Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1893 — A SPIDER FARM. [ARTICLE]

A SPIDER FARM.

A New Industry Which Has Taken Root In Chattauooga. Many will be inclined to discredit the statement that spider raising is an established industry in Chattanooga, and is being successfully conducted by Ernest Reyber the proprietor of the Enterprise bottling work on Cowart street. Mr. Reyber estimates that between 5,000 and 6,000 of these insects make their home in his bottling department, which occupies a large room probably sixty feet square. The ceiling is fairly covered with thousands upon thousands of little patches of fibery material within which the insects nest and lay their eggs. At this season they spend little time in their nests, but in the daytime hide in dark, out-of-the-way cracks and corners, but in easy command of their woven snares. Spider webs are everywhere, spanning the space between floor and ceiling or spread about the machinery, in front of the window—everywhere, in fact, the busy weavers can find a place from which

to hang their network. A big corner of the room is besides given up to the insects, which have apparently divided the space into many four-walled apartments.

Mr. Reyber is a pleasant and intelligent talker and a .shrewd observer. Said he: “Those oreatures know more than a great many people. I keep them because they wage such constant war cn flies cockroaches and other.vermin which are very troublesome to me and which are attracted by the syrups, sugar, etc., used in the bottling business. “A spider never cares for sweet things nor drops into my vats or bottles. Flies and cockroaches are nature’s scavengers, but ( those spiders watch everyone that approaches like hawks and soon lure him into their meshes. I never disturb them when I can help it, except to feed them occasionally. • “They appear to know my call, and will come when called and crawl upon my hand or take a fly from my fingers. They arc tame and have never biten me, though I couldn’t promise as much to a stranger. “This spider is a hibernating animal, and shuts himself up during most of the winter in those little nests you see like mud daubs on the ceiling. When winter comes I brush away all these webs, for the spiders prefer to weave new webs every spring. As a oow must be milked every day, this wary and provident little creature must unravel each spring the silken fabric that is stored in its body. He does not make his appearance till May, when the flies have laid their eggs and hatched their first young, else the fly crop would soon give out. Meantime the hundreds of eggs whioh each female spider laid during the previous summer and fall have been going through a process of incubation, and now turn out with the older ones to seek a living for themselves. Mr. Reyber has encouraged the insects to harbor ih his, establishment for two years past, and finds the spider of such practical utility as to be almost indispensable.—[Chattanooga Times.