Retard with a black widow here, my spider is spinning webs like crazy and seems to be doing well. My mom actually bought a new enclosure for her this week. I'm wondering if there are any tips for transferring them. I just don't want to make her upset or stressed
Brown recluse??
Like the other guys were saying the easiest and most fool proof way is to just leave the old enclosure open in the new, but if the sizes don't permit or she won't move after a while you can just get a decent sized stick and coax her onto it then put that into the new enclosure. Just make sure you do the transfer inside some kind of plastic tub in case she falls or drops down to play dead, they can't climb plastic well if at all so that should keep her contained. Chances are you'll have to destroy a good bit of her web to get her out, which will stress her out to a degree, but in my experience after a couple hours she'll be fine and start webbing up the new enclosure.
Also make sure you give her plenty of anchor points to web in the new enclosure, ideally try to create some kind of shelter at one corner and enough anchor points around the edges so she can make her web across the whole length and width of the enclosure like they would do in the wild
Currently I have a half gallon jar filled with dry leaves and egg carton pieces
To house a widow there needs to be high anchor points but avoid going to the very top or she will web the lid.
Here's a diagram of how cobweb spiders make web
Here's how cobweb spider web looks after it's well established
I wish I had a cosy pad like that. Dude, those screws would be so fucking ace.
>Imagine being able to shit out your own hammock wherever you want
That's fine . They don't need a ton of space to do their thing, and they will actually move stuff like leaves that are legitimately in the way. They just need a bit of space to make some vertical threads under their cobweb mat. Even if they don't have the room they still manage quite well. The only concern seems to be that without enough room it takes longer for a prey item to get captured. That itself isn't even something to really worry about since they remain well protected by their messy webs from dangerous prey.
I've given yellow jacket wasps to Steatoda cobweb spiders and the wasps get btfo by a spider that's a fraction of it's size
I just feed her flightless critics
She only can reach about halfway up
As long as she has room for the vertical threads. It's those vertical threads that she will make sticky to catch prey with. When something gets stuck on one of those threads she will hoist up the prey and wrap it with more silk till its immobilized, then bite.
Shit, I just have some leaves there, she might not be able to properly build her web. She's been eating though
If you really don't want to stress her and her current enclosure first inside the new one just put in it there and watch till she explores out .
Otherwise just take your time and be careful and slow. It is just a spider but they are smarter than most give them credit for. They will learn you aren't a threat pretty quickly and then it's easy to deal with them.
Black Widows are cool bros
Stick her in the garage. My garage is full of black widows and we're practically good friends now.
what happened to the black husbands?
They got pregnant
They usually get eaten during mating in a practice known as sexual cannibalism. It happens with several species of bugs but since it happens so often with black widows it's how they got their namesake
my shed had a whole bunch of em once that kept hiding in a little corner and werent paying rent. I used a can of hair spray and a lighter
If it's feasible, putting the current container into or next to the new one without a way to escape might be best. Wait for her to crawl into the new one and block her in.
You might have to spook her with a stick if she doesn't want to move after a few days, if you do, be prepared in case she gets out. Do the transfer on a cleared table (not the floor, easy to get away), and have a big tupperware or something ready to catch her. Black widows are not aggressive or particularly fast.
Whatever you do there's gonna be way more webs involved than you'd think.
gay spider