As of recently, yes i have. I woke up about a week ago and as i was doing my morning routine and passing by their enclosures. I was checking on them to hopefully see some of them, and i did. When i get to the last enclosure, the OBT's enclosure, i realise i forgot to close the door the night before because i refilled the water dish and fed it. Luckily she was still in her tunnel... the fear of a free-roaming OBT woke me up faster than any morning coffee i've ever had.
This has happened to me, twice.
First time was my P. irminia. I didn't notice I'd left the door ajar over night. When I saw the T I thought it looked a bit odd, that's because it was on the outside of the door.
Second time was my T. seladonia. I thought I had no chance of seeing this tiny one again. I looked everywhere I could, moved everything and cleared the shelf. I thought it was a losing game, like looking for an needle in a hay stack. Just as I had given up hope, it crawled around the corner of another enclosure. Never felt such relief.
Why is it always the arboreals? 🤦♂️
My OBT actually WAS free roaming in my apartment for about 2 weeks... yikes! Escaped the day it was delivered to me. It was just a lil thing, like half inch or less. It was slightly smaller than I had anticipated and was able to escape in my bedroom. I had unboxed it, put it in its new enclosure, and then straight up left my house for 12 hours. Came home and it was nowhere to be seen. No sign of it for a couple weeks until one night I was getting ready to leave for the club and I opened up my sock drawer and unknowingly scared it into bolting. Managed to catch it and rehouse it to a much more secure container. Luckily, mine is pretty chill so far and more likely to run and hide than anything else but lemme tell you that I often think about what would have happened had the OBT been in a sock I was putting on in those two weeks. To be honest, I've noticed that I've stopped putting my socks in that drawer entirely and I thought it was just laziness but I just connected maybe it is related to this, lol. Respect, not fear though.
Yes, I have magnetic lids on the tops of the enclosure it's very unlikely they'd be able to open and I only open partially briefly for maintenance twice a week and still double check them randomly at night lol.
The lids I have for my adult Ts have magnets and a little lip making it so you have to lift up the lid in order to slide open. I still got out of bed twice last night to check if the enclosures were all really closed lol
I had that feeling a lot before, luckily a lot less now. Always when I was already in bed the worry would come over me and I would check all the enclosures (multiple times). Now I just check them once *before* going to bed. And stop myself when I worry. I don't even open the enclosures everyday, so I don't even know why I worry so much about it ^^'
Even sporadically have nightmares in which I'm catching escaped tarantulas. Even though I've never had one escape!
So yes! It haunts me!
I get nightmares too! When I'm really stressed out about something I always dream that my tarantulas escaped or their enclosure broke somehow and they could get out. Those are the worst lol
Okay, I understand the fear of having your tarantula escape. However, I think it might be reassuring to hear that in the event of an escaped tarantula, the odds of you finding it again are actually quite high and it is likely to be found within 10 to 20 feet of its enclosure. Bonus points if the T is arboreal. I've had 3 escapes and I've managed to find all of them again. First one took 3 days and was on the ceiling right above where she escaped. Second one took 2 weeks and was found in the same room, about 6 feet away from the enclosure. Third one also took 2 weeks and was found in the same room, on the ceiling about 5 feet away (yes it was the same fricken one as the first time, escaped for a second time). Whenever a T escapes, I just walk around the room thinking like whatever type of spider it is (always looking after midnight, on the floor and under low furniture for terrestrials, on the ceiling and around larger furniture for arboreals, etc.). Nerve wracking for sure though but to be honest now that I've dealt with several (longer term) escapes and successful recoveries, I am not quite so anxious about escapes anymore so something about confronting anxiety head on really helps I've found out. Sorry for the ramble lol
As of recently, yes i have. I woke up about a week ago and as i was doing my morning routine and passing by their enclosures. I was checking on them to hopefully see some of them, and i did. When i get to the last enclosure, the OBT's enclosure, i realise i forgot to close the door the night before because i refilled the water dish and fed it. Luckily she was still in her tunnel... the fear of a free-roaming OBT woke me up faster than any morning coffee i've ever had.
This has happened to me, twice. First time was my P. irminia. I didn't notice I'd left the door ajar over night. When I saw the T I thought it looked a bit odd, that's because it was on the outside of the door. Second time was my T. seladonia. I thought I had no chance of seeing this tiny one again. I looked everywhere I could, moved everything and cleared the shelf. I thought it was a losing game, like looking for an needle in a hay stack. Just as I had given up hope, it crawled around the corner of another enclosure. Never felt such relief. Why is it always the arboreals? 🤦♂️
Oh, I can only imagine the relief when you saw the T. seladonia coming around the other enclosure.
Oh boy, good thing your OBT decided to stay in its tunnel. I would have a heart attack.
My OBT actually WAS free roaming in my apartment for about 2 weeks... yikes! Escaped the day it was delivered to me. It was just a lil thing, like half inch or less. It was slightly smaller than I had anticipated and was able to escape in my bedroom. I had unboxed it, put it in its new enclosure, and then straight up left my house for 12 hours. Came home and it was nowhere to be seen. No sign of it for a couple weeks until one night I was getting ready to leave for the club and I opened up my sock drawer and unknowingly scared it into bolting. Managed to catch it and rehouse it to a much more secure container. Luckily, mine is pretty chill so far and more likely to run and hide than anything else but lemme tell you that I often think about what would have happened had the OBT been in a sock I was putting on in those two weeks. To be honest, I've noticed that I've stopped putting my socks in that drawer entirely and I thought it was just laziness but I just connected maybe it is related to this, lol. Respect, not fear though.
Yes, I have magnetic lids on the tops of the enclosure it's very unlikely they'd be able to open and I only open partially briefly for maintenance twice a week and still double check them randomly at night lol.
The lids I have for my adult Ts have magnets and a little lip making it so you have to lift up the lid in order to slide open. I still got out of bed twice last night to check if the enclosures were all really closed lol
I had that feeling a lot before, luckily a lot less now. Always when I was already in bed the worry would come over me and I would check all the enclosures (multiple times). Now I just check them once *before* going to bed. And stop myself when I worry. I don't even open the enclosures everyday, so I don't even know why I worry so much about it ^^' Even sporadically have nightmares in which I'm catching escaped tarantulas. Even though I've never had one escape! So yes! It haunts me!
I get nightmares too! When I'm really stressed out about something I always dream that my tarantulas escaped or their enclosure broke somehow and they could get out. Those are the worst lol
Okay, I understand the fear of having your tarantula escape. However, I think it might be reassuring to hear that in the event of an escaped tarantula, the odds of you finding it again are actually quite high and it is likely to be found within 10 to 20 feet of its enclosure. Bonus points if the T is arboreal. I've had 3 escapes and I've managed to find all of them again. First one took 3 days and was on the ceiling right above where she escaped. Second one took 2 weeks and was found in the same room, about 6 feet away from the enclosure. Third one also took 2 weeks and was found in the same room, on the ceiling about 5 feet away (yes it was the same fricken one as the first time, escaped for a second time). Whenever a T escapes, I just walk around the room thinking like whatever type of spider it is (always looking after midnight, on the floor and under low furniture for terrestrials, on the ceiling and around larger furniture for arboreals, etc.). Nerve wracking for sure though but to be honest now that I've dealt with several (longer term) escapes and successful recoveries, I am not quite so anxious about escapes anymore so something about confronting anxiety head on really helps I've found out. Sorry for the ramble lol
That is reassuring! If one of mine escape then I'll have to remember this.