Introductions!

[Tina Reeks]

Hi Tina, welcome to the forum, fascinating to hear of your conversion to the world of tarantulas, curiosity generally overcomes fear, it usually does with any visitors we have, as most of our T's are in our lounge with us. It is a highly addictive hobby, you'll soon find that one turns into four and four into ten and so on lol.

HI Linda,
I think much of my phobias are really fear of the unknown. The more I read about and learned about rats the less scary and more appealing they became. The same is true of T's. Mine is in the front room too, and so people who wouldn't usually have anything to do with one are given a meeting with mine whether they like it or not. Most people who say they hate spiders end up asking loads of questions...and by the time they leave they are much less afraid.
Unfortunately I live in a 1 bed flat, with 2 cats and a (small) dog...and don't have much more room for another tank (well maybe one more!) where it is away from the window/light. (I am finding myself looking around and wondering what I could get rid of to find room!!!)
For now I will have to make do with admiring (I honestly can't believe I am using that word in connection to a spider!!) everyone else's, and visiting the ones in the shops!! (Not sure how long that will last tho.....)

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Tina, welcome to the forum, fascinating to hear of your conversion to the world of tarantulas, curiosity generally overcomes fear, it usually does with any visitors we have, as most of our T's are in our lounge with us. It is a highly addictive hobby, you'll soon find that one turns into four and four into ten and so on lol.

[Tina Reeks]

Wow, well done to you too then!! Stone cottage in the country...sounds like where I life, so I can empathise with you!
I too used to have to suck them up with the vaccuum cleaner or I would never sleep...if you throw them out of the window they climb right back in again!
Since having my Rosie, I am much more open to the idea of other spiders not being the evil monsters I always feared they were.
Knowledge is empowering. The more you learn about whatever you are afraid of, the less fearful you feel about it. I did it with hamsters, rats, and now my T....I'm sure there is room in here somewhere for another set up.....!

[Carole Dallison]

Hi Tina
Well done you!!! You should be very proud of yourself. I was like you. I live in an old stone cottage in the country so I get more than my fair share of house spiders. I`m ashamed to say that I even dyson`d a few in the past (please forgive me). I hated doing it so I got to know them, by picking up the smallish house spiders and releasing them outside. I dont generally pick up the big house spiders now purely for the reason that they`re so fast I dont want to risk injuring them. I helsd my first T (a G.rosea) March last year. It was love at first hold. Couldnt resist it and had to get one. And yep spent about £100 on spider and set up. 12 months later, I now own 31 of the little darlings. And I love each and every one of them. Even my mum has been bitten by the spider bug and is the proud owner of a Guyanna pink toe.
Welcome aboard hun!

[Tina Reeks]

I discovered that when I kept the rats too!
I keep looking around and wondering if I could fit another tank in that space...!

I just wish they didn't have to eat crickets as they freak me out so much more than the spider....they seem to have it in for me and aim for my face when I try to get them in the tank....*shudder*

[Mark Waterous]

The even scarier part is I was fascinated by and admiring a T.Blondie in a local shop this week...Uh oh!

Haha I almost forgot the most important statement when welcoming people to the hobby; "And so it begins!". It's very, very hard to have only one.

[Tina Reeks]

She shed (for the 1st time since I've had her) the other day...you should have seen me trying to get out the shed and not be freaked by it! After a few days of admiring it from every angle I can now pick it up with my hand and not the tweezers...I'm well impressed with myself! (I'm easily pleased!)
I still sit here and surprise myself that I actually own a spider, I invited it into my home, paid money for it and I like it!!
Miracles really do happen!

The even scarier part is I was fascinated by and admiring a T.Blondie in a local shop this week...Uh oh!

[Mark Waterous]

Tina,

I'm not so sure I've ever been an arachnophobe to a great degree, but if you asked me if maintenance on my ornata's enclosure didn't cause nervous jitters and a huge adrenalin rush from time to time, I'd be lying if I said no. Grammostola rosea is a great place to start; there are some genera that come faster, some that are more active, and some that are more colorful, but no one more unpredictable than G rosea. They can sit bone still for what seems like endless periods of time and then completely surprise you the next day. I have one that thinks she's arboreal, another that has an attitude like a cobalt, and a third little one that is such a crowd pleaser she will actually run around every inch of her enclosure showing off freshly killed prey to an invisible audience. You can't go wrong with a Grammy.

[Tina Reeks]

Hello All!

I'm pretty sure you can tell(!), but I'm Tina, from sunny Cornwall. I have been arachnophobic all of my life! I used to be terrified of Rodents too, but made myself get a hamster, then moved onto the ones with tails(!) and ended up with 7 rats - who make delighful pets! (They just don't live long enough and I'm a big softie and it breaks my heart!) I (and anyone who knew me) would never have believed in a million years that I could have a rodent living in my home by invitation!

This got me to thinking....that I managed to overcome my fear of them without it killing me, so maybe.....?!
Then at a local theme park they had a talk/show with various animals, one of which was a Chile Rose, and you could hold it if you wanted to....I figured I would bite the bullet, and those with me were in shock! (Not as much as I was tho!)

