Black Widows
**NEW** My
spider pictures are online.
I did not seek to acquire a Black Widow. She sort of acquired
me. Isn't that how relationships work anyways? I found her one
not-so-romantic January evening crawling about in my hallway -- it was
either keep her, or kill her, since putting her outside would have
been a death sentence, and letting her roam my house would be too
risky.
She's the easiest pet to take care of. She's very quiet, kind of
shy, and eats crickets and people. Once every two weeks or so, a
cricket is dropped into her cage, which she eats when she feels like
it. Once a week or so, water is sprayed on her web which she can
drink. She can be neglected for a long time with no ill effects, and
no whining.
Since putting up this page, I've received numerous e-mails from people
who have found their own black widow and would like to care for it.
Here, I will try to answer some of the questions I've received:
Is it safe to keep one?
Probably not. Especially not if there are small kids around. Widows
have a potent neuro-toxin, which causes intense pain throughout the
torso (women have said even worse than labor). Death results in up to
1% of cases, more so with young kids and the elderly.
Also, you should note that a female black widow can store sperm from a
male for quite a long time. They will lay eggs once they find a
consistent food source. The second spider I had laid eggs after I had
her for nearly a year. Had those eggs hatched, the little spiders
would have had no problem crawling out of the little air holes in the
cage. And they are just as dangerous as adults.
Where do you keep her?
I kept her in a 2 gallon plastic bug cage at room temperature, out of
direct sunlight. The advantage of this particular cage was that there
was a small hatch on the top that I could open in order to drop
crickets in. Taking off the entire top would have disturbed the web
she spun. Also, the top has lots of slits in it for ventilation. I put
in some branching sticks between which she could make the web -- black
widows make a pretty random haphazard web, so the more anchor points
for it the better. They are very awkward when not in their web, so
make sure she can get up onto the sticks to make the web. On the
bottom, I put a layer of sand. I think she would have had trouble
walking on the slick plastic. Widows move quickly on their web, but
are quite clumsy when walking on other surfaces.
How did you feed her?
I fed her live crickets -- dropped them in onto the web -- she would
pounce on them, bite them, and let them sit a while. Then she'd feed
on them, and eventually detach them and let the dried carcass fall
onto the ground. I would doubt a spider would know what to do with a
dead cricket, since it doesn't move like a live one.
Every few days, I sprayed her web with a mister -- she drank the water
droplets that form on the web. One correspondent uses a sea sponge
that he moistens -- the spider can drink at will from that.
I just let the dead dried crickets collect on the floor of the
cage. Here in Colorado they dried quickly, and never had an odor. I
figured it wasn't worth the risk of trying to clean out the cage.
How long do they live?
I believe I read somewhere they live around 2 years. My first one
lasted two years, the second one I had lived for one year. My wife is
opposed to having them in the house. But if someone were to offer me
one (I live in Boulder, Colorado), I might reopen negotiations with
her.
Noah Coccaro, noah@coccaro.com