Let's talk Spiders and Death...

[Julirs]

Not a nice topic, however...

Yesterday I found a perfectly and otherwise healthy adult female Veiled of good size weakening and gaping. She worsened throughout the night and was dead by morning. She did not have obvious signs of respiratory infection nor did she have eggs. No plans for necropsy/toxicology.

Today I find a very large, healthy, and well fed BLACK WIDOW in another cham cage. This particular cage houses a male Veiled that is outside most of the year. The female that died also is housed outside most of the year. Since I live in Florida where the Widows are populous, it does not suprise me-but it did SHOCK me that I had one IN THE HOUSE!

Anyone have experience with spiders killing chams? One large scale breeder once told me they generally don't kill the adults but leave a nice scar but babies are usually killed with a good bite.

Now I get to go home from work and scour the rest of the cages looking for nasty scary spiders. In case you are not familiar with Widow web-it is very strong and webby, sticky, almost net-like. This one created a really nice hide when the dead ficus leaves created a nice ball in the sticky web. I felt like quite the warrior armed with the vacuum and a 1X2-smashing spider on the cham cage floor of a 24X24X48 cage!

 

[ChameleonAlley]

Sorry to hear that Julirs. Those widows are the creepiest spiders out there, imo. From what I've read, they're venom in toxicity and ratio is 15 times stronger than a Western Diamond back. I'm sure if it could get enough venom in a full grown cham, it would probably kill it.

When I used to live in El Paso, Tx we'd find them in the house all the time. Scared the S@#$t out of me weekly. Be careful getting in there looking for them and killing them. Wear gloves.

 

[luevelvet]

We had an outbreak of Latrodectus geometricus recenty. It took a lot of diligence but if you clean under every ook and cranny you'll be rid of them soon enough. Any rack that has a gap between the floor and the first shelf is a great place for them to thrive and breed. I lifted one shelf that was just a few inches from the ground to find dozens of adults, many with egg sacks and a few swarming with babies already. I proceeded to remove the bottom shelf on the remaining racks and found the same thing under those. They know how to hide and breed that's for sure....


Luis

 

[graydon]

Sorry for your loss Juli. Cant imagine finding a black widdow in my cham cage..

 

[satch4684]

just figured i'd add something, although its sort of off topic and not cham related. I used to work at a rock yard a few years ago when i first moved down to FL, and there were lots of what we thought were black widows hiding in the pallets. there were so many i was nervous i'd get bit one day moving patio blocks or something.

anyway a little internet searching seemed to tell me they were most likely brown widows, which look almost exactly the same and are still very potent. supposedly the real way to tell is the egg sac, the brown ones are actually almost completely black themselves sometimes.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

Chameleons are definitely on the menu, for some spiders. I once rescued a baby veil, that was getting spun into a cocoon. He pulled through, but had a nasty bite mark. And it took several days to completly free him from webs. Toughest part was cutting web away on the hands, without cutting the cham, so he could walk freely again.

 

[Vegas Chad]

We had an outbreak of Latrodectus geometricus recenty. It took a lot of diligence but if you clean under every ook and cranny you'll be rid of them soon enough.
Luis

I did a quick google of that spider and sure enough we are also waging war on these little guys! We are going to be moving sometime soon and I can assure you all racks will now be built so that a broom can EASILY fit into any nook or cranny to clear it of webs, we have found those little buggers everywhere! They seem to like escaped crickets, go figure.

 

[Montium]

" Dr. G.B. Edwards, a University of Florida arachnologist claims that brown widow venom is twice as potent as the black widow venom, but is usually confined to the bite area and surrounding tissue, as opposed to the Black Widow. Other sources say that the brown widow is less venomous than L mactans. Regardless, people who have been bitten typically describe the experience as very painful and extreme care should be taken when working or playing in the areas they inhabit. "


We are loaded with them here but they usually stay in the garage. I have however ended up with Black Widows from cricket boxes before.

 

[canzoman]

I guess that's the only good thing about living in NJ. No Black Widows. At least none I have ever seen.

 

[radstusky]

Won't your chams just eat them?

 

[reptimom]

Here in Georgia we have them too! Once found a whole nest of babies under a flower pot! I usually hate to kill anything, but these suckers had to go!

 

[ChameleonAlley]

Here in Georgia we have them too! Once found a whole nest of babies under a flower pot! I usually hate to kill anything, but these suckers had to go!

I don't blame you. There's few things that creep me out, but those things just look evil. Make my skin crawl.

 

[jeanjacket812]

We don't have the widows here in Indiana but we do have the Brown Recluse!

 

[AReptile]

Chameleons are definitely on the menu, for some spiders. I once rescued a baby veil, that was getting spun into a cocoon. He pulled through, but had a nasty bite mark. And it took several days to completly free him from webs. Toughest part was cutting web away on the hands, without cutting the cham, so he could walk freely again.

Whoa how big was that spider!?

 

[Julirs]

We don't have the widows here in Indiana but we do have the Brown Recluse!

Those are really fun-I lost a huge chunk of skin on my leg from a recluse bite! And I lived in Indiana then!

 

[nightcrawler]

My cat hunts and eats all the spiders in my house. They are all wolf spiders tho. She really likes to eat them, flys too.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

Whoa how big was that spider!?

Just a female black widow

 

[Elizadolots]

Is there a "hall of fame" for scary stories?

 

[luevelvet]

Chad,

I feel your pain but I have to admit, once you stay on top of wiping under every shelf every few days they'll be gone in no time. I still have the babies in every enclosure, but they take care of fruit flies if nothing else. One thing to remember, the males are extremely diminutive compared to the females. So if you see anything bigger than a poppy seed, it's most likely a female that will produce hundreds more in a short amount of time.

Good luck, I feel for you man!

Luis

 

[sallyb]

That`s terrible, poor little cham. We don`t have any venomous spiders here in England, thank goodness. I am curious though, would the spider harm the cham if it was eaten ?