fungal infestation of wooden enclosure components (latrodectus)

Tsathoggua

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
23
Ok, so I have a potential problem.

What appears to be fungal hyphae sprouting in small patches from the wooden coffee stirrers I poked here and there out of the base of moss, which I use to hold some water for my spider (L.geometricus I think, but MAY be that Uloborid that pics were posted in the very recent ID thread.

My eyesight isn't good enough to see if the lil bugger is possessed of a cribellum though, one eye is farsighted, on the other hand, my right eye which was good for close up, didn't take kindly to either the cocktail of boiling hot THF, methanol ,sodium hydroxide and a certain cyclic ester that I was cleaving in a chemistry project a few years back that flash-boiled out of a flask and hit me smack bang in the face

I don't think I am going to provoke a bite to find out though{D
 

Sheepy

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Messages
10
If brown widows are the same as black widows, they don't actually even need the water source. They can get enough water from the food they eat.

Anything that can mold is a lot of problem... you might want to consider plastic or metal so things can't grow on them.
 

Widowman10

Arachno WIDOW
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 25, 2007
Messages
4,212
yeah, you probably don't want mold in there, it's usually not that great of a thing... :)

not sure why you have mold though, is your enclosure airtight or just really damp? Latros do need a tiny bit of humidity, but not much at all. and while it's true that they get a lot of their water from prey, variolus and mactans do come from more humid climates than hesperus (especially variolus, mactans not as much). i do provide water every once in awhile, as they'll drink heartily.
 
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