Question about black widow eggs

[Gracilis]

I dont know too much about true spiders as i keep scorps, But i have a black widow that someone almost killed but ended up destroying the egg sac... (which was sad) which was well over a week ago.... and i check on it this morning and noticed ANOTHER egg sac sittin in the corner of a branch... i removed the sac and put it in another jar...


Now i know that scorpions can keep sperm in them for up to a year or longer without givin birth or even being fully gravid... is this the case with black widows also?

[Irks]

Yes, once a black widow has mated once, she can have fertile eggsacks pretty much for life.

[Gracilis]

hahah wow thats crazy.... i gotta keep an eye on her then lol...

[Spider-Spazz]

Yeah I learned that the hard way ;)
I had about 3 egg sacs with my first widow that I bred, and I looked up how many sacs they can make.
When I found out they store the sperm to make sacs at different times, I was amazed. Mom ended up making me let her go in an animal reserve with her sacs (:

[Gracilis]

hahahah yeah? my girlfriend collects T's but has a prob with me keepin a black widow that keeps makin egg sacs.... which is understandable lol ill just have to keep takin the sacs out... :(

[Widowman10]

they can make well over 15 sacs sometimes... i just take the sacs out and either release the spiderlings or let them cannibalize.

[cacoseraph]

yeah, lots of sacs


i kept a lady that was already mated when i caught her and she made something like 13 egg sacs. the last three were crappy and totally dead. the first three were pretty normal and the middle 7 all decreased in fecundity sequentially

[buthus]

Hesperus seem to make the most primo sacs ...like Andrew stated..3 or 4 for sure ...probably up to 6 or 7. Other US species ...seem to be less. Captivity is not perfect conditions...so its hard to really say. Mactans for me...3 to 4 good to ok sacs at best.
Hesps have always produced the most "dead" sacs for me (toward the end of their lives).

[Widowman10]

i think it was kug who said once that he had a female lay 15 or something like that. pretty crazy.