# trantula question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 14, 2000, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102 "2000-11-14T02:32:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@popokis5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/popokis5)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/1 "2000-11-14T02:32:09Z")
I have tried All the Web, Lycos, Ask Jeeves, etc., even dogpile, and cannot find anything on trantulas. Does anyone have one? My biggest question is how long do trantulas live? I (am not making this up) have one that I have had for at LEAST ten years. I always assumed they died within 4-5 years so I never kept track. But I know for Sure that I brought her(?) with me when I moved in '92. And I had her for a least 2 years before that. She seems pretty darn healthy to me…
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/2 "2000-11-14T02:38:54Z")
Tarantulas live much longer than most spiders, and females live longer than males. The record is almost 30 years. They have been known to live more than 6 months without water, and more 2 years without food. I don’t know what the average lifespan is, though.
sources: Ecyclopedia Americana, Guiness Book
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/3 "2000-11-14T04:12:04Z")
Oh, well, this is no more than a supporting vote for bibliophage. Sod it, if I looked it up, you HAVE to read it. 🙂
The most common North American tarantula is
Eurypelma californicum, found in California, Texas,
and Arizona. A 30-year life span has been recorded
for one individual of this species. (Encyclopaedia Britannica Online)
Still, it sounds though that is considered unusual, and yours might be a different type.
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/4 "2000-11-14T04:28:17Z")
I’m no fan of tarantulas but I want to see if I can make a link that works!
[http://www.arachnophiliac.com/burrow/lists.htm#FAQ](http://www.arachnophiliac.com/burrow/lists.htm#FAQ)
Apparently, you can join message boards and chat about the delights of tarantulas. Tarantula home page, indeed! Have fun.
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/5 "2000-11-14T14:45:16Z")
Just to make sure you notice, I imagine that your web searches will be much more successful with a correct spelling of “Tarantula”, with 3 A’s.
Good luck.
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### Author:  [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/6 "2000-11-14T16:22:26Z")
Try this [site](http://www.ufsia.ac.be/Arachnology/Arachnology.html).
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### Author:  [@stofsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stofsky)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/7 "2000-11-14T16:37:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Connor \*
> \*\*Just to make sure you notice, I imagine that your web searches will be much more successful with a correct spelling of “Tarantula”, with 3 A’s.
>
> Good luck. \*\*
And don’t forget that a “tarantella” is a dance.
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/8 "2000-11-14T19:02:28Z")
This might need to go in a new thread but i dont think its really a hi-jack because the OP here has pretty much been answered…Ok when i was a kid (pre-kindergarten) i had a pet tarantula and i can remember holding it and looking at it all the time and i just thought it was outright dandy. Well we didnt have it for too long i guess maybe a year or two and then we never got another one. Now (age 19) i am absolutely pathetically stone cold paranoid of tarantulas. If im looking through a magazine and i see a picture of one i literally throw the magazine and run out of the room and i wont re-enter that room until someone gets the magazine out. i freak when i see them on tv and i cant sleep at night if i think about one at any time during that day. Just reading this thread made my whole body tingle and i got an intense dull pain in my left foot and left forearm. Its absolutely embarassing, im a guy, im not supposed to be scared of little bugs, especially ones that arent even native to my area (NC). The one i had as a kid never bit me and i dont recall any bad experience with it. How could i have developed this instense fear of tarantulas all of a sudden when they didnt bother me at all as a kid? (when i say all of a sudden i mean maybe the last 8-10 years, not the last month or anything)
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### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/9 "2000-11-14T19:27:33Z")
Dunno, **Cisco** , but I’m exactly the same. As a kid I used to collect bugs, now I can’t even look at a _drawing_ of a spider without getting chills and wanting to vomit.
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### Author:  [@popokis5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/popokis5)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/10 "2000-11-14T20:23:22Z")
Maybe it’s the same reason that we used to say, jump off the roof and think that was fun. Or climb really, really tall trees. Heights is my particular grown-up fear. Now even a ladder makes me panic.
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/11 "2000-11-14T20:39:37Z")
popokis5, I notice spelling errors in the titles of two threads you have started. It does help if you can get the spelling right. Search engines cannot guess what you are trying to say and even people may be confused.
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### Author:  [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2000, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trantula-question/41102/12 "2000-11-14T21:41:48Z")
Here’s a couple more tarantula care sites:
[http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/2448/tarantula.html](http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/2448/tarantula.html)
[http://troll.herpkeepers.com/care.html](http://troll.herpkeepers.com/care.html)
[http://www.petbugs.com/dir/dtp/articles/spidercare.html](http://www.petbugs.com/dir/dtp/articles/spidercare.html)
I love the critters. Before I moved out recently, I had the pleasure of assisting in the care of a Chilean Rose, a truly beautiful creature.
When we got ours, everyone in the house started reading up on their giant spider literature. One simply amazing anecdote that we found may be worth recounting.
Tarantulas are extremely fragile critters. Their exoskeleton can be cracked from a fall of as little as eighteen inches. So when one of the students of a grade-school class dropped their tarantula, it looked like the end, because the crack usually leads to infection and death for the spider. However, by using the tools at hand the students performed a delicate operation and saved the tarantula’s life.
How did they do this? They sealed the crack with _Elmer’s glue_.