Alright, hello and welcome to Invertecast Season 2.
This is the very first episode that we are doing for Season 2, obviously, and we have
Simon from the Mantis Garden as usual, myself, Leah from Torrentia, of course, and we have
Tyler Kirk from the Spiner Shop.
Hello, Tyler.
Hey, good morning.
Good morning.
We're so, so happy you could join us.
Yeah, I'm honored to be here with you guys.
Appreciate the invitation.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
I appreciate you accepting for sure.
And I will say it was also a lot of fun meeting you in person here in Denver.
Actually, I think it was Castle Rock at the All American Plant and Reptile Expo.
That was cool.
Yeah, that was a good chill.
That was fun.
Good, I'm glad.
I was wondering if you'd gone to that.
Oh, yeah.
I was sorry, I don't know if you'd gone to that.
Yeah, it was definitely a good show, and I really appreciated seeing more plant vendors
and all the reptile vendors, and there were quite a few tarantula and invert vendors,
too, so it was fantastic.
It was a good show, I agree.
It was hard for us getting there because it was snowing pretty good.
Yeah, and it was a trek from Denver.
It's about 45 minutes or so to get to Castle Rock, but it was well worth it, absolutely.
Okay, so I'll jump in and we've got a question for Tyler.
I was wondering, how did you start Spidershop?
How did you get started with tarantulas, and how did it all happen?
Yeah, I was keeping tarantulas as a hobby, first of all, and I think it was not long
before I started breeding them.
There's a local here in my area that I found on Craigslist, which is Simon's message board,
I guess, or maybe you guys have Craigslist, too, but he posted that he had tarantulas
for sale and I had maybe 10 at the time and I went over to see what he was offering for
sale online and in his house was just lined with walls.
The walls were lined with shelves, the tarantulas, kind of like Simon's wall behind him there.
Yeah, he took me in, opened door, taught me everything, encouraged me to breed, and so
I was breeding early on and had enough luck where I would sell off the babies and buy
more spiders, sell off the babies, buy more spiders, breeding females and things.
And yeah, I was working as a counselor in a methadone clinic and was working towards
my master's degree in mental health and I had tarantulas and I figured that I'd just
make this website.
And I remember at the time being so nervous or afraid to put myself out there in that
way.
I didn't know what I thought I had to lose, but I paid for the Shopify and I spent a
bunch of time uploading all these pictures and prices and designing the website and all
that stuff.
And three months after I started the website, I had enough sales that I had more income
from the website than I did from my job.
So things weren't really going how I wanted at work anyways and so I was happy to put
in my resignation.
And I haven't looked back since three years ago now and just been blessed with how things
have worked out with the business.
I've tried to replicate it with other businesses, do the Google ads, promote it on Facebook,
offer decent prices.
I have not been able to replicate the success that Spidershop has seen.
So I wish I had the magic to every business working out like Spidershop has, but that's
not the case.
Yeah.
So that's cool.
That is really, really cool because it sounds very familiar to kind of what I've been doing
with my tarantulas.
I mean, I haven't really been breeding.
I will occasionally send out like a mature male like I just did with Gavin from Ghosties
Tarantulas and he has my male serial bookus Levitum.
So are they killer brockies or serial bookus?
I can never remember.
Is it killer brockies?
No, it's football blue, right?
Yeah, football blue.
Yeah, serial pack of this.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I was right.
Over here second guessing myself.
Crazy this.
Took over to Tennessee.
Yeah.
See, I didn't listen.
Yep.
I said that over to actually, I believe Kentucky.
I'm just going to see if it's like the.
Well, yeah, he did really well.
As far as I know, he he paired up with the female real good and then Gavin had a friend
who also needed him so he survived and went and he's he was with a friend and as far as
I know, he's still doing okay.
We're just waiting for the female to hopefully drop a sack and she's taking her sweet time.
So yeah, what do you know, right?
That species has been pretty reliable for me in the past getting them bred and then
that they produce.
I don't remember having much problems with that species.
Nice.
Breed.
Yeah.
Oh, cool.
Okay.
So that opens up a whole nother question is what what's your favorite species to breed
if you if you have one?
That's yeah, this is a difficult question that gets asked.
Favorite tarantula or favorite, you know, favorite thing to breed.
Yeah, I mean, I had a group of the Seledonia recently, you know, I think I had seven adult
females and of course, I'm looking at things that are maybe a little more valuable to breed.
I definitely don't have the space to keep five and six females of 100 plus species,
you know, that's not really my focus anymore.
But yeah, most recently, I guess that would be Seledonia, right?
It's trying to pump out a bunch of those.
Yeah, definitely.
They're kind of a rare commodity in the States.
So that is easy to do.
Yeah, the first few times we had luck, you know, and it seems like they're easy to hard
to raise, you know, fragile, but then when they're big, they're easy, it seems to me.
But we ended up with like two or three dud eggs acts, which is disappointing.
And so I decided to sell the females, you know, like, forget this, which was disappointing.
