Tarantula Stung by Tarantula Hawk Wasp

[Dawn]

Hello everyone! I'm not normally one to intervene in nature but after having two other tarantulas stung by those darn wasps and hauled off, when I saw the third one I just had to intervene. I have been following this thread on another site, where one was successfully rehabilitated:
http://atshq.org/boards/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=11149&sid=dace822f3291768642daaedb16b1742e

And finally yesterday, after a bit over two weeks, she is finally starting to barely move. Barely. She walked a tiny bit on her own last night. BTW, I believe she is an Arizona blond female. I have been turning her over and giving her drops of water with an eye dropper. And I bought some freeze dried meal worms, have crushed them up and added water and tried to feed her but she isn't moving her mouth parts yet and won't take in the food. My question is this (as I know very little about tarantulas): How long can she go without eating? Her abdomen is shriveling and I know this is a sign of starvation/dehydration. I have been giving her drops of water every other day but I did up that starting yesterday because 1) her abdomen is shriveling, 2) she is now sucking in the water where before the drop would just sit there (btw, I have to turn her over to do this) and 3) I have a theory that flushing her system will help it deal with and dispel the wasp venom. But I have to get her to eat, somehow. Given she is not moving her mouth parts yet I'm not sure how to get this done but if anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I'm doing physical therapy with her every night for at least 30 minutes and I believe this is why she is finally starting to move, barely. And I mean barely. I can post a video file of that if anyone is curious. BTW, I really know very little about tarantulas, I'm just an avid nature/animal/creature lover who cares about all life. Thanks!!!

 

[kormath]

Just have to ask, if your really the nature lover you claim why did you interfere with the natural course of life and steal food from the wasp future offspring?

I've read that thread from the ats also. 6 weeks I think it was from sting to being mobile again.

Ts can go months without food. What size is it? Does it have the boxing gloves pedipalps?
Pics are worth a thousand words. Funny how well that old saying really applies here

 

[Dawn]

It took that tarantula 4 weeks from sting to walking. They motivated theirs by putting a live meal worm on it. I'm somewhat doing the same with gentle stimulation and light blowing. But she isn't moving her mouth parts at all yet. She is barely... and I mean barely walking. Does better with assisted walking. I don't know what you mean by "boxing gloves pedipalps" but here is a picture of her I took last night with a q-tip as a reference.

 

[Enn49]

Good luck with her, I really hope she makes it.

 

[Kymura]

Fingers crossed for this baby.

 

[Dawn]

Well, she is starting to motor around!!!!! Last night total distance was probably about six feet. Slow... but she is moving. She can't hold her body up yet and move - she is just dragging herself along the ground. And, to get her going I have to do some physical therapy with her legs and help her to walk with my stick but after that, she moves around for awhile. Trying my best to get the freeze dried meal worms into as much of a liquefied form as possible but can't quite get it all that way. She does suck in what I give her though and the rest of the substrate I clean off her mouth afterward. I was going to create a large area on dirt for her to move in but since she is dragging herself I have decided to wait on that until she can at least walk with her body off the ground. Do you guys agree? Right now I have her walking on a brown sheet that is pretty smooth to make it easier for her. Also, being in Arizona (I'm in Tucson specifically) and our monsoons are slowing down its starting to dry out - concerned about the level of humidity she needs given this is a desert. I do have a swamp cooler here... is that enough humidity in the house or should I put a humidifier in the room?

 

[kormath]

Well, she is starting to motor around!!!!! Last night total distance was probably about six feet. Slow... but she is moving. She can't hold her body up yet and move - she is just dragging herself along the ground. And, to get her going I have to do some physical therapy with her legs and help her to walk with my stick but after that, she moves around for awhile. Trying my best to get the freeze dried meal worms into as much of a liquefied form as possible but can't quite get it all that way. She does suck in what I give her though and the rest of the substrate I clean off her mouth afterward. I was going to create a large area on dirt for her to move in but since she is dragging herself I have decided to wait on that until she can at least walk with her body off the ground. Do you guys agree? Right now I have her walking on a brown sheet that is pretty smooth to make it easier for her. Also, being in Arizona (I'm in Tucson specifically) and our monsoons are slowing down its starting to dry out - concerned about the level of humidity she needs given this is a desert. I do have a swamp cooler here... is that enough humidity in the house or should I put a humidifier in the room?

Water dish is all she needs for humidity, keep it full.

 

[Kymura]

Awesome news pulling for this baby!

 

[Dawn]

Well, it's been a few days so I thought I'd give y'all an update. Everything is pretty much the same except she covers a lot more ground now at night. In about a two hour period she might move between 10-15 feet total. Still can't walk and hold her body weight yet but instead of moving one leg at a time I get 3-4 moving in sequence. There is always this little "stop" between steps but overall improvement. She also went poop again for me so at least I know she is processing the tiny bit of meal worms and water I'm giving her. I'm sure its time for me to try to feed her some live prey, which I'll have to hold with tweezers of course, and see if she reacts to that. Would love to see her try to feed. It is pretty cute now because she kind of helps me pick her up (which I try to only do when necessary). She moves her little legs out of the way. The only thing I'm concerned with now is her being rehabilitated enough to release her with enough time before winter hits. She will have to make a new burrow and I have to know she can physically do that and hunt too and she is far from being able to do that now. Overall though good progress!

 

[Enn49]

It's certainly looking good for her now, well done. You could always keep her as a pet and then you'd always know she was ok.

