Raising L. geometricus

[Pulk]

this is kind of vague, but... how difficult is maintaining a fly culture?
how many flies do you get minimum from a culture?
how much space is necessary for one?

how important are day/night light cycles for widows, specifically slings?

 

[buthus]

how important are day/night light cycles for widows, specifically slings?

Seemingly not important for most species ...course its hard to ask a spider what she thinks.
Shy species do better when given night time, but even they seem to eventually lighten up so to speak.

The majority of my spiders are in the dark (or semi-dark) most of the time.
Suppose I could add some night-lights inside my spider drawers. :? ...

 

[Rizzolo]

i agree with Buthus on the day/night thing as far as widows. certainly, it could vary with species. but, western widows are happy to spend all their time in dark to semi dark areas. since they don't hunt (just sit and wait), i think the day night difference is less important than it is for Ts who are mostly active at night (as least some of them).

as for the fruit flies - yeah, i tap the vial to knock them back into the vial so they don't crawl all over. i end up squishing lots of them to keep them from hopping all over, but they are pretty innocuous, so i'm not really worried.

maintaining a fruit fly culture is extremely easy. essentially no maintenance, except emptying the flies out of the culture as they hatch. i dump the flies into other containers along with pieces of banana to help keep them for longer. no matter what, i waste at least 1,000 for every one that gets eaten. you get thousands per culture. the smaller ones, D melanogaster, produce even more per culture. i have been using the same D hydei culture for at least 8 months now. i just start one or two at a time. every time one culture starts to hatch, i cook up a couple more and innoculate them with some of the fresh flies, then 2-3 weeks later the new culture kicks in. i use a very simple formula that is mostly instant mashed potatoes. i bought a bunch of supplies at the beginning, including tegosept, excelsior, and fiber lids. i mix my own formula and it costs just cents per culture. the temperature in my Tarantula shelves is just right (~78 deg.) and they do fine. they are in large deli containers (pint?) and require no more space than that.

don't go out and buy one culture after another. i have bought about 2cultures total, and except for one of them (that was really good), mine are better by far. i was worried that my culture would revert after a while so that they would start to fly (real bummer), but it hasn't happened yet. when it does, $6 and away i go with a brand new culture. be careful who you buy from. i don't know how to advise you on that, but when you find a good vendor stick with them. strangely, the one i bought off of ebay was the best (healthiest and best producing) one, and is the strain (of hydei) that i am still using. so, it seems that it was a true bred strain.

i would definitely get one of each, D hydei and D melanogaster. i step them up to the hydei after a few weeks on the smaller ones. that made a real difference with the species that have really tiny slings, mactans, geometricus, some revivensis, mirabilis (microscopic!).

good luck

 

[Ted]

i used to breed them by the thousands[mactans].and would even let them go in my house,occasionally...i never found them to be a problem.
they seemed to end up outside eventually.
i would wake up in the morning after a hatching and there would be babies all up my nose, and everywhere.
i never got bitten by a single one.

 

[Pulk]

Wow, thanks for all the info Rizzolo! A fruit fly culture is sounding like a better idea. How much do you have to spend initially to get/start one?

Ted - whoa.

How long can you let the slings cannibalize each other? (Until there's one left?)
How long can you go with supplementing their diet of siblings with other stuff?

Does anyone sell a lot (hundreds?) of widow slings? If so, how?

How much do the babies tend to look like the mother?

again, thanks for your time/help.

Edit: Also, are there any recorded deaths from geo (or any non-hesp/mac) bites?
Edit: Is a male always or only occasionally able to mate with multiple females? At what size are males certain to have palps? What instar are hatchlings?

 

[Pulk]

can't edit it again, so...

Wow, thanks for all the info Rizzolo! A fruit fly culture is sounding like a better idea. How much do you have to spend initially to get/start one?

Ted - whoa.

How long can you let the slings cannibalize each other? (Until there's one left?) How long can you go with supplementing their diet of siblings with other stuff?

Does anyone sell a lot (hundreds?) of widow slings? If so, how?

How much do the babies tend to look like the mother?

Are there any recorded deaths from geo (or any non-hesp/mac) bites?

Is a male always or only occasionally able to mate with multiple females?

At what size are males certain to have palps?

Which instar are hatchlings?

How often do you feed slings?

I'm thinking it might be easier to chop up mealworms. Are those alone nutritious enough for the babies?

sorry for the so many questions.

 

[buthus]

You need to raise some broods and find out a lot of this stuff as you go. When u learn it that way...ya really learn it.

Are there any recorded deaths from geo (or any non-hesp/mac) bites?

Geos.. no...at least I have never run into any info stating otherwise. Hesp/macs.. last reported death was something like 15-20 years ago.

Is a male always or only occasionally able to mate with multiple females?

If he lives and is not too weak after mating, usually he can keep mating with other girls. 3 or 4 matings is not uncommon ...(double that.. I have a couple studs go the distance ..party animals, good dancers)
Females of some species can make things harder. BTW...some males are just GOOD at mating others, not so much.

