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My new pet

Ozzy

SirKristoff is a poopiehead
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On Fridays at work, I work at the main plant of the water treatment system we are building. Today we got an assignment that was way out in the middle of nowhere and I found some black widows in the cracks of the hatch to one of the water tanks. Before we left I got a cup, put in pine straw and then I caught the most obvious spider. I put her in the cup and we headed back to the main plant.
There was one guy that is working with us that is scared of everything, lizards, snakes and spiders. LOL, So you know I had fun with him today. Before we got in the truck he asked, "Are you going to have that thing in the truck with us?" I said "Yes, you want to hold it?" I then said "You know this is going to be a long ride to the plant."

We got in the truck and there was three of us. He told me I had to ride in the middle so he could get out of the truck if he had too. When we got in the truck I took the cup and offered it to him and asked "do you want to hold my spider?" He said "Get that thing away from me!"

So then I opened the lid and I saw she was in the bottom of the cup so I put my face down in the cup and said "I love the smell of pine straw." Then I stuck the cup in his face and asked "Do you like the way pine straw smells?" I can repeat what he said here but I'm sure you get the idea. lol.

Then we were almost to the main plant and I thought I would pull the smelling the pine straw stunt on him again. I took the top of, but this time the spider was at the top of the cup and started to crawl out. I was going to just tap the cup and make her go back in the cup, but he grabbed my arm, out of fear I guess and started pushing my arm. He was sreaming "IT"S GETTING OUT!" I was trying to get it back in but he kept pushing my arm. I was sitting right next to the driver. He kept pushing my arm (with the spider on it) towards the driver. we're going down a dirt road at about 50 mph with a black widow spider loose in the truck and I'm trying to get it back in the cup and the guy on my right is trying to get the spider as far away from him as possiable, which means towards the driver. The driver is yelling "Hey I'm trying to drive" I managed to get it back in the cup. I asked him "How did you expect me to get it back in the cup with him pushing my arm like that?"

Anyway, I'll try and get some pics this weekend.
 
LMAO!!!! sounds like my buddy when i brought my ball python to his dorm room. never seen a white boy move so fast in my life
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OK I got some pics, but let me tell you this is one fast spider. So you'll have to excuse the lack of quality of the pics. She got away from me a few times and I had to chase her down. Maybe I'll be able to get some better pics when she gets her new home setup.

This is the cup I brought her home in. You can see her if you look close.

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I put her in the container to try and get some good pics. It didn't work.

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I tried to get a shot of her hourglass, but this is the best shot I could get.

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Like I said I'll try to get some better shots as soon as she spins her new web and starts hanging out.
 
Nice find Ozzy. Gives me the creeps a little though as i spent the first 10yrs of my life in australia alongside countless hand-sized spiders.

Zac
 
Thats a small one. I see them around here with abdomens the size of marbles
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Well, seeing as I am a person who is scared to death of spiders...if someone did that to me...they'd still be in the hospital. Once upon a time, I had someone chase me with a big wolf spider. I smacked him over the head with a Newcastle Ale bottle...and this person woke up a day later in ICU. Phobias are a powerful thing. Aprilh
 
Lol. I get creeped out by the "widow shape" spiders as well(wther or not they are dangerous or not). Although I do like the big fuzzy type ones like tarantulas,wolf spiders,funnel webs ETC. I even like playing with jumping spiders! There realy cute and fuzzy plus they sometimes have realy neat big blue fangs!

Widows aren`t very aggresive but brown recluses sure are! They chase after you hear,and there venom is far more toxic then the widow`s. Infact my mom knows somebody who`s aunt(I think that was the relation?) died after being bitten.

That widow is rather small (about the size of the ones we get here). But the ones in new mexico where the size of marbles!

Ozzy,

Got a question for you. Do you know what type of widow spider has red yellow and orange stripe\spots on there backs? We get them here and they have a real prominent orange hourglass. I`ve always wondered what they where???
 
Black widow spiders have always freaked me out, but that didn't stop me from keeping one as a pet when I was a lot younger
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I kept it in this glass jar for weeks and weeks, feeding it all kinds of poor little bugs. I was a sadistic child, what can I say?
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Ozzy, you treated that situation exactly right. I love it! I did the same thing to my wife (maybe not the best idea) when she found a snake in the yard. I chased her around with it.

Mind, this was a 5" long, 1/4" wide BABY GARDNER SNAKE, and she was afraid of it.

(That would be GARTER Snake, Schloaty)
 
  • #10
Though there are many black widow spiders in the world, the spiders here are no different, except for color. Baby black widows are not black, but white with little black spots and stripes. You wouldn't know it was a black widow without the help of an experienced collector. As they grow, the stripes and spots turn colors. Reds, yellows and white stripes all over the body. A small white hourglass = juvenile, white stripes, black spots.
yellow hourglass = intermediate, white, yellow, and red stripes
red/orange hourglass = predominately black spider, sometimes with remnants of intermediate colors of white, yellow and red, again in stripes. These colors usually disappear altogether as the spider matures, and sheds its exoskeleton. Only the red hourglass remains, usually.
There are also RED widows, and many forms, such as the red back spider of Australia. All in the Latrodectus genus. The American Black Widow is Latrodectus mactans, with a few sub- species. It is incredible to watch the female make her egg case, and even more amazing to watch the babies being born.
 
  • #11
Those are cool looking spiders. We don't have any of them up here. We get lots of barn spiders though...those things get pretty big.

Bugweed....is there anything that you are not an expert in?
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  • #12
Firewired, I am not an expert, but I have researched and raised black widows. I read A LOT, and usually retain what I read pretty well. I am no expert, just well read.
 
  • #13
But as long as the rest of us know nothing, you'll always seem like an expert. So you'll just have to get used to it. Like it or not.
 
  • #14
You guys want to see a big spider? Look at this writing spider I found. It is about 4 to 5 inches long.

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  • #15
Wow......now that is a big spider. Where do those live?
 
  • #16
It is known as the golden garden spider, an orb web weaver. Very pretty, and hell on garden insects. Mostly in the east. I did find one, and only one, in the Big Sky of Montana.
 
  • #17
Yup...I've got one of those monsters in my garden. Creeps me out. I found it last year. Not sure if its the same one but just a couple of weeks ago saw another huge one like that in the same area of the garden and thought it was the same one. But I dont know how long they live. I don't like knowings its there...
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  • #18
PAK, the spiders you mention live 1 season. They do not survive the winter, making an egg case before dying off. They get replaced year after year. It will never be the same spider as the year before. The big colorful one hanging in its web in Ozzy's pic, is female. The male is a lot smaller, and not as well colored.
 
  • #19
We have those at our house too. I think ours are slightly different, though. In Ozzy's picture, there is no "name" (ours are writing spiders, related to orb weavers I think). I can get a pic of one of ours real quick if it's still there...

-D. Lybrand
 
  • #20
Pretty low quality, taken at night:

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There must be several. Two egg sacs:

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-D. Lybrand
 
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