I got a small surprise yesterday. A week and a half ago, I got a couple of black widows and got them set up in nice containers. Yesterday, Verðandi made a lovely fat egg sac. Yay!
This raises a few problems, though. Mary is mostly arachnophilic, but I’ve noticed she’s a bit nervous about Latrodectus, and tends to quickly leave the room when I open up the cages. They have a bad reputation. The bigger problem is that the containers I have them in are open and fairly airy, and while the adults can’t escape, little baby spiderlings could slip right through the ventilation openings.
So this morning I’m going to have to do a prisoner transfer, moving them from the relatively low security home confinement, to a more secure containment in my lab. I’ll post photos later.
PZ whenever a spider waves an egg sack: Go to horny jail!
*weaves. Darn the autocorrect!
What could go wrong?
Black widows were common when I lived in Orange County. They hung out at the bottom of the steps, and in all the crevices of the laundry room. I never had a problem with them. I was rather disappointed to see columns of Argentine ants marching undisturbed past their webs.
As someone who does not live in the USA we are horrified that a major world power seems intent on putting a senile, corrupt person into the presidency again.
Note: I do not distinguish between candidates.
They won’t have to worry about being washed out by the orange anymore.
I’m with Mary. One of the perks of living in Minnesota is the relative lack of venomous animals. I like spiders, but having my house colonized by black widows would be a big Nope! I would worry too much about a baby granddaughter getting bitten.
Watch Out for the 12 Deadliest Animals in Minnesota
Meh.
@Reginald
Meh indeed. We don’t have native brown recluse or black widow spiders here, and the Timber rattlesnakes are extremely rare. It is pretty easy to avoid bears and moose by staying out of the wilderness, but nothing else on that list is at all dangerous.
Coyotes?! Owls!? Please stay in the city if you think those are any threat to humans.
The most dangerous animal in Minnesota besides humans is in fact whitetail deer causing car crashes.