B smithi moult problem!

[Stephen jordan]

Hi, I have a B smithi sling and it moulted in the early hours of thismorning and all went well I thought until I came to remove the exuvium and a small piece is still attached to one of the spiders spinnerets. Now the little spider hasnt hardened up yet so I'm not going to touch it incase I do further damage and stress it out, so my question is. Can I leave this tiny piece on there until it moults out next time round, its so small about 2.5cm legspan and really don't want to mess with it. Everything else went ok, What do you think?
steve

[Colin D Wilson]

If it's a very small piece then i wouldn't worry about it, it will probably fall (or get pulled off in due course)
Larger bits of attached exuvium can be trimmed down (carefully) with a sharp pair of scissors so as not to be too much of an incumbrance to the spider.
Or you can use a little warm water to soften the "piece" and if possible hold it firm and let the spider walk away, hopefully pulling itself free (the spider will know how much pressure to use to dis-attach itself).

[Stephen jordan]

Thanks Colin, Its only a tiny piece and I don't think it will cause it problems, I'll keep a close watch and act if I need to. I think if I had to I'd paint some water on it and hold it with some tweezers like you said and let the spider do the work, safer that way.

[Christian Elowsky]

Keep an eye out for fecal build up as well. If you don't see any problems, you're safe.

[Stephen jordan]

Thanks Christian, I'll keep a close eye on it!