Every year, around this time, as the weather gets colder, we get an influx of mice moving into our house to find refuge. Our cat is useless — she makes a lot of noise, usually in the middle of the night, but she can never deliver the coup de grace.
It seems I already have a potential solution at hand.
Warning: the videos below show mice meeting a horrible end in the webs of black widows.
This is not scavenging. These mice are alive, temporarily, when they are caught in the web.
The Theridiidae have this brilliant innovation. They make what are called gumfoot webs, dropping a strong elastic line vertically to the floor, terminating in a sticky blob. When a prey animal, a cockroach, a silverfish, or a mouse bumps into it, it springs loose from the floor, snags the animal, and lofts it up into the air, where the spider can slap some more silk on it and give it a nasty bite.
I ought to release a swarm of black widows in my basement.
I am going to hell, aren’t I?
Finally, something more cruel than a glue trap — a glue trap with venomous fangs.
Seems far less cruel actually. The end comes far quicker.
I like spiders, but if I’m there, mammal solidarity kicks in, and those arachnids would be joining the choir invisible. Mercifully quickly.
Still think aw poor wee mouse. Nasty spider.
How long would it take for the spider to eat that mouse? Would it ever finish it? Could it even digest it?
Aren’t we already in hell? All of us…mouse, spider, human. It seems obvious.
I am surprised to learn that a black widow is capable of producing enough digestive enzymes to consume something that is so much larger in size.
I imagine the rodents suffer fatal heart paralysis fairly quickly after the venom is injected.
robro, of course not. Hell is supposed to be bad.
(Trust me, it can for sure get worse)
—
OTOH, I am amused by anyone fearing Hell.
Me, I’d eventually adapt — if I couldn’t, it wouldn’t be me, so no worries there either.
John Morales @ #8 — I’m sure you’re right that hell Is supposed to be bad, and our situation can get worse. I fear it will. I’m not so sure I can adapt to it.
Incidentally, my partner is watching some program about the 70s. Tonight is 1970-1971 with the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison. But what really shocked her was footage from My Lai.
robro, sorry, man. I know.
But yeah, still got a bit to get to 1970s level of civil unrest, right now.
You got through that, and I reckon you’ll get through this.
Tethys @7: I’ve heard that with big meals like vertebrates, a spider can spend multiple days eating their catch. Not sure about how decomposition might affect that, though.
Their feeding method enhances decomposition, since they’re turning internal organs into soup.
I haven’t fed any mice to my spiders, but if I feed a large mealworm to a small spider, they’ll feed for a few days on it. You can actually see where the worm is being broken down — segments turn black — but if they can’t eat the whole thing, once it’s been well past its sell-by date, they’ll cut the rotting bug out of the web and let it fall to the floor.
I’m impressed by how quickly the mouse went still once the spider gave a chomp. I would have thought it would take longer for the venom to suffuse a body that much larger. Does the mammal’s more efficient circulatory system make it take effect faster than for something like a cockroach?