Mites are mostly attracted by dead prey so you need to make sure your enclosures are clean and there's no dead prey. Mites are often found in the mouth parts or lungs (making it hard to breathe).
When your tarantula suffers from mites, you can do the following things:
1. Take your tarantula out of it's enclosure, put it in a plastic cup in the meanwhile and clean the entire enclosure. After you cleaned it, make sure the humidity stays low. Mites dislike dry area's.
2. The easiest method of getting rid of the 'bad mites' (blood mites) is to destroy them using 'good mites' (Refona). This method is not stressful for your tarantula. You can also use the 'good mites' to prevent getting bad mites.
3. This is a stressful (for yourself and for the tarantula) method, I would prefer not trying this one myself. Use a Q-tip with vaseline or salad oil to remove the mites (never use the Q-tip near the lungs!).
I got nice experiences with the 'good mites', it costs some money but it really works.
Diseases
Mites
Dyskinetic Syndrome (DS)
Bad Molts
Mold
Damages
There is not much to tell about this disease, but one thing is sure: it's most likely that your tarantula will die when suffering this disease. Symptoms that show up are spasms, falling down, not being able to eat and/or walk.The possible cause of this disease can be chemicals and mold, but can also be caused by stress.
The only way that might save your tarantula is putting it in quarantaine, in a room with high humidity (a bathroom for example).
A bad molt can be caused by an enclosure that's too dry.
When a tarantula suffers from a bad molt, you can try to remove the old pieces of skin with a moist Q-tip and a pair of tweezers. If this doesn't work, you can remove the tarantula's limb by pulling it off. These methods are stressful for your tarantula but it might be the only way to save it.
If both of these methods fail to work and the tarantula is not able to eat anymore (not even by hand-feeding it), it's best to put it in the freezer to prevent a painful death.
Especially tarantula's that live in dry areas are sensitive against mold. Mold usually shows as white spots around the segments and the place where legs attach to the carapace. A damaging of the body can lead to internal mold. When your tarantula suffers from internal mold, it's sure the tarantula will die. Mostly the internal mold shows when it found a way outside (also when it's too late...)
When your tarantula suffers from external mold, the following methods can help you to get rid of it:
1. Place the tarantula in a dryer environment.
2. Use a pencil/Q-tip soaked in 70% alcohol until the mold is gone.
3. Use a pencil/Q-tip soaked in Flagellex in water (1:10) until the mold is gone.
4. Use a pencil/Q-tip soaked in Imaverol in water (1:49), repeat after 12 days.
Most tarantula's look strong and robust. Appearances are deceptive. In fact, they are very delicate animals. They are sensitive against sharp or hard objects in their environment which they can hurt themselves on. A wrong move during a molt, entrapment, catching or transport can mean that a tarantula loses (a part of) its leg. In some cases a tarantula can push off one of its legs to escape enemies. Mostly the wound will close in a couple of hours. The joints are build to close wounds as soon as possible. However, when there's a wound further away from the joint, it can't stop the bleeding and the tarantula will most likely die.
When this happens with your tarantula, make sure you pull off the leg part until it reaches the joint. This is not a nice method but it can save your tarantula. You can do this with either a tweezers (pull off the limb horizontally and don't let go before it's done) or a thread (make a loop around the limb and pull hard). The last method of stopping the bleeding is using a drip of silicone kit or cigarette ashes. If these methods failed, you can spare the tarantula a painful death by placing it in the freezer.
Whenever a tarantula is damaged, it will simply molt to recover its wounds. Did your tarantula lose a leg or fang? Don't worry, it will grow back in one or two molts!
As you can see in the photo, Venturina (P. murinus) misses his 2 pedipalps. These will grow back after he molted.
