Free from School

akshmi has been doing research on rearing spiders as a biological weapon for controlling cockroaches and her workplace is full of spiders of var

d Dad had phoned to say that the final arrangements for my stay at Croc Bank were still being finalised and that I could use the 10 days or s

KS). CIKS is housed in a one storey building and Dr Vijayalakshmi's office is on the first floor. Here she studies

tly labelled, and all sitting one next to the other with spiders in them. For air, each bottle had tiny pinholes in its lid. Feeding was done through another small hole in the lid: this hole was plugged with cotton. All these spiders and

bout spiders that Dr Vijayalakshmi gave me, then learning to identify different spiders and simultaneously h

The spiders were a little smaller than their prey i.e. the cockroaches. I used to separate the babies, feed them, check the moultings and

bred in buckets with rolled cardboard in the centre and broken biscuit pieces thrown

so we used transparent plastic bottles to trap the flies and once caught we would carefully put them into the spider's bottle. Sometimes the spide

fly in a small cage with fine mesh with a small sau

s and these were fed fly larvae or the larvae which

nts to deal with cockroaches. Information about spiders such as their growth, hardiness, their eating habits, reprodu

as keen to learn English from me and so both of us failed in learning

ts fro

id

e Uncle Mano and Madam chatted, I read some books. Madam then showed us her spider collection.

acing each baby in a separate container. There were about 110 babies. Then we

er babies on my own. Then transferred adults f

instead. Read some books on spiders in the afternoon. Left early for home as Uncle Mano and Aunty Sagu were going away for a few days and I would be staying

. Wrote out my diary for the past 2 days and watched some TV. In the evening Santosh to

on spiders and told me to start preparing my essay on spiders. After doing a little bit of feeding as usual, I went out on my own and collected few species of spiders.

t early; was so busy looking at the books I was carrying, I didn't notice the terminus where I was to get off and got over

dn't go to CIKS. Read the books I had brought

ut 70 flies and fed them to the adult spiders. Put 2 spiders to mate

New College to collect

flies. A female spider's eggs had just hatched so Selvan and

o correct. After she finished with it, I started writing it in fair. I finish

signed and Madam also gave me a certificate. I left slightly early in the evening as

Work

id

t only makes cockroaches or pests immune or resistant to such poisons. Moreover, synthetic chemicals are very harmful and pollut

gged. They usually grow wings in certain stages of their life and possess feelers or antennae. Insects produce eggs whi

insect antennae it has pedipalps. A spider generally has eight simple eyes or it could have six eyes e.g. a spitting spider. Depending on the species the eyesight may be well or poorly d

ut only a few have fangs that are large and strong enough to pierce human skin. Out of these, most ca

trong enough to kill a human being, often kills and eats the male after mating and is thus aptly named the Black Widow. This spider is shiny black in c

world. They have been found upto a height of 23

y inject their prey with a highly lethal venom and, having no teeth, suck out the liquid from inside their prey. Large spiders with longer and powerful jaws may eat part of or even the

ers live in burrows with trapdoors. Whenever they feel hungry they come out and catch an unsuspecting insect. One species attaches a sticky drop to one end of i

ges and then throw it on insects passing below them. Still others feed on other spiders only and are called pirate spiders. A few spiders live on

yet others resemble ants which are often rejected by birds, reptiles and other insects. Some are even able to change colour and shape, to some extent, to match

es many tactics to prevent his being devoured by his mate. In some cases the male drums or pulls at the

n insect. Sometimes the male loosely binds the female with silk to immobilize her before mating. Some species of male spiders may patiently wait near the web of a female spider for weeks until she has caught a p

eat the smaller spider. However, there are some spiders called social spiders that live together in one web. Sometimes there may be hundreds or eve

on the species. Within 15 to 20 days, 80% of the eggs hatch. (The eggs hatch into young spiderlings. The new born spiders are similar to their parents, only smaller. The spiderlings moult to mature.) After a gap of one week to ten days the next

ect pests. Very few of us realize that spiders were, are and will be layin

Rear

e kept in one container, they will prey on each other. Hence

piders. A few pin-sized holes should be made in the lid of the container as aeration holes. One

drosophilia, fruit fly and house fly larvae. As they g

iners should be used. Every week the used one should be w

ced in bowls of water or oil to avoid ants. The adults should be fed well be

urin

of cotton, mixed with water. Every day,

of wheat flour and two medium sized pieces of

netting. The above mixture should be put into small bowls and introduced into the cage. Adult hous

t with an aeration hole and the maida or rava in the bucket, sprinkled with a little bit

covered with a fine mesh. A few rolls of paper can be plac