Attempting to get a black widow and need tips

[FoxyGrandpa]

There's a beautiful black widow living outside my boyfriends house. She made the most intricate web I have ever seen in my life. My boyfriend is going to kill her and tear down the web and I'm not having it. So I'm going to catch her because I'd hate to see her killed. I've only ever kept tarantulas and jumpers. Which leads me to these questions:

-Whats the best way I can catch her?
-Is it true they cant climb glass?
-What are some care tips for her?
-Any husbandry tips for her?

I want to give her the best I can as I do for my tarantulas. I need to act fast because my boyfriend is going to do this destruction project this weekend I believe.
Thank you in advance for all answers and advice!

 

[SpookySpooder]

You could always let her go in the nearby area and let nature take its course. If you want a new pet, instructions below.

Catch cup method is best for this species. I do not reccomend any handling at all as this species has significant venom. Use tools such as a cup or bucket, paintbrush or tongs, or a stick.

They cannot climb clean glass, but they can climb glass with dust, water spots, or webbing that they anchor beforehand.

Care tips are general. This species does well at ambient room temperature. You could heat it if temperatures dip too low, but I've seen black widows outside at 55°F so I'm sure they can tolerate room temperature. Even so, I reccomend keeping it 70° F or so.

Provide a piece of cork bark or fake plants as a hiding spot and to provide anchor points for a web. You can find many examples of a suitable enclosure in the sub forum here.

You can keep them exactly the same as a jumping spider, or arboreal.

Feed her prey roughly the size of her carapace once or twice a week depending on how swollen her abdomen is, and provide a source of water through using a dish or regularly providing droplets in the enclosure.

 

[FoxyGrandpa]

You could always let her go in the nearby area and let nature take its course. If you want a new pet, instructions below.

Catch cup method is best for this species. I do not reccomend any handling at all as this species has significant venom. Use tools such as a cup or bucket, paintbrush or tongs, or a stick.

They cannot climb clean glass, but they can climb glass with dust, water spots, or webbing that they anchor beforehand.

Care tips are general. This species does well at ambient room temperature. You could heat it if temperatures dip too low, but I've seen black widows outside at 55°F so I'm sure they can tolerate room temperature. Even so, I reccomend keeping it 70° F or so.

Provide a piece of cork bark or fake plants as a hiding spot and to provide anchor points for a web. You can find many examples of a suitable enclosure in the sub forum here.

You can keep them exactly the same as a jumping spider, or arboreal.

Feed her prey roughly the size of her carapace once or twice a week depending on how swollen her abdomen is, and provide a source of water through using a dish or regularly providing droplets in the enclosure.

I was thinking catch cup but wasnt sure how to go about it. I'm going to try and get her tonight. I'll try and get a picture of her web too and post it here. It's huge, I've never seen anything like it!
I've been reading that they like humidity, should I mist her fairly frequently?

 

[SpookySpooder]

You can use cardboard as a temporary backboard to pin between her and the cup.

Alternatively, you have a boyfriend, and we are well past gender roles, but insist it's his responsibility to capture said critter. That 100% works on me every time.

Not everyday, but you can occasionally mist the web to provide droplets to hydrate. There are a lot of them in arid Southern California, and the humidity here is often 0%.

 

[FoxyGrandpa]

You can use cardboard as a temporary backboard to pin between her and the cup.

Alternatively, you have a boyfriend, and we are well past gender roles, but insist it's his responsibility to capture said critter. That 100% works on me every time.

Not everyday, but you can occasionally mist the web to provide droplets to hydrate. There are a lot of them in arid Southern California, and the humidity here is often 0%.

I don't mind doing it, spiders are more my hobby anyways. He's just not so on board with true spiders as he is with tarantulas. And that's okay, they're my special interest anyways.

Im in southern AZ so we rarely have humidity so that's perfect. Thank you for the info!

 

[NMTs]

She will have a hide in her web somewhere and she will bolt to it the second you touch the webbing any harder than a moth would. This funnel-shaped hide usually leads into a solid object - like a space between cinder blocks, or a hole in the side of the house under a faucet, etc.. You need to find that first and block it off right away, otherwise she'll dart into that and you'll never be able to get her out. The problem is, they never hang out more than a couple inches from the hidey-hole - these aren't like orbweavers that sit in the middle of their webs... For example, this big momma ran into that gap in the blocks just behind her egg sacs

Latrodectus hesperus - BIG momma...

• NMTs
• Jul 4, 2022
• 6
• black widow egg sack hesperus latrodectus latrodectus hesperus

She's sitting on 3 sacks, and looks like she's ready to drop another. Obviously I didn't bother...

My suggestion is to take a prey item with you (a smallish cricket that won't fall through the web will work perfectly), drop it in the web pretty far from the hole, and wait for her to come out and start webbing it up before trying to catch her. That way you'll at least have a shot at getting the path to her hide blocked off in time to get the cup on her.

Another thing to consider if you're taking a large female L. hesperus into captivity - it will lay eggs at some point, and lots of them. You basically can't make small enough holes in your enclosure to keep the babies from escaping - they're tiny and can fit through the holes you make with a push-pin, so unless you want to introduce hundreds of baby black widows to your house (which I've done), you should be prepared to remove the sacs and put them outside before hatching, or just release the mother and the whole lot once they emerge from the sac(s) (this is what I usually do).

Western Black Widow Spiderlings

• NMTs
• Jun 4, 2023
• black widow hesperus latrodectus latrodectus hesperus spiderlings

Latrodectus hesperus (2i) started to emerge from the sac yesterday.

Good luck in your endeavors! Don't get bit - it sucks. My father-in-law was in the ER to get antivenom for a Latrodectus hesperus bite last weekend.

