The Tarantula Collective

If you don’t know about IsoCribs by Tarantula Cribs and Terra Isopoda by The Bio Dude, you better go teach yourself something.

IsoCribs are purpose-built little isopod condos. Clear acrylic, easy access, and adjustable ventilation that lets you establish a humid side and a drier side so the colony can regulate their own moisture needs. No more poking a bunch of holes in a Sterilite tub and calling it a day.

And Terra Isopoda isn’t just dirt you dump in the bottom. It’s a substrate made specifically for isopods and other detritivores, with hardwood and calcium worked right into the mix. The substrate itself becomes part of the ecosystem you’re building.

Put the two together with plenty of leaf litter, cork, moss and a healthy colony, and you’ve got an isopod setup that looks damn good on the shelf and actually works.

If you’re picking up either one, use my affiliate links in the bio. It helps support what I’m doing with Tarantula Collective and supports keeper owned businesses.

The secret to getting me to dust the studio and knock down all the cob webs (I like cob webs, they feel spooky) is telling me WV Living Magazine is coming over with a camera.

They spent some time here today shooting photos and video for an upcoming story on the Tarantula Collective in their October issue (i hope im allowed to say that), which gave me a pretty good excuse to clean the place up and get everything looking respectable.

The timing worked out, because Spider Fest is right around the corner!

The studio is already packed full of tarantulas, spiders, scorpions and all kinds of other creatures. What’s going to make it look completely different on September 13th is that the studio AND the entire basement are getting taken over by a bunch of my friends bringing even more invertebrates to sell.

Basically, we’re turning the Tarantula Collective studio into the best damn open house I could imagine. So dont complain later when you hear awesome it was. We have people flying in from Idaho. IDAHO!

SPIDER FEST 2026
September 13 | 11am–5pm
The Tarantula Collective Studios | Wheeling, WV
$5 admission | Kids 17 & under FREE with an adult

Books. Because Chat GPT is a hallucinating liar. Don't trust, verify. Search experience, not algorithms. AI hates spiders (ok that last one is a joke.)

How do you actually know if your tarantula is healthy?

7 Signs Your Tarantula Is Healthy How do you actually know if your tarantula is healthy?In this vid...

P metallica portrait

Heat pads have tarantulas "cooked" and way too many keepers are accidentally killing spiders while calling it “care.”

Your Tarantula Isn’t Cold… It’s Cooked. Heat pads have tarantulas "cooked" and way too many keepers are acc...

When and I are behind the table, we mean business...lol.

A few shots from the Huntington expo this past weekend. We stayed pretty busy, met a ton of new keepers, talked spiders and centipedes all day, and sent a whole lot of inverts home with new people.

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by the booth, whether you bought something, asked questions, grabbed a selfie or just came over to shoot the s**t for a few minutes. Huntington treated us well.

And we’re not done yet. If you missed us in Huntington, here’s where you can catch us next:

Pittsburgh Reptile Show & Sale
September 5 & 6
Pittsburgh Mills Mall, Tarentum, PA
Saturday: 10am - 3pm, VIP entry at 9am
Sunday: 9am–3pm

Spider Fest
September 13 11am - 5pm
Tarantula Collective Studios
Wheeling, WV
$5 admission, kids 17 & under free with an adult

So I’ll be spending most of September standing behind a table talking about spiders. Pretty much business as usual. I hope i get a chance to meet you!