Doula Steve

05/02/2026

So, I've had a lot of snakes come into my life recently. A few months ago, which is a weird time of year, I walked out to the driveway and found a juvenile gopher snake. I picked it up, and it was super chill. I went to show my 4-year-old nephew. He was so excited and wanted to keep it. But his mom was shaking her head, no! "How about you keep it, and he can come and visit?" And she gave me a tank. So I was like... Oh, okay.
My niece named her Ivy - though I'm not sure of its gender. But it is thriving.
Fast forward a couple of months, and I found a badly injured juvenile king snake. I won't show pictures of it because it's pretty graphic. But it was badly degloved around its neck (skin peeled back revealing raw flash), and it turns out it had a broken neck - it did not survive.
Then about a week later, a California Striped Racer zipped right across the doorway to our outside patio. I didn't get any pictures, and I didn't bother pursuing. Those things are just super fast, and kind of ornery. Here's a stock photo - but this thing was like twice as big.
About a week later a California King Snake crawled right in front of me in the same place in the patio. This guy was a good 5 ft long and is big around as a ping pong ball at its thickest point. It's the biggest kingsnake I've ever seen.
I went and showed it to my 4-year-old nephew, and then we released it together where I found it. Unfortunately between an overexcited 4-year-old, and a giant king snake that was not too happy about being contained, I didn't get any pictures.
Then today my brother was coming to visit, and he called me from the driveway and said, "hey there's a beautiful king snake out here on your driveway." I ran out and grabbed it. This time I got pictures :-)
I let it go where we found it.
A few minutes after he left he called me and he said, "hey, I found another snake! A big gopher snake." He was on a mission and didn't have time for me to get down there, so he just got out of his car and tried to shoo it off the road. He said at first it coiled up and got all aggressive and pretended to be a rattlesnake and rattled its tail. But eventually he got it to move off the road and into safety.
This is definitely snake season :-)

02/08/2026

01/28/2026

01/28/2026

Long form command: "Hongo D**go, Ding D**g Dig Dog."
Translation: I mean it - you really have to wait a minute.
Hear me make the "Teh!" sound at around 17 secs? That's a contraction of "siT!"

01/28/2026

"Hongo D**go," Part 2
He can barely contain himself!

01/28/2026

The "hongo dongo!"
Translation: "I know you're hungry, and I'll feed you momentarily."

12/19/2025

Such a cool creature!
(And no, this is not AI !!!)

12/19/2025

And here's a time lapse of the brown widow enjoying her first big meal with me :-)

Spider Facts

12/19/2025

Location: San Diego, California, USA

Here's a better close-up of the brown widow, about a week after capture.

Spider Facts

12/19/2025

Location: San Diego, California, USA

I caught this young female brown widow in our patio, back in early September 2025. About a week later I was sitting outside, and I looked down and there was a barely alive grasshopper at my feet. If it had been healthy it would have been dangerous food for her - but it was barely moving, so I dropped it in.
She went for it immediately! She fed on it almost continuously for about 2 days, and I could practically see her abdomen getting bigger while I watched.
She's way bigger now, and her abdomen is jet black, and the bands on her legs have faded considerably. But in these videos you can see that the bands are quite striking, and her abdomen has a brownish hue.
I made a time lapse of her feeding on it - which turned out pretty cool.

Here are some interesting Spider Facts about brown widows:

Brown widows are Latrodectus geometricus—a true widow, same genus as black widows.
Western black widows are Latrodectus hesperus.

Key ID clues:
Brown widows have spiky egg sacs, whereas black widows have smooth ones. That's the easiest way to tell for sure.

Juvenile brown widows often have a mottled tan/brown coloration, and (sometimes brightly) banded legs. As they mature, the banding tends to fade, and the body usually turns black. I have yet to see an adult brown widow in this area that was actually brown. They have an orange-ish hourglass that’s usually less crisp than the classic red one.

Adult female black widows, by contrast, are typically glossy jet black with a cleaner red hourglass.

Country of Origin: Thought to be Africa or South Africa

Brown widows are often labeled “invasive,” but that term mostly means non-native and widely spread via human transport; it doesn’t automatically imply ecological devastation.
In practice, they’re especially synanthropic—they thrive around human structures—so people see them more, particularly in urban/suburban areas.
Medically, their venom is similar in type to black widows, but bites are usually milder and far less often significant. Not harmless, but generally less risky.

Spider Facts