I made myself have a real good look at it (thankfully it just sat in my hand and didn't move at all) and actually found myself saying "wow it's beautiful!" I then joked that I would be getting one of those as a pet next....never for one minute actully thinking I would! This was about 3 yrs ago. I had given it some thought over time, but each time convinced myself it was the most stupid idea ever!

Then last Aug I went with a friend into a garden centre which sells exotics, as she keeps all sorts. I found myself drawn to the spider section (I clearly like torturing myself!) and assured my friend - who threatened never to come to my house if I ever bought one - that I was "only looking!"
I left there with my Chile Rose....saying "I can't believe I've just spent £100 on a SPIDER!!!" (That was with everything else too.) My friend and I now love watching her (should she ever decided to move that is) and now I want more!!

I am still terrified of house spiders however! Are there any other arachnophobes here?

[Mark Waterous]

I'm a stranger living in a strange land, so the regular boundaries and borders don't present themselves as issues to me very often. Glad to know that even those of us living in the belly of the beast (hehe) are welcome! That's one heckuva nice collection you've got there James, and Mrs Street, you bet I will.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Mark, welcome to the forum, nice to have members from across the pond, and good to see you've got a breeding programme coming along nicely, keep us all posted on their progress.

[James Box]

Hey all,

My name is Mark, and my wife and I have been keeping Ts for just over 3 years now. I'm Canadian, she's American, and we both live in dusty old Nevada, USA right now, so we're a long ways from most of you; I've heard a lot of good about the BTS though and while I don't expect to have much time to do more than lurk, I felt like it was well worth the time to sign up and take a look around.

We're currently in embarking on the next leg of our journey with our 8 legged critters, and have P lugardi eggs in the incubator, two gravid G roseas (though whether we'll get a sac from a rosea is beyond me), a gravid P murinus and an H maculata and A seemanni that should both be mature in the next molt. No favorites in our collection, it's far too hard to pick just one of the many amazing genera out there, so we have a semi decent array of terrestrial, fossorial and arboreal all occupying the same T room. The collection as it currently stands:

0.0.9 Aphonopelma sp. New River
0.1.0 Aphonopelma seemanni
0.0.1 Avicularia versicolor
0.0.1 Ephebopus cyanognathus
0.0.1 Ephebopus murinus
0.0.1 Grammostola pulchripes
2.2.1 Grammostola rosea
0.1.0 Heteroscodra maculata
0.0.1 Poecilotheria ornata
0.0.1 Psalmopoeus cambridgei
0.0.1 Psalmopoeus irminia
0.1.0 Pterinochilus lugardi
1.1.0 Pterinochilus murinus
0.0.1 Stromatopelma calceatum

Our near future plans including fleshing out our Poecilotheria and Avicularia genera while trying to find the last couple of species for both Psalmopoeus and Ephebopus that are available in the trade over here. Then there's the Brachypelmas which are oddly missing from the party, and well...

Hi Mark, welcome to the BTS!
you've got a great collection mate. my personal favourite genera are Aphonopelma, Psalmopoeus and Ephebopus, with honourable mentions to Grammostola. i wish you luck in getting the other species you're after. E uatuman is beautiful, and rufescens actually blew me away, wasn't expecting the amazing colouration they have. P reduncus is a lovely gold/bronze and pulcher is perhaps one of the prettiest spiders i've seen.
i'm also Canadian though i live in the UK now, so nice to see a countryman with good taste in pets
good luck with the breedings too!

[Mark Waterous]

Hey all,

My name is Mark, and my wife and I have been keeping Ts for just over 3 years now. I'm Canadian, she's American, and we both live in dusty old Nevada, USA right now, so we're a long ways from most of you; I've heard a lot of good about the BTS though and while I don't expect to have much time to do more than lurk, I felt like it was well worth the time to sign up and take a look around.

We're currently in embarking on the next leg of our journey with our 8 legged critters, and have P lugardi eggs in the incubator, two gravid G roseas (though whether we'll get a sac from a rosea is beyond me), a gravid P murinus and an H maculata and A seemanni that should both be mature in the next molt. No favorites in our collection, it's far too hard to pick just one of the many amazing genera out there, so we have a semi decent array of terrestrial, fossorial and arboreal all occupying the same T room. The collection as it currently stands:

0.0.9 Aphonopelma sp. New River
0.1.0 Aphonopelma seemanni
0.0.1 Avicularia versicolor
0.0.1 Ephebopus cyanognathus
0.0.1 Ephebopus murinus
0.0.1 Grammostola pulchripes
2.2.1 Grammostola rosea
0.1.0 Heteroscodra maculata
0.0.1 Poecilotheria ornata
0.0.1 Psalmopoeus cambridgei
0.0.1 Psalmopoeus irminia
0.1.0 Pterinochilus lugardi
1.1.0 Pterinochilus murinus
0.0.1 Stromatopelma calceatum

Our near future plans including fleshing out our Poecilotheria and Avicularia genera while trying to find the last couple of species for both Psalmopoeus and Ephebopus that are available in the trade over here. Then there's the Brachypelmas which are oddly missing from the party, and well...

[Andrew Seywright]

Thanks for the welcome folks, i promise to get some pictures as i transfer them. Will try to get my mum to be designated camera person when i open the packages.

All the best

Andrew

[Carole Dallison]

Welcome to the forum Andrew \O/