I think we had two bed sacks and one sack had like two, two babies that made it.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, yeah, I think I've just done this.
I don't know if we've got any of those.
Maybe, maybe not.
I don't know.
The Typhoclina Seledonia, that's definitely a dream spider for me.
I don't have one yet.
But I will say that I did have an order from Spidershop recently and I got another dream
species, which is the Simeroxagorum by Rupies, or by Rupies Simeroxagorum.
Very cool tarantula, absolutely.
Like they're so pretty when they're adults.
Mine is still just a little tiny guy, but I've got him in a cute little like vial like
this that he's already been burrowing like a beast.
So it's perfect.
I love it.
I'm really lucky that I live real close to a reptile store that always has like little
tiny pinhead crickets.
So I can feed them tiny little pinhead crickets and they're live and that way they get kind
of that feel.
So it's good.
I love it.
I really like that species.
And then I also have the Selmovis Victoria.
And that's another species that like before I didn't really have very good luck with them.
And I think I was just like over watering or just keeping them to moist or something
because now the one that I have from Spidershop has really been thriving.
So I'm super thrilled about that.
Awesome.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
I still need to finish that video, but I will as it's on the list.
So I actually just recently got back like a couple of days ago because I was on a trip
and I was in Minnesota.
But you know, visiting family and stuff and it is it's quite a bit more humid there than
it is here in Denver and like green and lush and wonderful.
And I saw fireflies, actual fireflies.
Like for the first time in my life, I actually saw them, you know, for real because they're
not here in Colorado.
And so yeah, it was it was definitely an experience.
But you had a recent trip to Peru.
And you you got to hang out with Tom Patterson and Richard Stewart.
Yeah, yeah.
It's awesome.
Can you talk a little bit about what Peru is like and
Yeah, what what exactly maybe we're doing here here about.
Essentially, it's like, what's that Simon?
Where in Peru did you go?
Oh, we went to we flew into Lima, which is on the coast, kind of bigger city.
And then we flew to Cusco the next day, which is southeast and it's kind of highland, you
know, high elevation, not all that much to see kind of bare mountain hillsides, you
know, a little bit of grass and rocks, not not, you know, areas with not much for trees,
you know, of course, we went down in the cloud forest, it's a little lower elevation and
there's lush, you know, big, what it still doesn't John Lee's, you know, rainforest
looking, you know, environment, but that was just a brief, brief snippet of our tour there.
So it was highlands and yeah, fog and cold.
And it was it was crazy.
We'd be on the hillside and then some Peruvian woman would walk over the top of the hill
and walk down and want to sell us some like bracelets or something.
And then she disappears again, like we're in the middle of nowhere.
I don't know where she came from.
Yeah.
Well, that sounds amazing.
Yeah, I mean, I was definitely like the yeah, it was definitely my eyes were opened by,
you know, there's still people with like mud brick houses and no electricity and no plumbing
on the, you know, rural Peru.
Wow.
Kind of amazed at the lifestyle, you know, I hear kids walk like two hours to school
and two hours home after school.
Wow.
And we definitely saw that kids in the middle of nowhere walking on the road.
And then some of those that suck out was dogs.
Like there's dogs on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.
And we went down the same road, you know, one day went down the road the next day and
that same dogs will be there like like 100 feet apart.
Like they're all, I don't know if they depend on drivers to see them or why they're there.
But it was it was strange.
Yeah, in the middle of nowhere, there's just dogs every show off to the other.
I hope I was, did you see any tarantulas when you was there?
Did I see tarantulas?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Over there for the tour was 10 days and we saw probably 15 species of tarantulas over
there.
Super impressive.
Impressed with yeah, the tarantulas.
We saw a lot of tarantulas over there.
A lot of the haplotrimus and there seems to be a lot of like local variations.
Our tour guide was saying, you know, haplotrimus bilcanoda or haplotrimus CF bilcanoda.
So like most closely resembles bilcanoda, but there's a few different, like, you know,
like one carapace was all white and the rest of the side are the same.
One carapace white with a black triangle and one carapace white with a black circle
in the middle.
So like these minor variations as we go from one mountain to the next or one valley to
the next.
So either it's undescribed or really don't know what they are.
Some stuff even he's saying he'd never seen himself before.
Wow.
Yeah.
The selling point for me on the tour guide was that he spent time with Rick West and
some of their taxonomists.
He took Rick West around and collected material for his for the haplotrimus paper that came
out recently.
Yeah.
So we saw some of the same places that the taxonomists did when they were doing their
research in the haplotrimus.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's really cool.
Are any of the haplotrimus species like available in the hobby right now or are they still?
Yeah.
They're definitely not common.
One that was available some years ago was haplotrimus albipes or albeeps.
Okay.
It's dwarf.
They were around briefly.
I don't really know anybody with them right now but they were around before.
And then actually a few months back from Europe we had these therophosinase species
Inca gold and kind of a bland picture, you know, a spider that needed a mold.
The picture was not a great shot or representation of the spider.