 

[viper69]

There's a beautiful black widow living outside my boyfriends house. She made the most intricate web I have ever seen in my life. My boyfriend is going to kill her and tear down the web and I'm not having it. So I'm going to catch her because I'd hate to see her killed. I've only ever kept tarantulas and jumpers. Which leads me to these questions:

-Whats the best way I can catch her?
-Is it true they cant climb glass?
-What are some care tips for her?
-Any husbandry tips for her?

I want to give her the best I can as I do for my tarantulas. I need to act fast because my boyfriend is going to do this destruction project this weekend I believe.
Thank you in advance for all answers and advice!

Carefully
Many peeps keep these search the forum
Their webs look like shattered glass to me

it doesn’t take much to disturb them

you need bf 2.0

 

[The Snark]

She will have a hide in her web somewhere and she will bolt to it the second you touch the webbing any harder than a moth would.

Speaking from personal experience, this only happens 99.7% of the time, no matter what preparations you make.

As for the cricket caper. Chances are it will fall through the web unless you get lucky and attach it to a sticky line, or the gal is highly aggressive and tanks after it - which is often unusual. Forceps and deft hands very helpful as you may have to intro the cricket several times.

If she bolts for her hide she may still go out after the prey from that vantage point. So call the entire operation as complex as a Cricket match, with a real cricket.

 

[NMTs]

Speaking from personal experience, this only happens 99.7% of the time, no matter what preparations you make.

As for the cricket caper. Chances are it will fall through the web unless you get lucky and attach it to a sticky line, or the gal is highly aggressive and tanks after it - which is often unusual. Forceps and deft hands very helpful as you may have to intro the cricket several times.

If she bolts for her hide she may still go out after the prey from that vantage point. So call the entire operation as complex as a Cricket match, with a real cricket.

From the description of the web that the OP gave it sounds pretty substantial, so I'll bet the cricket will stick. Just in case, brining 2 or 3 crickets wouldn't hurt. I would also advise doing this at night, but use a red light if you have one - these are reluctant to come out in the light, even light from a flashlight or lantern.

 

[The Snark]

From the description of the web that the OP gave it sounds pretty substantial,

That's the problem with well established webs. She can just keep building and building except keeping the sticky lines which are usually only three, buried somewhere deep inside the web. I suspect they use the complex mass as an alternative trap. I think there's a correlation between egg sack laying and web building. I've noticed several times some of them after each egg sack construction go out and add more web. Defense mechanism? Using up excess material in the glands?

 

[NMTs]

I've noticed several times some of them after each egg sack construction go out and add more web. Defense mechanism? Using up excess material in the glands?

Probably just good old fashioned aspirations of world domination.

 

[The Snark]

Probably just good old fashioned aspirations of world domination.

A little flippant, but very apropos. Every time I reach a solid conclusion about what mom nature and her animals are up to, along comes a something that completely rewrites the books.

 

[HooahArmy]

along comes a something that completely rewrites the books.

Pretty much sums up the platypus...

 

[The Snark]

Pretty much sums up the platypus...

Venomous spurs? ???????????????????????? Ignoring the contruction of the animal had to involve gene splicing from several species not found on this planet.

 

[HooahArmy]

Venomous spurs? ???????????????????????? Ignoring the contruction of the animal had to involve gene splicing from several species not found on this planet.

Duck+ Beaver+ snake= platypus.
I swear...proof of alien intervention.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I don't mind doing it, spiders are more my hobby anyways. He's just not so on board with true spiders as he is with tarantulas . And that's okay, they're my special interest anyways.

Im in southern AZ so we rarely have humidity so that's perfect. Thank you for the info!

Poor spiders my sister crushed one infront me of once a harmless widow like spider . Some people just hate them … should be easy to catch use a net a bucket or deli cup .

 

[FoxyGrandpa]

From the description of the web that the OP gave it sounds pretty substantial, so I'll bet the cricket will stick. Just in case, brining 2 or 3 crickets wouldn't hurt. I would also advise doing this at night, but use a red light if you have one - these are reluctant to come out in the light, even light from a flashlight or lantern.

I wasnt able to get her tonight, but I have a picture of her! What you see of her webbing here is only a fraction of it. Until I can attempt to get a picture of her full web, I'm going to try and describe it. So her web starts at the top near the roof of the house in a corner near the carport and goes inside a hole where she currently has three egg sacs. From that web theres several strands of silk that lead all the waaaaaay down to the ground where she has an even bigger web thats about a foot and a half in length and width. She has I think two males in her bottom web, and one is actually alive to my surprise.

 

[The Snark]

From that web theres several strands of silk that lead all the waaaaaay down to the ground where she has an even bigger web thats about a foot and a half in length and width.

That sweetheart has delusions of grandeur. Her mom or her probably had a crush on a Nephila somewhere along the line.

 

[NMTs]

I wasnt able to get her tonight, but I have a picture of her! What you see of her webbing here is only a fraction of it. Until I can attempt to get a picture of her full web, I'm going to try and describe it. So her web starts at the top near the roof of the house in a corner near the carport and goes inside a hole where she currently has three egg sacs. From that web theres several strands of silk that lead all the waaaaaay down to the ground where she has an even bigger web thats about a foot and a half in length and width. She has I think two males in her bottom web, and one is actually alive to my surprise.

Yeah, that's a big girl. They don't get that big by being easy to catch, so you'll have a challenge on your hands. Good luck!

 

[The Snark]

Until I can attempt to get a picture of her full web

In order to get a good web pic you need a uniform dark background and a well illuminated web. Darn difficult out in the wild. I've taken dozens upon dozens of failed shots of orb weavers.