Caring for your Widow

Now that you have caught your own Black Widow, you now need to care for it. Its really easy. All you need to do is feed, water, and clean its habitat. Feeding is my favorite part of having a Widow. Its cool to see it catch and bite and kill then eat its prey. I feed Sheelah any insects I can find. Like beetles, grasshoppers, flies, moths, butterflies, and earwigs. But recently I have been feeding her wasps. Its cool to watch her avoid the stinger and it gets rid of wasps which is always a good thing. In the winter time or when I can find any bugs, I buy a cricket at the pet store. Its important to know what insects you can or cant feed them. The main bugs to avoid are, Praying mantas, which are their only natural predator after themselves, and Monarch butterflies. They are poisonous. In the summer I feed my Widow every week to 10 days. In the winter I feed her every 3 to 5 weeks. But you can look at their abdomen to see if they need to be fed. If its swollen, don't feed. If its shrunken, feed. I have had to place her food in her web with long tweezers lately due to the design of her new habitat. But it just makes it more exciting. For watering I just have a empty hair spray bottle that I fill with water. I spray 3 to 5 squirts onto her web every 2 to 3 days. They drink in the wild from the dew that collects on the webs. Its cool to watch her run around and drink them up. For cleaning I just move her to a new habitat. I do this about every 3 months or if I see any major flaws with her current habitat.

 Sheelah catching a wasp.

 Sheelah eating a cricket in her old habitat.

http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-and-Treat-Black-Widow-Spider-Bites

Pet Black Widow continued...

With the last post I focused more on the spider itself but with this post I'm hoping to focus on the pet part. Before you start crying because you cant handle bugs, they definitely aren't for everyone but they are the easiest thing to care for next to a weed. And its a great conversation starter for guests and people think you're really cool.
 
  The first thing you need to do is find a spider. I caught my Widow, Sheelah, in my grandpas basement. This time of year they are going to be outside most often but you will start finding them inside in October.Or you can find a breeder online, but that's a little weird and its better to find a wild one. You then need to catch it. This can be tricky and dangerous if you aren't careful. You might want to use gloves. Use a clear container with a lid that has holes. Old pickle jars work great. Place the mouth of the jar over the spider and then put on the lid. If this doesn't work, use your imagination. I don't assume responsibility for any injuries. After your spider had gone to the bottom of the container you can put in sticks and leaves for the spider to make her webs in. I custom make my spiders habitats in woodshop. Keep in mind they like to hide so provide a place for them to do that. Depending on the time of year you catch your Widow, she may lay egg sacks. Its best to remove them quickly. But this is very dangerous. This is when the females are most aggressive and will take every opportunity to bite. Just put the egg sacks somewhere you don't mind black widows living. Keep in mind they kill lots of insects before you light it on fire. She can lay up to 5 to 6 sacks. The only thing you now have to do is feed and water and clean the cage. Ill get more into that in my next post. Black widows are very interesting animals and make good pets.

 This is Sheelah now. She doesn't have a red hourglass.

 This is her new habitat I made in woodshop.

 This is Sheelah the day I caught her.

Pet Black Widow

As many of you might be thinking when you see the title "Pet Black Widow", yes I am talking about the venomous arachnid, Latrodectus hesperus, that was the subject of our nightmares as children and still give us the creepy crawlies. And as to the pet aspect, I am the proud caretaker to a female Widow named Sheelah. With this blog I am trying to increase Black Widow awareness and demolish stereotypes set by the media about these fine creatures.

  Now with that out of the way, the first thing i would like to talk about is the spider itself. Black Widows are part of the Latrodectus genus that has sub species living in all continents except Antarctica. This is good news because you can use the information from this blog all around the world. But its bad news for those of you who hate spiders and the cold. It looks like you cant have everything in this life. The spider gets its name from the characteristically big, black bodies of the females. The males are about a third the size and light brown. They also have a red hourglass on their belly. Females can be red, orange, yellow or even white, while males are brown. The widow part comes from the fact that they engage in sexual cannibalism. After mating the female usually eats the male. This isn't just a metaphor for us men to take into account when dealing with women, but a evolutionary tool used to increase the survival of the young. Males are basically just a living reproductive system and their only purpose in life is to breed. When they breed they actually remove their reproductive organs and place them inside the female, this will kill them eventually, so instead of dying a slow painful death they let the female eat them so she can be better nourished to produce eggs. OK enough about sex, the spider prefer habitats that are dark, cool, and damp. Like wood piles, garages, basements, and under decks. The females can live up to 3 to 6 years and males only live about 10 months. The venom of the female is 10 times more toxic than a rattlesnake but she only injects a very small amount. They males are also venomous but they aren't big enough to bite humans. The bite isn't fatal in most cases but it still requires medical attention. Victims experience swelling, abdominal cramps, muscle spasms, extreme pain, and profuse sweating. The venom is designed to break down the insides of its prey into a bug smoothie. But it is very easy to avoid not getting bit, the only times a Widow will bite is when defending its egg sacks, defending herself, or killing prey. Black Widows play a critical part in the ecosystem and keep the insect population under control. Keep this in mind next time you come across one of these fascinating critters.

 This is a female with a egg sack

 This is a male

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/black-widow-spider/