But while we were there and we were posting them, there was a European that contacted
me and said, hey, like you have those on your store.
And I didn't even realize that the spider we were moving on over on the hillside was
the spider that I already had in my store.
Oh, wow.
It was just that the photo wasn't great.
And so when we pointed it out, I was like, okay, that makes sense.
And he sent me pictures of the juveniles and the female adult which looked just like the
ones we were seeing.
And so yeah, that one.
Yeah.
And then we had this therophosinase Inca gold so that's available.
Very cool because I believe that it was listed as therophosinase.
So it's a heplotrimus so that's good to know.
Yeah, at first I guess they didn't know or wasn't sure but by the time I posted it they
were calling it heplotrimus.
And which makes sense.
It was in the area where we were looking at the elevation and that's what we kept seeing
was heplotrimus.
Heplotrimus.
So I mean, yeah, there was some kickback on one of my posts saying, oh, you don't know
for sure it's heplotrimus.
You know, it's not, you're not examining the palpable bulbs.
If you're not sure, don't call it that, which they have a good point.
So it's not 100% heplotrimus.
But likely, I think.
Yeah.
That's really cool though.
I mean, was it very hard?
Was it very difficult while you were peru to find tarantulas or was it like I walk 10
feet and lift a rock and there it is?
Mostly that.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, we got into town or we got into a place where we were staying and went
across the street and we're looking on the hillside and we're finding things on the hillside
and we're looking at an adult 20 feet down the road on the hillside.
But our guide, yeah, the guide took us to these locations, you know, and we got out
of the car and we'd slip some rocks and they'd be there one after the other, you know.
There's only one place we went that it's kind of hard.
It was an undescribed heplotrimus and this greenish bronze shimmer to it.
And this is the one that we spent quite a bit of time on the hillside and only found
a couple of them.
So that was like the rarest one or the hardest one to find.
Wow, I can imagine how beautiful.
It sounds amazing.
Yeah, it was almost like losing its excitement kind of was waning.
You know, it's like we've seen so many, you know, like, you know, which is, yeah, I mean,
oh, it's another spider, it's another spider.
Do you think it was a scuff?
Yeah, we saw these little lizards.
They kind of looked to me like a like a skink almost and they were kind of slow, not like
the lizards I find in California, you know, they bolt when they run from you.
These guys sit on your hand and then we found a couple of snakes.
They're a colubrid little, you know, maybe 18 inch or so.
I think I saw a picture that you posted on your Facebook about the snake that you found
or one of the snakes.
And it actually looked almost like a rainbow boa, but if it was that small, it was probably
probably a little rat snake or something.
Yeah, I found the snake first.
And then I did, but I didn't touch it because I didn't just scared of, you know, potentially
venomous or whatever.
I don't know.
Yeah, I didn't know.
And it got away and I told the group, oh, I got away, you know, I don't know if I should
have grabbed it or not.
And they didn't know what it was based on my description.
And then Tom Patterson came across another one and he's, he picked it up by the tail
and he's yelling to the guy, is it venomous?
Is it venomous?
That sounds like Tom.
From what I know, I don't know.
How fun is that?
So was Tom Patterson very like, he sounds like he's really adventurous and just like,
you know, not afraid to get into things and is that accurate, would you say?
Yeah, he was, you know, a lot of the time, the first person to find the spider, he was
at the top of the hill before the rest of us.
Wow.
Yeah, he was definitely out there getting it, you know, while we were out there.
Yeah, he was talking about all sleep when I get home, you know.
All the way from when we get home, he was all gone home for getting out and finding
more stuff.
He really enjoys his collection of like photography or like taking pictures of everything, right?
He likes to have his own pictures.
And so he was excited to add to his photo collection, you know, taking pictures of all
the different things.
So yeah, it's cool to hear his input on different things and this, yeah, it was great to spend
time with him.
Yeah.
Oh, I love that.
It just sounds so cool.
Like he seems like a really fun, interesting dude, hardcore, you know.
That's what Gatlin' Rinnie, I had no idea who he was talking about.
Oh, he's, so Tom Patterson here in the States, he's a breeder, so he's also got his own website
called Hardcore Wrecknids.
Yeah, I don't know who you're talking about.
Okay.
Oh, you do now?
I think I know, I know the French with cat.
Oh yeah.
I remember, I remember in Sentinel some spy business.
I had no idea he was.
Oh, no, you're fine.
You're good, Simon.
I appreciate it.
No worries.
Go ahead.
He's an old timer.
He's been doing it for 20 plus years.
You know, he was always somebody I looked up to and he was always open like to answer
questions about husbandry or breeding and that sort of thing.
He was always really generous with his time or his feedback, you know, willing to give
feedback to everybody.
Yeah.
He's a really nice guy.
That's awesome.
I'm glad to hear that because he seems like he's really, he's really kind of goofy and
just like a lot of fun and I would love to meet him for sure.
I haven't met him.
So, you know, moving on, another awesome member of your party was Richard Stewart.
