Bug Battle in a Bathroom

When I walked into the bathroom of the Tamana Hotel in Ihosy, Madagascar, I stumbled upon the showdown of the century. In the corner of the small room, there was a cockroach entangled with a black widow in its web, and I wondered what exactly was occurring in this peculiar encounter.

Are they mating? Probably not. Are they fighting? It seems like it! But how could a spider kill a bug so big, and how would a cockroach kill a spider? I was running all of these questions through my head, and I didn’t have the answers, so I decided I would have to wait and see what happened.

The next morning, I was more excited to use the bathroom than ever, and what I saw did not disappoint.

The black widow had strangled and killed the cockroach! This is when I realized that it was, in fact, a black widow, and I was no longer surprised. Black widow females kill their mates after intercourse, which is why they are my favorite spiders. The fact that they can kill cockroaches too makes them even more intriguing. Seeing this battle unfold was only one of the incredible processes of nature that I witnessed in Madagascar, and I didn’t even have to leave the hotel.