 

[Dawn]

Well, it was bad enough that I intervened with nature. I typically do NOT do this... it was just the sheer number of tarantulas I witnessed with these tarantula hawks this year - it was unprecedented. I've never seen so many flying around and worse seeing two drug off before her. I had a moment of weakness. She is a wild creature and really want her to have that freedom again. The idea of keeping her in a container after living in the wild is just not something I want to do to her. Its one thing having them kept in captivity from the start but quite another to take her away from that level of autonomy and freedom. At the same time though I certainly won't set her free if she isn't 100%... That wouldn't be right either!

 

[Enn49]

I'll be honest although I agree with not taking them from the wild as a rule, I think in this case I'd be tempted to keep it as it has already been in captivity for a month or more and is still a fair way off a full recovery.

 

[SpiderDad61]

I'm not one with messing with natural selection but if I were to witness this, I'd think of doing the same.
Hope it recovers well

 

[Telson]

I would keep her and breed her. A mature male shouldn't be hard to find. That's what you'll usually see running around, the females tend to stick to their burrows, and a small area around them. I have two female Aphonopelma anax, both bred to a male that I released in my back field. Both have settled in nicely, are eating well, and one looks hugely gravid already, which means she was probably pregnant when I mated her. I also have a petco purchased mature male A avic living out his last year or so in my stables. Saw him last night, after releasing him a few months ago. He's doing well also He was my suspected hybrid avic, as he's much larger than an A avic should be. Whatever I do with mine seems the natural course, to me. We're part of nature too..to think otherwise is called selective rationality So when we see ignorant, frightened humans killing spiders it's, unfortunately, very natural behavior. How very depressing..I vote keep'er. If it is a her.

 

[kormath]

I don't think it should have been saved. Should have let nature run it course.

But now that you've intervened she's your responsibility. While she will probably recover i doubt she'll ever be fully recovered, and then when released would be an easy meal for the next wasp or other predator. Or will die when she molts like the others i've read about.

 

[Kymura]

I don't think it should have been saved. Should have let nature run it course.

But now that you've intervened she's your responsibility. While she will probably recover i doubt she'll ever be fully recovered, and then when released would be an easy meal for the next wasp or other predator. Or will die when she molts like the others i've read about.

Well aren't you a ray of sunshine today

 

[Dawn]

I'm not one with messing with natural selection but if I were to witness this, I'd think of doing the same.
Hope it recovers well

Thanks... it really is tough. I wrestle with this all the time. I live pretty far out of town and see creatures get in trouble a lot... should you intervene? It is actually a very deep topic. I'm have a PhD in conservation psychology and go to these "environmental ethics" meetings with colleagues of mine and this is one topic we revisit a lot as well as in what we are we still a part of nature or not. Sure, we are... but things have certainly gone awry on some level, depending on how its conceived.

 

[Dawn]

I don't think it should have been saved. Should have let nature run it course.

But now that you've intervened she's your responsibility. While she will probably recover i doubt she'll ever be fully recovered, and then when released would be an easy meal for the next wasp or other predator. Or will die when she molts like the others i've read about.

Yes, I am VERY concerned about the molting. She definitely would not survive that now. That is one reason why, if she can begin to eat on her own, I should probably not feed her a lot until she gets more faculties about her. I don't know much about tarantulas (although reading incessantly about them) but I don't think she is full grown yet so molting is an imminent issue, that is for sure.

 

[Dawn]

I would keep her and breed her. A mature male shouldn't be hard to find. That's what you'll usually see running around, the females tend to stick to their burrows, and a small area around them. I have two female Aphonopelma anax, both bred to a male that I released in my back field. Both have settled in nicely, are eating well, and one looks hugely gravid already, which means she was probably pregnant when I mated her. I also have a petco purchased mature male A avic living out his last year or so in my stables. Saw him last night, after releasing him a few months ago. He's doing well also He was my suspected hybrid avic, as he's much larger than an A avic should be. Whatever I do with mine seems the natural course, to me. We're part of nature too..to think otherwise is called selective rationality So when we see ignorant, frightened humans killing spiders it's, unfortunately, very natural behavior. How very depressing..I vote keep'er. If it is a her.

Oh boy.... don't think I have the time to do that! HA HA HA! Would be pretty cool. I have another crazy story.... I had what I thought was one crab spider in my house for the longest time and since I love spiders, and they hunt the bugs in the house without making webs, I just left it. Would see it every night somewhere, on the hunt. Well, apparently there were two in the house and they bred... and I had 108 babies. So what did I do? Over the course of three days, I slowly but surely crawled up in my vaulted ceiling area and/or used my ladder (as they were all hanging out in the corner of the wall and ceiling) and one by one caught them and put them outside. Probably invested about 10 hours into that task and only hurt 1 in the process. 108 was the final count. So, spider babies I love BUT the thought of going that far... I'm not so sure!

 

[kormath]

Well aren't you a ray of sunshine today

actually i'm in a great mood sorry if that post sounded a bit abrupt, i was multitasking at the time.

It's just my take on it, i don't intervene with nature.

I wouldn't go save the momma bunny and her few babies from the coyote that was chasing them the other evening (although i did wish i had my rifle with me to get the coyote pelt), i wouldn't go rescue a T from a Tarantula Hawk Wasp either. it's part of hte circle of life and has a lot more consequences than just saving a T and forcing the wasp to find another to lay it's egg on.