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Old 07-05-2009, 07:16 PM   #7 (permalink)
GeorgeMagnus
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 14
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UPDATE:

It has been over 24 hours since the male, Consortius, passed on. It's been less than 12 hours since Vitafera did as well.

At the end, it looked like Vita, passed some eggs. Even though I left her overnight outdoors the previous night she didn't do anything expect pace, once I took her back indoors she seemed weak in general. A few short hours later she was pushing her outer wings open one at a time, and use of her wings was something she didn't do, even in health. I surmised this was some sort of flexing due to trying to empty her spermathecae, and her ova. It was just intuition before it actually happened. I placed the mass in moist soil I had landscaped the previous night.

In the end she didn't pass a second group. And she expired near me, in my sleep. After I had secured the eggs, I tried to reassure her on her journey. Her egg laying was obviously a pre-death instinct. She seemed to respond to focused thought and speech. I don't know how one really imparts a message to an insect. But it's over for them now. And that's a relief to me, even if initially saddening.

The other day I had learned how to euthanize them (or tarantulas and scorpions for that matter), by extensive research that ended up in a few phone calls. You use a swab of isoflorene to put them out. Not being a veterinarian or an anesthetist I obviously can't procure it. So I hope that they didn't suffer much toward the end.
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