What is he like in real life?
Yeah, I was nervous to meet Richard, but we seem to get along really well.
Yeah, I think he had some, how do I say, maybe hesitation about traveling.
You know, being out of the country, I think he was really looking into like some of the
politics and the crime that happens.
That kind of thing.
He was really, I think maybe guarded might be the right word.
And of course, he had some reservations.
Yeah.
And then doesn't, you know, doesn't speak any of the language.
So I think he did a lot of research before the trip.
But yeah, I mean, he, I'm afraid that, you know, he had a little bit maybe more work
to do while he was there.
The rest of us, you know, a lot of us were there enjoying getting photos and he was lugging
around his camera gear, you know, the whole time.
Yeah.
And he got out of the car and he's got to get his cameras ready and his lenses.
And, you know, he's got his, he asked me to carry his camera a couple of times.
And that thing, it's like on a big, you know, it had been 15 or 20 pounds that seemed like
scaring when she was carrying that up the sides of the hill.
And yeah, but he was, you know, thrilled to be there and having a good time, you know,
so it was cool to just to support and to be a part of the behind the scenes.
I'm really looking forward to the videos that he puts out.
He's, I was so impressed.
And I went to Pittsburgh to meet him for the first time and he said, oh, I want to do a
video.
And so he brought his camera to Pittsburgh.
He got me on camera a little bit and then he took off for like 10, it seemed like he
filmed for like 10 minutes.
And I'm like, aren't you going to film?
Are you going to do some video?
And what he was able to come up with, with the amount of like footage that he got was
just like totally impressive to me.
You know, I, he's like, so it's cool to learn about his methods for his videos.
And I guess he says that, you know, it's easier for him to kind of keep it, you know, he doesn't
want to overwhelm, overwhelm himself with footage.
All right.
He doesn't want to look at how or is worth the footage and have to sort through it all.
So it was, yeah, it was cool to see the strategy or his plans, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, he, he makes these videos that are just so well done and just incredibly beautiful
and amazing.
I mean, that's kind of, he kind of inspired me to, to do the same, you know, but I'm,
I'm nowhere near his level.
Like he is just, he, he's phenomenal, very talented.
So I can, I can imagine that, you know, he, he takes himself very seriously, you know.
So that's cool.
That's really cool here.
There's the part of the trip where we're on the side of the road for the Lena fell is
like that gold carapace one.
Okay.
Lena fell uniformus.
It's really, really pretty black and gold.
And everybody's, you know, taking turns with photos and he's got his macro lens and he's
getting macro shots of the spiders eyes, you know, and he was just so thrilled.
It was cool to see him, you know, in his own, like so thrilled to get these like crisp, beautiful
photos of the spider and he was so stoked over this, you know, the photos that he got.
And I can only imagine that is so killer.
Yeah.
So it was cool to see just, you know, really, I don't know how to explain it.
Like we're all like, it just seems so professional and like, like these diehard enthusiasts,
like I'm the side of the road, it's starting to rain and we're out here taking pictures.
It was like really committed people to their craft, you know, and level professionalism.
That was just grateful to be there.
I bet it was pretty cool to see everybody kind of in their own zone, you know, and doing
their thing.
So that's, that's really amazing.
What a, you're so lucky.
I agree.
Yeah.
Did you happen upon any like llamas or anything while you were in Peru as well or like other
wildlife?
Yeah.
One of the places that we were looking for spiders had alpaca.
I don't know what the difference is.
They're calling it alpacas.
Yeah.
Alpaca.
Yeah.
They were right there on the side of the hill where we were flipping rocks.
So I got a video of us with tarantulas and there's alpacas 20 feet behind us.
You know, so alpaca, pigs, chickens, cows.
Wow.
Yeah, a lot of livestock.
It's definitely part of their Peruvian culture or livelihood itself, the livestock.
Yeah.
Sounds like it.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
You have alpacas there?
We've got, yeah, we found alpacas and all the creatures inside us.
So yeah.
Sounds like it's like, we're very livestock-ish.
Yeah.
Alpacas are interesting animals too because they're very vocal from what I remember.
Like, so we usually get like a Western stock show here in Denver because Denver is a really
big hub for a lot of things.
So as far as like the West goes, we're right in the middle of all that.
And so of course during like the Western stock show, they bring alpacas in and they're just
so vocal.
Were the ones in Peru just as vocal or, because they hum and do all sorts of weird things.
Yeah.
I don't remember that.
Okay.
I don't remember.
I don't even, I don't think I could even imitate the sound that they'd make.
Yeah, I can't remember.
Yeah.
Yeah, I can't remember that.
Oh, that's all right.
It's just an oddball question.
Yeah.
My dream is to go down the Peruvian Amazon on a boat.
I really would love to, you know, I had to stop where I felt like it was going to be
a long time ago.
I've been a movie much around.
That's sort of brewing in the heart would have been something I would have loved but
not when I was, I would have preferred to have been more inland into the East, to where
we'd seen Amazon and Ecuador.
