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Updated: May 12, 2025
Instead 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 so in between to learn what I could from Dr Vijayalakshmi about spiders, and the unusual use she intends to put them to. I had readily agreed. CIKS is housed in a one storey building and Dr Vijayalakshmi's office is on the first floor.
During the fortnight that I worked with Dr Vijayalakshmi, I simply slipped into this set-up, reading books about spiders that Dr Vijayalakshmi gave me, then learning to identify different spiders and simultaneously helping Selvan in all the tasks that were needed to maintain the huge spider population housed in the garage.
All these spiders and their activities including growth, moulting, mating and hatching of babies were monitored by Dr Vijayalakshmi. She had an assistant called Selvan and he followed her instructions, keeping the records and making the notings in a log book.
The spiders that Dr Vijayalakshmi deals with are called giant crab spiders. These spiders do not build webs. They feed only on cockroaches. 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 catch flies for feeding them.
Sometimes the spider would immediately catch the prey and eat it; at other times the fly would buzz around in the bottle for days till the spider was ready to eat it. Dr Vijayalakshmi also bred a particular species of fly in a small cage with fine mesh with a small saucer of milk in the centre as a medium for breeding.
My stint with vermiculture over, I had another fortnight of study with Dr K. Vijayalakshmi, whom my dad calls India's `Spider Woman'. Dr Vijayalakshmi has been doing research on rearing spiders as a biological weapon for controlling cockroaches and her workplace is full of spiders of various types, all in bottles, and bred under her supervision.
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