Agriope aurantia handling

[GartenSpinnen]

My boss has this giant of a girl outside on his patio who laid two beautiful huge golf ball sized egg sacs and last night she looked like she was in a death curl in her web. So I decided to poke her to see if she was alive and ended up with this beast crawling on me and not able to get her back in her web lol. I have handled a lot of spiders in my day, especially back when I used to handle my T's, but this girl was something else entirely!!!

I thought she might bite me at first because of her sacs, but she was so calm it was unbelievable. So docile and graceful and she just webbed up everything. It is amazing how strong their webs are, at one point I had her on a stick trying to get her back in the web, and the web held the stick very well and it was quite large. Very tough webbing!

I will say though nothing has given me the heebie jeebies like this girl did! There is nothing like them when they are on you, it is bizarre to handle them. It felt very awkward though and at one point I did drop her, they just do not grip solid surfaces including arms very well. She seemed to be fine though, no injuries and I returned her where she was. I am thinking of setting up a terrarium for her for my boss and trying to hatch out those sacs, but still not set on the idea.

I just wanted to share because these are truly unique and amazing critters! There is nothing like them that I have ever had experience handling and it was an amazing, albeit a bit shaky, experience to be able to do so. I know they are not very venomous and cannot inflict much as far as bites go, but there is something about these that makes my spine tingle when holding them lol. Amazing experience and hope to try it again

 

[LeilaNami]

My boss has this giant of a girl outside on his patio who laid two beautiful huge golf ball sized egg sacs and last night she looked like she was in a death curl in her web. So I decided to poke her to see if she was alive and ended up with this beast crawling on me and not able to get her back in her web lol. I have handled a lot of spiders in my day, especially back when I used to handle my T's, but this girl was something else entirely!!!

I thought she might bite me at first because of her sacs, but she was so calm it was unbelievable. So docile and graceful and she just webbed up everything. It is amazing how strong their webs are, at one point I had her on a stick trying to get her back in the web, and the web held the stick very well and it was quite large. Very tough webbing!

I will say though nothing has given me the heebie jeebies like this girl did! There is nothing like them when they are on you, it is bizarre to handle them. It felt very awkward though and at one point I did drop her, they just do not grip solid surfaces including arms very well. She seemed to be fine though, no injuries and I returned her where she was. I am thinking of setting up a terrarium for her for my boss and trying to hatch out those sacs, but still not set on the idea.

I just wanted to share because these are truly unique and amazing critters! There is nothing like them that I have ever had experience handling and it was an amazing, albeit a bit shaky, experience to be able to do so. I know they are not very venomous and cannot inflict much as far as bites go, but there is something about these that makes my spine tingle when holding them lol. Amazing experience and hope to try it again

I've had a lot trouble keeping these.

 

[skippy]

My mom was reminiscing about my childhood and told me that when I was 4 or 5 she was gardening and heard me come up behind her and say,"look mama!"

She turned around and bit back a scream when she saw that I had collected all the argiopes out of the garden(6 or 7 of them) and had them crawling all over my chest and head(apparently I liked to run around in just my undies). She then told me,"that's very nice honey, now lets go put them back."

 

[FlawedCoil82]

LoL, I used to do the same thing. In fact my mom used to have to drive me up and down country roads and every time I'd see an Argiope, I'd have her stop the vehicle so I could capture it in a bucket and bring it home to release in the shrubs/weeds on my property. I'd come home with more than like 30 and I remember one time putting a bunch of them on me and walking in the house. She screamed to high heaven. I've handled hundreds of Argiope spiders in my life and I have never once been bitten by them. I am extremely calm and gentle with them to where they just sit in my hands. Argiope aurantia is my absolute favorite though. I think they are absolutely beautiful and would love to find a way to keep them safe from the killer frost and their all too quick demises. I can't fathom why such a beatiful creature would be designed by God with such a sinfully short lifespan.
Jack