That would have been awesome.
Like right at the border.
Like rain forest itself.
Yeah.
I would have looked that.
I mean, the flipping spiders on the hillside, flipping rocks for spiders, that would have
creeped me out.
If I hadn't been finding a spider every rock, I would have not slept at all ever.
I would have been trying to, you know, go in the jungle and see all sorts of weird stuff
that would have bothered me.
But the tarantulas are not.
Not at all.
Very uncomfortable.
Very uncomfortable with it.
Very uncomfortable.
That's understandable, Simon.
They're not for everybody.
It's okay.
I saw Tom Patterson got bit by a funnel.
It wasn't a funnel web spider?
It's by that Lina fell.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, he, yeah, a couple of thing marks on his hand.
Yeah.
I guess he didn't get envenomated, I guess.
He didn't seem to.
Oh, lucky.
So it's just the pierced the skin.
Yeah.
Oh, so, okay.
So he didn't really get like the full experience of the venom or anything.
I was going to ask like what kind of symptoms did he have?
Like what's going on?
Because I do have, I have, well, see, and a lot of people that I know also have little
they lay, I'm probably pronouncing it totally wrong, but you know, the funnel web species,
I mean, they're fascinating awesome spiders, but it would be good to know what to expect
from a bite.
Yeah.
I don't really remember exactly the situation either.
I think that at some point when they were digging it out, it got him.
I don't know if he went to grab and it was underneath the rock or something.
I don't remember exactly the situation, but yeah, he definitely got bit, but didn't seem
to be any symptoms or any sign of envenomation.
Yeah.
Well, that's good.
Yeah.
Not that I wanted him to get envenomated or anything.
You know.
What's the highest?
Would have been interesting to witness the effects or to be able to document the effects.
I don't think there's a better person for that.
You know what I mean?
He would have been very detailed and been able to really tell us what was happening
there, but all good.
No worries.
He's said he's actually never been bit before.
Oh, well, yeah.
No, I believe that.
So, you know, because I've been keeping for about five years, a little over five years
now and I still have yet to be bitten.
So, you know, knocking on wood, I don't want to be bit, but yeah, I mean, I think that
goes to if you respect the tarantula and the spider's body language and you give them
what they need, you know, proper space, proper burrowing, a substrate and plenty of
hides and stuff like that, then the chances of you being bit is pretty low for sure.
Yeah, I agree.
Yeah.
Okay, so.
You don't want to mess with the animal, do you?
You're not like putting your hands in a mess with the actual animal.
So.
No, certainly not.
I mean.
I'm connected to it and I'm really, really low.
Yeah.
I have a couple of, I have a couple of species of tarantulas that are actually really curious
and will want to come out and hang out on my hand and stuff like my, I have an Afonopelma
cow codees, like I would say she's a sub adult.
She's taken forever.
I've had her for five years and she's still not an adult, but she'll, she absolutely will
come out and want to hang out on my hand and just, you know, venture around.
So, you know, even my grandma stole a polka.
She'll do the same thing.
She'll come out, she'll come be adventurous and never, never had any kind of defensive
postures or threat poses or anything from her.
So it, I guess it just depends on the spider, but I mean, I'm not going to go stick in my
hand in the, you know, half of a peltma or the, you know, my serial because, you know,
the bit of, I'm not going to put my finger in the burrow.
That's, you're just asking for it then, you know,
I know she's got one of those.
Maybe she's, yeah, the video.
Yeah.
They're, they're a beautiful species.
Absolutely.
But they can be very spicy.
So, yeah, I keep saying that.
I keep telling, I keep a lid on scary.
Yeah.
I don't, I don't, I'm a bit, you know,
Oh, the serial.
I'm not a serial to guy, is Starlingi.
Yeah.
I can tell you the name of the spiders that I just got my hands full of all Sony.
Well, you do the same for me with mantises.
I don't know mantises.
Do the common names of the spiders.
Yeah.
I appreciate that.
But the species rather than genus.
So I, I'm not Starlingi and I love the, you know, some of the others, but I don't, I tend
not to remember the common, common names.
Because to me, they all look the same.
I'm a bit of a spider racist to be honest.
They all look the same.
They're hairy.
They're ugly.
They've got eight legs.
They're over there most of the time.
That's great.
You know, but yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,
I, I, I, I, I, I don't, I don't find them exciting at all.
I mean, it's like, oh, it's a spider.
It's, it's, you know, it's more than this is no, no good to me because then I just can't
eat it.
So that's, that's my, my view about the spiders.
But now, now I'm stalking them to self.
Yes, you are.
I have to pay more interest in them, which I've been, I've been feeding them.
I've been feeding them this week, which I've never, ever done before because me in the same
room is an open box of tranquilizers and something that doesn't happen.
But I've been feeding them and I don't think I'm feeding them with the right things.
I suppose you'd better tell me that because I've been giving them fruit flies and they're
about a centimeter.
