Do you own a tarantula??

[Talking Hands]

When younger my best friend 5 door up the street had 1 + a scorpion +rat snake all in his room ( gifts from his older brother ).This was a rowhouse in the middle of baltimore city.

Now his brother put himself through college by going and capturing all kinds for research and zoos.He had blackwidows,alligator (behind the washer/dryer)pythons,boa copperheads .One day we were playing in the basement he called and asked us to clean a tank he would need as soon as he got home .As we waited he dumped his bag and it was a king cobra .

He is now the currator for the Nat.Aqu.in baltimore taking care of all none aquatic animals (Austian and rainforest).

Interesting. My daughter had a classmate like this and he now works at Metrozoo in Miami. His dream job.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

Oh God NO!!! I am terrified, repeat TERRIFIED of those things! Once I saw one in the middle of a dirt road I was driving on, and I stopped. I couldn't even drive over it because I didn't want to take the chance that it would somehow find it's way into my car. I waited until it crossed the road before I could move. I can hardly even look at pictures of them.

 

[AnaheimGirl]

What an adorable little guy! (The kid, not the tarantula, although he's kind of cute, too.)

We have a similar picture of my dd at age 6, and of me from just a couple of months ago. We don't own one, though and never would. I used to lie awake at night worrying that dd's gerbil would get out of the cage and crawl onto my face -- can you imagine how freaked I'd be with a tarantula in the house?!

 

[stevenpensacola]

A bunch of years ago, I was sitting in the den watching tv when something kept catching my eye off to the side. I'd look, did not see anything....then there it was again...still did not see anything.

So I got up and turned on some more lights, and THEN I saw IT .
There was a big spider making his way across the carpet (by big, I don't mean tarantula big, but big as normal spiders go...maybe 1.5" long).

Since I had my shoes on (thick ones mind you) I eased up on old spidey and just "popped" him with my shoe-clad foot. I did not mash him, just popped him.

Well, when I did, it was like spidey exploded. The spiders back was covered with little baby spiders who took off at record speed for all points of the compass. . I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a can of RAID, and proceeded to fumigate the whole room....I think I got them all, but my skin still crawls thinking about....and I don't even live in that old apartment anymore.

 

[KimR]

ACK! Why, oh, why did I even open this thread???!! I am terrified of spiders - all spiders and there is no way I would have a tarantula in the house. A snake - maybe, but a tarantula? Nope, no way. Now, 2 of my DDs have leopard geckos and I have to admit, those things are cute! But that is about as 'exotic' as we get around here when it comes to pets.

 

[kbkids]

A bunch of years ago, I was sitting in the den watching tv when something kept catching my eye off to the side. I'd look, did not see anything....then there it was again...still did not see anything.

So I got up and turned on some more lights, and THEN I saw IT .
There was a big spider making his way across the carpet (by big, I don't mean tarantula big, but big as normal spiders go...maybe 1.5" long).

Since I had my shoes on (thick ones mind you) I eased up on old spidey and just "popped" him with my shoe-clad foot. I did not mash him, just popped him.

Well, when I did, it was like spidey exploded. The spiders back was covered with little baby spiders who took off at record speed for all points of the compass. . I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a can of RAID, and proceeded to fumigate the whole room....I think I got them all, but my skin still crawls thinking about....and I don't even live in that old apartment anymore.

Wolf Spider - but ICK!!! I would have moved immediately - no packing - just up and left!!!

At our old house - get that, we moved!! - we used to get house spiders the size of tarantulas - no kidding. The first one my DH saw on the porch a week after we moved in the house. He sprayed and killed it and then called the exterminator. He looked at it and said, "Yes, a house spider." I'm not kidding you - it looked like the spider in the picture above - it was huge!! We would see them outside all of the time - but never in the house. I always swore if I ever found one of those things in my house that I would be gone. A couple of years later, DD wakes me up one morning - very calmly, "Mom, there's a spider in the living room." "Um, okay, I'll get it in a minute." Now we did get those teeny, tiny, barely can see spiders in the house, and that didn't bother me, but figured that's what she meant. She comes back a second time, "Mom, I want to watch TV. Please come kill the spider." She's definitely related to me - won't set foot in a room with a bug in it. I get out of bed and walk to the living room - yes, one of those monsters was sitting in the middle of the room. I screamed, thank God that DH was home that morning (a rare thing in the morning because he's usually at work), and he comes running. He killed it - but had he not been home, he would have found us on the fronch porch waiting for him when he got home. He figured out that he had come in during the day while we had the back door open during a birthday party we had just had. Sounded feasible to me too, but maybe a coincidence, maybe not, but that house was on the market about six months later. We really did move for other reasons, but I really don't miss the spiders!! This house - ants! Now, they are driving me nuts!! Isn't Florida wonderful??