# "Wet" moult



## snickers (Aug 15, 2007)

I've seen it referred to a couple of times. What is a "wet" moult?


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## Vaughan69 (Nov 22, 2007)

snickers said:


> I've seen it referred to a couple of times. What is a "wet" moult?



Like a wet dream but insects have them? :whistling2:


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## sab6517 (Sep 14, 2007)

Its a shed and after it the spider appeards to be constantly wet ( all hairs stick to the spider - particularly the abdomen )

Lots of people try to keep them dry after with poor success but I have read that keeping them really moist until the next shed has a good chance of curing the problem


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## Becky (Mar 26, 2007)

Yeah, basically as above. No-one knows what causes it or why they come out "wet" Let me find u a pic of an irminia stuck in a wet moult...

Here it is.

I did some research on this a while back and found nothing conclusive..but here is the thread.

Wet Moult...? - Arachnoboards


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## iiisecondcreep (Oct 29, 2007)

That is a sad looking animal


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## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

Its surprising how little has been written on it. 

I can't really answer the cause, but my guess would be that its something that causes the spider to over produce the fluid that seperates the old skin from the new. That could cause the new skin to form incorrectly (i.e dilute the setting agents perhaps?) and result in the thin and wet looking exocuticle. 

I'll see if anything has been written in journals about it, i'm quite interested now. 

Another thought is that it could be a disease/infection? Perhaps a virus? There are similar diseases of crustaceans that cause the cuticle to soften due to calcium deficiencies (and others that cause shell necrosis). However, I am not sure how a disease could enter into established collections and suddenly show itself after years of successful moults. Perhaps its carried in feeder insects?

At first I thought the genetic arguement was likely, but as I think about it, its unusual to get it showing in both young and old spiders - at first I thought it could simply be a disease related to senility, but the loss of that sling makes it unusual. Its odd to have the same genetic disorder display affects in old individuals that seemed previously healthy as well as young slings.


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## Becky (Mar 26, 2007)

GRB If you look in an old BTS Journal.. The date of which escapes me.. Ray G posted a quick article on his versi that had a wet moult. She didn't eat, but he managed to keep her alive with just water.. keeping her hydrated and thankfully she pushed herself to moult quicker and was fine after that 

If it is a case of over production of the liquid, why would it mean that the spider cannot eat or chooses not to eat when it has a "wet" moult? Obviously the spider pictured in my thread above died because the moult was stuck.. now if it is an over production of fluid, why would it get stuck ? I think there are so many questions on what can happen and why... needs someone to knuckle down and work on it i guess!


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## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

Hmmmn, I will try to find that article. 

Currently i'm on google scholar, but i'm not finding much. I'm kind of hoping that if I look up the more detailed version of events in how they moult, I might be able to give a better guess on what is going wrong. 

As for the not eating, I am unsure - perhaps the spider is still stressed by an 'incomplete' moult and refuses to eat as it would normally? I am not sure. My thoughts about the overproduction of fluid were more to explain the softness and wet look of the cuticle, I guess that doesnt hold up that the cuticle would stick. 

I'll keep having a look around, see if I can find something. Alas, I cannot access any of the veterinarian (sp?) journals, as they might have had something in them.


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## Becky (Mar 26, 2007)

I'll dig out this journal for ya aswell  I've got it somewhere and email you the contents?
It's titled "Wet moults don't always mean death" If its any help. By Ray Gabriel.


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