Noob needing help, Lactrodectus (caught wild)

[LatroMo74]

Hello fellow spider enthusiasts,
I recently caught a female Black Widow in front of my house.
But a bit of background first. This is the 4th or 5th Widow I've caught and attempted to care for in my life, and the second in the last 8 years or so. Living in eastern Washington, I assume she and previous catches have been Latrodectus Hesperus. So I've decided to call her LadHe ("Lady", yes I am brilliant and original). Everyone I know thinks I'm crazy, but I find this particular species beautiful. It's a toss up for my favorite spider competing with jumping spiders (how I would love to have a Hyllus Giganteus).
But to the IMPORTANT PART of my post, now that winter is approaching, it's becoming difficult to find food for her. Does anyone have advice on how to acquire food? Crickets from pet stores seem to me to be too large (she's 10mm body, about 40-50mm leg span). Can I use mealworms?
In addition, does anyone who's successfully kept these spiders have enclosure advice? ATM, I'm using a large glass jar with a lot of sticks and dead leaves for her to hide in with a fitted screen top. And finally, do spiders such as this need a water source like tarantulas? Should I occasionally spray a bit of water into the enclosure?
Thanks in advance.
It'd be nice to learn from people who don't think I'm a weirdo for finding arachnids fascinating.

 

[fcat]

You can maim the crickets and remove their legs (may want to do this for safety regardless), but yes, mealworms would probably be easier if that is your only spider. I can't comment on keeping them as mine are free range on the exterior of my house in the middle of the hot, dry desert. My local species seem to love leaf litter as well. I can spot their messy webs from a mile a way.

A water dish would suffice. I can't speak on humidity, there isn't any here

 

[jbooth]

I mean... it's truly insane what these will take down. Might take a month of creeping around trying to get in that one... little... bite. But it will become food unless it's capable of eating the spider. Whatever is cheapest really, probably mealworms eh? They keep well.

mine are free range on the exterior of my house

How do you get them to stay out there? My freerange widows are in my bedroom

 

[fcat]

I gave the cellar spiders the interior. I had a mosquito problem, so I moved one inside to the bathroom. She dropped a sac, and now I have one or 8 in each room now, they have done a great job over the last few years.

So far I've only found one MM widow inside. He found his way in through the kitchen window that I leave open 365 so my cellar spiders don't feel trapped, so it was only a matter of time before one made it's way in. I really do think the cellar spiders keep the windows out.

Now recluses, whatever variety are in AZ I get those, and they are as unwelcome inside as scorpions, the latter the cats take care of.

Funny, now that I think of it, I have had more widows in my car than my house; 3 in as many different cars.

 

[jbooth]

I had 2 in my room, but I think they succombed to dehydration, poisoned roaches, or loose H. carolinensis slings. Or moved to less conspicuous locations. One was right under my desk and just vanished.

 

[fcat]

I had 2 in my room, but I think they succombed to dehydration, poisoned roaches, or loose H. carolinensis slings. Or moved to less conspicuous locations. One was right under my desk and just vanished.

Well, if another, obviously smaller one didn't appear in its place the next day...

I swear it's not even worth relocating them.

 

[jbooth]

Here's one in this dirty old cup... perfect enclosure btw. You can see in the top where this one ate a loose H. Carolinensis lol. Or it just died in the web.

 

[jbooth]

Just spritzing some water on the web now and then is good for drinking. Around here they do tend to seek out a tiny bit of moisture, tires with water, buckets half full of trash. These in here aren't finding any though. It's 16% humidity and that one looks fine, I spritzed its web before I put it back under a shelf, but it's never seen water before in here I'd bet.

 

[SpookySpooder]

loose H. carolinensis slings

thanks for the chuckle

remember to keep your mouth closed when you're asleep

 

[jbooth]

thanks for the chuckle

remember to keep your mouth closed when you're asleep

I'll try. I guess it's after midnight and these don't look antsy yet... safe to leave the pantyhose off another night. Hatched Thursday, sac 3 lol the struggle is real. Still finding the odd straggler from the last 2. When they disperse, they don't wake me up and tell me first. You can't even feel them on your face like a red runner, I'll wake right up for that.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Another post for the lacteodecrus queen @darkness975

 

[darkness975]

Small meal worms are fine.

