Spider in the bird cage

[buurd]

I just found a regular beige house spider sitting fat and sassy in the corner of my bird cage. The thing was, it was only about 6 or 7 inches from my Bourke's parakeet, who was just hanging out on a perch. The spider was in his line of sight, nearly at eye level.

So why did he just leave it be?

I thought birds would chase out a bug form their home? Even eat it, maybe?
Can a they give him parasites or sickness? Can a spider bite him? And what would happen if it did? How would i know? Would it raise a bump under his feathers?

Im afraid of spiders, and my parakeets are so small; smaller even than budgies. I clean their cage every day. Im at it multiple times a day. changing paper, food, water, giving them foods, setting up foraging games for them. That spider was hanging out in a corner over their food dish; not even by the water. This type of common spider is a hunter who moves around; not a fancy web spinner kind. But I do live by a lake, and we get ALL kinds that show up every once n a while. A huge wolf spider crawled across the bedroom floor the other night. Those things scare the !@#&! out of me. And yes; I know these eat other insects, but that does no one with arachnophobia any good. It's not like it's a rational response I have when I see them. It's like it's a neurological one.

 

[ChristaNL]

... and that is how I ended up with some huge birdeatingspiders -> I found the whole spiderfamily not completely terror-inspiring but still a wee bit creepy. So along the lines of "familiarity breeds contempt" I decided to get a little one (spiderling aka 'sling') and just watch it grow, and live its spiderlife....
Nothing changed much: I always was okay with the small-small ones, and I find I am very comfortable around one that has the body the size of a hamster and legs longer than my fingers (yes it's the size of a bucketbottom/ spans a dinnerplate when stretched out) .
Yet the mediumsized ones ...still creep me out!
(those fat hairy housespiders that sprint across the floor when you do not expect them)

So much for that experiment !:39:


Spiders do not bite without reason/ being provoked, so I think your bird will be fine.
But if you feel concerned ... just chuck it outside.
Spiders have mites , but I do not think they are the same types that will live on birds (actually never looked into that/ since mites are pretty much everywhere).

 

[buurd]

That is nightmare fodder for me. Id rather face down a serial killer. I am not joking.

I tried to desensitize myself to the house spider kind. I used a jar to get them, when found in the house. I gave them some water and watched them; the jar, etc. They were the regular size kind. Not huge. I released them outside the next day.

And while I felt good that I didnt have to kill it, it didnt really work on my fear of them, outside of a jar.

It's not a big deal if, for eg, I see an average sized one outside, crawling down the block. I dont really care much. But seeing one in the house bothers me. It triggers a danger warning in the most primitive part of my brain. Nothing else in nature moves the way they do. And it leaves a lingering imprint on my brain for a while after I see one. Tiny ones dont bother me much.
Also I have a problem with insects that will move toward you when threatened, and not run away; and spiders will do that.

 

[buurd]

Before anyone gets any smart ideas:


*****PLEASE DO NOT POST PICS OF SPIDERS IN THIS THREAD.*****



Thank you for respecting the arachnophobics

 

[buurd]

Little known fact:

My profile pic is also afraid of spiders. He's running away from one, in that pic.

 

[ChristaNL]

Hahahahaha, and I was thinking he was going for that wonderfull appelpie someone is about to bake.


Uhuh- I *so* get what you are talking about.
If the spiders sit still it's fine - just dont run or rear plze...

(I have 3 atm, one has been celebrating her 26th birthday ... of course she is a rehomer that was given to me "You like tropical fish - you like animals? You like this one too, yes? ")

Well done on the jar-thingy. It is great you are facing your fears and save lives as well!
Somedays I just go for the stomp-and-grind, some days I will be kinder.

 

[buurd]

(I have 3 atm, one has been celebrating her 26th birthday ... of course she is a rehomer that was given to me "You like tropical fish - you like animals? You like this one too, yes? ")

Wait a min; you have a man-eating spider -and it's 26 years old??

 

[EllenD]

Yeah Christa, I don't know wth you are talking about, but I am having a panic attack just reading your posts...WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY?

