Now we have to rely on the Democrats to save us? » « Did I work that hard when I was young?

A tragic day

My lovely young black widow spider died overnight. I am heartbroken. She was so full of life and deliciousness!


You can leave memorial donations on PayPal or you can join my Patreon. All donations should be given in the name of Lolth, and will be used to purchase a replacement…or a few replacements, so I can breed a mighty army in her name.

Now we have to rely on the Democrats to save us? » « Did I work that hard when I was young?

Comments

  1. silvrhalide says

    Sad… I loved the name.
    Naming the next one Arachne might be a little too on the nose but how about Athena? Or Artemis, ha ha. Or Penelope, as in The Odyssey.

  4. Wade Scholine says

    I once had a female black widow, I called Octavia. I collected her in Florida one winter while visiting parents. I was supposed to be collecting crickets, for a fellow student’s advisor’s lab (they were doing some kind of early DNA comparison work I think) but when I stumbled on her, she went into the last container and that was the end of cricket collecting.

    She survived the time in Florida and the ride back to Illinois, and lived for almost a year in a fishbowl. One day I forgot to securely cover the fishbowl the day the exterminators came to spray for roaches. This was back in the day when roach spray killed things right away. She was gone the next day.

  9. Hemidactylus says

    When I was doing the sea turtle thing, biologists being biologists, someone had a live black widow in a jar on the kitchen counter. It was kinda stunning but scary at the same time. I’d rather deal with mildly toxic ringneck snakes as they are far more beautiful. I witnessed the aftermath of an ignorant ophidiophobe’s attack on a ringneck. I picked the twitching victim up off the pavement and pointed out the amazing ventral coloration. They looked at me as I was either an insane person or in legion with the devil. Sad.

    As I would never handle a mamba or lancehead you won’t catch me near a widow or recluse. Hopefully the anoles and geckos around my house feast on the toxic spiders. Sorry.

  10. rabbitbrush says

    Yah, I smash black widow spiders if they are INSIDE my house. I don’t mind them outside or in the shed.

  11. says

    Meanwhile, I just let them run all over my hand. They’re not going to bite unless you do something really stupid.

    Maybe I’m going to have to make a trip to Florida to rescue your poor oppressed native species.

  12. raven says

    In theory at least, you could always go out and collect Black Widow spiders in Minnesota. There is one of the three species found in Minnesota, the Northern Black Widow spiders.

    Apparently, from what little came up on Google, they aren’t very common though.

    Venomous Spiders That Are Indigenous to Minnesota

    The Northern black widow is the only venomous spider with populations occurring naturally in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Fifteen other states have just one indigenous poisonous spider, and it just so happens that the Northern black widow is also the single resident in 11 of these 15 states.

    Pets on Mom.com
    https://animals.mom.com › venomous-spiders-indigenou.

  13. cheerfulcharlie says

    This reminds me of Virgil’s funeral for his pet fly. Laws were passed in Roman forbidding lavish parties that went on for days. But funerals were not banned. So Virgil claimed his beloved pet fly had died and had a big, sumptuous funeral for his fly. Including erecting a nice tomb for said fly. Who will PZ invite to his spider’s funeral? Will there be wine, dancing girls, and wine? Or will it be a quiet family only funeral?

  15. brightmoon says

    Yikes! was not expecting that . I’m better than I was when I was a kid, though. I wouldn’t even touch a picture of a spider then . Ummm errr sorry for your loss.