Can you have a pet spider?

[ArmyPair2]

:confused3: This is Sam my pet spider that lives right outside my back door near the wasp nest. When I walk out the back door and no matter where he is on the web he will run to the center of his web waiting on a meal. Now I still do that boyhood things like pulling a fly's wings off and tossing them into a web but my wife asked me yesterday if that Sam was Sam or a Samantha?

Now Sam is a tad bit bigger than a silver dollar and I did some crazy stuff back in the Army but I am not that brave to open up Sam's legs to see if he is a Samantha'. All you spider experts out there is Sam a he or a she?

 

[OldMcDonald]

No idea of its gender, but other people do keep spiders as pets so you are not alone. A lot of other weird and wonderful things are kept too. A little Googling (with the ulterior motive of looking for possible sales opportunities for my website) led me to a wide range of pet forums. Poisonous frogs and snakes are very common, and I saw somebody posting about keeping earwigs. A local vet told me of someone visiting for a health check on their pet tarantula.

 

[Baby Grand]

Looks like a "Samantha" - Garden Spider:
Argiope aurantia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
We have a few around here and I have to confess that I've pitched a grasshopper into the web a few times.

 

[dave1949]

We have two 'pet' spiders this summer. One hangs around in the corner of the recessed overhead door, the other in the corner of window under a deep overhang. Both are the same kind of spider, an orb weaver garden spider type. Meaty body, pale brown color, half-dollar size.

I found the window-living spider hanging around on the ground near the door and finally figured out she couldn't climb back to her web, so I used the fly swatter to move her back home a couple weeks ago and she has resumed happily pooping copiously on the window sill since.

 

[dmccarty]

Got one on the front porch with a big web. It is fall after all. :laughing:

I saw a big flying bug fly into the web over the weekend. The spider was on that bug in a flash! :shocked: I grabbed the camera that was on the counter and ran outside to get a photo, but in the few seconds it took to get on the porch, the bug was already wrapped up in a cocoon! I could no believe how fast that bug was wrapped up. You could still see the bug wiggling inside which was a bit creepy. :confused2:

Later,
Dan

 

[General Lee]

Whether Sam is a he or she, he or she will still put a hurtin' on ya. You won't die from a garden spider bite but you WILL know you've been bit.

 

[MH8675309]

We kept bees in a bee box in the pasture. Now and then someone would ask what the box was and I'd tell them it was where our pet bees lived. They would usually ask "pet bees?" and then I'd warn them not to pet the bees. Nobody ever tried to pet the bees.

 

[ultrarunner]

Maybe...

We named a spider "Good Job Spider" and every year the kids still look for him.

My nieces were visiting the farm and the 4 year old was out front skipping along and all of a sudden there was this blood curdling scream... Me and men working on one of the tractors came running over to see if she was alright.

When I asked why did she scream... she pointed to a wall 15 feet away and said look... there is a spider...

The men said they had never seen such a display being country guys...

Anyway, I decided to take matters into my own and just outside the front door on the light fixture was a spider we named good job spider and everyone morning or every-time she came and went she had to check on good job spider...

My Grandfather kept bees and the girls were terrified of them... he would put them on his hand to show them how the last thing they wanted to do was sting anyone because the bee would die.

Anyway, when the girls were back in California at friends outdoor birthday party several bees were wreaking havoc on the little girls... they were running and screaming because of the bees... my nieces just sat there and enjoyed the cake and ice cream and all the other parents commented/asked why they were so calm...

 

[MortalWombat]

Here's one I noticed on the neighbor's corn when I was mowing right along the property line a few weeks ago.

 

[OldMcDonald]

Today was Flying Spider Day (a week last Monday was Flying Ant Day) when enormous numbers of spiders put out a trailing piece of web silk and float along on the breeze. I have not seen it in other countries I have lived.