Let's talk Spiders and Death...

[withlime]

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.

When we moved the free range we made it so that we can vacuum under it to get spider webs. I have seen so many crickets in spider webs... you'd think we were trying to feed the spiders!

 

[satch4684]

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

damn, take a look at this map:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/black-widow-spider.html

but I am from the northeast and have never seen them there either.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

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 ?

I'm sure it depends on the spider type. Spiders in the wild, seem to be on the menu for most Chameleon species. I've read numerous articles citing this.
But in the artificial environments that I have: the spiders found in enclosures are wait and strike hunters. Like many of the chameleons I keep, they stay in one place all day, waiting for a meal to come their way. So with very little movement, they tend not to attract to much attention, or chameleon tongues.
If you ever place your cham outside in a small tree or shrub, ( on a fine English day ) I'm sure one of the first food items your cham will come across, will be a spider or flying insect like a bee. Or if your in the country, flies.

 

[jannb]

Juli; I so sorry to hear about your female. Which girl was it? I am now checking my house and back porch for spiders and webs.

 

[radstusky]

As this map shows, http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SFzxctixNNI/AAAAAAAAA8Y/PejrWc1US5U/s1600-h/bw+range.jpg

the black widow range does extend even into Canada. here's a picture of one that I took in the Blue Hills in Mass. It looks like a widow to me, I didn't flip it to see the underside though.

 

[Julirs]

Juli; I so sorry to hear about your female. Which girl was it? I am now checking my house and back porch for spiders and webs.

Buscuit-from Gesang's. I just posted a pic of her recently and she was perfect.

If you read my post yesterday an egg sac hatched from the cage with the widow-I vacuumed baby spiders all day and will continue today!

 

[jannb]

Buscuit-from Gesang's. I just posted a pic of her recently and she was perfect.

If you read my post yesterday an egg sac hatched from the cage with the widow-I vacuumed baby spiders all day and will continue today!

That's so sad. She was such a beautiful girl.

 

[ChamNovice]

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

We do have them here too, they're not very common to see though. Ive only seen one once, several years ago.

 

[CleaTheChameleon]

As this map shows, http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SFzxctixNNI/AAAAAAAAA8Y/PejrWc1US5U/s1600-h/bw+range.jpg

the black widow range does extend even into Canada. here's a picture of one that I took in the Blue Hills in Mass. It looks like a widow to me, I didn't flip it to see the underside though.

Juli i am very sorry for your loss. I hate this guys. I never found a spider like these outside here in FL but it looks like the spider in spiderman

 

[Kevy Baby]

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.

Sorry to hear of your loss. We lost a gorgeous Ambilobe Panther last year in exactly the same way. While we didn't ever confirm, we figured it had to be a spider bite (or something similar) as he was healthy one day, sick the next and then died in my wife's hands early the next morning. Very sad.

I have seen so many crickets in spider webs... you'd think we were trying to feed the spiders!

LOL - we have the same problem. Since we have so many reps, we buy or crickets 1,000 at a time and there is just no way to not have some get out. (I one left a box over night, intending to unpack them the next morning. During the night, they chewed a hold through the carton and about 1/2 of them got loose. My wife was not happy having 500 adult [6-week] crickets roaming our place!)

 

[tkilgour]

Sorry for the unfortunate event. The black widow is highly venomous and can even kill some humans if not given an anti-venom quick enough. No chameleons baby or adult will survive a bite from one. I would be sure to clean everywhere, even sock drawers. They will at least give you a nasty bite, and most likely you will get very sick.

I have a P. regalis that is about 8" in size and it would do major harm to a chameleon. The poor things would stand no chance.

 

[bigcappa]

I'm sorry for you loss Julirs, but thanks for bringing this to our attention! That really never crossed my mind, but I will have to check this daily now as well!