JPG: Stories: Photo Essay: Molting of a Tarantula

Molting of a Tarantula

By Lisa Schwendemann Smith

3 Aug 2008

When I was much younger I had a pet Mexican red-knee tarantula. I can tell you that I never thought I would be the owner of another tarantula. Last Christmas my co-workers thought it would be cool/funny to buy me a new tarantula. Well I have to say my husband was not very excited with our new pet, he hates spiders. My son, 6, would say, "it freaks me out" but my daughter, 9, thought it was cool. After describing to my kids how tarantulas eat the name that we decided on was Dracula. Dracula is very happy at our house and our cat loves to watch him eat. His house is a large glass aquarium, which is in our living room. The main picture posted is of Dracula sitting on top of his water bowl. This image was taken at the beginning of the year.

Saturday morning, July 26, 2008 started off as any normal Saturday. Dad was at work and I was home with the kids. The three of us were getting ready to head to the softball field for my daughter's practice. My son noted that Dracula was walking around his tank. We were gone from the house for a few hours and after lunch I noticed that Dracula was on his back. My kids got upset thinking that he was dead. From having a tarantula in the past I knew this meant that he was starting the molting process.

My daughter and I were very interested in watching the process. My past spider always seemed to do this while I was out of the house and I do not remember seeing this process from beginning to end. Dracula stayed in this upside down position for hours. My daughter noted that his legs would move a little and she also saw his fangs move from time to time. Tarantula's shed everything including their fangs. Note that the fangs are black in the picture when he is on his back. When he sheds the fangs they come out white at first. The fangs will get dark again as his new skin dries and hardens. After lying in that one position for such a long time we finally noticed that he started the removal process. He slowly, very slowly, started to separate from his old skin. He would move a little then, it seemed like, he would take a break. According to what I have read this is a very stressful process for the tarantula. It took hours for him to completely remove his old skin.

I just had to document the process. It was very interesting to watch. Since the tank is large it was hard to get just the right angle but I think I captured the important moments. Some people might think this is too creepy to look at, sorry if I am making anyone's skin crawl.

Now we have his old skin in a jar. Dracula was very neat to fold it up for us. The kids are already arguing over who can take it to school for show and tell first.

Enjoy the process.

Lisa