A new pet?

Virginia · Post by **Virginia** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:33 pm

I was doing some yard work today, turned over a big rock and there she was in all her high gloss black eight legged glory. Yeah, a beautiful Black Widow spider. I went and got a glass jar and on the way came across a most unfortunate cricket. Both went into the jar and she was on that cricket in no time. Unfortunately, she is not a happy camper right now as I am sure she would rather be back outside under her rock and I will probably let her go tomorrow, but right now, wow what a beautiful creature. Wonder, do they bite?

Uh! YEAH!!!!!!

What I want to find next is a timber rattler, but this time of year, I am sure they have all gone to bed, maybe in the spring!

Virginia

Post by **DonnaT** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:56 pm

Don't let the spider go. You may find it again only after it's bitten you.

Carol Ann · Post by **Carol Ann** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:01 am

You and SilverLady come visit Carol in May, you will have your choise of rattlers.

Lydia · Post by **Lydia** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:26 am

Hi Virginia,

I truly admire your choice of pets. I used to have a pet tarantula who seemed perfectly happy to get her daily cricket. She was merciless toward any male tarantula, however.

We also had a pet boa constrictor named "Snaveley." I wouldn't trust any rattlesnake - they are mean.

Hugs,

Lydia

SilverLady(SO) · Post by **SilverLady(SO)** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:18 pm

Ahem!

Excuse me, ladies, and especially my beautiful Virginia, but ya'll are forgetting one very important fact.

The GG in this household . . . moi . . . has not consented to having either a Black Widow spider or a Timber Rattlesnake as a pet, nor anything else that is of the creepy-crawly or slithering variety, and it will be an extremely bitter, cold, and frozen-over day in 7734 before I do! In other words, it ain't gonna happen, no way, no how, and no apologies, either.

The Black Widow spider is firmly enclosed in a glass jar right now, and I will admit to tormenting the bejeebers out of it simply because I can.

However, if I had my way the Black Widow will not survive, and I don't care how many insects it can eat.

In my book, the only good spiders are dead ones, and snakes were created purely to make shoes, belts, and purses out of their skins.

::grrrrrrr::

- SL

PS: The only pets that I will consent to include the flying variety that regularly visit our 6 feeders, as well as the many chipmunks, squirrels, groundhogs, and deer that we see here. Oh, yeah, and Brutus, our neighbor's pure-bred German Shepherd (who's just a big puppy at heart)!

Carol Ann · Post by **Carol Ann** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:45 am

WOW

,
I do believe I know who wears the panties in that family.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:28 pm

Oooh I LOVE spiders

I kid you not, they are amazing creatures, Black Widows should be treated with respect though.

We had a little iddy biddy spider no bigger than my thumb nail spin a 14 foot diameter web outside our house. Alas it was before the days of digital cameras so no picture. Spiders eat 300 million tons of flies each year in the UK alone. We owe them big time.

Wendae · Post by **Wendae** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:07 pm

I have tried to get over my phobia of spiders up to allowing a friend let a pet trantula walk up my arm and all I can say is

Virginia · Post by **Virginia** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:33 pm

Well, "Marlene" is back in the wild! After feeding her three crikets, she just was not a happy camper in that jar so I took her to the far end of the yard and let her go! She seemed very glad to get out of that jar and took off as fast as she could wearing eight 4" heels

Hope she makes it through the winter, I don't know what their life expectancy is, but they are such a neat spider!

Virginia

Jessica North · Post by **Jessica North** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:40 pm

Virginia,

Excuse my ignorance on matters of arachnobuggia, but aren't you at least a little concerned that there was (and is again) a BLACK WIDOW spider in your yard??

Would make me a little nervous for sure!

Hugs,
Jessica

Virginia · Post by **Virginia** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:21 pm

Thanks Hon for your concern, but we have nearly 6 acres and with all the other wildlife around here, deer, groundhogs, snakes, raptors and birds of all kinds, feral cats, and my neighbor even had a bear in his yard earlier this summer, a few spiders really don't worry me too much. In fact I turned over a rock I was looking at relocating today and there were two under it. Probably a couple of Marlene's kids!

Carol Ann can attest to it, it is just one of the "benefits" of living in the country.

Virginia

SilverLady(SO) · Post by **SilverLady(SO)** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:38 pm

Virginia wrote:In fact I turned over a rock I was looking at relocating today and there were two under it. Probably a couple of Marlene's kids! Carol Ann can attest to it, it is just one of the "benefits" of living in the country.

We also have at least one Brown Recluse spider that we have seen, this one was taking a stroll across our front porch.

Virginia didn't quite believe me when I said that's what it was, she had to 'google' it and saw that I was right.

I know those spiders have a place in the Circle of Life, and that's great . . . provided their circle is not too close to mine. If I ever feel that they are getting too great in numbers, well, I can guarantee you that an exterminator *will* be called in asap, and the same goes for any rattlers.

Yes, Carol Ann, honey, I do wear the panties in this family . . . although Virginia's seem to get mixed up in mine, and vice versa!!

((Hugs))

- SL

Wendae · Post by **Wendae** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:57 am

Virginia, a brown recluse or black widow are not great house guests. The recluse is a nasty critter who's bite you may not feel but the venom starts destroying tissue. The results are not very pretty.

Carol Elizabeth · Post by **Carol Elizabeth** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:25 am

Household pets? Or, was that household pests?

We had a few unwanted pets move in to our home, yellowjacket wasps. They found a hole where some caulking failed and set up household in one of the walls of our home.

Unfortunately, once it started turning cold, they decided they wanted to be inside with us.

I have unceremoniously burried the carcasses of over 900 of these unwanted "pets" in the trash after spraying, swatting or otherwise killing everyone one that I can find. I guess that makes me guilty of insecticide.

There will be no unwanted pets in this house either.

CE

Bernice · Post by **Bernice** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:49 pm

My SO was an exterminator. She had a pet tarantula, which stayed AT THE OFFICE! (Sorry, I have a friend who is a retired herpitologist, but I still don't like spiders or snakes!)

Debbie will tell you how people would call her at any time of day or night, terrified that they had a 5 inch diameter brown recluse spider that could run at 20 miles per hour. She would dutifully go - or send her employee - only to discover the spider in question was less than a half inch diameter, and not poisonous, and hard pressed to run at 1 mile per hour. Harmless wolf spiders were frequently customer-diagnosed as tarantulas of course. We just don't see black widows around here - thank goodness!

She used to chide me for committing arachnid-icide, even inside the house, because they really do help control insects, but frankly, I didn't want to get out the jeweler's loupe and look for a reddish violin every time I saw a credible candidate for the Brown Recluse. Around here, they are fairly common.

No, you don't want a genuinely venemous spider bite. Most will leave a permanent scar and some can kill children and the elderly. Even non-poisonous bites can hurt, swell, bleed, and get infected.

Hugs,

Bernice