Check out what farmer Brown gave me! (Argiope)

[WayneT]

I'm serious, he's a farmer and the name's Brown I drive 35 miles to work in Kansas and pass some wonderfull farmland. There's a farm not far from Caney, KS that has a neat old barn that I've always wanted to paint, but anyway I saw him and his wife out on the porch last evening and pulled in real fast and asked him if he had any garden spiders hanging around. After laughing about my request, which I'm sure he thought I was pulling his leg about, he took me around back. He had like 20 of them, but I took this little cutie home. The second pic is her eating a katydid, and the third is the 3 eggsacs that were on her web, that I may place out back on the woodpile.

 

[pandinus]

if you ever feel like driving up to wichita, i have some rahter groovy comb-footed spiders with your name on them.

 

[WayneT]

if you ever feel like driving up to wichita, i have some rahter groovy comb-footed spiders with your name on them.

Man I was like 45 miles from you last week! Do you have any pics of them? I'd like to see them.

 

[pandinus]

try looking here and here i have a few other morphs too

 

[WayneT]

Sweet! Looks like a female? I'll let you know next time I'm up that way!

 

[Alex S.]

Very nice feeding pics!

Alex S.

 

[xanadu1015]

I have the exact same species right now and she laid a huge egg sac too. I have even gotten her to crawl on me a bit, she's really fascinating. I'm hoping to encourage them to stick around in my garden.



Laura

 

[WayneT]

I have the exact same species right now and she laid a huge egg sac too. I have even gotten her to crawl on me a bit, she's really fascinating. I'm hoping to encourage them to stick around in my garden.
Laura

@ Alex...thanks! I just got lucky on that one!

Laura, you are now the second person, besides myself that I know of letting them crawl on you! I've put mine in a large tall enclosure and plan to keep her through the winter and beyond!

 

[pandinus]

even though they are traditionally orb weavers, all the ones i have seen in captivity have made cob webs, has anyone managed to get one to spin an orb?

 

[WayneT]

even though they are traditionally orb weavers, all the ones i have seen in captivity have made cob webs, has anyone managed to get one to spin an orb?

This one in the pic is orbing one as I write this. If I can get the lighting right, I'll take a pic.

 

[DeathRowDisco]

@ Alex...thanks! I just got lucky on that one!

Laura, you are now the second person, besides myself that I know of letting them crawl on you! I've put mine in a large tall enclosure and plan to keep her through the winter and beyond!

I have a banded argiope that I let crawl on me. I have to be careful, though, she's extremely active and as I learned yesterday, she's quite fast.

 

[MyNameHere]

that's a neato-looking spider, wayne! Did you, at any time, explain to the poor, bewildered Farmer Brown that you keep pet spiders? He probably didn't ask though, right?

 

[WayneT]

that's a neato-looking spider, wayne! Did you, at any time, explain to the poor, bewildered Farmer Brown that you keep pet spiders? He probably didn't ask though, right?

LOL...no Starzz, he didn't, but his wife did! "Why on earth do you want to take that thing home with you?", were her exact words. That prompting, of course, launched me into my story....

 

[Malhavoc's]

even though they are traditionally orb weavers, all the ones i have seen in captivity have made cob webs, has anyone managed to get one to spin an orb?

You need A very large enclosure to get them to create their full potential orb web. if you see them making a cob web you have not provided enough ropom/objects for them to create the web they need to efficently survive. the cob web they make is usualy jsut for the spider to nest in or hide in. and usualy will wonder the pace of the entire space it is kept in trying to find a mroe suitile place to make its web. IME I've found they don't live this way for very long and can't seem to catch much food.

 

[MizM]

I wonder if that's why mine died? She laid a sac too , but her's is white! Sorry Wayne, she really wanted to come to OK!

 

[Malhavoc's]

ITs white because its fresh terri. Like black widow sacs it will darken with age right up to when it hatches. I'm telling you the eggs are fine. they can survive a winter with no mother back in canada and hatched with nearly 100% no casualities I don't know why you jsut dont send him the sac

 

[WayneT]

I wonder if that's why mine died? She laid a sac too , but her's is white! Sorry Wayne, she really wanted to come to OK!

Sorry about that... I'd keep that sac tho.

 

[xanadu1015]

@ Alex...thanks! I just got lucky on that one!

Laura, you are now the second person, besides myself that I know of letting them crawl on you! I've put mine in a large tall enclosure and plan to keep her through the winter and beyond!

Yeah, I don't bug her much since she seems to get panicky when I open the lid, but she doesn't try to bite. I'm not worried about her bite anyway. But I plan on making a trip to a Pet shop to get a larger enclosure for her. Plus my neighbors pointed a couple more of the same who seem to be gravid as well and they were hoping I would take them, so its looks like the house is becoming a spider sanctuary. lol

 

[Malhavoc's]

Argiope's bite is harmless its one of the spiders I have actualy been bit by. as for letting them crawl on you. why not? "thats like saying "I'm going to buy this docile lil hasmter and never hold it"

@Mizm.
Yes terri I think thats why yours died, also the cricket running around in the enclosure probably stressed it way out. Where as if it has a full potiential tank they can make a web to sit on while their hungry but if disturbed they will normaly fallow a piece of silk from the center to a hide located undersomething. much like black widows.

 

[MizM]

They were just teeny weeny little crix! I didn't put her in a larger enclosure because she wasn't a pet to me... she was a gift for WayneT!!!