Euthanasia is certainly not going to be the first thing on your mind when you get a new (or your first) tarantula, but if you’ve been around here for a few minutes you know what I always say especially to newbies: preparation is EVERYTHING when it comes to being a tarantula owner.

Seriously. When you’re dealing with a creature this foreign and unpredictable, you never know what kind of scenario you might encounter, from surprise molts to escapes to freak accidents. And if you read my recent article about the deadliest disease for tarantulas (DKS), you’ll know what I’m already about to say: while tarantulas don’t get sick or injured too often, when they do it’s very serious. That’s because unlike cats and dogs, veterinarians specializing in exotic animals like tarantulas are few and far between. Most of us won’t have access to one – so you know what that means, right? If your tarantula gets injured, sick, or has a fatal condition, YOU are their vet. And that means you’re going to have to make some pretty tough decisions if it so happens that your tarantula is suffering and needs to be put out of their misery.

Euthanasia for tarantulas

I seriously hope that you (as well as myself) are never faced with this issue. I hope that all of your spiders live long, happy, and healthy lives and that they die peacefully of old age. Unfortunately for some of us tarantula owners, that will not be the case. Accidents happen, and so do illnesses. As hardy as they are, tarantulas are not immune to these things and it’s better for you to know your options ahead of time in case you find yourself in this situation.

There are several different ways that you can put your spider “down”, or in other words, put them out of their misery if they are suffering. While many tarantula owners to prefer to not get involved and let nature run its course, many others prefer it is more humane to assist the tarantula in ending its pain faster. Something important that I feel needs to be said is that no matter what you choose, don’t beat yourself up too much about it. Being in this position, for lack of better words, sucks. It will be heartbreaking and perhaps even traumatic regardless of which option you choose because you are losing a beloved pet. Do not let anyone minimize your feelings or guilt you over this. Losing a pet is hard enough, but having to deal with it yourself without the help of a professional veterinarian and experts is an entirely different situation. With that being said, I hope the information that follows helps you.

When it comes to tarantula euthanasia, there are different opinions about what makes something “humane” so I’ll share all of them with you. This difference in opinion has a lot to do with the ongoing limited research we have on tarantulas, our lack of knowledge about how they actually feel and process pain, and what little we know about the affects of these methods on them. I personally believe some of these methods are more humane than others but I will share all of them.

Blunt force

This is perhaps the harshest option for putting your spider down, and not really euthanasia at all, but it is an option. Surprisingly, it’s very popular and many believe it is humane because the spider dies quickly and therefore doesn’t have time to feel or process the pain. By the title alone, you can probably guess what this entails – tarantula owners will usually drop a heavy, large object on their tarantula. Many owners cannot bear the thought of this and I can’t even imagine how difficult this is to do.

Sacrifice

Another method that tarantula owners will use (although many will argue it’s NOT humane at all) is to feed their sick or injured tarantula to another healthier tarantula. The reasoning behind this is that the tarantula is not wasted and there are arguments that since the spider is going to die anyway, at least it is going to the greater good of the collection. No one really knows how “humane” or quick/painless this actually is, and many would argue that even when something as small as a superworm is being eaten, the prey is able to struggle and move around for quite some time before the venom takes hold and it dies completely. I personally would not recommend this as humane, but others would disagree so that’s why I’m including it. It is particularly popular for tarantula owners to feed their dying mature males to females in their collection.

Putting them to sleep by freezing

One of the most common examples of spider euthanasia is freezing a tarantula, and this is most commonly thought of literally putting them “to sleep.” I believe this is considered one of the most humane methods of assisting a spider in death, however there are some that argue that it is incredibly painful for the tarantula and it is a slow and painful death. Unfortunately, we don’t have the actual scientific evidence to prove either of these theories, so I’m just going with popular opinion on this (here’s a good debate post on this). In this instance, the tarantula owner will put their sick/injured tarantula in a small, closed container and place it in the freezer. The cold from the freezer will slow the tarantula’s nervous system down to “hibernation” mode, eventually putting it to “sleep” and eventually killing the spider as it freezes. Some tarantula owners put a little bit of water on substrate in the container underneath the spider to speed the freezing process up.

Some tarantula owners use CO2 as a means to numb their spider before freezing. Whitelightning777 explained this on tarantulaforum.com:

We all know that CO2 is used as a knock out for first aid etc. Put it in a ventilated catch cup within a larger container elevated. Add baking soda and vinegar. Seal it up airtight and then freeze it an hour later and overnight. Logically that should eliminate pain.

Dry ice or CO2

Some tarantula owners believe that dry ice is very humane, as it involves flash freezing them by adding alcohol to dry ice, then putting the tarantula in the container. This is considered an almost instant death for the tarantula.

Another user on reddit explained the CO2 method: Antik_Insomniak said:

CO2 gas is probably the most humane. It’s used as an anesthetic for tarantulas and other arthropods during venom/silk extractions in labs due to it being so simple on the spider. Too much though, can cause it to die. When we (personally, and my lab) have to euthanize, we place the spider in an airtight container filled with carbon dioxide and then once the spider is noticeably sedated, pop it in the freezer to aid in making sure it dies. You can achieve this at home by using two deli cups, dry ice, a piece of tubing, and some cleverness. This is my recommendation.

For those of you who are extra curious, this is a great video that talks about a few options and shares an interesting perspective:

With all of this being said, some injuries you CAN fix, and you should read up on how to do this in my big tarantula guide.