When I was a kid I caught a black widow and kept it in a glass jar under the porch. I knew my parents would freak if they saw it but I was completely in awe of it, she had such a nightmare kind of beauty ...In retrospect I suspect that wasn't such a good pet Apparently window bites are on the bad side of very painful... and probably deadly for a kid. But nonetheless I kept if for a couple of months then set it free.

I also loved to feed grasshoppers to writing spiders that would make webs in my back yard, and those would get pretty big after a while!

The only time I ever got bit was from a wolf spider I tried to rescue from a swimming pool...ungrateful bastard. It hurt about like a bee sting and swelled a little..but I learned my lesson for sure!