Deleting these pics from here.
Find the new thread. Will post only the newest 10/18/08+ pics there from now on.
As for the spiders..... of the 4 jars that I had 10-20 baby spiders a piece in, there are now 2 jars which have only 1 spider each. Meaning they ate all the others and became queen of their realm!!! The last egg sac hatched, and that jar is totally filled with baby widows. The last jar still has maybe 4-5 spiders in it.
The full grown widow is doing great. Feeding her other spiders and crickets. She has laid no new eggs.
I went to get the female off of the trash bin and I found the male spider too. (BONUS!) Hopefully he lives long enough to mate and make babies :laugh:
Sorry I did'nt get a good closeup of the underside of the widow. You can rest assured that the hourglass shape is there, and it is indeed a Black Widow. I'll add more pics in the future..... of the underside, while she's eating, etc.
Black Widow
Black Widow and Male companion close up
Inside plastic cage w/crickets
Pics of Black Widow last year (not the same spider!)
Edit---- New pics!
Less than 6 hours to catch first cricket in her new home!
A nice shot of the underside and sharing her meal She chased the male out of the web several times but he is still getting in there!
Edit2---- Male spider gone. Checked this morning and couldn't find him. I figure the Widow ate him and dropped his body, and then the crickets finished him off. He could'nt have gotten out and he's not hiding anywhere.
Edit3---- Have a couple more pics. I had to pull the lid off to take pics since she moved to the top of the cage.
Another cricket catch!
Pics of the 2 newly added common House Spiders (Crappy pic, but you can make out the 2 other spiders)
Common House Spider Wikipedia pics
Edit4---- (6/20/08) She laid the first one about 4 days ago and the 2nd one yesterday. I'm keeping them in a seperate container untill they're big enough. All the crickets are gone. My wife just went out to the petshop to pick up 12 more.
2 egg sacks
Oh, and I guess the male did get out! I found him dead on the kitchen floor a few days ago
Update 6/20/06 8:47pm: Here's what' I'm keeping the egg sacks and crickets in, for those of you that are worried :laugh:
Small cottage cheese plastic container with very thin knife slits in the lid.
Cricket Jar I throw oatmeal and lettuce in there to fatten them up
Edit5---- (7/1/08) First egg she laid has hatched! See the egg on the right how it's darker? That's the one that hatched. My guess on how many? 100-150, including the one's still in the egg sac. They're about twice the size as common house spiders are when hatched. Oh, and they're not black when little And yes, these are Black Widow eggs.
1 Egg has hatched!
Edit6----(7/8/08) Wife and I are both in the Hospital after getting bit multiple times :laugh: You guys don't have to worry, I've done this before. Damn, the one's that are worried, sound like a bunch of babies like Alkemyst and Fried/Baked. Go watch the movie Arachnophobia to kill some time!
Well, I asked my wife to ask all her friends for about 10 small baby food jars. I'm going to be putting 4-8 baby spiders in each one since they're just starting to go Cannibalistic and eating eachother. The other egg in the pic still has not hatched and she has laid 2 more since I'll update pics as soon as I can. Not sure what I'm doing with the rest yet. I may get a 10gal aquarium and put some fine mesh over the top and let them battle it out...... Just want to make sure none get out........ Oooooooh, CATASTROPHE!!!! :roll:
I'll put up new pics within' the week!
Edit7----(7/10/08) Don't have much to show, but I bought 12 mason type jars (under $9) instead of the baby jars I was intending to use. I had to super glue the lids to the inner seals though. Shown in a pic below. The babies are really going crazy. When I dropped the small ant in (princess/female), they fought over it big time!
Fighting over their first meal that doesn't taste like themselves!
Cleaning the cage of the Widow
Super glued lids
Jars that are going to be used for housing the babies.
The 2 newest eggs that the widow laid w/a peice of wet paper towel to keep the moisure lvl high.
Edit8---- (8/14/08) I bought a new 300gb WD Velociraptor hard drive to replace the fried 150gb Raptor. Spiders are doing great...... I now have 5 seperate mason jars housing the new hatchling widows. Cleaned out the main cage tonight and added a few more house spiders for the Widow to munch on. Oh, and the Main Widow is wrapping a newly laid batch of eggs. You can see it one of the pics where the outside silk is more transparent.
Well, here are the pics
Widow wrapping her newly laid eggs!
Babies are getting bigger!/Bad pic
Ready to POUNCE!
Edit9--- (8/26/08) The momma' Widow is dead. It looks as though she died naturally. I found her in her web just hanging there normally like she always did. Did'nt know she was dead until a couple hours later when I opened the cage to feed her
Well, no worries, I've got 4 healthy babies that are getting bigger. I'll take some pics when they double in size .......... Oh, The new egg sac has yet to hatch, but I'm not sure it was fertile to begin with. We'll see.
Edit10--- (9/5/08) Here's my biggest baby WIDOW right under McCain's left eye on a TIME magazine
Edit11--- (9/19/08) Sorry no pics. Suck it up!
All of the 5 Widows are getting bigger. Just cleaned the jars and got bit twice. I'm still breathing
Edit12--- (10/18/08) Fresh off my "4 WEEK ban" which should've ended yesterday!
Just wanted to let everyone know that I just found out that out of the 4 Widows I have, one of them is a male. I didn't know 'till a couple days ago after the 6th shedding of the skin that it was a male.
Of course you can tell from the pic that has both the female and male side by side. Both hatched at the same time and have had about the same amount of food, but they look so different.
Male
Male and Female This one's now larger than the original Widow that died.