Spritz water for it to drink.

Please don't kill scorpions or other spiders. Relocate them outside.

 

[RoachCoach]

You can also buy buffalo beetles on ebay. Their larva are like micro mealworms. I think they look literally like miniature meal worms.
Edit: I used to keep and handle about 20 brown recluses. As long as you know what you are doing don't let people calling you weirdo affect you. Also handled over 100 thousand roaches easy.

 

[jbooth]

I'd stick to ones that aren't about to pupate though, that's when they fill up on the eggcrate fibers, at least in my roach bins. I saw some pretty weird poo from a sling once that looked like it had fibers in it, and I think it had been plugged up from one.

 

[SpookySpooder]

You can also buy buffalo beetles on ebay. Their larva are like micro mealworms. I think they look literally like miniature meal worms.

Here are various sizes of the aforementioned Alphitobius diaperinus. The larvae are extremely tiny, like micro tiny when newly born, like a tiny red-yellow sliver of a hair. Too small for me to grip with tweezers. You could feed them to the smallest of small slings.

 

[LatroMo74]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Going to grab some mealworms from Petsmart. Curious about the "superworms" though. I assume they're... bigger?
Anyway, great to have a group who's into "weird" stuff like me. What is the longest anyone has been able to keep a widow alive in captivity? My last one survived just over a year.
@darkness975, thanks and yeah, it's frustrating when people see an arachnid (or snake, etc.) and instantly freak out while screaming in 10 octaves above their normal voice and think the only option is to kill.

 

[Charliemum]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Going to grab some mealworms from Petsmart. Curious about the "superworms" though. I assume they're... bigger?
Anyway, great to have a group who's into "weird" stuff like me. What is the longest anyone has been able to keep a widow alive in captivity? My last one survived just over a year.
@darkness975, thanks and yeah, it's frustrating when people see an arachnid (or snake, etc.) and instantly freak out while screaming in 10 octaves above their normal voice and think the only option is to kill.

super/morio worms are a different kind of black beetle from meal worms. They are both black beetle but from different places I believe. I don't know about there but here you can get mini mealworms and fruit walks at most reptile shops here you can also get blue or green bottle pupae on ebay or some pet stores. You have to wait for the flys to hatch but its what she'd be catching in the wild.

 

[SilentWidowMaker]

Hello fellow spider enthusiasts,
I recently caught a female Black Widow in front of my house.
But a bit of background first. This is the 4th or 5th Widow I've caught and attempted to care for in my life, and the second in the last 8 years or so. Living in eastern Washington, I assume she and previous catches have been Latrodectus Hesperus. So I've decided to call her LadHe ("Lady", yes I am brilliant and original). Everyone I know thinks I'm crazy, but I find this particular species beautiful. It's a toss up for my favorite spider competing with jumping spiders (how I would love to have a Hyllus Giganteus).
But to the IMPORTANT PART of my post, now that winter is approaching, it's becoming difficult to find food for her. Does anyone have advice on how to acquire food? Crickets from pet stores seem to me to be too large (she's 10mm body, about 40-50mm leg span). Can I use mealworms?
In addition, does anyone who's successfully kept these spiders have enclosure advice? ATM, I'm using a large glass jar with a lot of sticks and dead leaves for her to hide in with a fitted screen top. And finally, do spiders such as this need a water source like tarantulas? Should I occasionally spray a bit of water into the enclosure?
Thanks in advance.
It'd be nice to learn from people who don't think I'm a weirdo for finding arachnids fascinating.

Every couple days is good practice to spray some water for them to drink. I've seen my L. hesperus drink often from droplets. No specific humidity is required. Since they do web in the higher area of jars or cups it's best to have access to feed without ripping off their webs. I provide a variety of snacks for them to eat including roaches , crickets, flies depending on size of widow they usually have no problem taking down prey.

 

[LatroMo74]

Picked up some superworms from PetSmart and she loved it. Also nice to note it was active enough to capture and keep her attention but doesn't seem to possess any ability that could harm her.
I'm about to re-house her into a better enclosure, but not sure how long to wait after feeding or the least stressful way to move her. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[SilentWidowMaker]

Yeah best to wait awhile before disturbing her after a meal they're prone to falling or even bursting by accident. I usually just nudge mine along by gently touching with a smaller paintbrush.