24.07.2022

Milking spiders with our old friend Prof. Dr. Volker Herzig.

Volker Herzig is a Spider enthusiast (Pic 1) and has probably the largest collection of spider venom in the world. He lives in Australia and does research as a Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast/Australia. Every few years he visits his parents and friends in Germany to milk spider venom. On this year's tour he stopped by us again (Pic 2) after having been to Martin Reinartz from exo-pet , Niklas Reinhardt and Jürgen Obster from Vogelspinnen-Bayern among others. He always visits us on these trips because we have been friends for a long time and because we always have interesting tarantulas that are worth taking venom from.

The venom is extracted with the help of a transformer (Pic 3), which causes the muscle, responsible for the venom release, to contract by a slight current flow, whereby the venom flows and is collected in a tube (Pic 4 & 5). The size of the spider is then measured by measuring the length of the carapace and abdomen (Pic 6). The spiders do not always let this procedure pass peacefully. Volker, however, has so much experience in dealing with even bad-tempered spiders that, to our knowledge, he has never been bitten while milking them for venom (Pic 7).

The venom or its components are ultimately used in medical and bioinsecticide research.