Submitted photo
New River resident Jody Bodeau is the president of the Phoenix Tarantula Rescue, a 501C3 non-profit dedicated to rescuing unwanted and abused pet tarantulas by assisting animal shelters and the local community. The group provides medical care, shelter, food, safety and adoption services to responsible homes.
COMMUNITY
NEWS
New River woman rescues tarantulas
MARC BUCKHOUT ~ MANAGING EDITOR~8/24/2011
They might not be the first animal most people think about when they’re considering adding a furry pet to their home, but New River resident Jody Bodeau said there are thousands of people across the country that keep tarantulas as pets.
Bodeau is the president of the Phoenix Tarantula Rescue, a 501C3 non-profit dedicated to rescuing unwanted and abused pet tarantulas by assisting animal shelters and the local community. The group provides medical care, shelter, food, safety and adoption services to responsible homes.
“A lot of people say ewe gross when you talk about tarantulas, but for people that have allergies they’re a great pet,” Bodeau said. “There are also a lot of people that have not only a tarantula but dogs and cats as well,” she said. “They’re easy and inexpensive to care for as well.”
Despite that fact Bodeau said she has recently run across a large number of people that can no longer care for their tarantulas for various reasons.
Along with accepting those animals into the rescue she also receives calls from people regarding wild tarantulas that have found their way into people’s homes.
“During monsoon season males go through a maturing molt,” she said. “After that they go searching for a mate. I’ve talked to people that have seen large groups of them covering the road.”
Beyond their search, which coincides with the monsoon season, tarantulas rarely stray far from their homes as they are nearly blind and have no ears. Instead they use their hair as sensors to find prey.
Arizona is home to 30 native species of tarantulas, with one that is native specifically to New River.
While tarantulas are native to Arizona the kind that most people have as pets are generally not among the 30 species from the desert.
Most tarantulas that are kept as pets are from Venezuela. Instead of just being brown they often have green, blue and orange coloring.
If they are released into the wild the results can cause serious problems to the native tarantulas.
“They had an issue in Florida where Venezuelan tarantulas were taking over part of the Everglades because so many have been released,” she said. “We advocate not releasing pets into the wild and also leaving wild ones in the wild.”
In trying to find homes for tarantulas Bodeau said she has to educate people about the animal.
“Most people have fears of tarantulas that aren’t based in facts,” she said. “Tarantula venom isn’t poisonous. Nobody in the world has ever died from a tarantula bite. They aren’t aggressive animals and even if you did get bit it isn’t any more uncomfortable than a bee sting. You end up with a welt or red mark, maybe a little swelling and it goes away within as little as a couple hours to maybe a couple of days.”
Bodeau, who started the rescue in January, is one of three on the board of directors. She said the group is slowly growing, but is in need of donations to get medical treatment for injured tarantulas as well as other supplies.
For those looking at being a tarantula owner Bodeau said a 5 to 10 gallon aquarium makes a nice home and that a diet of six to eight live crickets a month at a cost of under a dollar is largely all a tarantula needs.