Black Widow Molt

This was my first true spider molt. I caught her a couple of months ago, and she is really cool. She's like a ninja when I put a dubia nymph or cricket in there .

COOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!

Thats awsome! Is it the males or females that don't have the red spot on them? If my memory serves me right (which doesn't happen often!) the sex without the mark is the dangerous one due to people not recognizing it as a black widow and the one with the mark is the one that the fangs are not long enough to bite through our skin to inject their venom (or something like that). Does anyone know about this or did I dream this up somewhere???

Spider Woman wrote:Thats awsome! Is it the males or females that don't have the red spot on them? If my memory serves me right (which doesn't happen often!) the sex without the mark is the dangerous one due to people not recognizing it as a black widow and the one with the mark is the one that the fangs are not long enough to bite through our skin to inject their venom (or something like that). Does anyone know about this or did I dream this up somewhere???

Males don't have these markings, and are very rarely even seen. Most people find harmless house spiders, the ones with the big butts, and assume they are black widows because of their shape. These are usually the same people who claim to see "cotton headed rattle moccasins eating their chickens"
As for these being dangerous, you really have to be trying to get a bite from one. They would much rather run away than to waste their venom on a human. They will first try to run away, then, if they are cornered, they will shoot this really sticky web glue as a defense, then, if you continue to agitate them, they may bite. If you let it get to the point that they are willing to bite, you deserve what you get, in my opinion.
Yes, it is said that their fangs are too short to penetrate a healthy, young adult's skin, but I wouldn't test this. Most people who have become envenomated have been very young or very old with thinner skin.

that's cool man. i caught a big female myself last week. i'm hoping she lays a sack for me like the one i had last year did. those babies come out TINY!!!!!!!

Thanks! At least I know I'm not completely crazy. I live out on 15 acres so I see a lot of critters out here. I had a couple of the fuzzy black spiders with the white spot living in my living room for a couple of years. I don't know what ever happened to them, guess they died. I usually leave the spiders alone. I guess if the day comes when they start running everywhere when the light is turned on (like roaches-thank God I don't have) then I might start having to catch them and put'em outside! lol

Keep the spiders and you won't have pest bugs. I have a few spiders that hang out under the frog tanks and eat any fruit flies that escape.

That's excatly how I see it. I don't understand why most people don't have the same views I do!!!! Just like the snakes outside. People want to chop their heads off. If they would leave them alone they wouldn't have so many mice and rabbits, etc! Of course I leave them alone and still have a mice problem. Oh well, you know what I mean.

All of these posts are the reason I like hanging out with people you people...the world thinks you're crazy too . I usually keep several female widows and if I'm lucky a male now and then. One of my favorite spider catches was a black and yellow argiope (orb weaver) that laid an egg sac and I got to watch the babies balloon away naturally. I did open the sac farther out of curiosity and had a handful of pinhead sized babies. Awesome!!!!! Michael's right, I have never seen an aggressive widow except in defense of her egg sac or to someone deserving. I have even seen females abandon their sacs quickly knowing that they can produce another since it's likely that I am going to win or at least her perception is that giants always win.

Tandy

First thing, when you reply to a message do you just have to type the post title every time or am I missing somewhere to click that is automatically brings it in? I haven't figured out how to work my way around yet.

Anyway, I love those Orb Weavers (the black and yellow), they are so cool looking. I like to sit and watch them when they think your a threat they bounce up and down making their web go crazy!

I took a wolf spider home from the bank (everyone hollars at me to come get the spiders) one time instead of just putting it outside. She had an egg sac the next day. I watched her for weeks, some of the stuff she did with her webbing and the substrate I put in there was pretty darn cool. The eggs never hatched thou and when she finally let the sac go they were dried up inside. I don't know if it wasn't warm enough for her or what. I was going to wait til' they hatched and crawled up on her back for a couple weeks before I put her outside. But that didn't pan out

"First thing, when you reply to a message do you just have to type the post title every time or am I missing somewhere to click that is automatically brings it in? I haven't figured out how to work my way around yet."

Post Title is an optional field. You can put one if you want, otherwise the topic title is displayed.

THANKS!

COOL, IT WORKED