That whole "Primitive Brain" thing that was mentioned when it comes to spiders and insects, yeah, that's me. I don't know why, it's always been that way, and I've accepted it because I'm now 38 and I highly doubt it's going away any time soon. I don't like ants. Ants. So you can imagine what happens when I see a spider or a larger insect. And they can be the entire way across the room, doesn't matter, my brain turns on the alerts, I start shaking and my heart jumps up in my throat, and I can run faster than LoLo Jones...I once hurdled the front counter of the dealership when I was sitting behind it in a chair, with someone else sitting beside me and blocking the only exit from behind it, and one of those Silverfish things came running across the floor. I literally stood-up and somehow jumped about 5 feet in the air from a standing position, no head start, and over the counter. My brain did that, not me.

If you want to have a good laugh, be inside the house with me when either a spider or an insect appears...I will walk outside and not come back in until someone brings the dead insect/spider out and shows it to me...and god help everyone if it gets away in the house, I once stayed awake all night from 9:00 p.m. until I finally passed out around 7:00 a.m. because I lost a millipede while swinging at it with a mop.

 

[buurd]

Yeah Christa, I don't know wth you are talking about, but I am having a panic attack just reading your posts...WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY?

That whole "Primitive Brain" thing that was mentioned when it comes to spiders and insects, yeah, that's me. I don't know why, it's always been that way, and I've accepted it because I'm now 38 and I highly doubt it's going away any time soon. I don't like ants. Ants. So you can imagine what happens when I see a spider or a larger insect. And they can be the entire way across the room, doesn't matter, my brain turns on the alerts, I start shaking and my heart jumps up in my throat, and I can run faster than LoLo Jones...I once hurdled the front counter of the dealership when I was sitting behind it in a chair, with someone else sitting beside me and blocking the only exit from behind it, and one of those Silverfish things came running across the floor. I literally stood-up and somehow jumped about 5 feet in the air from a standing position, no head start, and over the counter. My brain did that, not me.

If you want to have a good laugh, be inside the house with me when either a spider or an insect appears...I will walk outside and not come back in until someone brings the dead insect/spider out and shows it to me...and god help everyone if it gets away in the house, I once stayed awake all night from 9:00 p.m. until I finally passed out around 7:00 a.m. because I lost a millipede while swinging at it with a mop.

I like to think we have highly sensitized survival reactions, and that we're just more highly evolved people :56::35:

I have done exactly what you have, too many times to note; even stuffing the cracks in the door to my room, if I lost it outside of there.

One time I muffed catching a regular sized house spider with my shoe and stayed up until, exhausted, I gave up. Turned out the lights, turned my phone on for a little reading before bed. After about 15 mins, I was still too wired to sleep. I aimed the phone to the ceiling, and that !@#&! spider was sitting right there. It had been basking in the light of my cell phone, directly over my head, as I read.

I live by water. The millipedes are lobster sized. Ok; more like crayfish sized; but in my mind, LOBSTER. I saw one crawl across my living room floor back a few months ago. Right down the middle of the floor, casual as it could be. Those damn things like to run across your ceiling, and then just let go, and fall on you.

I honestly think I would be ok living in a hermetically sealed box (with some insect proof windows).

Back to that wolf spider: (spider lovers, do not read further) I nailed it with my shoe. It didnt splatter, it collapsed. I hate the effers but I still feel somewhat bad about killing them. Still, Im not taking a chance; and Im NOT sharing my home.

Not gonna lie, people; Im kinda bummed the birbs seem to be more of a bug magnet, than a bug dispatcher. I thought killing bugs was fun for birbs :34:

Edited to say: I have Bourke's! These birds are from Australia! AUSTRALIA! Land of 10,000 things that will kill you.

I should have adopted a cassowary

 

[ChristaNL]

Wait a min; you have a man-eating spider -and it's 26 years old??

Well, her name is Hariet and she is not really a bird-eating spider, she is a grammostola rosea - so a bit smaller.
(the other two are the big ones; theraphosa spec. one blondi, one stirmi, - both are boys: Ukkie (= small one, in dutch) and MacFluffy. Boys don't live as long, they will propably only live till 6 or 7 years old.)
The species is also know as "pet rock" - they are *the* most boring creatures on earth (under water its sea-cucumbers of course). She can really sit still for weeks and then move an entire inch or so.
The only time she moves 'a lot' is when it is about to really come pouring down or a good thunderstorm -> she wil either walk (not run!) to a wall of the enclosure or hide under a piece of bark.


