You guys see the thing on "Deadly Spiders" on Discovery today?

[Fergrim]

I only saw the part where it focused on the Black widow.. and for about five minutes they watched this guy walk around his yard...find a widow.. then smash it with a shoe! He'd been bitten once and now every night he goes out for vengeance..

Just thought it odd.

[Kaos]

Hi! Have seen it before. Why is there so many stupid people in this world :?

[cichlidsman]

is there a different discovery then "discovery Canada"? cos all the shows everybodys talks about don't show on my channel. and the same goes for national geographic.

[Fergrim]

"disovery canada" Do they show captain kangaroo and Bill Nye on that one? :) hehe

[Elizabeth]

Well, I saw the show referred to above (the guy hunting for widows out of vengeance) and I can honestly say that Captain Kangaroo and Bill Nye have tons more going for them than the people who produced this show! It was basically cheap sensationalism. I don't believe they had any intent to educate anyone on anything, although, like some gossip magazine, they managed to include some facts, perhaps to try to bring a little respectability to the rest of the garbage. Maybe they couldn't avoid some facts, despite their best efforts? I feel sure if they could have passed off a widow with 2 inch fangs and a murderous attitude as real, they would have gone for it!

[Lochala]

They gave the widow a bad name. The only way they would bite is if you are screwing around with one that has an eggsack, and any dumbass who is dumb enough to do that derserves a bite. :cool:

[JPD]

They gave the widow a bad name. The only way they would bite is if you are screwing around with one that has an eggsack, and any dumbass who is dumb enough to do that derserves a bite.

Widows do get a bad rap. Especially from the so called "educational" programming.
Even with ones that are better, they still play the sinister/dramatic music.
Widows are my favorite. While I don't recommend it, I handle mine fairly regularly without incident. They are shy and gentle creatures who deserve much more credit for their beauty and all of the good that they do with regard to pest control..

[Stormcrow]

Beautifully put guys, the Widow is much maligned. What gets me is all these educational television show reveal a wandering spider when they show clips of this elegant creature. Very misleading as we all know producers and film crew had a spider wrangling on hand to produce these clips. For one, a Widow is confined to a single cobweb for the entiriety of it's lifecycle unless the web is completely and utterly destroyed, than maybe the Widow will take on wandering tendencies. A big maybe but usually they rebuild the silk on the spot or near the spot of the original. And a Widow usually arrives via a parachuting ling, maybe does a little surveying, constructs the cobweb and because of it's miniscule size goes unnoticed for a couple of weeks or more depending on prey availability until -- viola -- it is a subadult or adult Widow sitting in someone's garage or garden shed.

[Lochala]

I think something needs to be done to inform the general public so that no should be killed. :cool:

[Stormcrow]

The only segment that was fascinating is the family that kept 2,000 or so Widows in their basement to be milked for antivenom. Quite nice to see young girls of this husband and wife feeding maggots to each individual Widow. You know, it is fascinating to hear testimonials of bite victims but if you don't stress the statistics and medical facts then it is pointless. As pointless as wasting 15 minutes interviewing a improperly educated bite victim who is so afraid of the largely docile creature that he spends every evening senselessly destroying them. What a wasted reel.