Colin

[Dave Gunter]

Ah yes,this reminded me of the chapter in the Schulz 'bible' on ahem capturing your own wild T by flooding the burrow. And that T is gorgeous! Is it P.murinus?

As far as it seems to be accepted now, yup P. murinus RCF