I was just advised that your local petsmart sells coco coir. I just checked and i can get 3 bricks for 7.95. Good deal.

Nice.  I think my coco coir is still in NJ so I may grab some.  I like trying all the methods.  They all seem to work but it is fun to see how they are different.

Trick to coir is only hydrate it enough to fluff it up and dont add more water while in bags or closed containers. Or they
will rot. I use a additive to water used to hydrate because coir has no value. No mold with coir good luck.

What species of tarantula do have Brett?

It's a brachypelma smithi, better known as the mexican red knee.  She's a beauty.  Used to have a couple others, but they've died over the years.  The one I have now is ~5.5 years old, and not yet fully grown :)

Show us a pic if you can.

What do you feed her?

OMG!  Seriously JD killed one in our Garage by the sink last summer.  I now look both ways when I go out there............  No need to post pics!!  YIKES!

Suzi

Suzi buy one i heard they eat fungus knats! !!

This is Dozer (yes Dozer is a girl...you can't sex them when they're little, and she was only 3/4" when I got her).  Dozer, as luck would have it, needs many of the same things figs need.  Sphagnum moss, coconut coir, controlled moisture, etc.  She's about 5.5 years old, and is about 5" across.  She got her name because when she was little, she had a habit of just rolling everything up in the cage and moving stuff around...making it all feng shui and what not.  Dozer eats crickets, but if I could train her to eat root gnats, that'd be awesome!  Alas, I don't think they're very trainable.

 

I would be a little wary of coco coir that comes from a pet store.  My memory is foggy on this but from what I remember hearing coir used for pets may contain salts that need to be washed out if you are going to use it for plants.  I buy mine from a hydroponics store.

Can you hold her? Looks cool i want one. But first can they bite?? And do you hold her and have you ever been bitten. How big can they get. Awsome love it!!

Rewton. The coir i bought for plants from ebay did say low salt. So you may have a goodpoint.

She is a bit feisty.  Normally, this species is considered docile, and this time of year (when we keep our house in 60's) she's pretty tame.  In the summer though, she get's ornery, and tries to bite anything that moves.  I think she thinks everything is food.  New world (read: from N/S Americas) tarantulas can also flick little hairs at you that can be pretty irritating, and she is DEFINITELY a flicker, so I've never tried to hold her.  I have held some in the past though...one of which you could just pick up like you would a rock or something.

I've also never been bitten...fortunately.  Most of the "new world" species would rather flick hairs than bite.  I have had a couple try though, including this little monster :-D.

Brett - I was just scanning FOXnews and coincidentally saw this article:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/24/police-probe-theft-pet-tarantulas-taken-as-hibernated-under-georgia-house/?intcmp=latestnews

The article states that a guy had his tarantulas in tanks under his house for hibernation (and some were stolen). Do you need to do that?

Hey you can come over here and get all you want for free!  Ours are big, black and fuzzy.  None of that orange stuff.  All our neighbors have encounters.  None of us are big fans.  Everyone has someone that plays practical jokes in their lives, but one of our neighbor's, the best friends of ours of course, is a joker!  You never know what he's gonna say.  He has a fake motion activated tarantula in his garage AND a motion activated Rattlesnake.  Both of those creatures live up here, so he's scared a lot of neighbors with his "buddies."

Suzi

Suzi you have real trachulias or just big spiders?

Brett, can you buy your crickets at the bait and tackle shop.  They sell them.  Probably less expensive also.   Crickets are easy to raise.   aquarium with screen on top and some idaho potatoes to eat.  Cricket poo great for flowers also.  Hmm figs?  Bass love crickets and so do crappie.   Joyce

I would imagine one tarantula does not eat to many crickets, but here is info on raising them, and you could sell off the extras to pet stores or other people needing them or a bait shop.
http://www.wikihow.com/Raise-Your-Own-Crickets

Richard, REAL Tarantulas!  REAL!  BIG!  They say they are harmless.  Ha!  Like I want to find out?  No way!  Every single neighbor has encountered one or two in their garage at one time or another. 

I've never seen one, but I do know they live in these hills.  We also have big rattlesnakes, black widows and some poisonous brown recluse thing.  You know the band Slayer?  Their late lead guitarist lived on our street.  He died from a bite from that spider.

Suzi

Really. We have brown recluse. But no rattle snakes or giant teranchulias. We have pesky allagators and cotton mouths. But the worst thing is mosquitos. lol

kill every brown recluse you see.  Their bite kills the skin and makes a huge sore that requires medical attention.   My mother in law got a bite and what an ordeal it was healing it.

Yes a good friend was bitten and put in hospital. ... a nurse cam into room to take a sample of wound to test it. She had a pair of tweezers and a huge chunk of dead skin etc came out. Louisiana is full of this spider. We can go outside and find them right away.