These guys sort of wonder whether that's, whether they need more or what.
Yeah, fruit, fruit flies are a good, a good source of, you know, food for the real little
guys.
So yeah, that's, that makes total sense.
Oh, that's okay.
I'm doing okay.
Yeah.
Sorry, what?
I have to give them.
Probably use fruit flies for your mantis too.
Only when the first insta after that I give them roaches.
Fruit flies are not really flamantists, to be honest with you.
There's nothing in, there's nothing in them at all.
But spiders seem to enjoy them.
They eat them with some of the scorpions, the roguerfamantists now, not really.
It's just convenience for humans I think, or I'd be giving them fruit flies.
Yeah, probably, huh?
So okay, Tyler, about importing and exporting to ranch lids, how does that work?
How is the system set up, obviously?
Because I know you were talking with Richard about that a little bit.
And so, I just kind of wanted to touch base on that.
How does it work?
Do you have to go through a lot of channels or?
Yeah, I've never done exports.
I've only brought into the country and said I've never shipped out of the country.
But yeah, of course, spiders are cheaper in Europe and other places in the world.
So it makes sense to buy elsewhere and sell here in the United States.
And yeah, so you gotta have an import license for the fish and the mull of life.
And you gotta find somebody that will sell to you.
And sometimes these people want a minimum sale, maybe $10,000 or so.
So yeah, so you agree to a purchase and maybe make a payment or pay in full.
However, it works with the person you're buying from.
And you set a date and then you have to report to the fish and mull of life like, hey, I'm
bringing in this stuff at this place.
You list out everything that you're bringing in.
And so then they'll have an opportunity to inspect the package.
Typically, I mean, there's like 20 or so different port of entries around the country
where fish and mull life have offices set up to inspect the boxes.
And so yeah, so they'll have an opportunity to search through the box, make sure that
your quantities are right, that your labels are right.
And yeah, so you work with fish and mull life and you gotta work with a broker who does
the customs, there's a customs clearance side.
There's all kinds of agencies that regulate import things.
It's a customs, you know, board of patrol customs, fish and mull life.
There's USDA for like other...
Yeah, one time my box got flagged for USDA, which is not...
Tarantulas and scorpions don't need to go through USDA, but USDA checks like other bugs,
I think like butterflies or anything like that, like crops.
And so yeah, so some animals do have to have a USDA license and search.
And so you gotta be careful about what you're bringing and what kind of authorities have
to be involved and what the process is.
So yeah, it's kind of like...
It is a horse that's kind of where the opportunity lies.
You know, it's a lot of red tape and a lot of stuff to sort out and juggle, but you know,
horse sets, I mean, that's part of what...
I mean, I'd say that part of what I get paid to do is to go through all that hassle, right?
Yeah.
And so, yeah, not sure if I thoroughly answered that, if there's anything...
You did wonderfully.
I appreciate it very much because, you know, I've always been kind of curious about that
process and how it works.
So I'm thankful to people like you, Tyler, who go through all of that because for me,
I wouldn't even do it.
So thank you.
Yeah, yet it's...
Fish and Wildlife is not very consistent, unfortunately.
You go to say Seattle, Port of Seattle, and they'll tell me, oh, you can't have anything
from Costa Rica or oh, you can't have anything from Yemen, alfory.
They took stuff before, you know, thousands of dollars in animals they took, which should
have been legal.
Oh, if I go to LA, you can't have anything from Venezuela.
So it's like learning too, in my experience, like learning what I can bring and what port.
I mean, that's...
I feel like I'm cheating or something by doing that, but in reality, there's different places
around the country that allow different things through for whatever reason.
Yeah, exactly.
So depending on what I'm bringing, I have to pick which part of the country to bring
it in.
Wow.
Simon, I know you have something to say.
What's up?
No, I'm just amazed because I don't understand why A is a single country where you don't have
one rule for every single port.
Like, what you can bring is this, what you can't is this.
I don't understand that.
That's completely confusing because like you say, if you can bring something in from,
say, Venezuela in Maine, for instance, and then post it to LA, what's the difference?
You might as well just bring it in LA.
So what's the difference?
Why can't they...
Like...
Hard to do this, that's fair.
I mean, the United States is a pretty big land mass.
So each state and each region per se has different crops, different agriculture that
certain species of, like you said, butterfly or things like that can really, really have
a negative impact.
And so that's why.
And it's actually kind of silly that they would do it regionally like that because,
again, just like what you said, yeah, you can bring it through Maine, but you're going
to send it to Florida or to Washington or wherever.
Right?
So...
Yeah, it's a bit different.
You can't have some different rule in one state.
Yeah.
For the state next to it.
Right.
And then expects everyone to say, oh, we better not take that over the border because that's
not fair.
That's just...
Yeah.
Well, and you know, it's...
Each state has different restrictions on different things.
Yeah, I've always found America crazy for the way that they deal with the states.
The other thing that I find crazy with America is your export laws are almost as strict as
your import laws.
Oh, absolutely.
