Dawn Smartnick’s teacher’s pet Ursula is a “great conversation starter,” the Jefferson High School biology and business teacher said.
Not because she’s a butt-kissing student, but because she’s a black widow spider.
Ursula — named after the villain in “The Little Mermaid” — has been in Smartnick’s classroom since last September, after junior Mykala Edmisten found it in her garage and brought it to school.
“My students all know my love of spiders,” Smartnick said.
The arachnids have intrigued her since she was a child, when she’d throw insects into their webs and watch their behavior, she said.
“I’m just intrigued by them,” she said.
Smartnick said she’d always wanted to have a fish or something in her classroom.
“I’d rather have a fish,” said senior Brooklyn Leary, who’d been watching Smartnick’s interview with a look of mild disgust.
Ursula eats once every three to four weeks.
“She won’t eat anything dead,” Smartnick said. “[She needs] something that puts up a fight for her.”
On the menu are mealworms, crickets and — Ursula’s favorite — flies. Janitors at the school watch for the latter; one once found a fly crawling in the gym during a wrestling meet and soon after dinner was served.
Ursula has molted once since coming to school, and she’s moved once, too, from a Mason jar into a small aquarium found in storage in the science department.
Smartnick said black widow spiders can live up to three years.
“It’ll be interesting to see how long she lives,” she said. “For as long as she does she’ll be good entertainment.”
After Ursula dies, Smartnick said she might replace her with a tarantula.
Leary was having none of that.
“Hopefully she dies after I graduate,” she said.
