As pets go, they are low maintenance. No muss, no fuss, nice and
quiet, and even a bit furry. So, how about snuggling up with a
giant, non-biting tarantula?
A farm in Chile exports the palm-sized critters to Asia, Europe and
the United States for sale as exotic household companions.
They go for $25 each plus shipping, and need to be fed just once a
week, preferably live cockroaches or worms. And they live a long
time -- up to 25 years in the case of females.
"Not everyone can keep a dog or cat. Tarantulas are cheaper and do
not need as much attention. What's more, the world has changed and
what with technology and cable television, people are learning
about this kind of exotic animal and want one for their home," said
Juan Gonzalez, a vet at the farm.
It is owned by one Juan Pablo Orellana, an agronomist who gathers
and raises these Chilean rose hair tarantula (Grammostola
rosea).
Orellana's farm exports about 30,000 of them a year. They travel in
boxes with holes in them and a certificate that could be seen as a
pedigree.
"For me the best part is going out to find new spiders," Orellana
told AFP. He gathers arachnids in hills outside the Chilean capital
Santiago, and also raises and breeds species that are hardest to
find.
In Chile only 11 species of tarantulas have been formally
classified scientifically, but he himself possesses 20 different
kinds.
His farm boasts a rainbow of tarantulas: some have red abdomens,
others have copper-colored skin, and they have varying degrees of
hairiness.
After filling his house with pet spiders, Orellana founded his
company, called Andespiders, employing several family members.
At the breeding facility, most of the farmhands are women.
"It is labor intensive and very specialized, and I prefer women
because the creatures are fragile, and if they break a leg or are
dropped they can die," Orellana says.
The breeding process is rather involved and requires a delicate
touch. It takes two and a half to three years to raise one up to
saleable size.
Gonzalez, an adviser to Orellana, said the tarantulas must be
separated from each other.
"It's in their genes, they cannot live alongside even a mate. They
start fighting when they are young, and you have to separate them
to avoid cannibalism," Gonzalez said.
The United States is the farm's main client, and a volume-oriented
wholesale one, while European buyers seek fewer tarantulas but a
wider variety of species, Gonzalez added.
In recent months the farm has also delivered critters to the
University of Antofagasta in northern Chile, which is researching
the cancer-fighting features of Chilean spider and scorpion
venom.
At the farm, there is a hospital-like quality: women in white robes
with rubber gloves and face masks separate hundreds of newborn
spiders into small plastic containers with breathing holes.
The women are working all out to fill an order for 3,000 spiders
that will go to Germany.
But there is one specimen that is not for sale: a coffee-colored
tarantula named Rufina, a particularly big creature that Orellana
gave to his now wife when they first started dating.