# Return of the Black Widow



## rip18 (Oct 6, 2007)

See what you started, Handgunner????

Well, since she revived the other day, and I've let her habitat dry completely and air out, I reintroduced her to her block house this afternoon.  I spent about 15 minutes taking pictures & then put her in the dark to finish her new web.  

Hopefully tomorrow I can get some "action" shots of her catching little bugs...

All these were taken with the Nikon D70, Lester A. Dine 105 mm macro, ~f/11ish, 1/800th to 1/2400th second shutter, ISO 200, ring flash, tripod, & some were cropped.  (One was taken through the Lexan as well).


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## Hoss (Oct 6, 2007)

Good shots and neat series Rip.  That hour glass sure shows up.  Glad she made it.  Hope she likes her new home so you can add to this series.  

Hoss


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## whitetaco02 (Oct 6, 2007)

very nice man!!


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## Nicodemus (Oct 6, 2007)

Yep, those look good. Just don`t pet her, or pick her up!!


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## leo (Oct 7, 2007)

*Way to go rip,*

Awesome captures

Thanks for sharing this project with us


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## Smokey (Oct 7, 2007)

Look forward to seeing more pictures of her now that she's sobered up.


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## ronfritz (Oct 7, 2007)

Great ones !!  Glad to see she survived relocation and fumigation.


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## Nicodemus (Oct 7, 2007)

Smokey said:


> Look forward to seeing more pictures of her now that she's sobered up.



I bet there ain`t nothin` meaner than a black widow with a hangover!


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## rip18 (Oct 7, 2007)

And a couple more from today:

I didn't get any good action shots - even with a cricket thrown in there!  The cricket is now wrapped, so at some point after I stopped watching, she caught & killed the cricket.

She was so very still & didn't want to move, that I tried for the shot of the guy picking up the block with the widow inside - and she let me do it without moving!

Nikon D70, Lester A. Dine 105 mm macro, f/11, 0.2 to 0.3 seconds with 2 second delay for shutter release, ISO 200, tripod, full frame.


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## Nicodemus (Oct 7, 2007)

Great shots Rip. Sure can see that hourglass good.


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## Hoss (Oct 7, 2007)

OK, that last one could be used to show what not to do before you look inside the block.  Good captures Rip.  

Hoss


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## rip18 (Oct 7, 2007)

Yep, Hoss, that was what I was thinking.  I was thinking it would be a good image to illustrate a poisonous critters & where you might find them brochure or something...


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## jason308 (Oct 7, 2007)

Great shots Rip....A little too close to the spider for my liking....


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## FERAL ONE (Oct 8, 2007)

rip, my buddy  blazr988 opened a hydraulic filter that had been shipped to us to work. he cut the tape off of the box and reached in to pull the filter out and that is what he saw. a big nasty one!!! never thought we would get something like that in a sealed box!!!


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## stravis (Oct 8, 2007)

If you, or anyone else for that matter, need any more black widows, let me know. There are literally dozens on my farm. They are in the hay, behind the horse feed, under the waterers, all over the place. I didn't have much experience with them until we moved here, but I've found them to be very calm. Not aggressive at all. We don't even bother with them now.


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## irishleprechaun (Oct 8, 2007)

Never seen one this brown, all I have seen were litterally black as coal...


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## Toliver (Oct 8, 2007)

Smokey said:


> Look forward to seeing more pictures of her now that she's sobered up.



Crack Spider get her drunk and try to procreate with her?   I bet that would have made for some good action shots.   If you need some more subjects, I have plenty of them around here.  I'd be happy to mail them to you.


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## j_seph (Oct 8, 2007)

*Smash That Fool Thing*


Liable to find it somewhere very undesireable. You know once bitten and given the anti-ventom you can not have it again, and that could be


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## Handgunner (Oct 8, 2007)

Nice pictures!!!




			
				j_seph said:
			
		

> You know once bitten and given the anti-ventom you can not have it again



I didn't know that.  Why can't you have it again?


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## j_seph (Oct 8, 2007)

Don't know, heard it on some nature show


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## Toliver (Oct 8, 2007)

I think SOMEBODY may find this site useful.....
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/first-aid-spider-bites/FA00048


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## Buck111 (Oct 8, 2007)

Great pics! Are you sure she's not one of these? http://www.247wildlife.com/brown-widow-spider.htm The ones I've seen in Floyd county are coal black.


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## j_seph (Oct 8, 2007)

I can't help what they put on TV and from my searches I can't believe the TV either


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## rip18 (Oct 8, 2007)

Chris, 

I think you could very well be right - I had figured she had just shed her exoskeleton (she WAS lighter about 4 days after I first found her & then began darkening again).  But she hasn't darkened to the amount I figured she would.


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## bubbabuck (Oct 8, 2007)

OK.......This may be the worst thread I've seen in 5 years on Woody's !!!

She would have made a lovely picture on the bottom of my boot !!!


