Black Widow UPDATE

I have a new pet. Her name is Portia. She is a black widow spider. She lives in a jar in my shed. (Here's how I got her.)

It seems no one else wants to meet her, see her or deal with her.

After instructing me to keep her alive and not disturb the scene of where I found her, it seems the NYC Department of Health and Environmental Services doesn't know what to do with her. There will be no investigation. All calls today ended with pretty much the same response, "We don't deal with spiders."

One investigator sent me the following e-mail with the following information:

Here are some links with additional information about black widow spiders:

            http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/spiders/#widow

            http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/1237.htm

            http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_Hurricane_Facts/black_widow_spider.pdf

           

            This link is for the American Museum of Natural History, where you can send a picture of the spider, for possible identification

http://research.amnh.org/iz/contact/what-bug

I decided to contact the Museum of Natural History in hopes that I will find a happy home for Portia. Here is the e-mail I sent earlier this morning:

Yesterday, while cleaning my backyard, I found a black widow spider in my backyard here in Staten Island. It is black, shiny and has a red hourglass on its abdomen. I have been in contact with NYC Department of Health and Environmental Investigations. They informed me that they do not deal with these spiders, but said that you may be able able to confirm the identification at the Museum of Natural History (my FAVORITE museum in ALL of the universe!!).

I have the spider in a jar in my shed, however, I am concerned that there are more because there are multiple small spiders (babies?) in the same large pot I found the original spider in. Does this seem feasible? We have two dogs that hang out in the backyard all of the time and my tenant (also my cousin) has a one year old child living upstairs! Needless to say, an exterminator is coming tonight.

I was wondering, would you like our spider? Since we were asked to keep her alive by the DOH, my husband and I became slightly attached and have named her Portia :) She is really quite beautiful even if I am terrified of her.

Thank you so much.

All the best,

Nicole Rivera :)

I am still awaiting a response, but in the meantime my exterminator will be here at 6pm tonight. I am wondering if I should call the Staten Island Zoo in the meantime...

For some truly backwards reason I would now be really sad if Portia died as a result of all of this.

See How It All Ends:  My Lucky Black Widow Spider