Brilliant, excellent, educated, entertained, best one yet…a triumph! These are just some of the words that attendees wrote in the guest book to describe their day.

The annual gathering of like-minded tarantula enthusiasts occurred at the Aztec Hotel and Spa in Bristol. It is an extremely comfortable and spacious venue with excellent facilities for events of this type.

Kim and Mark Pennell are the founders of this unique event, which is a glorious alchemy of lectures, dinner with coffee and cakes and the opportunity to meet friends old and new and learn a great deal.

I would like to give you a brief report of how the day went. Registration began at lunchtime, with free itinerary booklets and lanyards with personalised name tags for all attendees. There was a gathering in the foyer, and an opportunity to enjoy a drink before going into the main room and taking seats.

Ray Hale opened the event in his own inimitable style. It has become the custom to open with a humorous slant just to relax people and get everyone in the right frame of mind. Ray’s ‘Bluffers guide to tarantulas’ certainly did the trick. He delivered the following hypothesis

You had to be there folks and if you weren’t you missed out on a fascinating insight into the workings of the tarantula bluffers mind. The madding crowd were suitably ‘warmed up’.

Mark Pennell and Dean Hewlett were next up with ‘A walk through Malaysia’ which covered 6 years worth of trips to this region. This was an extremely interesting talk and I was astonished to learn of his exploits in Borneo and the tarantulas that defend their burrows by blocking the entrance with back legs and abdomen (the weak spot on a spider!) The introduction of video clips was a very welcome addition to the enjoyment of the lecture and he captured the atmosphere of Malaysia brilliantly, taking us on a journey through the Cameron Highlands and beyond.

Some of his points were extremely thought provoking. I was not alone in being sickened to hear of the trade in dead spiders. Mark spoke of his visit to the ‘killing room’ where a local man killed thousands of spiders for tourists, particularly Japanese visitors. The gorgeous Cyriopagopus schioedtei are harvested and killed to be set in display cases and sold on. It was heart wrenching to hear of this and Mark illustrated the scale of the problem. Maybe the BTS can do something about this terrible situation, which decreases the theraphosid population in a far more shattering way than ‘normal’ collecting ever would.

Coffee and cakes were eagerly dispatched before the next lecture began.

Martin Nicholas is of course known throughout the arachnological world for his TV exploits and the story behind the giant ‘chicken’ spider. Yet there are many more strings to Martin’s bow and he gave the audience a preview of TV footage yet to be screened. He has visited deserts, rainforests and spent many a desperate hour deep down in caves looking for spiders but his efforts pay off resulting in unique and ‘seen here first’ footage.

Again we heard a story of how spiders were killed in their natural habitat by local people. This time it took place in the research station/reserves in Mexico. People will simply machete any spider seen or chase them to their burrow and pour petrol down it. Martin has travelled around the globe and the Mexicans he met seemed to have a great fear of spiders, and would indeed kill them on sight believing them to be deadly killers. I can only hope his programmes are shown in Mexico to show the positive side.

Death remained in the air as Martin informed the audience that in French Guyana he came across a gentleman who collected and killed a great many Theraphosa blondi by tying them into plastic bags and leaving them out in the sun to die – a disgraceful thing to do that conjures up awful images.

Thankfully though, there were humorous moments – for example the footage of Martin attempting to ‘encourage’ a Theraphosa blondi from underneath a tree in the rainforest…wait until you see the film to see what happens! I can’t reveal it of course, that information is exclusive to people who attended…this is why you cannot miss your chance next year folks!

Martin is so obviously dedicated to spiders and the enjoyment and genuine love of his subject manifests itself through the camera lens. I expect great things Martin!

Boris Striffler is well known to British spider hobbyists. He has a rare talent for accumulating and passing on his knowledge of scorpions and this was evident in his delivery of giant scorpions of the genus Pandinus. At last I know how to sex my specimens! His detailed slides gave the captivated gathering a geography lesson as well as a taxonomical one and the presentation of the distribution of Pandinus was of enormous interest. I now know why Pandinus imperator exists in astonishingly varying sizes…large and small you might say. There is the Savanna size (small) and the Forest size (much larger). I never considered that before and always thought they were from the same habitat. It just shows how important first-hand fieldwork is. Many BTS members keep scorpions, and if you like scorpion systematics and phylogeny then this was the lecture for you.

Dinner is another opportunity to socialise. Mark and Kim organise the seating plan to maximise the mix of people in order for them to get to know one another – and it works really well. The food was (once again) excellent, with a choice of Chicken Stroganoff, Lancashire Hotpot, Penne Pasta or a platter of cold meats, finished off with fresh fruit salad, chocolate fudge cake and coffee.

On then to the final lecture…

Andrew Smith has a delightful, infectious enthusiasm for theraphosid spiders. If you have never attended one of his lectures, you have genuinely missed out. Every time I listen to him I go away suitably charged to ‘do more’ with spiders. He takes the listener on a romantic journey through the long decades of discovery. He inspires the recipient of his words with images of great rivers and emerald forests, of explorers, beautiful spiders and characters who have literally given their lives to help us understand and appreciate the tarantulas we have today.

To know where you are going, you have to know where you have been. Learning a little of the history of the grand old men of entomology such as Anton Ausserer, Henry Bates, Berthold Seeman and Octavius Pickard- Cambridge was fascinating. It made me WANT to go to the rainforest and explore. It made me appreciate once again the beauty of spiders such as Brachypelma emilia, which is seldom seen these days, but I am lucky enough to own two females that have now become even more special to me.

And what of the people who attended? A common theme throughout discussions was that this is a very friendly and relaxed event. Certainly, Scott and Debby Scher made this observation and they had flown in from America! There are no stuffy, formal people, there are no huge egos to stroke, and there are no cosy groups who all go off together. Everyone mixes and shares experiences…a heartening and refreshing change.

I want to finish by taking my hat off to Mark and Kim. They have given unstintingly of their time to make this event the undoubted success that it is. On behalf of the BTS committee, the people who have ever been, and the lucky people yet to come, thank you both. Here’s to the next time.