Which I find awfully crazy.
Like if I wanted to buy a thinker for Chinese mantis, that isn't...
Let me get this right now.
That isn't even a native of the USA.
No.
So you're actually...
It's actually an invasive species.
If I wanted to buy a thinker from you guys, I have to pay extra tax.
And it's like, why?
You're getting rigged.
I'm offering to get rid of any invasive species from you.
Right?
Yeah.
Offering.
I'm paying it.
And you're saying, oh, then you have to pay extra for that.
And it's starting yours.
It's just blows my mind the way they will just stop things at the border.
Like if I want to send something to France, I can put it in a box and I can stick it in
the post office and send it to France.
And that's one thing that I do like about Europe is that you guys are so very interconnected.
It's not...
You know what I mean?
Like it's...
You can get to France on a train and it's not very costly.
Whereas here in the States, you know, it can be quite an expense just to travel between
the States.
So that's one thing you guys do right.
I have no idea, Tyler.
But you can cope with all the import nonsense.
And the cost...
The cost...
Like I've got a friend in California who has a bookshop and I've seen the prices he sells
things for.
And I've always liked the price.
But some of them, it's ten times the price of what we would pay him.
And I'm like, wow.
It explains the export and import and I go, oh yeah, that's fine.
And it's...
Yeah.
It's...
I don't know how we even have a hobby over there with that.
But it's a lot of money that you have to pay for things.
Because of...
Thankfully, because dedicated enthusiasts like Tyler, like Tom Patterson, and people like
me who are willing to send mature males to places that need them.
And, you know, thankfully...
I think the hobby sustains itself in that aspect.
Because, you know, we're...
Yeah, you know, I may live in Colorado, but, you know, I get...
I go on Spender or something and we can find a female here or a male there of a species
that we need, you know.
So, I mean, we're kind of interconnected in that way.
It's just there's a few loops and, you know, kind of guidelines that you have to follow.
But for the most part, it's okay, you know.
I don't know.
Tyler, do you know, like, I don't know how your shows work.
There's a lot of shows in the UK.
There's a lot of Invert shows.
Hell of a lot of Spider shows in the UK.
When you do shows over there, do you go to a lot of shows?
Do you just stay in the one state?
Or do you go, like, across the country doing two different shows in different states?
Well, that depends on the vendors.
So, each vendor has the choice of going to each show that...
Okay, so you'll have basically the main people of the show.
So, like, we'll just use Repticon as an example.
They're going to have a schedule of all the states and places and cities that they're going to be.
Now, the vendor is going to pay that conglomerate, essentially, to have, like, tables and booths.
And they can go as many tables and booths as they want all throughout the cities.
But each table and booth, of course, is going to cost, like, a certain amount of fee.
And so they can... And they have to travel themselves, right?
So, I do know quite a few, like, local vendors here in Denver who really only hit, like, the Denver shows.
Maybe sometimes Kansas or, like, Utah, you know, surrounding states.
But otherwise, like, there are some pretty good vendors and, like, big vendors that will go all over the nation.
But I would say, like, you know, for, let's say, let's say, Spidershop, you know, Tyler, it was really great for him to come to Denver.
But he doesn't always do that. Sometimes he'll go to this show or to California or, you know...
So it's really up to the vendors. And so that's kind of how that works. Does that answer your question?
Yeah, so it must be quite difficult, though, I mean, with America being such a big country.
It can be, yeah.
You'd be on the road every day if he went to all the shows, I should imagine.
And together might be able... You probably know better than I do just, like, how that kind of works and, like, the best ways to go about it.
Yeah, just from personal experience. I know there's vendors that'll do shows.
They don't have much of an online presence or not big business online.
And they depend on the shows for their income and their sales.
And they'll travel long distance to go to shows all the time, and that's their main income as shows.
Interesting.
But for me, yeah, a lot of the local shows are, you know, a nice payout sometimes.
But the shows for us, for Spidershop, are more of like a marketing and a promotional thing, you know.
A lot of the shows we do... Denver was decent, but sometimes the sales, the show just covers the cost of being there.
And so it's just about being out there and meeting Leah and meeting other, you know, enthusiasts and customers, right?
And so for me, yeah, I'd like to... Like, we went to Pennsylvania this past year, looking to do North Carolina later this year,
and kind of just hitting around the country just to make an appearance, to show face, to meet people, to promote, you know.
And that's kind of the driving force for me to do the shows is the marketing or promotion.
Not necessarily the sales that I would get.
Yeah, that makes total sense because I like to go to shows, essentially just to network and to, you know, talk with people in the hot.
Being kind of get, you know, obviously, I, you know, propose to you about, you know, being on the show, being on the podcast.
So that's kind of what I do.
I just network and find people to interview and, you know.
And of course, I, you know, occasionally bring home animals and stuff, but yeah, shows are definitely a little different here, Simon, you know.
Yeah, it's just, I spit to a lot of people and they say, oh, we've never got this show, we haven't got that show, you know, you haven't got that many shows.
