Handling a Female Black Widow Spider (Latrodectus mactans)

A few words of caution: although spiders rarely bite unless startled, agitated, or trapped against skin - I would advise against handling this species unless familiar with handling arachnids due to the sheer toxicity of the venom. If you must, let them crawl onto you and move about carefully. Never trap or apply pressure to the spider.

This video is intended to calm some of the many misconceptions and fears regarding venomous spiders. In short - be careful with them, and they should be careful with you. Hopefully :)

Found in Oklahoma around New Years. Filmed with both a Pentax K-x (sharper footage) and a little Canon a720is (lower-res footage).

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• black
• widow
• spider
• southern
• western
• Latrodectus
• large
• adult
• female
• handling
• holding
• hand
• safely
• pedipalps
• fangs
• macro
• macrovideo
• macrophotography
• pentax
• k-x
• smc
• 50mm
• f/1.7
• prime
• canon
• a720is
• point
• and
• shoot
• dslr
• slr
• video
• movie
• arachnid
• arthropod
• bug
• scary
• venomous
• Digital
• dehskaker
• virtualdub
• stabilized
• stabilization
• warp
• stabilizer
• after
• effects
• twixtor
• thomas
• shahan
• oklahoma
• Cute

[Acruhf]

I'm sick of this whole "pretending to be afraid of spiders" meme. Spiders are awesome.

[terser]

@Acruhf - I'm not quite sure if it's pretending or even classifiable as a meme - but yes, it's a bit annoying. I hope videos like this will ultimately foster reverence for spiders - not repulsion.

[Kerberoz01]

Time for an elementary school biology lesson for some of the commenters: "poisonous" and "venomous" do not mean the same thing, and it makes you sound ignorant when you use the wrong term.

[edzick917]

Yep its all fun and games until !!!!!!!!!!!!oh shit it bit me

[Yugagarinify]

You are a bad ass to put that kind of spider in the hands!

Great video!

[pricemac]

@pricemac Scary that is.

[pricemac]

@Acruhf Spiders speak to our primal fears, you find yourself in the small minority of people who don't find "nearly-invisible-dark-loving-­silent-deadly-gravity-defying" creatures.

[dunmer2007]

Cockroaches and other insects will crawl/fly into every nook and cranny in your house and multiply, and will actively hunt and get into your food supply...Spiders on the other hand, either crawl around in out of reach spaces, or hang out in a corner for the rest of their lives...Eating insects!

IDK about you, but spiders get my vote as far as useful species are concerned!

[phattacorider]

If spiders react to fear, then this little lady would have bitten me through the glass jar.

[rezjrprod]

amazing buddy

[JirouxK9]

wow shes gorgeous

[KiroyWolf]

That's a nice looking spider. So sad that web making spiders don't live long. And I'm not afraid of arthropods, but I think I would make a wrong move, that's why I don't think I would be able to hold this one for a long time haha

[KiroyWolf]

So sad that web making spiders don't live for very long :( but nice looking spider. I don't think I'd be able to handle one of those for a long time haha. Not afraid of them, just would probably make the wrong move.