Quick question regarding decor..

[Ryan Simons]

I cannot find a piece of branch of a suitable size / shape for an arboreal setup for my p.murinius and what i was wondering is, Could i snap off a small tree branch and use that, Obv after some cleaning / sterilizing? If so , what would be the best way to sterilize it ?

thanks

Ryan

[wayne balcombe]

microwaving is always a good way of sterilizing anything thats going in your tank, the other option is to pour a couple of kettles full of boiling water over it.

bear in mind P.Marinus are oppertunistic spiders and will require a hide on groung level aswell as an arboreal hide.

[wayne balcombe]

sorry. i just realized i never actually answered the question with that last post.

getting hold of seasoned branches is always best but you can use a branch you have sourced yourself aslong as it is adaquately sterilized.

[Andrew Ferguson]

just an idea, but go to a pet shop that specialises in reptiles. They have artificial branches, artificial vines that can be bent into place. Some of the branches have suckers so they can stick to the glass.

[Ryan Simons]

yea i have looked in a few, but they only really have huge branches for things like lizards etc and they also charge the earth!

i know i could find one quite easily in the local woods. then microwave it or something.

[Peter Lacey]

P. murinus will web up an enclosure quite quickly so you need only provide something for it to anchor its web too. You could try plastic plants or a branch or alternatively a piece of bark.
I have 2 females at mo, one is using a burrow in a faunarium with a piece of cork bark over coir substrate. The other has a piece of bark from a tree in a cereal tub with some plastic plants - she's webbed this up, laid a sac and I now have stage 2 nymphs.
I rarely do anything to any branches I find other than to give them a good clean with a hose and stiff brush and to remove most bark or loose elements. IMO many people advocate sterlising bark, wood, substrate etc unnecessarily.
If you do decide to microwave it please make sure there's water in the microwave as essentially you're trying to steam it clean.

[Ryan Simons]

Wayne, why do they also need a hide on the ground too? It wont stress the spider not having one there will it?

My problem with my p.murinius is that i never ever see it!! -well, sometimes if im lucky ill catch her out and about in the early hours of the morning. All i have in her tank is substrate (About 2.5" deep) and a coconut hide. She has burrowed inside the coconut and built a tunnel inside. I would like to prevent her from living underground all the time as often i worry if shes even still alive!! Also, if you buy a pet, its nice to be able to see it once in a while! lol

I like what they have done in this video clip and this is where i got the idea of the branch....
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMudy1LGvi4&feature=related"]YouTube - PTASZNIK SLONECZNY ( MURINUS ) ZJADA SZARA?CZE[/ame]

Peter, thanx for the advice.. but with regards to the microwave, yes the 'steaming' aspect does work, but the real use of it is the microwaves cook all organisms from the inside out, killing everything living.

[Dan Kennard]

Peter, thanx for the advice.. but with regards to the microwave, yes the 'steaming' aspect does work, but the real use of it is the microwaves cook all organisms from the inside out, killing everything living.

I'm in complete agreement with Pete on this one. I can remember not so long ago microwaving some noodles. I have no idea how it got in there, but a fly must have flown in as I was closing the door. 5 minutes and 900 watts later, I opened the door and the fly flew out unharmed and continued to go about it's business.

Household microwaves are not all that good at sterilising alone. That's why you need to have a water source. The micrwaves heat the water, and in turn the steam does the sterilising.

[Phil Rea]

Peter, thanx for the advice.. but with regards to the microwave, yes the 'steaming' aspect does work, but the real use of it is the microwaves cook all organisms from the inside out, killing everything living.

No they do not

You need a constantly emitting source of ionizing radiation such as Cobalt 60 (used to sterilize scalpel blades and so on in medicine) to thoroughly sterilise something. They emit Gamma rays and require heavy shielding. Commercial sterilisation is not comparable with sticking something in the microwave. Microwave radiation is non-ionizing, and also microwaves have many dead spots in them, which no radiation ever reaches. This is why they have turntables, so that the food is rotated to give a more even coverage.

Radiation may never reach the core of whichever item you're cooking, because microwaves don't really cook from the inside out. What happens is that they do penetrate below the surface of whatever's being cooked (depending on the water content) and the heat is dispersed in all directions from there.

Steam is far better, which is why it's used in autoclaves. If you are trying to kill off stuff like C. botulinum in dry air (an oven for example), it takes around 2 hours at over 160 degrees C to kill it. However steam at around 120 degrees C (which is why autoclaves are pressurised), kills the spores within minutes. So in the home a pressure cooker could work fairly well (but I am in no way recommending it).

Also, commercial steam soil sterilisers for plant growers/nurseries operate at around 90 degrees C, which is more than sufficient to kill off anything potientially nasty (to plants) in there or anything unexpected which is going to grow and surprise the purchaser.

Personally I think that sterilising substrate or bark is pointless, because firstly spiders don't live in sterile environments, and secondly as soon as it cools down, it begins recolonising pretty much immediately, and possibly with things that are potentially nastier than whatever was living in it in the first place.

[Andrew Ferguson]

Phil is spot on here. I used to work at the Leeds General Infirmary about 15 years ago. I used to clean and sterilise operating and medical equipment in autoclaves. They took next to no time to sterilise vast amounts of equipment. Not a microwave in sight!

[Ryan Simons]

Ah blimy! i stand corrected! I must admit, im no expert on microwaves, but i did think i had the general jist of how they worked. I just kinda assumed, that what goes in the microwave (living) dont come out alive! lol

Oh well, ill prob just wash the bark / branch with boiling water or oven it for a while. Thanks for the advice!

[Peter Lacey]

It's a common misconception Ryan but its good to learn. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the link you provide to YouTube, that's definitely not what I'd consider necessary when feeding or a good example of how to deal with P. Murinus. These are notorious for hiding most of the time but you'll find over the course of a few months you'll begin to see more of it and it's always with the wait. They're also norious for their speed and can be very defensive.

[James Box]

i'm with Phil on the sterilisation issue.
it may be good if there have been an outbreak of Phorids, or harmful mould, but you risk killing off good things like springtails too. the main thing however is as Phil said...they don't live in sterile environments in the wild...
people are too paranoid about mites and mould, generally.

Dan...did that fly then grow to enormous proportions and destroy Tokyo by any chance?