[Wondergirl]

First published: June 4, 2012

Back in 1995 I had seen a tarantula in the local pet store. I thought it was kind of creepy yet cool at the same time. I had thought about this tarantula for about a week and decided to buy a book on tarantulas to learn a little bit about them. I really can’t say for sure what made me so caught up in this spider, I mean, everyone hates spiders, right? Finally, one day I was back in the pet store and that spider was still there…I bought it. Why? I really don’t know.

I brought it home in its little critter keeper tank and watched it do nothing. For hours it just sat there. I looked in on it the next morning and it had moved to the other side of the cage. This went on for days and it finally hit me, they don’t do a whole lot at all! At the same time, it was an amazing creature. It amazed me how such a simple creature was so well adapted and how something with such a small brain (actually, only a system of tiny nerves and no brain at all) could function.

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Gomez was supposed to be a Grammostola rosea, a Chilean Rose Hair. As I grew more knowledgeable in the realm of tarantulas and spiders in general, I discovered that she was really not a Rose Hair at all and she had been labeled incorrectly by either the pet store or its supplier. Odd though, I could never really identify what species she was. Nobody I talked to could either. It turns out that there are so many species and sub-species of spiders and tarantulas that doing an ID on unknowns is not as easy as one would think. There are some characteristics that stand out, but too many variables come into play.

There was so much to learn. I had no idea.

She died in 2008 but she left me with a curiosity and a respect for spiders. She was really the spider that started it all for me. Because of her, I wanted to learn more and more. I learned all I could from reading and observing. I bought a few different species of tarantulas and all are fascinating to me. Unlike many other creatures in this world, their parents do not teach them anything. They hatch and they leave. How do they know what they know? Certain species know to dig burrows. Some that dig burrows lay down a web “carpet” that is actually an alarm system for them if something gets near. How do they know to do this with no real brain?

These are only some of the reasons that I find tarantulas to be such interesting “pets”. Many people hate them but that is only because, as humans, we hate and fear what we don’t know. Me? I’m glad I overcame that fear and laid down that $20 back in 1995.