irate hesperus

[buthus]

Hey kid, do me a favor and stick your fingers in there and grab those egg sacs for me. ...

The tweezers died about 2 hours after being envenomated.

 

[Ganoderma]

nice shots! i think the only time i have ever seen a hesperus or mactans get pissed is when it has eggs. and man, does your look pissed!

 

[RodG]

Great sequence of photos!!! Keep them coming.

 

[Sof]

Hey kid, do me a favor and stick your your fingers in there and grab those egg sacs for me. ...

The tweezers died about 2 hours after being envenomated.

LOL! ...

Congrats on the egg sacs.

 

[buthus]

LOL! ...

Congrats on the egg sacs.

Congrats is not the word ...more like "sorry about all those sacs". I had to get my butt in gear and pull all the sacs because I have not been on the ball ...and some are getting very dark. Harvested 11 hesp sacs, 8 geos and 2 treds last night. Half the geos went down the toilet. There are a couple of the hesp sacs I care about (selective breeding), but even with those, I will be allowing major cannibalism before I even have time to look at whats going on.

 

[Sof]

Thats crazy. I don't think I would want be taking care of so many spiderlings, but I guess you letting them eat each other will cut down on the numbers

Do you know how many eggs are in one hesperus sac?

 

[OldHag]

AWW you shouldnt flush the babies! Should just take the eggsacks outside and let them hatch out there!!

 

[buthus]

Do you know how many eggs are in one hesperus sac?

I have only seperated one hesp hatching before any cannibalism started. If my memory serves me right, it was somewhere around 130 slings.

Supposably the average egg count (stressing the word "egg" not sling because not every egg is guranteed to hatch) for north american black widows (mactans and hesperus ...maybe variolus) is just under 200. According to Dr.Robert Green's Widow Spiders Of North america, the egg count can range from 100 to 1000. Average for mactans is 200-250 and hesperus is around 200. I have had a couple recent hatchings from large and full sacs (probably huge number of eggs) that produced well under 100 slings ...probably 60 -80. These small number hatchings from large sacs tend to produce very large slings. I suspect (guessing) that the slings go thru a couple molts withing the sac and feed on the other eggs. A recent revivensis hatching gave me exactly 250 slings and a Laos hatching produced just over 100 slings. I have had three recent mactans hatchings which 2 sacs produced under 100 and the other around 160 slings. Geos range greatly also, but i have yet to seperate a geo hatching. One large geo sac hatched was so great in numbers that the slings filled a 2oz dixie cup ....I have to guess that there must have been over 300 slings! Last time I checked there are only a few left.
The two black morph tred (lugubris) sacs scare me. They are huge and seem very healthy ...and I plan on seperating the slings before losses start. What a freakin chore. The first few feedings are going to take many hours ...just for the first sac. I have two and Im sure she will make at least a few more. :wall:

 

[diadematus]

The two black morph tred (lugubris) sacs scare me. They are huge and seem very healthy ...and I plan on seperating the slings before losses start. What a freakin chore. The first few feedings are going to take many hours ...just for the first sac. I have two and Im sure she will make at least a few more. :wall:

Why so many hours? Because they will all be in separate containers?? (newbie, here) And what will you do with all of these? Do you sell them? Or give them away? Or repopulate the world?

-K

 

[buthus]

Why so many hours? Because they will all be in separate containers?? (newbie, here) And what will you do with all of these?

Separation takes a long time. Each cup has to be prepared. Lid, airholes, structure and H2O. I have developed a new method using better (IMO) materials, which I am experimenting with at the moment and will share very soon. If there are 200 slings, thats 200 cups to prepare and then begins the adventure of getting each sling into its cup. I'm getting faster at doing this and have found some ways to gain more control over the masses.
Feeding takes time, especially for the first few times because small slings do not lay out a lot of web and are not the greatest hunters (some species seem more pathetic than others and this applies to individuals within the same specie also.) In the wild, even if there were nothing that preyed on the slings, only a handful would survive ...thats the nature of things and in this case, its all about the individual's ability (and luck) to score food. Dropping healthy, unhindered prey into the cups usually results in a small percentage of successful feeds. Carefully hand feeding is the only answer if you desire a high survival rate. A few of us have talked about this on another recent thread. But, in a nutshell, it takes time to make sure every sling locates and starts feeding on the food item.

Do you sell them? Or give them away? Or repopulate the world?

I raise them to adulthood and then sneak into the backyards of people I don't like and release large numbers under their lawn and patio furniture.
Hey...ya know ...everybody should have a hobby they truely enjoy.

 

[Gigas]

The tweezers died about 2 hours after being envenomated.

Lmao, Great pictures (especially the last one) did you plan on removing the smaller egcase from the websheath or does that just happen when you remove latro eggs?

 

[buthus]

Lmao, Great pictures (especially the last one) did you plan on removing the smaller egcase from the websheath or does that just happen when you remove latro eggs?

Not sure what exactly you mean. But, basically there were two sacs to remove. (actually 3, but the third was easier to get from outside the cement structure) Webbing held them together, thus making it possible to pull them both out in one shot. She seemed pissier than the others, so I decided to take some shots and document her frustrating moment.

 

[buthus]

AWW you shouldnt flush the babies! Should just take the eggsacks outside and let them hatch out there!!

Sorry OldHag ...somehow missed your post.
Geos are not native to the US ...and are only an extremely rare find in S. CA. They are the zebra muscle of the spider world IMO and should not be allowed to spread via irresponsible hobbiest.
I've misplaced a few non-native slings in my room. My room is actually a back-house and has direct access to the outside, but I figure the chances of one of those slings being able to survive and find another to propagate with is very slim. With species such as mactans and geos, I am extra careful now, because they could do well in my area. So could some of the more rare arids, but with these i am automatically careful, because I treat each sling like a gem that should not get lost. Though...there IS a pallidus sling somewhere in my room ...probably steatoda food by now. :?