That whole business is very interesting. I got an eggsac from a black widow once. I put it in a large jar and waited.
A while later, they started hatching. I fed them bugs, but they eventually consumed each other... till there were only two left.
A large female with the distinct markings, and a smaller brownish male.
She tolerated him. After a while, she laid an egg sack.
The stupid male screwed up. He musta got turned on bigtime and laid his own version of an egg sack (actually it has spider sperm in it).
The sperm can live along time in the web. She decided at that point that he was no longer necessary, kinda like a dame leaves a guy as long as she can still get at his checkbook.
So she et him.
After a while I decided that having a bunch of black widow spiders in a jar in my house might not be the greatest idea I ever had, so I destroyed them. But it was interesting!
I accidentally had a baby Copperhead as a pet, once....:))
[gotta get me a better snake identification book, some day]
p.s.....your story made me cringe and squirm so badly that I think I have a charley horse now....LOL!
Not a big spider fan,
Salamander