Widow found at a local grocery store

[snakers55]

Hey.. Just thought I'd share a pic of my black widow a friend gave me from a local grocery store.. She's a pretty cool little spider in my opinion:).
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/503/3421DSCF2135.JPG

[Dragoon]

Wow, how much was she a pound? heh, heh

Nice find, and I'm glad it found a home instead of a squishing. Looks like you have a pretty tank for it. Beware it doesn't start laying eggs, you don't know if it was mated or not.
Perhaps someone can chime in here and state the best way to dispose of unwanted egg sacks? Freezing?
thanks
D.

[Removed_2815]

Originally posted by Dragoon

Perhaps someone can chime in here and state the best way to dispose of unwanted egg sacks? Freezing?
thanks
D.
Well that's my cue :)
I, too, received my first Black Widow as a grocery store stowaway. She was fertilised and would produce viable egg sacs a couple of times a month (depending on how long I'd left the previous sac in her web) until she passed away a year later. I did hatch one of them out and sold some of the spiderlings (Dragoon knows first-hand ;)).
I felt most comfortable with disposing of the egg sacs by burning them. I didn't want to take any risks with these so I made sure that every last egg was destroyed. I simply doused the egg sac with a flammable liquid and set it ablaze in a controlled setting. Parental supervision required kiddies....
Ryan

[little_dragon_]

When I was a kid my parents had a summer house in Flordia. I would search for reptiles and insects all day long. I would always find male widows drowned in our pool filter. One day I was by the pool with my family and spotted a female inches from my brothers foot. The outside carpet was brown if it didn't move I don't think I would have seen it. My brother came really close to stepping on her. I told him to freeze and I impaled her with a stick. I didn't feel bad for killing it because my brother could have been a bitten and possibly died.

I find Black Widows to be remarkable spiders for the way they can adapt but they are also dangerous pests. I'm happy you burn your egg sacs it would be awful if some babies escaped your house could easily become infested. It's amazing how the majority of highly venomous creatures in the world are all smaller then a human hand.