L. mactans keeps laying egg sacs

Ghost56

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 28, 2016
Messages
443
As the title says, she just keeps dropping egg sacs every time she's well fed. I just pulled out the 6th one in the span of about 3-5 months. Do they just lay non fertilized sacs often like this or what's the dealio? Not sure if any of them were fertilized or not, they were all disposed of.
 
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chanda

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 27, 2010
Messages
2,229
Yep, that's what widows do. I've kept both L. hesperus and L. geometricus, and both are egg-laying machines once they mature, regardless of whether they've mated or not. I've had widows lay maybe 10-12 sacs or more (I haven't really kept an accurate count). If they have mated, they will still lay multiple sacs - and the successive sacs will continue to be viable for quite some time after the pairing, though eventually the hatch rates do start to diminish.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
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Aug 8, 2005
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11,048
Of note on this. One reason why the Geometricus has been taking over and forcing out native populations as the Hesperus is in how prolific it is. Ideal environment, which the Geo has a greater tolerance range, often has them turning out over 20 fertile sacs with more than 30 not all that uncommon.
 

Ghost56

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 28, 2016
Messages
443
Of note on this. One reason why the Geometricus has been taking over and forcing out native populations as the Hesperus is in how prolific it is. Ideal environment, which the Geo has a greater tolerance range, often has them turning out over 20 fertile sacs with more than 30 not all that uncommon.
We actually just had to spray for those they've gotten so bad here, there were 20+ separate females nesting just in our carport. Every one of them had at least one egg sac.
 
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