Find the new thread. Will post only the newest 10/18/08+ pics there from now on.
As for the spiders..... of the 4 jars that I had 10-20 baby spiders a piece in, there are now 2 jars which have only 1 spider each. Meaning they ate all the others and became queen of their realm!!! The last egg sac hatched, and that jar is totally filled with baby widows. The last jar still has maybe 4-5 spiders in it.
The full grown widow is doing great. Feeding her other spiders and crickets. She has laid no new eggs.
I went to get the female off of the trash bin and I found the male spider too. (BONUS!) Hopefully he lives long enough to mate and make babies :laugh:
Sorry I did'nt get a good closeup of the underside of the widow. You can rest assured that the hourglass shape is there, and it is indeed a Black Widow. I'll add more pics in the future..... of the underside, while she's eating, etc.
Black Widow
Black Widow and Male companion close up
Inside plastic cage w/crickets
Pics of Black Widow last year (not the same spider!)
Edit---- New pics!
Less than 6 hours to catch first cricket in her new home!
A nice shot of the underside and sharing her meal She chased the male out of the web several times but he is still getting in there!
Edit2---- Male spider gone. Checked this morning and couldn't find him. I figure the Widow ate him and dropped his body, and then the crickets finished him off. He could'nt have gotten out and he's not hiding anywhere.
Edit3---- Have a couple more pics. I had to pull the lid off to take pics since she moved to the top of the cage.
Another cricket catch!
Pics of the 2 newly added common House Spiders (Crappy pic, but you can make out the 2 other spiders)
Common House Spider Wikipedia pics
Edit4---- (6/20/08) She laid the first one about 4 days ago and the 2nd one yesterday. I'm keeping them in a seperate container untill they're big enough. All the crickets are gone. My wife just went out to the petshop to pick up 12 more.
2 egg sacks
Oh, and I guess the male did get out! I found him dead on the kitchen floor a few days ago
Update 6/20/06 8:47pm: Here's what' I'm keeping the egg sacks and crickets in, for those of you that are worried :laugh:
Small cottage cheese plastic container with very thin knife slits in the lid.
Cricket Jar I throw oatmeal and lettuce in there to fatten them up
Edit5---- (7/1/08) First egg she laid has hatched! See the egg on the right how it's darker? That's the one that hatched. My guess on how many? 100-150, including the one's still in the egg sac. They're about twice the size as common house spiders are when hatched. Oh, and they're not black when little
And yes, these are Black Widow eggs.1 Egg has hatched!
Edit6----(7/8/08) Wife and I are both in the Hospital after getting bit multiple times :laugh: You guys don't have to worry, I've done this before. Damn, the one's that are worried, sound like a bunch of babies like Alkemyst and Fried/Baked. Go watch the movie Arachnophobia to kill some time!
Well, I asked my wife to ask all her friends for about 10 small baby food jars. I'm going to be putting 4-8 baby spiders in each one since they're just starting to go Cannibalistic and eating eachother. The other egg in the pic still has not hatched and she has laid 2 more since
I'll update pics as soon as I can. Not sure what I'm doing with the rest yet. I may get a 10gal aquarium and put some fine mesh over the top and let them battle it out...... Just want to make sure none get out........ Oooooooh, CATASTROPHE!!!! :roll:I'll put up new pics within' the week!
Edit7----(7/10/08) Don't have much to show, but I bought 12 mason type jars (under $9) instead of the baby jars I was intending to use. I had to super glue the lids to the inner seals though. Shown in a pic below. The babies are really going crazy. When I dropped the small ant in (princess/female), they fought over it big time!
Fighting over their first meal that doesn't taste like themselves!
Cleaning the cage of the Widow
Super glued lids
Jars that are going to be used for housing the babies.
The 2 newest eggs that the widow laid w/a peice of wet paper towel to keep the moisure lvl high.
Edit8---- (8/14/08) I bought a new 300gb WD Velociraptor hard drive to replace the fried 150gb Raptor. Spiders are doing great...... I now have 5 seperate mason jars housing the new hatchling widows. Cleaned out the main cage tonight and added a few more house spiders for the Widow to munch on. Oh, and the Main Widow is wrapping a newly laid batch of eggs. You can see it one of the pics where the outside silk is more transparent.
Well, here are the pics
Widow wrapping her newly laid eggs!
Babies are getting bigger!/Bad pic
Ready to POUNCE!
Edit9--- (8/26/08) The momma' Widow is dead. It looks as though she died naturally. I found her in her web just hanging there normally like she always did. Did'nt know she was dead until a couple hours later when I opened the cage to feed her
Well, no worries, I've got 4 healthy babies that are getting bigger. I'll take some pics when they double in size
.......... Oh, The new egg sac has yet to hatch, but I'm not sure it was fertile to begin with. We'll see.Edit10--- (9/5/08) Here's my biggest baby WIDOW right under McCain's left eye on a TIME magazine
Edit11--- (9/19/08) Sorry no pics. Suck it up!
All of the 5 Widows are getting bigger. Just cleaned the jars and got bit twice. I'm still breathing
Edit12--- (10/18/08) Fresh off my "4 WEEK ban" which should've ended yesterday!
Just wanted to let everyone know that I just found out that out of the 4 Widows I have, one of them is a male. I didn't know 'till a couple days ago after the 6th shedding of the skin that it was a male.
Of course you can tell from the pic that has both the female and male side by side. Both hatched at the same time and have had about the same amount of food, but they look so different.
Male
Male and Female This one's now larger than the original Widow that died.
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