I have been waiting for more information and research to be done on nematodes, so I am a little excited about what I just found. This is by no means a fun article, but it is SO important for this information to be shared and spread because we know so little about tarantula health and illness.

One thing that worries tarantula owners quite a bit is nematodes – they are a parasitic worm that a tarantula might get that slowly causes the T to starve to death and behave strangely. Scientists have just discovered a new species of nematodes (there are more than 25,000 different kinds of nematodes). The scientists actually named this new species of nematode “Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi” after American actor Jeff Daniels because Daniels’ character in the film Arachnophobia saves a town from a tarantula infestation!! UC Riverside parasitologist Adler Dillman said, “His character in the film is a spider killer, which is exactly what these nematodes are.”

Pretty concerning. This nematode was written about in the Journal of Parasitology and was studied after Dillman was contacted by a wholesale tarantula breeder who needed help identifying a weird infection in a few tarantulas, a strange white discharge around their mouths. It turned out, it was nematodes. But until then, the only nematodes found on tarantulas had been found by scientists in Europe.

Nematodes are deadly for tarantulas, and there is no known cure or good early intervention protocol. Once a tarantula has nematodes, their body starts to be taken over by the parasite. They will start doing weird things like walking on their tip toes and fasting. The appendages that control their fangs also stop working. Dillman said, “It may take months because tarantulas don’t have to eat particularly often. However, if they get this infection, they will die of starvation.”

There’s still a lot that needs to be done as far as nematode research, however the research team has been able to find out a little about the Jeffdanielsi nematode. Apparently, they produce their own sperm and eggs because they self-fertilize. The average lifespan of a single hermaphrdite in the laboratory is 11 days, and just once can produce 160 babies. It is not known if they live longer if they are feeding on a tarantula’s body. It was also found that the nematodes begin at and only inhabit the mouth area of the tarantula. Dillman said:

“It isn’t clear that the nematodes feed on the spider itself. It’s possible that they feed on bacteria that live on the tarantulas.”

We still have a lot of research that needs to be done, as we have no idea how this parasite is able to hijack the tarantulas’ behavior and organs. Dillman will continue studying this and see if there can be treatment or prevention of the jeffdanielsi infections.

Dillman stated that reported tarantula parasite infestations are generally rare, however Dillman believes this is more because not many people study tarantulas or know about this. Dillman said, “Nematodes have been around for hundreds of millions of years. They’ve evolved to infect every kind of host on the planet including humans. Any animal you know of on planet Earth, there’s a nematode that can infect it.”

I certainly hope there will be a cure one day.