At what size are males certain to have palps?

Seems that with most species, males will start to show at around 3rd or 4th instar. Late bloomers do surprise you.

Which instar are hatchlings?

Info I have read says that most slings molt while still in the sac. (most likely once). When you open sacs you more often than not find tiny molts.

How often do you feed slings?

Once a week will usually do the trick. But, throwing food in with the sling cant be considered a successful feed until you see the sling take the prey.

I often rely less on time and more on visual inspection of the slings. When they look hungry, I feed them.

I'm thinking it might be easier to chop up mealworms. Are those alone nutritious enough for the babies?

I have raised slings all the way to adulthood with only mealworms. It works, but I try not to do this ...its better to feed them crix and roaches at least every so many feedings. Mealworms are fatty and who knows how much diet can affect reproduction, lifespan, etc, etc..
Termites, earwigs, beetles, woodlice..even ants and other spiders can be easy alternatives. Stay clear of wild crix and roaches... they tend to wander around picking up and consuming man made poisons.

 

[8+)]

How long can you let the slings cannibalize each other? (Until there's one left?) How long can you go with supplementing their diet of siblings with other stuff?

This depends on the specie and how large your brooder is.

Does anyone sell a lot (hundreds?) of widow slings? If so, how?

People often send sacs. I imagine you could also send a brooder full of slings. No way to know the exact number though.

How much do the babies tend to look like the mother?

Depends on the specie, but most slings are more colorful. The Laos. sp. look just like mom, but turn slowly from white to red markings. The reds look a lot like adults.

sorry for the so many questions.

I hope that's not necessary, because then I owe a lot of apologies!

 

[Pulk]

Geos.. no...at least I have never run into any info stating otherwise. Hesp/macs.. last reported death was something like 15-20 years ago.

so no variolus or pallidus or bishopi or anything else?

Seems that with most species, males will start to show at around 3rd or 4th instar. Late bloomers do surprise you.

how big are they at 3rd/4th instar? :8o

Info I have read says that most slings molt while still in the sac. (most likely once). When you open sacs you more often than not find tiny molts.

so you call them 2nd instar at hatching?

Once a week will usually do the trick. But, throwing food in with the sling cant be considered a successful feed until you see the sling take the prey.

I often rely less on time and more on visual inspection of the slings. When they look hungry, I feed them.

one more thing: how long -can- they go without feeding?

Depends on the specie, but most slings are more colorful. The Laos. sp. look just like mom, but turn slowly from white to red markings. The reds look a lot like adults.

sorry, what I meant was how much do offspring -as adults- look like the mother?

I'm trying to decide ideal dimensions for deli cups for all my adult widows. They have to be wide enough for the widow not to look cramped, and tall enough to have a decent web, not be hovering -just- above the bottom, and not have to/be able to attach web to the top. But they should be as small as possible because I have limited space (and want a lot of widows ). Also, I'd like it shorter than it is wide to not have to destroy a large percentage of the webbing when reaching to the bottom with tweezers. So I'm thinking 4-5" dia x 3" high?

A lot of the clear deli cups sold have pre-punched air holes near the top. If the widow builds her hide under sticks placed at/leaning on the holes, how likely do you think it is that she won't go the extra half inch and attach webbing to the lid? If that's unlikely, what would you recommend to solve that problem?

appreciate it!

 

[Pulk]

most of the stuff in the last post actually isn't that important...

but i do want to know if you call them 2nd instar at hatching?

and also, what do you do to deal with and/or avoid problems with latros attaching webbing to the lid?

thanks

 

[buthus]

most of the stuff in the last post actually isn't that important...

but i do want to know if you call them 2nd instar at hatching?

and also, what do you do to deal with and/or avoid problems with latros attaching webbing to the lid?

thanks

Never have been sure regarding your instar question Technically a molt is a molt is a molt. ..you'd think? 4th instar seems to be about a leg span of 1/4 inch ...probably a bit less. Males start to shoot up faster at around the 3rd or 4th instar. But, Im bad about this instar stuff, so other opinions would be beneficial.

Lid huggers..
Pry them away gently using a small paint brush. Clean all the webbing off the lid. Turn the cup over for a day and let the sling resettle itself at the bottom of the cup. Use structure that spans the opening of the cup so they have something up high to web onto. Thats one of the big reasons I use the mesh.
A small percentage of individuals seem to always want to fight your efforts, but usually its the ones that wont feed as much and want to get the heck out their because they are hungry.

 

[Pulk]

immature female - hesp or geo? how can you tell?

I'm not sure if this is the guy I posted pics of before, molted, and re-found (he got out) or a different one.
~5 mm BL
Is he mature or not?
Is he hesp or geo?
how can you tell?


If it's a mature hesperus, I'm gonna try to mate them. Are there threads or posts or links I should look at before trying this? I have almost no idea what to do.

Thanks.

Edit: so... is it the case that fruit flies are a significantly worse source of nutrition than cricket parts?