Invertebrate Housekeeping: Quarantining a New Arrival, Cleaning the Enclosure, and Finding an Escapee

Four readers went through the invertebrate care sets here and three of them asked the same thing independently: what do I do with a new animal before it joins the others, how often do I clean an enclosure that never looks dirty, and what happens when one gets out. None of the species pages answered, because the answers are the same across a tarantula, a scorpion, a mantis, a millipede, a stick insect, a cockroach colony, a jumping spider or a hermit crab. This is the shared page, and it covers everything around a move between enclosures rather than the move itself.

Quarantine: Three Months, Separate Tools

The tarantula keepers' reference at giantspiders.com gives the figure the hobby uses: any new addition is quarantined for at least three months, away from the rest of the collection and ideally in a different room, using separate tools for the animals in quarantine. Three months sounds long for an animal that arrived looking fine, and the length is the point. The problems that come in with a new invertebrate are slow. A mite population builds over weeks. Mold takes hold in a damp corner. And the worst of them, parasitic nematodes in a wild-caught import, shows only once the animal is settled, as a white discharge round the mouth and a refusal to eat. Giantspiders' verdict on a confirmed case is grim and honest: there is no known successful treatment, and the spider is disposed of by placing it in the freezer overnight, before the worms spread.

Quarantine for a solitary invertebrate is simple. A plain enclosure with paper towel or bare substrate, a water dish, a hide, and nothing shared with any other animal: not the tongs, not the water bottle, not the hands between enclosures without washing. Feed lightly, watch the molt if one comes, and look at the animal, the substrate and the prey remains every few days for anything moving that should not be. The health guide for tarantulas covers what each of those problems looks like on the animal, and the emergency and shipping guide covers the first days after a shipped arrival, when a dark, quiet enclosure with water matters more than food. The move from the quarantine tub into the permanent enclosure at the end of the three months is the rehousing guide.

Cleaning: Weekly Spot Cleans, and a Substrate Change You Can Count in Years

An invertebrate enclosure is not cleaned like a hamster cage, and the mistake new keepers make is cleaning it too much. VetVerified's housing guide sets the routine: spot clean weekly, removing uneaten prey and fecal matter; remove uneaten food after 24 hours to prevent stress or injury; keep a shallow water dish with fresh water at all times and replace it regularly; and deep clean by replacing the substrate every 6 to 12 months, or sooner if mold appears. Between those, leave it. A burrowing species has built its home in that substrate, and a millipede or hermit crab may be molting inside it, which is the one time disturbance kills.

The reason the interval can be that long is that the enclosure's problems are all downstream of two things: prey remains and dampness without airflow. Giantspiders' advice on mites is exactly that, remove discarded prey remains quickly and keep a good balance between the humidity the species needs and good ventilation, and VetVerified's on mold is the same, avoid excessive dampness and make sure the enclosure has proper ventilation. An enclosure with the remains taken out and the air moving does not grow either, and the substrate lasts.

Two species-level notes. A hermit crab tank has deep, damp substrate by design and crabs buried in it for weeks at a time, so its substrate is never dug out on a schedule, only checked for flooding and mold at the surface. And a millipede molts underground for weeks, so the Tree of Life exotic vet's rule for that species is the rule for its substrate: do not disturb buried millipedes, and leave them until they re-emerge. The millipede tank setup guide covers the depth that makes that possible.

Mites, Mold and the Fly in the Water Dish

Most mites in an invertebrate enclosure are scavengers living on prey remains, and the cure is the clean-up above. The ones that matter are on the animal: clustered round the mouth, the leg joints or the book lungs of a tarantula, or riding a millipede's underside. Tree of Life's line for millipedes applies across the board, that common invertebrate mites can be harmless or harmful and a veterinarian should be consulted for safe control methods, because the pesticide hazards guide makes the case that nearly every product sold to kill mites kills the pet too. For a spider or scorpion with mold on it, giantspiders' treatment is rehousing into a clean, well-ventilated, dry container with a water dish, and dabbing the affected area with a povidone iodine antiseptic.

Small flies hovering over the enclosure mean the same thing as mites: something is rotting in there. Find the prey remains or the soaked corner, remove it, and the flies leave within a week.

Escapes: Where It Went and How to Get It Back

Prevention first, because the recapture is the hard part. The escape guide at Tarantula Heaven wants every enclosure sturdy and sealed with locking mechanisms on lids and doors, and ventilation holes small enough that the animal cannot fit through, which for a spiderling or a mantis nymph means holes smaller than you would think. Most escapes happen during care, with a lid set aside for a moment, and a mantis or jumping spider takes the moment.

When one is out, the same guide's search method is the one that works. Ground-dwelling tarantulas seek dark, warm and moist places, so the search is under furniture, in dark corners, under the bed, and in piles of clothes or shoes. Tree-dwelling species climb instead, so their search is walls, curtains and bookshelves. If the escape was within the last hour or two the animal is almost certainly still in that room, so close the door and search it before widening. Search at night with a flashlight, when the animal is active, and put out a water dish or a damp paper towel as bait, since an escapee will look for water first.

Recapture is a container and a card. Set a clear cup over the animal, slide a piece of stiff card underneath, and carry it back to the enclosure upright. No hands on a tarantula, scorpion or centipede in the open, for its sake as much as yours, since a fall from waist height ruptures a tarantula's abdomen. The handling guide for tarantulas covers the cup method in detail, and it is the same method for a scorpion or a mantis.

The Takeaway

Three months of quarantine with separate tools, whatever the animal looked like on arrival. Uneaten prey out within 24 hours, remains and droppings out weekly, substrate replaced every 6 to 12 months or at the first mold, and no other cleaning. Lids that lock and holes the animal cannot fit through. And when one is out: close the door, search low and dark at night with a flashlight, bait with water, and bring it home under a cup.

Printable Guide

Want this as a printable reference? The Tarantula Care Package turns this guide into a 44-page PDF you can keep by the enclosure, $8.99.

Sources & Further Reading