Yes- I am weird, I love critters (most of them) - the one thing that really truelly freaks me out: centipedes.
Viscious hunters and with toxins we have no understanding of or antidotes against.
(millipedes are fine)
I even get it when people want a scorpion for a pet, but a centipede... brrrrrr, no way!
(yes, great colours and yes interesting the way the move etc.etc. / but NO! Not here --

I had an infestation of the common gardenvariety centipede here and it killed all my tropical frogs ... either by eating all their food, stressing them out or even excreting chemicals around/ on them...)
Yes I kept giant millipedes years ago- they are fun

 

[buurd]

Christa, I need to know that the NL stands for NOT LOCATED near me.

What do you feed the big ones? And how old is Hariet going to get?



Edit: I do really love most animals, too. Snakes, lizards, rodents dont bother me. Some (solo) insects are fine. Crickets, grasshoppers, mayflies, butterflies, slugs, snails, caterpillers, mantids, worms, etc.

Even those fat hairy tarantulas (behind glass only) sometimes dont bother me, so much. I think it's because they dont move fast.
But the size of those tropical ones you have, are really nightmare fodder. It doesnt matter that they dont hardly move. My brain stem has other ideas.

 

[ChristaNL]

NL = Netherlands, so no worries you are miles and miles and tons and tons of saltwater away
(and all the spiders are in their own glass enclosures anyway)


Nobody knows how old Hariets species is going to get - the consensus was 20 ..well that proved to be a bust.... now they have moved it to 40 with the option of 60.
Keeping/ breeding spiders as pets is not really that long a tradition, so nobody knows for sure.


Are you sure you want the next question answered?


(I have a box with Dubia's - they live and breed there/ it's more of less escapeproof because they do not fly -only the males have wings, but they wont leave the females- and do not survive very well outside it, but wel... they are a type of cockroach/ sorry)
Take deep breaths and remember there is a complete ocean between us...


Fun fact about Hariet:
she hates the outside world.
One evening I had given her a fresh bowl/cup of water and forgot to close the sliding door-
so the next morning I was in for a surprise:
She had webbed the opening shut!
*mind the gap*


I hardly see the large hairy ones because they have dug their own mancave.
So once in a while one will be sitting outside (complaining the wifi is down or something like that)
but most of the time it's like no-one is even there.


they are the anti-parrot: do not want interaction, do not need anything (forget about them for a week or so: no problem)
Hariet eats 4 or 5 times a year!
though she is the most sociable one: if I have guests with low voices she will come to the front of the enclosure to investigate otherwise she cant be bothered.
(must be something with low rumble and thunderstorms?)


Like some parrots they go completely bananaas when you clean and change the layout of their cage/ terrarium.
The only time they will walk around and around - till they are reaquainted and then disappear again...

 

[LordTriggs]

gah, I never understood keeping spiders/insects as pets. I know my fear came from trauma and not the atypical fear. Keeping a long story short being 6 years old and swarmed head to toe by a soldier ant nest is a good way to have some very deep seated fears!

 

[Jottlebot]

Oh good God people! Stop it! I'm not scared of spiders or creepy crawlies, although I won't pick them up by hand I'm not a LUNATIC!

I am very much enjoying (and sympathising of course!) this thread as I sit and can't control my laughter as I sit and wait for a Dr's appointment and read about EllenD leaping about at work!

 

[buurd]

NL = Netherlands, so no worries you are miles and miles and tons and tons of saltwater away
(and all the spiders are in their own glass enclosures anyway)


Nobody knows how old Hariets species is going to get - the consensus was 20 ..well that proved to be a bust.... now they have moved it to 40 with the option of 60.
Keeping/ breeding spiders as pets is not really that long a tradition, so nobody knows for sure.


Are you sure you want the next question answered?


(I have a box with Dubia's - they live and breed there/ it's more of less escapeproof because they do not fly -only the males have wings, but they wont leave the females- and do not survive very well outside it, but wel... they are a type of cockroach/ sorry)
Take deep breaths and remember there is a complete ocean between us...


Fun fact about Hariet:
she hates the outside world.
One evening I had given her a fresh bowl/cup of water and forgot to close the sliding door-
so the next morning I was in for a surprise:
She had webbed the opening shut!
*mind the gap*


I hardly see the large hairy ones because they have dug their own mancave.
So once in a while one will be sitting outside (complaining the wifi is down or something like that)
but most of the time it's like no-one is even there.


they are the anti-parrot: do not want interaction, do not need anything (forget about them for a week or so: no problem)
Hariet eats 4 or 5 times a year!
though she is the most sociable one: if I have guests with low voices she will come to the front of the enclosure to investigate otherwise she cant be bothered.
(must be something with low rumble and thunderstorms?)


