Malaysia's Spider Man

People generally keep dogs, cats, fishes and birds as pets, but Zheng Hong Xin is keeping spiders as his pets!

When he first came in touch with the spiders, he felt frightened like any other people. However after some time, these spiders have become his "close friends" and he has even been nicknamed "Spiderman" by his friends.

He began to get interested in spiders several years ago after reading some reports about spiders from The National Geographic.

Until 2005 when he was studying in the university, he came to know from the Internet that spiders were available for sale. Since then he has ordered a small spider every month costing between RM50 and RM80 each.

Today, he has nearly a hundred spiders scattered all around his house and in his bedroom, and is more than willing to let these spiders share his living space.

These spiders are either placed in fish bowls or plastic boxes. Since they only come out at night and will remain indolent even if there are some visitors during the day time.

Easy to take care of

Zheng said it is a must to feed ordinary pets every day, but spiders are very easy to take care of as they only need to be fed once a week or even a month.

Spiders like to eat crickets or cockroaches. Some people feed their spiders with white mice.

While they are "eating," they will secrete a poisonous fluid to dissolve their prey in order to suck the liquid from their bodies, leaving only empty shells.

He said the normal soil had bugs in it and therefore he had to use the dregs of coconut shells as the habitat for his spiders. He said he only needed to sprinkle some water onto the dregs and the spiders would be able to absorb the water from it.

Even though spiders are easy to take care of, they are considered "dangerous pets" as they do not recognize their masters. In addition, it is advisable not to touch the spiders as they would bite.

Although Zheng has tried to touch and play with his spiders, he does not encourage other people to do so as it would be too risky.

He added that even if spiders were under intimidation, their poison was not lethal. A person bitten by a spider would suffer only from swellings on the skin save for those with excessive skin allergy.

Please post your comments.

Source: Sin Chew