Black Widow Appreciation Thread

[xanadu1015]

I thought I would start a thread for the appreciation of Black Widows.
I personally love them, they are so easy to care for and are non-aggressive.



Laura

[misfitsfiend]

I also love my black and brown widows ... Great little hardy spiders. :)

[xanadu1015]

They are!! The two black widows I have Elvirah and Morticia(pictured on my first post with her infertile egg sac) eat like piggies! What I love is that I can have them crawl around on me and they are so calm!



Laura

[misfitsfiend]

Thats cool, I names mine darmah, morticia and Lilith. They are the only spiders I named. I have to many brown widows to come up with all the names and plenty of fertile eggsacs... I freeze about 3 a week.

[xanadu1015]

I'd love to keep a brown widow too. Is the attitude the same?



Laura

[misfitsfiend]

Yea, there exactly the same in attitude. And they even have a little more mild venom. if you are interested in purchacing adults or eggsacs PM me.

[xanadu1015]

How do you feed the little babies?



Laura

[misfitsfiend]

They can be fed crickets a little smaller than 1/4''. Widows have really strong webs, so as long as they get caught it will be eaten.

[Tarangela]

I have a Black Widow, it is a Southern Black Widow from what I understand. The southern have the hourglass, and the northerns have the red dots, right?

Anyway, I have one w/ an hourglass right now, and she has motled twice! I LOVE watching her! She literally chased a cricket around last night for at least 5 minutes, lol I LOVE watching how they catch their prey! It looks like they start shooting at it w/ very sticky web, and then, go and bite it.

I don't know if I could let her crawl on me, and I handle my other T's, but I love watching her :)

[edesign]

I have a Black Widow, it is a Southern Black Widow from what I understand. The southern have the hourglass, and the northerns have the red dots, right?

I don't know if I could let her crawl on me, and I handle my other T's, but I love watching her :)

Latrodectus mactans if you want the scientific name :) And actually, they too have three small dots near the spinnerets (sp?) if you look closely. As for the other widows in the Latrodectus genus, I'm not sure...i think L. hesperus' hourglass isn't fully connected in the center (yes, i'm too lazy to check google).

as for letting one crawl on me (I have one)...i don't have health insurance, and even if I did I personally don't find the risk worthwhile even knowing that it probably wouldn't kill me if it did bite me. To each their own though :)

[dkny_stylez]

damn i could of had one, we got a few of them in our grapes that came to the store... But my supervisor wouldnt let me keep them :(

[edesign]

politely say "ok, i will take them out back and execute them. Be back in 5 minutes" ;)

[JPD]

I'd love to keep a brown widow too. Is the attitude the same?

I find Brown Widows tend to be a bit more skittish. They drop from their web without much provocation whereas Black Widows tend to stand their ground a bit better.

[galeogirl]

I'd like to keep them because I think that they're gorgeous, but until my daughter is old enough to understand venomous animals and the respect they require, nothing hot will be in my house.

So for now I'll just admire them at the zoo and the pics you guys post. Someday, though, I'll have one.

[xanadu1015]

I don't encourage them crawling on me, but it has happened a couple times when I'm getting ready to feed them and they decided to venture out. They usually just crawl across my my fingers and go back in to their enclosures. I just stay calm and let them do thing. Lately though they have been quite happy to go to the bottom of their webs and wait for food to drop from the sky.


Laura

[JPD]

I'd like to keep them because I think that they're gorgeous, but until my daughter is old enough to understand venomous animals and the respect they require, nothing hot will be in my house.

A wise and responsible choice.
At the peak of my collection, (which is now 0), I had 30 L.hesperus, 5 or 6 L.geometricus, and 10 L.bishopi. My daughters at the time were 6 and 7.
The Widows were kept out of reach although nothing about the hobby impressed them. I did take them with me to the Arachnid presentations that I did for local area schools which gave them a sense of responsibility and respect for the T's and Widows.
So where in Oregon are you btw? I grew up in Salem and now live in Issaquah, WA.
Tootles.....

[demolitionlover]

Definetly want to eventually get into black widows. They are amazing little spiders. I have to do some reading. Don't they have a fairly short life span?

[Arachne]

Hi all! I'm new to this forum, but enjoying the wealth of information here. I have 5 widows (L. hesperus) - 3 mature females living freely in my sun room and 2 juvenile females in terrariums. They are so interesting - I love to watch and study. Truly beautiful creatures. I'm hoping to get some pics up soon. I have some great video of black widows mating.

My husband and sister think I'm nuts - my mom is the only one who thinks it's cool that I keep them. She finds them fascinating too. Thanks for the thread - they should definitely be appreciated!

:clap:
Ara

[fiveohatch]

i used to have several black widows. they were everywhere around my old house so i kept a few of them. they were very easy to take care of and lots of fun to watch. mine laid several egg sacs as well.

it was fun catching large bugs and watching them try to kill them.

[JonDaAzn]

i just caught a brown widow in our shower, my parents wanted to kill it so i just kinda snuck it out, the only problem is, i caught it right after a molt (it was still white), now its legs are all discombobulated (not a real word), but it seems to be fine, the wierd thing is, it seemed to be living on only ants

[NoS]

What type of containers do you guys keep the Widows in?

[Kugellager]

1 quart glass mayonnaise jars with hols drilled in the lids. Add a few twigs and and some dirt and you have an excellent escape-proof widow enclosure.

John
];')

[Steven]

d*mn, i must be blind :8o

i've just started a new tread on widow-set-ups, sorry

[Wade]

Generally speaking, widow bites are unlikley unless the spider's mouthparts are pressed into the skin. Usually this happens when a person is working outside in a widow friendly habitat, like clearing brush, moving firewood, working in the crawlspace under a house, etc. The spider gets dislodged from it's web and ends up in the persons cloths, and gets pinched in an armpit or in a spot where the clothing binds to the skin.

A widow walking on your hands is unlikley to bite and may not even be able to. I stop short of recomending it, however, since there's no need to do it and there's always the off chance the spider could get a bite in somehow.

Wade

[death1]

Here is what I learned. Pint size Chinese soup containers! Paperclip to poke "SMALL!!" holes in the case of hatches. Now, they are pretty delicate one fall can kill. So some soft moisture retaining peat. I usally put in an inch or more in the enclosures. Then a few maple sticks. If they mold or rot replace them. I keep L. Geometricus so I keep them at about 65%. Temperature for them(L. Geometricus) is crucial. 65F will eventually kill them. 70F-85F is good. :D