Travelling with Tarantulas

[Eleanor]

I wonder if anyone has any experience of moving tarantulas about between countries? Not importing wild caught spiders from their native country, but moving captive bred pets around.

I'm living in the Republic of Ireland but I'll be moving back to the UK sometime next year, and what I don't know is if I'll have any problems with customs? And do I need to prepare for this? I've tried to find out from the various government agencies involved in such things, but with no luck.

Reluctant as they are to give out any useful information, or even correct information, I know from experience (with plants) that if you fail in your mind-reading attempts and get it wrong, they won't be impressed!

(For those who may have read my previous posts about my bad luck with my first spider, I now have a small-but-getting-fatter T. blondi and a very small Brachypelma verdezi. They look so much healthier than my first spider so I don't think they're going to die on me.)

[Belrazor]

There should be info on the DEFRA site:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/index.htm

[Parsnip]

As far as I know, the rules on this are you are not allowed to import any plant-feeding inverebrates that are likely to cause damage to native plants and crops, dangerous species (certain spiders and scorpions included) requiring DWA license (unless you have one already) and CITES species takien from the wild. I think in this case only the CITES regulations are relevant if you intend bringing in Brachypelma spp so it might be wise to have some proof of captive bred status of this if you have it though customs officers are unlikely to be that on-the-ball. I have taken spiders through customs many times and have been stopped only once but no questions were asked. Just make sure all you spiders are clearly labelled.

[Eleanor]

Do any tarantulas count as 'dangerous species' that customs might notice and make a fuss about?

One of my reasons for asking is that I may decide to expand my collection before moving back to the UK, which won't be for quite a few months at the moment. But I won't if there is any risk of spiders being confiscated by customs, or any risk to the spiders in any other way. They will be travelling with me in my car, so perhaps there's a chance they won't even be noticed.

Your advice sound sensible so thanks, I will see if I can get letters to say that they were captive bred, and I will make sure that their containers are properly labelled.

[Angus Walker]

Hello Eleanor,

I was sorry to hear about your B. pulchra. I have a young one of these myself along with a G. rosea and two Brachypelmas, all raised from captive bred spiderlings.

I am not answering this in an official capacity so please don't go quoting me as such but I work for HM Customs & Excise in the UK and have spent many years doing frontline preventive work. In my limited experience of travellers bringing animals of any description through our controls they have a much smoother time of it (as do their creatures) if they come prepared with any relevant documentation or can otherwise prove they have complied with whatever regulations are in force for that species.

It is illegal to import certain animals or animal products that are listed in CITES (endangered species) and certainly some tarantula species (B. smithi most notably) are listed. However this applies to wild obtained specimens and not those captive bred. Anyone found to be in breach of this regulation will have their animals seized and may face prosecution

Officers will likely refer any animals to DEFRA and/or our endangered species team to give us expert advice and guidance. This is where any homework you have done and documentation you can provide will be invaluable to aid in the decision process and reduce any delay this causes.

Personally I don't think there will be a problem in your case but I strongly advise you to take the excellent advice of Belrazor and check out the DEFRA website and contact them for a detailed answer. That way you will come fully prepared and everything should go smoothly (hopefully)

One last thing - It is ALWAYS better to declare things to Customs up front rather than try to sneak things through and then try to explain it afterwards

[Eleanor]

Thanks for your reply. Here's the problem. I have checked out the DEFRA website and relevent links but couldn't make sense of the invertebrate stuff. I emailed them too, but they still didn't tell me. I'm really stuck here.

I realise some of my spiders (yes I have more than two now - I have fallen to this addiction very quickly) are CITES listed and I don't want to take any chances with customs, but I don't know what sort of documentation they need, or what they will accept as reasonable proof that they're not illegally wild collected. A letter from the pet shop? Do you (or anyone else) know?