Like some parrots they go completely bananaas when you clean and change the layout of their cage/ terrarium.
The only time they will walk around and around - till they are reaquainted and then disappear again...

Good God --you BREED them!?!?

A spider that lives past 60... Jesus, Im ready; take me on your spaceship now.

I think you better warn your dates before you bring them home. Who's to say Hariet's not fond of men, and that's why she responds to their voices? I mean, so little is known about them.

they are the anti-parrot

I thought this was going to be followed with you saying that they ate parrots

 

[EllenD]

Christa, I need to know that the NL stands for NOT LOCATED near me.

What do you feed the big ones? And how old is Hariet going to get?



Edit: I do really love most animals, too. Snakes, lizards, rodents dont bother me. Some (solo) insects are fine. Crickets, grasshoppers, mayflies, butterflies, slugs, snails, caterpillers, mantids, worms, etc.

Even those fat hairy tarantulas (behind glass only) sometimes dont bother me, so much. I think it's because they dont move fast.
But the size of those tropical ones you have, are really nightmare fodder. It doesnt matter that they dont hardly move. My brain stem has other ideas.

I spit coffee all over my laptop while reading this, and now that I think about it, where do you live Christa?

Okay, so I'm sorry, but anyone who actually takes real money and PAYS for a "pet" insect, like one of those millipedes that see in the tanks at the pet shops and at first you think it's a snake, and then you get closer and see it's 50 trillion legs (and if you're me you vomit in your mouth, sweat, and run out of the store), well, you're all freaking insane, and you need to be on medication. And if you're already on medication, you need more. No "fuzzy" tarantulas, no scorpions, none of that. These are not pets, these are night-terrors.

I love snakes, lizards, frogs, turtles, you name it...But ask me how long it took me to finally break-down and buy a baby Bearded Dragon, knowing that I had to feed her live insects (the answer is 36 years)...And I only feed her Black Soldier Fly Larva, which are just wax worms basically, and those I can feed her with tweezers..Nope, can't touch them either. I tried Superworms, but they are actually one of the most disgustingly awful insects out there, like centipedes with hard shells. At one time I had 1,000 size large Superworms in a bin in my garage...moved it to my shed, then moved it right on out to someone else's house for $30 on Craigslist, I couldn't sleep at night knowing that they were next to my house. And watching Iggy eat them, well, screw that...So we came to an agreement that she could have as many BSFL as she wants, and i don't have to buy any crickets, superworms, etc. for her ever again. She hates me, but I think she understands my phobia, it's that bad that my Beardie understands it.

This post is making me jittery and uncomfortable...and itchy.

 

[buurd]

gah, I never understood keeping spiders/insects as pets. I know my fear came from trauma and not the atypical fear. Keeping a long story short being 6 years old and swarmed head to toe by a soldier ant nest is a good way to have some very deep seated fears!

What a horror story

I had some fantasy that my birbs would protect me from insects. Now I hear that they're bad for birbs to eat.

 

[buurd]

Oh good God people! Stop it! I'm not scared of spiders or creepy crawlies, although I won't pick them up by hand I'm not a LUNATIC!

I am very much enjoying (and sympathising of course!) this thread as I sit and can't control my laughter as I sit and wait for a Dr's appointment and read about EllenD leaping about at work!

I have a battery powered electric racket that I use to kill flies. One time I was running around in the buff chasing after a fly for so long, I forgot to notice it had turned dark outside. And my blinds were still up.

 

[ChristaNL]

Hahahaha, NO I do not breed large spiders-
they are 3 different species and the boys will be moving out if someone decides to want to breed them.
spiderbabies: It is a LOT of work- they are canibals mostly, so all the babies should be apart from each other, fed, watered, right temperature, bla bla bla.

It was a fun ride, I learned a lot, but I am not really a spider-person and they take up a lot of room the parrots could use...


and about the parrot-eating: they would not know where to start on a bird.

The only reason they got that name is because one was 'busted' carrying a naked-baby-bird (hummingbird) to its burrow. No one knows if the spider found it on the floor, fallen out of the nest, if the spider found the nest and robbed it or even (not uncommon in those days) if the 'discovery' was actually a set-up.

 

[ChristaNL]

I have a battery powered electric racket that I use to kill flies. One time I was running around in the buff chasing after a fly for so long, I forgot to notice it had turned dark outside. And my blinds were still up.

are you sure we are not related?