Latrodectus tips

Mirandarachnid

Arachnobaron
Joined
Nov 11, 2017
Messages
532
A dear friend of mine expressed his interested in keeping these, and I just so happen to have a cellar full of them. I'd like to collect one for him, set it up in an enclosure, and give him a little care sheet to go with it.

I gather that their care is very simple.
Anchor points, substrate optional, feed once or twice a week, lightly mist webbing occasionally for hydration (optional), remove egg sacks once constructed... Anything I'm missing here?

Is it even necessary to mist at all? Keep in mind that I live in a very dry area, but they seem to thrive in the wild here.

Do they make a mess of their enclosures over time? I've read that the poop and left-overs can get smelly. If so, is the mess mostly contained to the bottom of the enclosure?

If I make sure that the anchor points stop well below the rim of the lid, that should help negate the risk of the spider bolting out the top, as they cannot climb plastic?

Tips for removing egg sacks? I read that fertile sacks are large and white, duds are small and orange/yellow. Is this true?

Thanks for your time!
 

chanda

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 27, 2010
Messages
2,229
I live in SoCal and keep both L. hesperus and L. geometricus. I keep them in large deli cups with ventilated "bug lids" (either screen-topped or fabric mesh). I have also kept them in empty plastic water or soda bottles. Their oxygen use is minimal, so they don't even need ventilation holes. I just stick a few twigs in the container for anchor points and toss in a cricket or two roughly every week or so. I do not bother to mist or add moisture - they get that from their food. I also do not bother putting in substrate. One certainly could - it just isn't necessary.

If you are starting with a mature female wild-caught widow, there is a very good chance that she has already mated and that any sacs she creates will be viable. They retain sperm and are able to produce multiple sacs from a single mating. I've had up to seven or eight viable sacs over the course of a year or more from a single mother spider. I've never noticed any to lay small, yellowish sacs - even my unmated females (that were raised in captivity) made big, white sacs. It's best to assume that any sacs are viable and treat them as such.

I pull the egg sacs by opening the lid and using a long pair of feeding tongs (basically, a 12" pair of tweezers). You don't want to get your fingers too close to the sac, because the mother spider will guard the sacs and may attempt to bite you if you just try to reach in and grab it. Once I have removed the sac, I stick it in a plastic bag (I have plenty of empty bags from feeder crickets that I save to use for disposing of old food, dead bugs, bits of mold, or other debris - including egg sacs.) I crush the sac after I have placed it in the bag - but that is totally optional. If your friend is interested in adding to the local widow population, he could put the sac outside somewhere and allow it to hatch. I have also occasionally allowed a sac to hatch and raised up the hatchlings. If you want to do that, make sure the container you put the sac in is escape proof - like a dry/empty plastic water or soda bottle with no ventilation holes, or a deli cup with a fabric mesh lid. (The holes in the screen-topped lids are large enough that a newly hatched spiderling could get through it - and you don't want to go turning a bunch of baby widows loose in the house!) If you opt to go with an unventilated container like a water or soda bottle, make sure it is completely dry to start or you may have problems with mold and condensation. When the babies first hatch out, just leave the container closed and they will eat each other. Yeah, that sounds bad - but think of it like this: they're going to have to kill and eat something to survive, so why not surplus spiders? Then, once the population is down to more manageable levels, you can start feeding them fruit flies, crickets, mealworms, cockroach nymphs, or whatever else you have for feeders.

As for odors, yes - the container does get smelly over time, mostly from the remains of the feeder crickets. It really isn't a big deal, though - as long as the container is closed, you can't smell anything. You only smell it when you open the container to add new feeders. If it bothers you, you can use long tongs/tweezers to remove the dead crickets. They are usually at or near the bottom of the enclosure. When the widow is feeding, she will typically drag her prey up toward the top of her web - but once she's done, she'll cut it out of the web and let it drop. It doesn't always end up at the bottom, though - sometimes it gets stuck in the lower portions of the web. As for the poop, it's essentially liquid so it is small, dried droplets all over the container - often on the walls of the container and on the support twigs. The nice thing about disposable containers is if it gets too gross, you can just rehouse the widow to a new cup or bottle and throw away the old one.

The spiders definitely can climb plastic, though they do not do so nearly as well or as quickly as they can climb their webbing or rough surfaces. They also tend to prefer hanging out near the top of the enclosure and can extend their webbing from the top of the provided twigs or other anchor points to the underside of the lid. When I've used water or soda bottles, many of the spiders actually preferred to hang out inside the lid of the bottle (if it was stored in an upright position - but not if it was stored upside-down). They will also hang out on the underside of the lid of the cup. Your friend just needs to be careful about opening the lid to feed them or do any maintenance. Look to see where the spider is - and if necessary, use the tongs or a chopstick or something to "poke" at the spider (it is not necessary to actually touch the spider) to make it back down. When I used water or soda bottles, I would place a small bit of paper towel or thin fabric over the top of the bottle before screwing on the lid - that way, when I removed the lid, the spider stayed in the bottle and not in my hand.

One thing I have noticed with my widows is that they do learn a feeding response. While their initial reaction to the cage being opened is to retreat from the opening (and the large creature handling the cage), they eventually figure out that the cage being opened means food is coming - and will then approach the opening rather than retreating.

Widows are fun to keep as pets. My very first pet spider was a black widow - part of an effort to cure myself of arachnophobia, because I had been particularly afraid of black widows since childhood. (Thanks, Mom!) It worked beautifully! After observing her for a while, I not only got over my fear of spiders - I got addicted to them! I now have an entire room full of pet bugs and spiders.
 

Joogvanhedel

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 27, 2017
Messages
162
I never mist, no problem. The mess of poop isnt that bad, leftovers prey you do have to take out. And yes it helps to make the anchor points well below the rim of the lid...
 

Mirandarachnid

Arachnobaron
Joined
Nov 11, 2017
Messages
532
Thanks!

What about pre-molt/molting? Any behavior changes that would throw off a new keeper?
 

chanda

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 27, 2010
Messages
2,229
Thanks!

What about pre-molt/molting? Any behavior changes that would throw off a new keeper?
They don't make as big a fuss about molting or being pre-molt as tarantulas do. I've had widow spiderlings eat right up until they're ready to molt, though some may retreat into their webs and refuse food for a few days. One big difference, though, is that widows stop molting once they're mature. If you've got an adult widow, you don't need to worry about her molting - she won't.
 

Mirandarachnid

Arachnobaron
Joined
Nov 11, 2017
Messages
532
They don't make as big a fuss about molting or being pre-molt as tarantulas do. I've had widow spiderlings eat right up until they're ready to molt, though some may retreat into their webs and refuse food for a few days. One big difference, though, is that widows stop molting once they're mature. If you've got an adult widow, you don't need to worry about her molting - she won't.
Interesting! Thank you!
 
Top