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## ronfritz (Oct 8, 2007)

Nice update Rip.  I assume from the last picture they must not be fast movers.....with regard to toxicity, my curiosity has been piqued....surely there must be someone out there with formal training in wildlife biology who can separate the informational wheat from the chaff.

As I read on Wikipedia, they are highly toxic but too small to deliver a  dose of toxin that would kill a healthy person.


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## rip18 (Oct 9, 2007)

Well... ID is confirmed as a brown widow, NOT a black widow - based on the egg sac I found her with and the second egg sac she made in the jar.  

Well, I have formal training in wildlife biology, but did a pretty poor job of IDing my own spider!!!! (where did the embarrased smiley go?).

However, I did find a good summary on this critter:
http://sarasota.extension.ufl.edu/IPM/BrownWidow.htm


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## ronfritz (Oct 9, 2007)

Thanks Rip!.  That makes some good reading.  Sounds like the brown widow is more poisonous than the black widow but rather timid.

Are you planning on keeping this one indefinitely?


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## rip18 (Oct 9, 2007)

No, I only plan on keeping her long enough to get a good series of pictures - with maybe the final one bubbabuck's suggestion?  Now that I know how diagnostic the spiny egg sac is, I wish she would lay another set of eggs!


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## wild_linesides (Oct 9, 2007)

Very interesting pics and reading. Although, I must admit that my skin is still crawling!


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## dawg2 (Oct 9, 2007)

ronfritz said:


> Nice update Rip.  I assume from the last picture they must not be fast movers.....with regard to toxicity, my curiosity has been piqued....surely there must be someone out there with formal training in wildlife biology who can separate the informational wheat from the chaff.
> 
> As I read on Wikipedia, they are highly toxic but too small to deliver a  dose of toxin that would kill a healthy person.



I can tell you what a Black Widow bite did to me:

1) Made an itchy spot on my ankle not unlike a mosquito bite,

2) shortly thereafter, made by back muscles cramp,

3) Not long after that I was laying on the floor in the fetal position because my back muscles curled my whole body into a ball and I had the WORST stomach cramps I have ever had in my entire life and the chills.  I could not get up, move roll over, crawl, nothing but lay there. The intense pain lasted a little over an hour and I was sore for the next 24.

If you mess with those spiders, you better be really careful.  It is not a pleasant experience.  NOt they are not aggressive, but as a I learned, they like to hide in shoes and will bite when you step on them...


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## gadeerwoman (Oct 9, 2007)

you are giving me the creeps!! She looks downright...well like she is having a major episode of pms or something!!


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## bubbabuck (Oct 9, 2007)

rip18 said:


> No, I only plan on keeping her long enough to get a good series of pictures - with maybe the final one bubbabuck's suggestion?  Now that I know how diagnostic the spiny egg sac is, I wish she would lay another set of eggs!








Now your talkin !!


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## JasonF (Oct 11, 2007)

Those things freak me out man but thanks for sharing those great shots!


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## BowFan (Oct 18, 2007)

*Newsworthy in Atl*

Great pics!  They would be perfect material for this article.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/10/17/spider_1018_web.html

Rare brown widow spider discovered in Atlanta

By RALPH ELLIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/17/07

Compared to its glamorous and better-known cousin, the black widow, the brown widow spider is a Plain Jane.

But black widows are common across the United States. The brown widow is rare, found mostly in Florida, occasionally in south Georgia. And, as of two weeks ago, in Atlanta.

On Oct. 3, a technician for Trutech Inc., a pest control company, discovered a brown widow inside a rat trap at a strip mall near Flat Shoals Road, said Jody Hubbell, a company entomologist.

Nancy Hinkle, an entomology professor at the University of Georgia who surveys Georgia spider populations, confirmed the spider was a brown widow — the first ever reported as far north as Atlanta.

The brown widow was introduced to Florida only a few decades ago but in recent years extended its range across the Southeast.

"This doesn't mean brown widows are established in Atlanta," Hinkle said. "It could be somebody moved from South Georgia. These spiders can make their webs on RV's and vehicles and be transported that way."

Hinkle keeps the brown widow in a vial. The spider was already dead and "kind of smushed" when found, Hubbell said.

Black widows are shiny black, while brown widows are colored like "desert camouflage," Hubbell said. The distinctive hourglass marking for black widows is bright red, for brown widows a muted yellow-orange.

Both spiders have venomous bites but are almost never fatal.

"If you get a full dose of venom — which is unlikely — you will feel lousy for a day," Hinkle said. "Then you'll feel fine."


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## rip18 (Oct 18, 2007)

Neat article, Bowfan!  Maybe I'll e-mail Dr. Hinkle and offer her my Mrs. Widow in better condition... (after I finish taking pictures of her).  When I fed her yesterday, I noticed that she had shrunk in size by about half & had made a new egg sac for me to photograph!


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## Sling (Oct 18, 2007)

Like Stravis, I have plenty BW around my place as well.  I learned that where you find a thick strong web, watch your hands.


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