Yeah.
Towards here, because it seems like here, like every other week, there's an, there's an invert show, specifically an invert show, not just, you know, there's not, not reptiles or not,
it's, we even have a specific tarantula shows, which, which are, you know, for the UK, like British tarantula society and stuff like that old shows.
And funny enough, the guy who runs, who runs all the inverts for it shows, I think this five or six every year, part of the country is hosted by the spider shop, the UK spider shop.
Yeah.
There's a lot of so many shows, so many shows.
Sorry, time.
That's happening now in our local area.
We're totally getting washed out with so many shows, which is, I don't think it's a benefit to the vendor.
No.
No, I don't.
I got 100% agree with you because you're like, if you're going to get paid for the show, you're like, ah, should I get paid for the show?
Should I, should I get tables there or people are going to hold on to the money and not go to that one and go to this one instead.
So it, it, I don't know, it's, it's a bit, it's a hit and miss, I think now when there's a lot of shows, it does get a bit hit and miss.
It doesn't matter if it's a good show or a show.
Yeah.
I can imagine going to like all of the shows for the show me reptiles shows, you know what I mean would be quite a venture, but also like that's what you would really have to focus on.
And that would be pretty much all you do. So I'm, I'm glad for the local vendors here. You know, but I also really, really love when I get to see vendors from other, you know, outside, obviously.
So yeah, I mean, it's, it's shows are great. I love going to them. I love, you know, being a part of that. And eventually I will have an inverted cast booth.
So I'm working on doing that probably within the next year or so I'll have my own booth. So that'll be a lot of fun. Hopefully we can get Simon in with the zoom call or something.
I might actually do that next month. Absolutely. Yeah. If you want to, if we want to broadcast from the show, I think that's fun.
It's in Bristol in August. So I might have to get something and put something on the table. But I'm not even going.
Somebody else is running the tables for me because Bristol's like five hours away from me and I, so I just send in these animals and they're going to set the table and stuff.
So I might see what I can do about, I haven't even got any promo stuff for my, for myself, to be honest.
To bottom the table. So I usually just fill them full of animals. Yeah. So they'll be promo cards or stands or anything. Just animals. Complete. That's it. You know, of course, I'll have to have a look.
See. Yeah. Yeah, I'll take that. I'll have a look at that.
Well, we're down to like the last five minutes of the show. So let's, let's do our shameless plugs. What do you guys say?
Tyler, I'll go ahead and let you start. Do you have anything that you want to promote? Anything coming up this week or month or year, whatever it is, go ahead.
Thanks. Yeah, you know, summer kind of is always a challenge, I think, for vendors. It's kind of slower season. I think there's, this is a good time to be a buyer.
I think there's a lot of sales going on, a lot of discounts. And we're doing a sale on our Peruvian species this weekend. It says 33% off on all of the Peruvian species.
That's at spider shop.com. Yeah. And we're going to be vending at the Pial of show and Pial of Washington. This is July 13 and 14.
And then two weeks later, we'll be in Anaheim, California for the reptile super show. So that's the end of July. And that's, yeah, that's our near future for spider shop. Yeah.
Very cool. Yeah.
Awesome. So if you're in the Anaheim area and you want to meet Tyler, go to that cool show in Anaheim. I think that's, he's awesome. I love, I was so glad I got to meet you in person. It was, it was really cool talking with you and like, you know, getting a chance to network.
Yeah, likewise, Leah. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it very much.
All right, Simon, what do you've got going on?
Loads. Yeah, we've got the great exhibition, a table there in August 3rd, but don't quote me on it because I can't remember.
We've just started with wine, so mystery boxes, which will be mantis mystery boxes, which will be mantis and tarantulas in them, which is, should be for Eito, I've got mantis mystery boxes do okay.
So why not try that mantis mystery boxes to see if that's any good.
Still making a documentary on deadly mantis, not getting the time due to this lot demanding it.
Yes, and footballs are very shortly so also because I'm European, we have to watch the football whether you like it or not.
Go Manchester United. No, no, no, no.
Cool. Cool.
Let's see, I am finishing up actually quite a few videos, I'm just doing some voiceovers and stuff so be watching on my channel because I do have an unboxing that I'm going to be releasing of the spider shop.
So watch for that because it's coming out this week.
Otherwise, that's really all I got going on I'm just, you know, glad to be home but got a lot to do.
Gotta make sure these guys get fed, you know.
Yeah.
So, alright, well, thank you everybody for watching. Thank you Simon for joining us and thank you so much Tyler for for coming on the podcast and talking all about, you know,
Tom and Richard and Peru and Spidershop and we absolutely love it and anytime you want to come back on you are more than welcome.
So yeah, we'll we'll see you in the future and guys go get those Peruvian species off of the Spidershop 33% off that's pretty rad.
So yeah, check it out. Thank you again.
Thanks Leah thanks Simon.
Thank you Tyler. Nice to meet you mate.
Yeah, good to meet you. Thank you.